Alan Moore on Arts Labs
“The only organisation I have ever enjoyed being a part of was the Northampton Arts Lab, when I was seventeen. Arts Labs are a phenomenon that no longer exist. They only existed for the late sixties, early seventies. I can’t even begin to describe the effect they had upon me, and I suspect it would be difficult to measure the effect they had on British culture. It was basically the idea that in any town, anywhere, there was nothing to stop like-minded people who were interested in any form of art, getting together and forming completely anarchic experimental arts workshops – magazines, live events, whatever they could imagine doing. And it was completely nonhierarchical, and it worked fine. There would be other artists you respect, and you would talk about possible collaborations... That sort of organisation, where it is arranged in a natural, neurological pattern – I mean it was the Arts Lab that gave us David Bowie, from Beckenham Arts Lab-, and I can see that kind of consciousness that he was bringing to it, the mixed media. To me, that is the only organisation that works… We haven't got a king neuron that tells all the other neurons what to do. It seems to me to be a more emotionally natural way of working with other people.”From Alan Moore: Conversations (2011) by Alan Moore, Eric L. Berlatsky.