The Journey to CoP26 Continues

 

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 conference 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.

How to make a room dark

 Notes for my future self. Use layers of materials on the windows. Step one was foil. I had bought some extra thick foil a few weeks before but ended up using it during cooking and was left with the inferior stuff. Not fit for purpose really. A good roll of low-tack fabric-style gaffa tape, not only saves the window surround paint work but is a pleasure to use.

Next I cut polystyrene to size, obviously I'm not a fan of the stuff, but we had a package delivered that had  lots of it in, perfect for the moment.

Then because I was projecting on that wall, some very thick white paper. 

Then on the other side of the window, outside,  a huge tarpaulin clipped to the window frame. We started the shows on the shortest day of the year for maximum darkness. The first show was at 1pm. This didn't feel so dark, but by 2.30pm it was pitch! Audience comments included 'it was dark, then it seemed to get darker'. 

We made sure people started off in a very bright room, as it was nearly Christmas, we used tonnes of fairy lights. They walk into the room, are sat down, shown the safety light and plunged into darkness.

Folks were brought back into the light gently by my lovely companion, the slide projector. They found themselves in a darkroom. Which gave us all the idea to do a KlangHaus in a photographic darkroom in the future.... ooo... pictures emerging from the dark, the smell of chemicals, sounds whizzing round, red lights, shadows.

Here is one reaction that made me glow...

Dark Room : Listen In

 

How could I have not written about this until now? Today would have been the last day of 200 shows in our house. One audience member at a time, in complete darkness for 10 minutes listening. It had a couple of surprise live elements and some sensations, haha. No one was ever touched, a big fear for the incoming audient. Covid-safe with people wearing masks, us sanitising the armchair they sat in during the show. We opened doors, kept our distance, closed doors. It was safe but on Dec 26th, day 5 of shows, Tier 4 came into play and all non-essential business was halted due to the pandemic and a second more contagious strain of the virus doing the rounds. We had performed 80 shows. It was an impactful, emotive show. The darkness was the star. I was in the dark room for safety and for crawling about doing stuff. I emerged on Christmas Day pale and broken with fatigue. More thoughts soon