SomersetHaus R&D day 4

We felt the force of London. Things can snarl up and take ages. Waiting for a projector to be delivered, but it all took so long and phone reception was non-existent in the building. We waited for half and hour in traffic fumes. 'London Kills Me' We sat by the Thames for Dream Time and wrote down the countries or cities we wanted to take KlangHaus to: S: Spain/Iceland/Ireland/Sweden/Turkey K: Spain/Berlin/Bulgaria/Turkey/Ireland M Barcelona/Iceland/Freiburg/Gothenburg/Venice J: Germany/Hungary/Poland/Italy/Paris I ran around the corridors doing circuits.. We wrote songs and Sal made composite lighting gels which give a split colour shadow.

SomersetHaus R&D Day 3

Slipping in and out of being inspired and feeling overwhelmed with no ideas. I set up a borrowed computer and fiddled around on garageband, making up tunes, building up harmonies, quite happy fishing around in my brain. My grandmother worked in Somerset House in about 1932...probably in the typing pool... I wandered around trying to find her. Felt a bit lost today, but going with it, not a comfortable feeling but going with it. Sal set up her studio, taking great pleasure in making it efficient. Jon set up a sound studio. Every day we decided to do DREAM TIME, to talk about our thoughts and dreams happening that moment, that day. I spoke of the re-development happening behind the flat we were staying in. It presented itself as a beautiful bound book, explaining to residents the utopia being built in their backyard. A mysterious woman kept appearing throughout the prospectus... blonde, rich, handsome, untouchable... we named her the Oligarch's bird... The development, called Embassy Gardens, as they were also building the US Embassy across the road from us, the book, it's language; 'masonry primarily brick, is the principal building material, it's been given a new treatment that suggest traditional built-to-last qualities of PERMANENCE and SOLIDITY together with LIGHTNESS of TOUCH that might be expected in an exciting 21st century urban dev".... building a neighbourhood....the rhythms of daily life which in reality would be windy, dark from cast shadows from the skyscrapers and deserted due to being a third home, it made us angry and upset. We spoke of politics, feeling powerless to change things but taking solace that in our own tiny way, we were aiming to enable an audience to feel different, have space, think new thoughts. Common Law/ Common Sense everyone in their place. Everyone on their phones. Google: it's a data collection agency not a free search engine.

SomersetHaus R&D day 2

Mark arrives with a fully formed idea of what a show in this building could be. He said I'll tell you later. We learnt how to put the lights up, what they were called, what connections did what and how much wattage could do what. We did lots of getting lost around the building, to leave we had to go up two levels of stairs even though our back entrance was at ground level.. We found a windowless meeting room and sat in the room, shut the door, turned the lights off ......we sat there for an hour. It was everyone's most powerful experience. We took more and more people into this room... you could not see your hand in front of your face. Mark explained his dream that delivered him the idea of what the show could be. We are in a meeting room, KlangHaus is a bit like having a meeting, we are are all close-up, together, within a shared experience... the meeting hold formal structure, can we play with this? Previous minutes, apologies, agenda (hidden agenda)...Any Other Business. A good frame-work for sure. And then there is the seance. When does the show begin and when does it end...Apologies: saying sorry and not meaning it. 4th world. I second that, I propose that, passing motions.Quorate : quorate meaning, definition, what is quorate: having the necessary number of people present for decisions to be allowed to be made: other meeting protocol- financial report, action minutes, excel/exhale. We parted company I looked at orientation around the building and drew maps and routes.

Somerset Haus R&D Day 1

The get-in is both exciting and itchy... there is all the time ahead to create stuff, but what if it's all shit? There is no requirement to create stuff today, it's the get-in, getting our bearings. One of my favourite bits is opening doors...finding doors...opening doors...an unassuming office door opens into an underground set of shallow tunnels, water has flooded the stone floor and some kind of seaweed is growing around a chair-leg....ace! The building slowly reveals itself... beyond this 1990s looking office space with it's ceiling tiles, striped curtains, navy blue carpet tiles and cream walls covered with bits of blue-tac from old important communications. The building is under the forces of entropy...future...self-cleaning buildings (already in our speech) /self-repairing buildings. feelings amongst the group: overwhelmed, dissociated, alienated, restless, not good enough but through community, conversation, empathy and being listened to, we can be soothed, given permission to be here to play and be inspired. we spoke of MEME A meme (/ˈmiːm/ meem)[1] is "an idea, behavior, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture".[2] A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols, or practices that can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals, or other imitable phenomena with a mimicked theme. Supporters of the concept regard memes as cultural analogues to genes in that they self-replicate, mutate, and respond to selective pressures.[3] The word meme is a shortening (modeled on gene) of mimeme (from Ancient Greek μίμημα pronounced [míːmɛːma] mīmēma, "imitated thing", from μιμεῖσθαι mimeisthai, "to imitate", from μῖμος mimos, "mime")[4] coined by British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene (1976)[1][5] as a concept for discussion of evolutionary principles in explaining the spread of ideas and cultural phenomena. Examples of memes given in the book included melodies, catch-phrases, fashion, and the technology of building arches.[6] We spoke of the common pursuit of happiness, are we allowed to be happy? Let's be artists, not tortured artist's... because we aren't. Some artists are tortured... usually by their former lives or their minds... we fortunately are not...it does not mean that we don't take our work seriously or that serious concerns may appear within our work... we just don't need any pretend angst getting in the way. Later we went for a tour of the building and learnt more history .... We decide as a group that each day we would meet and discuss our dreams.. 'Dream Time'... this meant that we needed to spend time dreaming.

SomersetHaus R&D and what happened...Part 1

After completing 2 weeks of R&D at Somerset House, London, for KlangHaus show development, I need to write down what happened so I don't forget. I think it is my first official R&D, though I have done it without realising it in the past. Before we left... Compile equipment list to take Decide what we might do whilst we are there..loosely..aims and objectives Do risk assessment incase SH ask for one Sort insurance for public liability and equipment. Sort accommodation Make a budget and make sure we all know what it is. Think about how to eat well. Thinking about it is almost as good as doing it. Book the cars into SH parking lot for the get-in. Think about who might invite to the public engagement part. We arrived on June 9th around about 1pm... the London traffic seems to have forgotten that the congestion charge was to dissuade them from driving into the city, now it's just another bill to pay and London roads are again gridlocked.

May 22nd NAC show

Before this show slips from my psyche, I want to make a note of some feelings and intentions. We moved the stage in the Norwich Arts Centre from it's normal, length-ways along the rear wall, to end-on /centre of the room /slightly to the left. Why? so people could feel different, we could feel different, so we could perform to each other as a band- sometimes facing inwards, but always visible from some angle, so the audience could have a good 'ole look, they could stand on every side of the stage. Stand behind the drummer... be near... think different things....hear different things. The hanging drapes purposefully obscuring the view from the entrance, where a nervous audience likes to hang out. We were onstage when people entered the room, we left space... not always full on....room to think....be.... Huge thanks to the NAC tech and staff for allowing us and helping us to create something 'other'.