Off the train from London, to an anniversary dinner celebrating 10 years of Gateshead Council’s work with the National Lottery.

 

I was asked by Art for Conferences to suggest an artwork for the diners, and I proposed poetry dice.

 

From 1-100 (strictly, 1-102), I re-heard all the numbers as words, see photo, and designed a format for them to go on dice. The number appears in a smaller font on each face, and the words (in larger font) curve across one corner of the die. That way, dice can fit together and a poem can snake from die to die.

 

I printed some with blank faces, leaving the diners a chance to combine the words, throw the dice to make poems, swap and trade, and co-build.

 

They were made as card templates, and folded around real 16mm dice.

 

Interestingly, no-one I saw actually wrote on the blank faces. Some suggested alternative re-hearings of number to me privately, and I hope will email me with any subsequent suggestions.

 

This was very much a project designed as an artwork, to be made 5 dice at a time, and to combine interestingly, and give all sorts of potential uses.

 

But producing my own suggestions for “won” to “humdrum” (1-100) produced a poem, Counting Up in Words, which works well as a performance piece. See previous blog, Gig at the Bridge.