THE APOCRYPHA OF NORTHERN CUL-DE-SACS
UV issue 1. November 2020
The Optics of Place
Sightings, visions, things seen and unseen
Contents
Revisiting 28th November 1980: a short film about Alan Godfrey's close encounter
Todmorden UFO Meeting
Valley Optics or Valley Fever: UFOs, Watchers & Sybil by Kelly Starling.
ET/SEARCH Todmorden by Ramsey Janini
Alien Night, audio/visual
The Archivist Presents: The Mysteries of Enclave Eight
One of an Occasional Series of Unsolved Mysteries: Absence of Fatima
The Pike Panther: A Tod resident’s big cat encounter on the canal. Audio interview.
Visionary Rumours by Fabrizio Cocchiarella
To Believe, or Not to Believe, Nothing Rhymes with Rats
In late November, 1980, Police constable Alan Godfrey came into contact with an alien craft on the A646, Burnley Road. The event changed PC Godfrey's life, and cemented the association between UFO activity and the Todmorden valley.
The Optics of Place draws together a collection of work (text, image, audio, film) from artists based in an around Todmorden. The work frames the valley, its landscape(s), histories and obsessions as a series of lenses; translucent, reflective, distorting, opaque. We're keenly aware that our present moment is one saturated by the optics of public health surveillance and invisible threat.
Stay safe.
We'll see you on the other side.
Special thanks to Sam McLoughlin, Colin from Todmorden UFO Meeting and mysterious Dan.
Issue One's lead image is Peepers (2019) a soft sculpture installation by Todmorden based artist, Vincent James.
Photographed by Simon Pantling at Matthew Houlding Studio 2, Robinwood Mill, on the A646 Todmorden.