To celebrate architecture week 2002 Southern and South East Arts set up the Archi-TEXTS competition for eight writers' residencies at places of architectural interest.

Applicants had to propose how they would respond to their place of residence, culminating in an event, performance or other manifestation of text/literature work during Architecture Week 21-30 June. The theme for 2002 was 'the way we live'.

The writing and performances are documented on a CD published in 2003. Find out more

» www.architectureweek.org.uk

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Sheds: Memories, dreams, ambitions
1 a slight structure built for shelter or storage 1481
2 distinction, discrimination, separation of one thing from another 1703

Shed sequence
I will use the residency to write a sequence of new poems on the subject of 'sheds'. Over two weeks including Architecture Week, I will be resident at the Booth Museum, in a shed specially erected in the museum as an unusual setting for my work.

Invitation to shed
I will encourage people of all ages and abilities to visit me at the museum to review work in progress, to bring and display shed related poems and prose, to discuss their sheds - whether real or fantastic, emotional or transformatory - and to leave verbal or visual mementoes on the wall of my shed.

The varieties of shed experience
During the residency I will research and explore the varieties of shed experience: the architectural history and significance of the shed as a space and structure; the garden shed as a place of separation, as the locus of different childhood and adult experiences, as treasure trove and dumping ground, as a place of concealment and discovery for wildlife and humans - of nesting, growth and decay, fertilisation and dormancy. At the same time I will explore the verbal resonances and meanings of 'shed' - skin, blood, light, fears and so on. I will do this working with a poetic form that reflects the traditional 8 x 6 floor dimensions of a shed - eight lines of six stresses.

An unusual entertainment
The culmination of the residency will be an evening presentation at the museum. I will present the poems written during the residency interspersed with the findings of my research, observations on the subject of sheds and the mementoes, poems and prose left by visitors. Projected images and text will be integrated within the presentation to create an unusual and absorbing multimedia entertainment.

At John's performance, Shednight, poet Ken Smith kindly joined in the fun and launched his collection Shed: Poems 1980-2001 from Bloodaxe. Sadly this was to be one of Ken's last public appearances.