up: a blog for u.p., a trans-disciplinary creative group

It is sitting in my bedroom late at night and feeling fizzled out that makes the writing of blogs seem appropriate. Monday we had our last meeting before one of our members, Bree went back for a friends wedding in Montana (that’s under the Hudson river, on the other side of Alaska apparently). And as myself and Bree in particular are or will be at our birthhouse – only for a short time, we are going to record ourselves finding a book that we loved during childhood to echo the Mary Lamb essay ‘Last of the Mahometans’ in which the author finds a ‘fatal book’ which triggers for the author and as a prerogative of our performance, a certain perception shift in the eyes of her younger self.

The essay is about Mary Lamb finding a text on the ‘character’ Mahomet (what appears to be the late Victorian variation of Mohammed) with some pages in the being being torn out, and upon her chance encounter becoming obsessed with the story to the point of delirium.

The idea is an intersting one. As we discussed ages ago, it seems that the younger self of Mary Lamb lived in a controlled environment. She then deviated from this environment, her house, by breaking into a locked library and by chance encountering this text. She then obsessed, believes, becomes hysterical and is supposedly saved by the wise words of a friend and brought back to reality by attending a fair and being bought lots of new toys and gaining lots of friends.

What we found interesting in this text is the undertones of politics and feminism within the essay itself. Upon looking closely at the inference of the text, it appears that the child author was left alone quite a lot during childhood and forbidden from reading. It is as mentioned, chance that brings her into contact with this text (some version of the Quran? it is not specified) and the undertones of materialism when she after becomes distracted by the fair, by things, toys, games, and by society.

It is quite an unsual essay to read. Obivously grounded in the beliefs of the time. So we are using it, and will be dubbing ou voices in the words of Mary, upon encountering the text over the vidoes shot for the performance.

So we are onto meeting three or four now. And things have been thrown off slightly by a break in routine, but we have been working forward nonetheless.

I have uploaded the photos of our idea generation. Notice how different we are. This is a strength. In the last meeting we talked about setting up a WordPress and Twitter for my friend Bree. This will help all of us. We also proposed to have our first movie night. Movie night! Good use of a projector. Bree gave us some info on a friends’ residency project in Berlin, essentially a commune type set up where people deliver and share workshops with each other on different subjects from different disciplines. It takes place in August and is clashing with things already. Also she has mentioned that it will be unfunded so we will have to fund our travel and accommodation. I am not entirely sure I will be able to do that in the space of time and the resources available.

Onto next week where we have to think of an idea on Book of Essays. This is following the session where the images were taken. I guess I will be doing this tomorrow on my birthday among other things (god, I do not want to apply for work but perhaps will not be able to stop myself).

This is it. We have decided to form a group between 3. What next? We have met and are meeting at my studio on a weekly basis to discuss our performance and to collaborate. We are working on Book of Essays. I am writing these blogs to a time limit after Sophie Cullinan’s brilliant idea. Um, who are we?

We are u.p. (unwritten possibilities) a collective of three people working together to support each others practice. We do performance, although myself and Sabina are artists. Bree, the third, is a dancer, and psychotherapist. Together we help with ideas and refinement.We are new. Emerging. ‘underground’. Neither here nor there. Neither theatre nor object makers, although I like making objects. We like doing different things. We like sharing cake.

Currently we have been meeting, Monday was our third session. It was intense and we only had so long to get ideas out. The focus was on generating, using a my watch to time us. We used words and prompts, then read them out, or explained our drawings. We wrote things in crayon and laid out a calendar for the year.

Will post photos of our ideas soon. Here is Sabina’s and my site:

http://sabinastefanova.wordpress.com/

http://www.geraldcurtis.blogspot.co.uk/