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.
