SomersetHaus final day

The schedule of our final day runs as follows. 10am meet Sal and carry the slide projector and lenses back to the hire company, east London. Insight, a lovely knowledgable and friendly couple, ex-art students with hundreds of lovely slide projectors. I look at one shelf and notice a box with a familiar name on it, Ben Brett, I tell the hire people, I know Ben he's almost a neighbour, we laughed at the small world of the analogue. 1pm Sound test, I had requested another sound-test, we are now seriously considering doing an actual KlangHaus here and Mark had been making an unbelievable racket, so thought we better check out levels. Mick Figg, the sound-man said he could hardly hear a thing. Phew. 2.30pm, look at the Embankment Galleries as an alternative space to use for KlangHaus within SomersetHaus.... bit posh! 4pm look around the Engineers Flat on the roof of the Royal Festival Hall as a potential KlangHaus. This was a bit of an intense thrill! Eddie the head tech is extremely accommodating. We will make something happen here for sure. Then back to SH, pack up...do a final walk through and say goodbye to the space.

R&D Day 14 SomersetHaus

This morning Sal and I had the pleasure of meeting Caroline Pope an experienced and lovely choreographer. We again took her through the space, spoke of the building and wove in more of our back-story. We look forward to working with her. Later we saw some maintenance men and charmed some door codes from them. So more exploring... I love how the building keeps revealing itself, more doors, more cupboards...top of the range 1990s AV and sound equipment.. Helen Kemp, friend and artist came and visited, she fell in love with the door, again, so calmed by the space and didn't want to leave. I wanted to make a film of each of us talking about an remembered experience. We started with Mark. He spoke of Stewart Lee who he'd seen perform a few days previous. Then I asked him to tell his story of The Small Animal Hospital show in Edinburgh. This revealed insight in how Mark works as a performer, kinetic structures. Valuable task and no doubt full of other gems from all of us once we have a go. We talked about making a creative constitution. - respecting one another - how we share what we do - how we safely share ideas without fear of ridicule - getting over ourselves, coping when we get stuck ( quite often by walking/moving) - 'we are already there' ie we already know shit loads, never undersell our experience. quietly work on our individual self-estime, self-understanding and self belief. 'We are in it now'. Everyday there is a bit of annoying admin. Today we had to book the cars into the loading bay for tomorrow's get-out.

R&D day 13 SomersetHaus

My day began with a vocal lesson from the very high powered vocal tutor Mark Maylan. Scary leading up to it but brilliant. Lots and lots of work to do. My top and mid range are very under-par, breathing too full of effort, top notes thin and wobbly, core strength pretty lame. All good stuff and I look forward to making my singing experience of making noise feel much more effortless and easy. Today we have arranged for lots of visitors to come and share in our thoughts and findings at SomersetHaus. We set up the space in our routine way. We walked through a possible route. Jeron arrived and unofficially was our first guest. Sal and I collected people at 6pm. Wanting to engage with 7 different people all at once is a tricky skill, like holding jelly. It works for moments then slips away, then works. again. If we had to do it again, we should have a welcoming party of all of us if it needs to be personable. We took them into the dark room. Most people settled , thou one friend got very anxious and claustrophobic. It was fine, we just opened the door and we all went back into the light. We explored the upstairs, which was a reminder of how an 'audience' can run away into parts of the building which are dangerous, two friends disappeared into an unboarded attic, I held my breath... I think that's how you keep people safe isn't it.... then down into the space...Jon had set up some sound design and Sal's lights were purring. No one wanted to leave. Even though we had the most basic set-up, no one wanted to leave. They loved exploring, they felt calm, almost nothing was happening, but it was a world they wanted to live in.

SomersetHaus day 12

It's Sunday, we had a leisurely morning eating breakfast in the sun, writing, reading, thinking. At SH Jon got excited about the language of the river and our Inland Revenue space... taxes, currency, river currents, tax levies, river levies, death and taxes, boatman, the Stix, undertow,tax haven, what the river takes away, deposits ... the richness of the dominating features were showing themselves. At 4pm we met Grace Simmonds, studying an MA in performance, architecture and other extraordinary corners, we brought her into the space and into the dark. We talked ideas at breakneck speed. I asked Grace of other possible KlangHaus spaces in London, she immediately put forward Balfron Tower in Poplar. We took things slightly slower today. Ideally we would have had a day off, but coming towards the end of our time at SH spurred us on. In Edinburgh our Mondays off were very powerful and rejuvenating. Highly recommended.

SomersetHaus day 11

After yesterdays' great find of a level access point to our space, I went exploring upstairs for more ways into the space on the level. I connected two parts of the building that had seemingly been separated. I realised that a lift was hidden round a corner. I jumped in and went to see where it landed. I went down two floors using my pass to activate permission. The doors opened onto a magical space, well exciting, like a scene from 2001 A Space Odyssey... The Austerity March was happening outside the front door and the others had gone off to join in and record the helicopters.. I was alone in the space and suddenly a tall man appeared with a young tall woman. THey asked to look around.. I was quite unprepared and gathered myself and started to spiel out some old crap...The man said, 'I am the reason you're here...' my mind whizzing I realised he was Jonathan Reekie, Artistic Director of the place, showing his daughter around. I found my stride and walked him through the space, delighting in the minutia of the rooms. Mark appeared and we took Jonathan and daughter into the dark meeting room, we told them the story. We took them into the other crap rooms and listened to the acoustics. We took them into the cupboard full of water and sang them a song. By the time Sal and Jon appeared the atmosphere was good. Sal showed her films of fountains, filmed in the courtyard yesterday, but looked timeless. 4pm Mia and her friend Luke turned up. We took them through the space, we talked smells as Mia does perfume reviews and has a 'nose'. We finished the day by working together in the space, practicing new songs whilst Sal projected colour and films on and through us. Mark played the drums in the stairwell.

SomersetHaus Day 10

Visitors.We set up the space, the routine gets under-way. I love routine, getting on with it. The space is ready and I go to meet our first visitor Frances Lynch. A wonderful singer and singing tutor. I take Frances into the windowless meeting room and turn off the lights. We chat for quite some time. I bring her into our world, where we are at with this particular building, meanwhile Frances is listening to how I create sound and how I use my voice. Frances says, ' I think I need to see you now' , so we move into one of the other spaces, I make tea and we do some work. I apologise for not having a piano to pitch to, Frances regales her annoyance at the piano. 'the piano is not as pure as the voice, vocal pitch is much purer, let me demonstrate she says...' Like a mathematician, she demonstrates a piano note and a vocal note of the same note.....vocal pitch is slightly sharper and brighter. My throat tightens with awe and fear! This woman is music, she doesn't just sing, she is the singing. We throw vocal notes across the room, hers are full enormous and wonderful. Mine are thin and quiet. Frances saw KlangHaus in Edinburgh so was familiar with my style and technique of singing. She asked me what I wanted to work on. I can do the loud and quiet, but the bit in the middle is a bit boring. Spot on she said. The mid and top part of your range are unexplored. There is a disconnect. Sing from your feet not your throat or chest. Imagine the sea coming in through your toes and out through your heels, think of that when you breathe. She mentioned extended vocal techniques....my knowledge is sketchy! Work on your core, core strength, use your pelvic floor muscles, just a little bit...basically, work on your middle! good stuff. Frances met, Jon and Sal and they talked science and maths. Next visitor... Pasco, Director of Norwich and Arts Centre and mentor, always inspiring and great fun. We thought big and then even bigger, then we got practical, then we drank lots of coffee. Next visitors Molly Rigg and Louisa, who work as producers at Somerset House, Molly has been a friend and colleague and helped us back in 2012 at our Butcher of Common Sense show at the Horse Hospital, Bloomsbury. Molly's greatest action for me was to open the fire door which looked alarmed, but wasn't. We suddenly had a whole new playground outside and an accessible ground level access point and our own dead rat. We can do a show here at Somerset House... possibilities abound.

SomersetHaus Day 9

The emailing and the admin start to vie for attention. We are constantly negotiating and researching, aiming to talk to people who can help/inspire/facilitate our shows. We can make the work, but we need to make it more financially sustainable. For us to find a business model that works. I want to talk to a producer from PunchDrunk, who have a great business model. Take over a building, have a bar and cafe to help cover the running costs and then your totally unique selling point is.... a show...in our case, a KlangHaus. You set up for 6 weeks as a pop up, get all the licences...Bob's yer aunty. I walk along the Thames feeling like I have the answer to my working practices....do business in the morning, email whilst the brain is in full gear....then take a long walk, have lunch/breakfast/whatever... then settle into some creative making of art and music. Unfortunately, today I couldn't settle on anything. Emailing and charging that side of my brain up took its toll. I could not settle on anything creative. I tried an idea of route making,pathfinding, nothing emerged... actually...that's crap, I did do lots of creative stuff it just didn't strike gold.... that's part of it...however, emailing needs to be quarantined. Discussions continued in the yard over a beer.