Gaining an Experimental Arts Grant from the publicly funded Yorkshire Arts Association, COUM described themselves as performance artists, being inspired by the Dadaists and emphasising the amateur quality of their work. They entered the National Rock/Folk Contest at Hull's New Grange Club with a set titled "This Machine Kills Music", and organised events for Hull City Council's celebrations to mark the UK's entry into the European Economic Community in 1973. They had also worked on solo projects, generating controversy in the local press over a conceptual artwork the artist entered at a local exhibition. Taking an increasing interest in infantilism, P-Orridge founded the fictitious L'ecole de l'art infantile and co-organised the "Baby's Coumpetition" at Oxford University's 1973 May Festival, also producing material as the fictitious Ministry of Antisocial Insecurity, a parody of the Ministry of Social Security. Meanwhile, P-Orridge created the character of Alien Brain, and in July 1972, performed as the character at an event entitled the "World Premiere of the Alien Brain", at Hull Arts Centre. COUM also began publishing books; in 1972, they brought out the first volume of "The Million and One Names of COUM", part of a proposed project to release 1001 slogans (such as "A thousand and one ways to COUM" and "COUM are Fab and Kinky"), while in 1973 P-Orridge published "Copyright Breeches", which explored an ongoing personal fascination with the copyright symbol and its implications for art and society.