Travis Street tells us about how LAND came about:
“LAND was founded in 2009 as an online culture magazine with the intention of going to print at some point. My wife and I have a habit of moving around a lot and creating these projects wherever we were, so the website came about because I wanted an online project that could keep me engaged with the arts wherever we happened to be. I got in touch with a few creative friends from across all over, built the site and starting posting reviews of artists that inspired us. But after a few months of focussing on long reviews, interviews and stringent deadlines (imposed by me and followed by no one), I realised we weren’t having much fun.
So I scrapped the whole idea of a monthly ezine and started a period of branching out and doing whatever I wanted (even did street interviews for a while there..). But the less serious I started to take it, the more people I got involved with and the more the website started to be something of a chronicle of those people. It really drove home the point that connecting with creative people was what it was all really about in the first place. My wife and I had run an artist collective in Seoul before LAND and were itching to do something with a bunch of people again, so in Feb last year (we were living in Liverpool at the time), we approached a gallery director who turned out to be the most incredible guy, and organised this anti-Valentine ’s Day event. It quickly turned into this huge kind of monster that involved about 50 creatives from all over the UK and drew an audience of 500 people. It was a huge thing for us, and we haven’t done another event since (I think I’m still recovering a year later).
A lot of people have worked on LAND. It’s this fluid project that gives everyone who participates an excuse to be inspired and share that inspiration on a daily basis. We’re not limiting ourselves to any construct. LAND’s vision is simply to inspire and be inspired.
This year we’re branching out more into music and literature. And we’ll actually be printing a LAND MAGAZINE. I’m a bit of a project obsessive (life is just a series of projects right?) and have been lucky to get in touch with a great guy from Virginia who happens to share that same passion. If I can give any advice to anyone looking to start a project, it’s that two heads are better than one. Four; doubly so. Get involved with other people and never stop talking about the possibilities of what you think you can make happen. You’ll certainly surprise yourself.“
