Chapter 1 (2009, 27.3MB, 4:49 min)

Edward Picot has made an intelligent and generous contribution to
the creation of a serious critical tradition around web based literature,
(although his interests are wide and by no means limited to the written word).
A lot of people, me included, have cause to be grateful to him for his
acute, measured but sympathetic assessments of their work.
Apart from his invaluable critical writing he’s also a writer and maker
of work himself.
One of the engines driving his recent creative work has been his
relationship with his young daughter Rachel.
His fantasy story The Puzzle Box,written for Rachel, was one of last year’s
delights.
Here he turns his hand to video in a more active collaboration with Rachel.
This is work that has its roots in a particularly English form of lo-fi
moving image storytelling (I know the late Oliver Postgate is a figure Edward greatly admires.)
Does it work? – in truth, not 100% – I think we feel we are trespassing slightly
on a very personal world. ‘Slightly’, though, is the operative word – there’s
something here, no doubt, & old fashioned as it may be in some
respects there’s something about the kind of adult child collaboration rendered
possible by the digital which is unlike anything previously -a kind of levelling
of the playing field…
Anyway, we’ll post all three episodes over the next weeks and allow you to
make your own minds up.