Creativity and Direct Action - 5th February 2026 7-9pm

For the first session, Ruari will be in discussion with Stefan Szczelkun, artist and former member of the Scratch Orchestra. They will focus particularly on a performance by the Scratch Orchestra at the 1971 Art Spectrum exhibition where they collectively built a cottage, "conceived as a place to play - insulated from the context of 'high art'", based on Szczelkun's designs. Using materials from the Mayday Rooms collection pertaining to the Cottage performance and Szczelkun's work more broadly, they will think about the possibilities for conceiving of creative practice as a form of direct action, and the particular kinds of political imagination that can be worked towards when making something together.

'Creative Anarchy' is an event series exploring the relationships between anarchist thought, organising, and creative practice. Resulting from a placement at the Mayday Rooms, researcher Ruari Paterson-Achenbach will host a series of discussions around materials in the archive, alongside creative practitioners, trying to explore what it might mean to 'create anarchically'. What might it mean to consider creative practice a form of direct action, or vice-versa? How can artists incorporate the principles of mutual aid into their work? Is the notion of 'art' compatible with anarchist thought? Across these three events, we will answer these questions together using historical examples, with all the possibilities and limitations they might offer us.*

Forthcoming events on the series (tickets for future events will be made available on a monthly basis):

• Situationism Revisited - 5th March 2026 7-9pm
• Creativity and Mutual Aid - 9th April 2026 7-9pm