With this publication we're looking at FoAM’s multi-decade existence from different vantage points, to unearth or revisit things that can have generative potential for the here-and-now and the yet-to-come. Things that sustain or inspire us, those around us and those we come in contact with. Especially those ideas and practices which could offer hope amid the uncertainty and isolation of the near-now. The “anarchived” materials from the FoAM network complement and contrast newly commissioned pieces by FoAM's members, collaborators and friends. The included materials will be associated with a set of colour-coded 'routes', as a way of threading together different projects and preoccupations by theme. Each route has a particular focus; food and hospitality; tangible interfaces and transient realities; multispecies encounters, for example. Thoughtfully structured, and drawing attention to connections and resonances between diverse materials, the metaphor of the route can also provide a clear, familiar entry point for those otherwise new to FoAM’s work.

To reflect FoAM's dynamic, entangled and shape-shifting nature, we're designing the publication as a collection of different 'fascicles' housed within an expandable case and connected with content online. These fascicles could include booklets, cahiers or boxes containing smaller objects (such as cards, notebooks, inflatables, musical devices, etc.). Drawing on neglected histories of manuscript production and print publishing, we hope that the format can provide a way for the publication to function as an open and adaptable object. Flexible, capable of expanding or contracting, with entry points to changing contents online, the publication could anticipate future additions, alterations and iterations, as the collection shifts and evolves depending on our shared interests and it's keepers' inclinations.

We are planning to release the publication in several installments until March 2022.

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For visual overview of the different aspects of the publication, see this whiteboard