WORK IN PROGRESS

INTERVIEW EXCERPTS

It was really crowded. I didn't know it was voluntary. The sound worked. The video kept cutting out. It stayed open really late.

I had a bit of a strange time because I went along expecting people to tell me what to do; thinking I was going to go and help at a place; thinking people would say oh this needs doing, and we need that job doing. People wouldn't neccessarily be very responsive or say what areas needed helping with. I took that as an indication that people didn't appreciate the help for a while and felt a bit hurt by that. And then gradually as I stuck with it, I started to realise that I had to go along and involve myself, and that was more of what the place was about, rather than slotting into a predetermined area. Its basically what you make of it when you go along there.

Its wooden. A cinema. Looks like a cinema. Its quite inclusive; if you make the first move. The toilets are pretty stinky.

When I started working there, nobody told me, 'look, once you start working here, you have this; this is what you get in exchange', or for instance the price of beers, I didnt know you have a special price for volunteers. And also there is a website, the sparror server, I'd like to know what is sparror; what is Microplex? I'd like someone to explain it to me. I read that once you are a volunteer you can build your own space in the server... There's a kind of mystery.

Well, its a venue, and they show non-commercial films and lots of underground music acts; have exhibitions. I guess I would mention other kinds of things like the international tree climbing day and the camera obscura road trip. Its like a venue but they also do outdoor projects.

There are lots of things that go on that I'm not involved with. Thats not to say I don't understand them. I feel as if I have a good grasp of how cube works, and of the dynamics of the relationships between people that make it work. There's only so much you can know about other people and about their relationships with everyone else there, but I wouldn't say there's something I cant grasp and that I don't undertsand about whats going on there.

I went to see the mountain goats and I didn't have any money, so I was in the bar when the gig was on and someone said did I want to go and see the gig; I said I didnt have any money and they stamped me and said come back and volunteer sometime...which I thought was really nice.

I think I'd have to sacrifice something to it to feel ownership from it. I dont know if that's a good way of looking at it, but dont you have to be giving a lot, or maybe more than I want to be giving. That's probably a stupid way to be able to own something. I feel now like I can go in there and make myself a cup of coffee and hang out and I feel like thats my right; I can go on the internet and drink cheap beer... I feel like I own a chair in the office to sit on if I'm there.

I started going to the volunteers meetings. They were there right from the beginning; they were packed. They were very good; run by Julian Holman, one of the people who set it up, who was very good at that sort of stuff, you know; very diplomatic, was good at organising. Yeh, I think the volunteers meetings were a vehicle for getting on. They had the agms I remember, and they were great; there were like a hundred people there and it was very positive. There was this idea of the collective and you could be a part of that and have a role in defining what that is, defining what the cube is.

A lot of creative things get started. People have always got ideas; its so easy to get involved and be enthusiastic, and then realise you haven't got the time, and then get put off doing anything because you think its overwhelming and absorbs your life. That's one important thing to learn i think; is knowing how much to do, and however great everything sounds, to try and gauge how much time you're going to need for your life elsewhere. I think that's something people probably find quite difficult to balance, especially as there's no windows.

I do care-work for people with learning disabilities, working with people with Down's syndrome, Asperger's syndrome; taking them on day trips, that sort of thing. Outside of work just going to gigs and working at the cube.

Places I've seen anywhere near like the cube, are places in Amsterdam like Kraker and squat organisations. There was one place called the CeeLo; a big mill on the docks. It was excellent and was just the best space for performance and was right on the water. Of course it got closed and they turned it into flats... Even clisod road, on a smaller scale; when we lived there, there were woodlands out the back and people built a house on stilts; it relates to other organisations that feel they can be creative and do things on the spur of the moment, or have the freedom to do what they want to do.

I came down a couple of times to see films, and just looking through the programme there was loads of stuff on that I wanted to see. I ended up just being down there two, three, four times a week just watching stuff. Y'know it was exactly the sort of thing that I was interested in. There's part of me that in the evenings wants to just sit and watch tv, and I realised why bother watching the crap you get on tv; why don't you go and watch something interesting instead.

I think I'd have to sacrifice something to it to feel ownership from it. I don't know if that's a good way of looking at it, but don't you have to be giving a lot, or maybe more than I want to be giving. That's probably a stupid way to be able to own something. I feel now like I can go in there and make myself a cup of coffee and hang out and I feel like thats my right; I can go on the internet and drink cheap beer... I feel like I own a chair in the office to sit on if I'm there.

You very rarely get thanked for anything or congratulated, but, I'm not really the sort of person that needs that all the time. I feel happy with what I do and generally that's good enough for me. Its quite difficult because the cube is the people that work there, and one of those people is me, and I value myself and that's good enough for me.

Its obviously a venue, a cinema, a bar; all of the structural things. But on another level its a whole cultural system of its own; an educational system because you can turn up and learn, and pick things up. Its an offbeat versatile cultural institution but its easy to get in and to do things and to be involved. Its a really vibrant social space as well. There's lots of skills being passed around. Its a network and its a node to much wider networks as well; thinking of all the relationships that cube has with other institutions; you can feel connected. Its a place to be connected.

I would love to fucking-well abolish the office and put it somewhere with windows and get light in and then people would feel like they want to work in there a bit more. I don't like working in a dungeon; in a little dim space. It needs to be opened out more so its not such an underground den.

I like the bathroom; thats quite funny: the actual toilet in the office. I think that's great. I wouldn't say its a beautiful toilet or anything, but its an amazing room. You can sit there and look around the walls and see all these things; all these things that actually happened. I often just sit there and look at all the posters on the wall.

My development; coming into front of house, and even to dj'ing was basically down to chiz. He said I think you should do front of house; he asked me to do it. He trained me up, partly coz he thought i'd be alright but also because they needed someone to do it regularly. I wouldn't have thought of it. And then Dj'ing; the first I knew about it was that my name was on a flyer saying that I was performing on friday night at the cube one week.

It would be good if there was more direction; 'what to do if...', 'how to set up the till'... I don't know when to put bottles out.