KlangHaus journey to CoP26 Glasgow

What a journey, like an obstacle course. Two rejected funding applications last week, allowed myself a small sulk before brushing off my knees and getting on with things. I’ve stumbled across Embedded Artists, I want to be one because I’m kind of doing it with my vertical farm project and I love it. Talking with folks who speak a different language and who get excited by things that are just part of your normal everyday thoughts. Talking to people who speak a different language and listening and deciphering and aiming to be gentle. I hate the stereo-type of the fiery artist, because I’m not one, but I seem to keep being one…weird.

I’m asking venues for help, space to work and I’m happy to fundraise to pay for the space. The venues I want help from can’t spare the brainpower capacity to think about helping us. Frustrating. What’s disappointing is that the conversations are stopping there, I can’t seem to keep the door open to see if we can be self-sufficient. We are used to looking after ourselves. It feels like the stress of Covid and no income is showing for institutions.

The show for COP26. Is it real? Currently it feels like something I’m pretending to do. The Government application is in, we’ll find out in May. In the meantime I’m trying to garner partners to support the show and be ready to host the show if the Gov say no. That’s real isn’t it, yes. Keep going Reils.

Easter always puts the breaks on communication, perhaps that’s why I find it tiresome, but it’s also the anniversary of my Dad’s death, Easter Saturday or April 10th, so it’s a time for reflection and a reminder to get on with stuff before it’s soil time.

I hope I make good soil, I attended a zoom about soil, it’s brilliantly complex stuff. I didn’t realise that when, say, a carrot grows, the bacteria in the soil move towards the carrot to eat it’s sugars and then the bacteria make other stuff that the carrot needs and then bigger things come along, protozoa and tardigrades and they eat the carrot sugars and make stuff the carrot needs and so on and so forth.

Nature is clever and amazing, animals are clever and amazing, we humans think we are so clever but we are on a mission to self destruct so we aint that clever. ‘Seaspiracy’, whoosh, that’s fish off my diet…bugger. I’m keeping cheese… please let cheese be okay.

 

 

My first post was a year ago and it’s now 3 years of chat about getting to CoP in some shape or form. Even though the thought of advocating 30,000 delegates flying in from around the world to this conferernce is insane.mixed feelings, but for now the journey into ideas is continuing…

Can we cut through the red tape of finding a venue and go sustainable airship? I approached Airlander H.A.V based in Bedford, firstly to see if it’s possible to project from the inside of the hull ( balloon bit)… Yes… I’d mentioned CoP26 in my email and they want to go to CoP, but have no prototype or any ship we could use until 2025. ‘Try Zeppelin’, they kindly said. It’s on tomorrow’s list.
Meanwhile the potency of our show Dark Room has been resonating and we started thinking… being in complete darkness allows the audience to make the art for themselves, have feelings conjured from within. Taking away a sense can be powerful ( I know you know that, I’m talking to myself) could this be the show for CoP26 with the mannequin choir making an appearance. Hmmm things are starting to make sense.

We have been planning solo audience shows in our house over the Christmas period. The audient is met at the gate to our alley way, shown into a darkened room. There are speakers arranged around a central armchair. The solo audience member, wearing a mask, sits in the chair, the lights dim to complete darkness. Sounds are played, sounds we haven’t witnessed for 8/9 months, the sound of being in a crowd, close-up singing, harmony singing, other people noise close-up. The sound piece lasts for 9 minutes, the light reappears, perhaps a match strike, a candle lit, an image of a huge staircase. Eyes adjust, the audience is shown to the front door to exit. The room is ventilated, the chair cleaned, door knobs wiped with anti-bacterial spray.
We begin again. 20 times a day for 13 days. If Tier levels allow. The show is called Dark Room: Listen In. Trained in wet processing photography ghosts of being in a photographic darkroom linger. Working with designer Paul Flack we have a beautiful poster celebrating the iconic design of the photographic printing world of decades ago. I’ll let you know if the shows go ahead.

I have had a wonderful experience of being listened to. In one day the chairman of the Plantation Gardens contacted me to ask if it would be useful for the gardeners to take into account my possible show of musicians in trees to prune undergrowth over the winter. Norwich City Council got in touch to request I meet with their head of Strategy and Transformation to chat through my idea of city centre vertical farms finding a home in the ailing shopping centres and the plant science labs, John Innes contacted me saying I could talk with their vertical farm experts. It’s a privilege to be heard and the energy it’s given me to keep asking questions and seeing new ways forward is priceless. Thank you to things that keep us moving forward.

To keep track of my questions and visits to folks, I’ll make some notes. I got a reply from Norwich City Council re my question of could Castle Mall and Chapelfield Intu Shopping centre be converted to vertical farms. They said it was interesting and they would consider it for their 2040 vision. I’m speaking to a friend this morning who works at the John Innes Centre ( local Plant Science Lab that has a world reputation), to find a way in to have conversations with John Innes folks who might be researching and developing vertical farms. I’d like to talk to someone from Chapelfield Intu, the company is in administration, but would be worth a dig. I want to record these conversations, but I’m feeling that at least at the moment, I’d like to get people’s trust, then return with a microphone… although, some conversations won’t be repeatable, due to people’s availability.
Last night I popped to see Tully, a tree surgeon I know, to talk about putting musicians into trees. I’d like to orchestrate socially distanced gigs using the trees in the Plantation Gardens. Is it viable to strap musicians into trees and have them look like they have lived there for a while, that they are always in that tree? The musician would research the tree, write about the tree, build a friendship with the tree, write songs as if the tree were singing or creating the noise. The musician connects with the tree, learns about arboriculture, shares their learning and experience through online chats, blogging, a short film, live story telling. Over the weeks, you can drop into the plantation garden for a talk/story by one of the musicians, they share their process.

It culminates in a gig, a promenade show, musicians in the trees, low lights, sounds, individual songs and songs all together. A soundscape to move people, connect to the space, the here and now.
My guerrilla gardening has finally bloomed. My street has one tree and a tiny patch of earth around that tree. It’s a start….

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