I’ve finally arrived in London after about three years of trying to move here! Isn’t that wonderful? I’m starting my MRes at The London Consortium in October, which means that I have about seven weeks to find my feet in my new city. This feels like an excellent time to reflect, regroup and….. eh….. explore the boozers of Central London!
At intervals between pub visits I’ve had my eyes down and my laptop out. I’ve scored a freelance contract working for the AND Festival on a project with New York based artist Brody Condon, which relates fantastically well to my Mres research topic.
Level Five is a participatory performance focused on critically exploring group therapy seminars from the 1970′s, using live role playing techniques. We are inviting artists, performers and members of the public to participate in a physically and psychologically intense day-long event that will loosely follow the structure of early Large Group Awareness Trainings, using long form improv techniques influenced by progressive Nordic live role-playing and performative group therapy. The performance will be recorded and broadcast live to a public audience outside of the performance space and will also be edited into a film to be exhibited at FACT later in the year.
Brody’s main motivation for exploring these historical gatherings is to examine their ideological legacy and its influence on contemporary culture. Much of their rhetoric is still evident in the pop-psychology and self help culture of today. Speaking as somebody who has done a lot of one-on-one psychotherapy, its fascinating to see how these seminars simplified and commercialized therapeutic thinking.
In the documentary Century of the Self Adam Curtis says that:
“The trainings became hugely successful… But in the process, the political idea that had begun the movement for personal transformation began to disappear. The original vision… had been that through discovering the self a new culture would be born, one that would challenge the power of the state. What was now emerging was the idea that people could be happy, simply within themselves. And that changing society was irrelevant.”
I’m the first port of call for anyone who’s interested in getting involved, so for more info please drop me a line on [email protected] Brody is also in the UK next week and will be giving a talk about the project at Forest Gallery Edinburgh and at FACT in Liverpool. Let me know if you would like to come along!
Level Five documentation Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
