Performance 1 & Event 1
Rub Me Up The Wrong Way 2: The Live Art Supergig
Norwich Arts Centre
25.07.09
I performed as part of other/other/other, with our SPILL-premiered piece “Longwinded in Five Parts”. This piece is about generating sounds (and notes) from a giant modelling-balloon sculpture, and refers to the history of avant-garde music, with formal presentation, and a score. It is also equally about the audience’s expectations of formal music performance, and the conflictingly ludicrous use of materials. If we had intended to explore purely sound in the piece we could have used single colour (white or black) balloons, and probably the large weather-balloon style ones, rather than the multi-coloured, clown-like modelling balloons. I enjoy performing this piece, as it is one of the few straight stage-based pieces I have done, and developing a score for the materials was an interesting exercise. However, it is primarily a collaborative experimental piece, and I am glad this fell within the start of the Escalator research period, because I can use elements of this piece to develop my individual practice. Things I may consider over the next few months include:
Lighting: can/should any of my non-stage performances use lighting more effectively?
Text: the audience were given a formal programme note; can I explore the relationship between text/publicity and event more?
Music: how much should I differentiate my practice from sound-based music?
Stage: can I develop a sound-based performance, which isn’t music, but which could be performed on a stage (and repeated?)
The other work that evening was based on the theme of “The Live Art Supergig”, like a mini Glastonbury. Hunt & Darton’s performance was interesting in terms of the uncomfortably extended phrases of sound or movement, which regularly shifted the performance away from the familiarity of the lyrics. There was brave use of a cappella singing, which felt like bedroom singers suddenly thrust into public performance: it was entertaining and uncomfortable at the same time. I was also interested in Foster and Gilvan’s use of space: they appeared during intervals and led a selected group of audience members into the stairwell to the NAC darkroom, in which they serenaded the group with a mixture of love songs and sea-shanties. It was a good-humoured series of performances, which worked well with the space. I love acoustics in stairwells, and it was nice to hear this one put to good use.
