Bleet began life as a zine, conceived by three friends. The publication was initially created in order to generate a shared physical space within which we were free to ‘bleet!’. A vessel or a wishing well in which we could place our thoughts, our desires and our half-formed attempts to try to understand or to try to get close to.
As the project progressed and we explored our relationship with text and language, we began to explore the ‘noise’ that language makes, how it resonates in our bodies and how it connects us to other bodies. Le Guin suggests that literature is a ‘social act’ and so we considered how Bleet! might leap off the page and to enter into a shared place of utterance. This is how Bleet!’s live events (Lug Hole) were born; a place to combine the performative nature of language, the creation of the sonic and perhaps most importantly, the act of listening. Since then we have also branched out into holding workshops and roundtable discussions, we’re keen to explore any new forms where we can gather with others to emit more frequencies!
The first dictionary definition of the word [bleet]bleat is, ‘to give forth’ - we consider this as an offering of commune, to give forth a place for our shared pursuits.To [bleet]bleat is also ‘to babble’; an attempt to grapple with language, a place in which we allow slippage and repetition through our attempts to express. Perhaps most recognisably to [bleet]bleat is described as, ‘the cry of a goat, sheep or similar sound’, we take this definition as our cue to consider the sonic beyond the linguistic, to consider music, noise and oscillation as forms of communication. Finally to [bleet]bleat is described as, ‘foolish complaining talk’. This we take as our commitment to foolish ideals, to being critically engaged, to making noise and to being heard!
Bleet! Co-founded by: Ben Sargent, Sarah Cohen & Alice Harry
@bleet_zine
bleetzine@gmail.com
