Deptford X 2012

I'm out of town for the first week of Deptford X, but suffice it to say that there's a lot to see and do at this year's contemporary art festival - full programme here.

Couple of events I am sad to be missing, but you don't have to:

Walking In The Footsteps Of Deptford’s Jack In The Green
Wednesday 1st Aug 11am - 4pm, starting out at Utrophia in Deptford High Street.

'David Aylward’s Rediscovered Urban Rituals, Ancient and Modern, Real and Imagined, Present this event. A talk, walk and the making of a collaborative improvised soundtrack to a experimental film that was produced to illustrate a mayday in Deptford 2006. No musical experience needed, although feel free to bring any small instruments. You may like to bring comfortable footwear'

Three-sided football tournament- Deptford Psychogeographical Association 
Saturday 4 August, 11 am in Fordham Park, New Cross

'Three-sided football (3SF) is a variation of football with three teams playing on a hexagonal pitch. It was devised by the Danish artist Asger Jorn to explain his notion of triolectics, a refinement of the Marxian concept of dialectics. Jorn wrote several essays during the late 1950s and early 1960s elucidating the concept but, as he admitted himself, struggled to define his concept using the written word. By providing the example of three-sided football, Jorn felt he was better able to give meaning to the flavour and texture of the triolectical method.

While it is not known whether Jorn ever participated in a real game of three-sided football, a number of games have been played and recorded by psychogeographical groups over the last twenty years. Some of the participants in these early experiments came together in 2011 to found a Deptford Three-Sided Football Club, and games have been held bi-monthly during 2012 to develop the tactics and strategies of the game.

The three-sided football tournament proposed by the club for Deptford X is intended to bring together creative protagonists from both the local area and across Europe who are interested in exploring the interaction between sport, art and non-linear game theory'.

There have been a number of three-sided games played recently in the local area, including in Deptford Park and on Goldsmiths green in March (the latter part of a project linking Millwall's community scheme with Goldsmiths MA in Art & Politics students). The games's situationist origins are interesting, but you don't have to worry about them, it is actually just fun to play a game where the winning team is the one that concedes the least goals (not the one that scores the most). More details at Deptford Three-Sided Football Club.