In 2007 Black Dogs drew up a set of guidelines (influenced by the Dogme 95 manifesto) for art actions that could be considered as in keeping with the aspirations, approaches and working methods of the group.

After the guidelines had been agreed the group (at that time Andy Abbott, Dan Carey, Eleanor Johnson, Lawrence Molly, Jon Slight and Dave Ronalds) exchanged a series of 'Dog Dares' as directives to prompt artistic exercises with which to test the guidelines. These included:

MAKE A MEAL THAT COSTS YOU NOTHING

GO TO A PLACE BEGINNING WITH AN ‘S’ AND BE A WORKER WHO, IT BECOMES CLEAR IS NOT ON COMPANY TIME

FIND SOMEONE VYING FOR PUBLIC ATTENTION, AND USURP THEM

MAKE SOMETHING BEGINNING WITH M AND GIVE IT TO ANOTHER PERSON

CAUSE CONSTERNATION AND CONFUSION TO SOMEONE WHO WORKS IN TELEVISION

Our intention was to advertise these beyond the group through the Black Dogs website and invite anyone interested to interpret and perform these actions in line with the Black Dogme guidelines. The documentation of these attempts would then be included on the Black Dogs website. We would now like to open out this opportunity to you.

Examples of attempts within the group from 2007 are documented here:

Andy Abbott
Dan Carey
Eleanor Johnson
Lawrence Molloy
Dave Ronalds
Jon Slight

If you would like yours added to the archive then please submit documentation of your action (images in .jpg form, video as quicktime, sound as .mp3 and words as .doc ,.txt or .pdf as applicable) to blackdogsleeds [at] yahoo [dot] com. Please remember to include your name and contact details.