We have finally arrived in New York! Rebecca got here on Thursday 24th October, but Rachel and I decided to travel into JFK on a Friday afternoon, so that we could have the pleasure of even longer queues than normal. It is strange to spend a whole day being herded around airports with the same group of people. I assessed my fellow passengers’ strengths and weaknesses in case we happened to crash in a tropical jungle, but they were strangely lacking in strong-jawed hero types. The woman sitting next to me on the plane stole my blanket so I marked her down to be eaten first, should the need arise. Luckily it didn’t, and Rachel and I are now settled in an apartment in Brooklyn, ready to meet the Performa organisers tomorrow morning.
maryxxx
it seems press and marketing deadlines are closing in on both sides of the pond, writing a press release for Writing Live is fairly simple, but we need to promote that at the same time as the education programme we are running alongside it. Only problem is we have not come up with press worthy catchy name and are still trying to resolve what the education programme will actually be-…is it educational-ie are we teaching the others something that we and they may not already know or be experienced in-, or is it non-hierarchical with mary, rebecca and i learning alongside the other writers (that seems the best option we think), but how to balance this peer element with the fact that we are leading on the workshop, setting the excersises and supposed to be providing something new for the writers; even if that something is an intense learning experience and opportunity to be work together on performa 07.
no doubt this will all be sorted soon, but given that we set off in 13 days and that the press release and marketing activity is an important part of our arts council funding , equally, staff at Performa need to let readers, visitors and conference academics about Writing Live and the workshops; never mind invite peoplel) so for now all our thoughts are working out a suitable remit and agreeable content for the Writing Live : Unpicked, Unravelled? …programme (the name Boot Camp is (sadly) becoming less realistic as fears about being overly ‘teacher-like’ or militaristic are surfacing amongst us.
perhaps the real worry at the moment is that mary and i have wired $700 to an unknown virtual person named ‘alex’ in new york for the hire of his appartment in greenwhich village. we found the appartment on the US online version of ‘Loot’ and if that wasnt worrying enough, we have yet to actually speak in person or find out if his appartment is actually a real place…still, this is apparently the way things are done in The Big Apple and Greenwhich village looks nice in the photos, as does the appartment. We just hope the appartment isnt still so ‘virtual’ when we arrive in NY! ill post photo’s of the appt once ‘alex’ gets back in touch to confirm he got the money…fingers crossed….
time flies. its now just over 2 weeks until we fly out to NY. weve all been really busy developing the educational aspect of Performa’s ‘Writing Live’ programme, which mary, rebecca and i will be devising and hosting whilst in NY. Writing Live itself is within the ‘not for sale’ part of the Performa biennial, which has panel debates, workshops, radio interveiws, podcasts, that all contribute to the performa 07 programme and the 13th PSI conference (which is programmed within performa itself this year). check out the combined conference (8-11 november) and performa live programme here http://07.performa-arts.org/home.php?PHPSESSID=07aad885bdfdd112e30bc10b93bc0669
the website can be confusing, (theres a lot of different programme elements and content) but there is so much on there-worth a look. its a bit initimdating to know we three will be leading on the education side of things too. i hope they will advertise our workshop and peer reveiw sessions as well as Writing Live as soon as we come up for a name with what it is we are doing! the provisional title is Writing Live : Boot Camp’ which does conjure ideas of strict excersises outside in the cold in nothing but underwear, grim food and a sargeant major shouting at people….but on a more abstract (less militaristic) note it also has implications re physical activity, bonding, learning and counselling- which are the things that Writing Live boot camp will provide the various young and old writers involved in Writing Live.
the ideas for the Writing Live educational programme (or Boot Camp) is to have an intensive workshop day sussing out what people do or do not know about visual art performance and writing, do some speed writing excersises and share info / rules about writing for the Writing Live Blog. peer review sessions will happen weekly as a sort of drop in for sharing writing progress, performa updates and trouble shooting as there may be problems regading individual peices of writing or negative press or artist/curator feedback to contend with. its always difficult writing alongside the programmers and artists of the programme as this might hamper writers ability to comment fully and critique the work -whether it be positive or negative-so the writiers will all need to be aware of the pitfalls whilst retaining their voice. still, roselee and all the other programmers at performa seem to have a notion that good critical writing needs to have full reign in order to do the programme curators, academics and artists involved any kind of real feedback or benefit. we’ll see how that side of it goes.
