Born in 1949 in Hammersmith, London, Pete Horobin began his meticulous process of self-documentation in 1975, after graduating from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in Dundee. His early experiments at this time involved filling and sealing boxes of ephemera, packaging and personal notes each month. These boxes were not to be reopened until an unspecified time in the future and are now long since destroyed. After hitchhiking to France in 1977, he launched "The Accessibility of the Art Object," distributing collaged postcards randomly through the mail and selling small works at affordable prices in Scottish galleries. In 1979, he organised "Junk Into Art/Art Into Junk," a collective recycling project in collaboration with the Dundee Group Artists (Ltd) and artists based in Paris. Documentation of both projects is now preserved in the University of Dundee Archives.
Turning 30 in 1979 inspired him to create DATA – Daily Action Time Archive (1980–1989). Beginning on 1 January 1980, this ten-year self-historification artwork catalogued over 10,000 items. Based in the previously squatted attic at 37 Union Street, Dundee, later named The DATA Attic, Horobin archived correspondence, collaborations, and earlier projects. He became involved in the 'Eternal Network' of correspondence artists globally through mail art and neoist activities. At times, he adopted different identities, such as The Acrobat and The Principal Player. He became an 'actor' in his own life. He also employed multiple names or 'collective identities,' such as Monty Cantsin and Karen Eliot.
He celebrated 1984 as the Year of Freedom with PRAM (Pedestrian Rambles Around Myland), walking across Scotland while carrying his belongings in a simple pram and sleeping in a canvas tent. Each campsite was marked with a 'chronogram,' an ephemeral neoist symbol marking a specific space and time in the landscape. He documented his daily activities on A4-size sheets and distributed this information widely through his networks.
Horobin hosted international artists and engaged in spontaneous collaborative works in Dundee. He co-organised Neoist Apartment Festivals across countries, published several issues of SMILE Magazine, and researched the lives of Scottish artists living on welfare. When the DATA project concluded on 31 December 1989, the persona of Pete Horobin was symbolically terminated, culminating in a self-published 373-page catalogue. Archiving continued under the successive identities of Pete Horobin, Marshall Anderson, Peter Haining, aitch and since 2020, haha. In 2010, the attic was sold, and the Attic Archive was dispersed among national and regional museums and libraries in Scotland, Ireland, Hungary, and England, principally Budapest, Dublin, Dundee and Edinburgh.
See full biography here: Horobin, Pete (artist) (b.1949-d.1989) | Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue.
>>>> previous copy:
DATA [Daily Action Time Archive] -- A self-historicization project documenting Pete Horobin’s existence in his 30s, his ramblings in the Scottish landscape, and involvement in the ‘Eternal Network’ of correspondence artists internationally through mail art and neoist activities. At times he worked under different identities, including The Acrobat and The Principal Player, and became an ‘actor’ in his own life. He also used multiple names or ‘collective identities, such as Monty Cantsin and Karen Eliot. He celebrated 1984 as the Year of the Freedom with PRAM (Pedestrian Rambles Around Myland), walking across Scotland carrying his belongings in an ordinary pram and sleeping in a canvas tent. Each campsite was signed by a ‘chronogram’; an ephemeral Neoist symbol marking particular space and time in the landscape. He collected data from his activities every day on A4-size sheets which he then distributed widely via his then networks. He established the DATA Attic in a former squat on 37 Union Street Dundee in 1980, which housed the Attic Archive until 2010 and operated as an independent art space. He hosted international artists and made spontaneous collaborative works in Dundee, co-organised Neoist Apartment Festivals internationally, published several SMILE Magazines, and researched the lives of Scottish artists’ living on the dole.
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