Friday....Mid Afternoon.....GRRRR!!!
Its that feeling when you know you've got to the end of the week, and just want to switch off and relax, but you still have work to do!!
Not that I am complaining in anyway at all!! This week has been a really good week, full of ups and downs, reactions and counter reactions. A few things artistically have changed since I last posted and I would like to go into detail about why I didn't do some of the things I thought I was going to do, and how as a result new ideas have come apparent.
The big idea I felt really had legs this week was filming myself through a variety of media over a time based period. The concept behind was to see how I would react to being filmed in a confined space, a space which is personal to me and allows me to reflect on myself, escape from the world and allows me just to be myself. Secondly to this with the development of reality television in the last decade particularly, the ability to blog, deliver and upload a Youtube video, there are countless opportunities for anyone to become famous through any type of media. So filming myself through a video camera, recording myself on my mobile phone and the like, seemed a good idea. However during the week, the idea kept on rolling around in my head, and I felt at this stage I felt it was a bit too obvious an idea to do. I say this because I really want to try and explore lots of different media as I can, and filming myself maybe an idea that I keep hold of, which I certainly will, but I may wait a week or so before I commit to undertaking it properly to see whether it will work.
Whilst I am still in favour of trying any idea I come up with, there are of course a few which I always come back to, particularly my interest in incorporating the cinematic / film into the live theatrical performance space. Why you may ask, is this an obsession for me? Namely because although I feel I am drifting slightly more to the angle of becoming a solo artist, having spent my last 3 years working in mainly group collaborations producing, rehearsing, devising a performance to make in front of an audience, to suddenly go almost the opposite extreme. Whereby I am making a solo practice and probably have more in connection with a visual artist than I do a traditional theatre making process. I am still despite this move to a solo practice, I am fascinated by the dynamics of live performance from the audience / performer relationship but probably more specifically how the developments and breakthroughs in technology in recent years (i.e. film, social media, video) have impacted on and how they can take the theatre world forward and continue to make fantastic work. My current interest in this domain is of that of creating a two person performance which lasts between 5 and 10 minutes which contains live performers interacting with recorded media (namely film). Such a short piece would really test my ability at getting an idea across in a really brief time as well as not giving a huge burden of having to create a huge performance. As this is the first time, I am doing this individually I am going to through every idea into the pot and see what comes up. I have assembled a collection of film clips, namely from the 'Classical Hollywood studio' era and moving into film noir style. To me these films contain an interesting question of the role and power of film to comment on, change, enlighten and respond to contemporary political debates. Particularly when thinking of the 1930's, 1940's, 1950's and the issues of racism, sexism, homophobia, International conflicts, the threat of Communism and the impact of WWII. To try and generate idea I am thinking about inviting 2 performers to an improvisation session to try and brainstorm the impact of cinema on the theatrical landscape and what is interesting if we bring these two art forms together. This is on the to do list, so I will keep updating process on this idea.
My final idea for this week was that of a real life game. Now there has been a big explosion of these sorts of things in the past few years. I went to the 'Hide and Seek Weekender' in London last year, which was a brilliant experience. In essence based at the Southbank Centre you can enter into as many games as you like during the day!
http://www.hideandseek.net/playmakers/ - This video is a fascinating behind the scenes exploration of these sorts of games, explaining it better than I can!
This idea was just written down and not really thought out, so I'm not entirely confident at explaining it at the moment, but never-the-less it is another dimension to the sorts of things I am working with at the moment, so I will update it as it happens.
To conclude this post, what have I learnt this week?
Trusting your instinct is a valuable skill to have!
Thinking about the bigger picture rather than the immediate problem is also a valuable skill to have!
Passion is the key to success!
UNTIL NEXT TIME!!
Have a lovely weekend!
Marcus
Friday, 29 October 2010
Monday, 25 October 2010
Imitating the Dog, Proto-Type, Gob Squad.....Me....
First of all I should apologise for the late arrival of my last post, due to laziness and illness I wasn't able to get it up on Friday!, however its Monday so I am kind of back on track with the posts! (hopefully..)
Anyhow so this week What I am planning well I have the feeling it is going to be based around multi media performance works. Not to make it sound like some academic literacy criticism, I'll explain what I mean by the term 'Multi media performance works' and why they are interesting me.
The first real multi media piece I saw was by the German / UK company Gob Squad in late 2008 at the Nuffield Theatre, in this case it was a 'live' reconstruction of Pop Artist Andy Warhol's 1960's film 'The Kitchen' in which the performers of the company create or attempt to recreate the film using video cameras and a large projection screen which shielded them from the audience. It was a startling performance which really opened my eyes to what the possibilities are for incorporating a range of media and technology into the traditional theatre space. The next two performances I saw were breathtaking and have stayed with me ever since and I always refer to these two companies as two of my favourite and inspiring companies for opening up such a wonderful and inspiring set of ideas, creative innovations in the theatre space and expanding and developing the medium. Imitating the Dog's 'Kellerman' at the Nuffield Theatre in mid 2009 was truly mind blowing!. The sheer spectacle and unbelievable stage design as well as the moving between the filmed image (on large projection screens) and live actors in the space integrating themselves into the filmed images was just spectacular! (see the link at the bottom for more of an understanding of the sheer scale!) The experience of watching it in a Theatre space will always stay with me. Similarly Proto-Type Theater's 'Virtuoso' a piece about 1960's suburbia which involved the three performers constructing their world using plastic figures, video cameras, projections and live performing. Using media in a much smaller way than ITD, the performance gave me a wonderful inspiration in how to bring together lots of differing technologies and employ them in the Theatre space.
These performances were and remain a big inspiration for me, namely because they ultise different technologies in the theatre space, they keep to the traditional formats of performer / audience but in almost every other regard they take the audience on a roller coaster ride of different experiences that they may never of experienced before. It is the new and different approach to creating a performance, utilising a multitude of artistic inspirations, aesthetics and languages to deliver performances which are not only visually and viscerally astonishing but have taken the traditional rulebook and added a big spoonful of excitement and creativity.
I know its quite hard to imagine these performances in the flesh so please if you want see more have a quick look at the links at the bottom of this post!
Ever since I watched these performances I have become really fascinated in media and theatrical performance, mainly in relation to technology (whether that is screen media i.e. film, video or other technologies such as web based, mobile phones, audio technology). From this I got fascinated by the possibilities and creative potential art and technology and how technology itself in the last two decades or so has come to become the social standing by which we are judged i.e. in the last few years the dominance of Facebook and Youtube, blogging and reality television. All these ideas are all grounded in a position of reflecting and analysing the world.
So what is my main Idea I will be working on this week? Well it is quite simple:
To Record a period of 10 hours of just me in my bedroom recorded through video, photographic and sound recordings.
Why would I being doing this? It is interesting to show the effect of media documentation of a nobody, do I end up performing to the camera? Why?
This is my main idea for this week, I will report back on Friday as to whether it is successful or not!
To finish up with here's an interesting set of links to some of the companies and performances I have mentioned in this blog!:
http://www.imitatingthedog.co.uk - - The website of Imitating the Dog
http://www.proto-type.org/Proto-type_Theater/Proto-type_Theater.htmlco.uk/ - The Website of Proto-type Theater.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYGwvJ_kh7o - Trailer for 'Kellerman' Which came to the Nuffield Theatre in Lancaster in May 2009 (ITD)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybuIbK2gwAg&feature=related - Trailer for 'Hotel Methuselah' by ITD, the previous show to 'Kellerman'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_C3_iUbWwc&feature=related - 'Virtuoso' by Proto-Type Theater which had its world premier at the Nuffield Theatre in April 2009.
http://www.gobsquad.com/ - The Home of Gob Squad
Anyhow so this week What I am planning well I have the feeling it is going to be based around multi media performance works. Not to make it sound like some academic literacy criticism, I'll explain what I mean by the term 'Multi media performance works' and why they are interesting me.
The first real multi media piece I saw was by the German / UK company Gob Squad in late 2008 at the Nuffield Theatre, in this case it was a 'live' reconstruction of Pop Artist Andy Warhol's 1960's film 'The Kitchen' in which the performers of the company create or attempt to recreate the film using video cameras and a large projection screen which shielded them from the audience. It was a startling performance which really opened my eyes to what the possibilities are for incorporating a range of media and technology into the traditional theatre space. The next two performances I saw were breathtaking and have stayed with me ever since and I always refer to these two companies as two of my favourite and inspiring companies for opening up such a wonderful and inspiring set of ideas, creative innovations in the theatre space and expanding and developing the medium. Imitating the Dog's 'Kellerman' at the Nuffield Theatre in mid 2009 was truly mind blowing!. The sheer spectacle and unbelievable stage design as well as the moving between the filmed image (on large projection screens) and live actors in the space integrating themselves into the filmed images was just spectacular! (see the link at the bottom for more of an understanding of the sheer scale!) The experience of watching it in a Theatre space will always stay with me. Similarly Proto-Type Theater's 'Virtuoso' a piece about 1960's suburbia which involved the three performers constructing their world using plastic figures, video cameras, projections and live performing. Using media in a much smaller way than ITD, the performance gave me a wonderful inspiration in how to bring together lots of differing technologies and employ them in the Theatre space.
These performances were and remain a big inspiration for me, namely because they ultise different technologies in the theatre space, they keep to the traditional formats of performer / audience but in almost every other regard they take the audience on a roller coaster ride of different experiences that they may never of experienced before. It is the new and different approach to creating a performance, utilising a multitude of artistic inspirations, aesthetics and languages to deliver performances which are not only visually and viscerally astonishing but have taken the traditional rulebook and added a big spoonful of excitement and creativity.
I know its quite hard to imagine these performances in the flesh so please if you want see more have a quick look at the links at the bottom of this post!
Ever since I watched these performances I have become really fascinated in media and theatrical performance, mainly in relation to technology (whether that is screen media i.e. film, video or other technologies such as web based, mobile phones, audio technology). From this I got fascinated by the possibilities and creative potential art and technology and how technology itself in the last two decades or so has come to become the social standing by which we are judged i.e. in the last few years the dominance of Facebook and Youtube, blogging and reality television. All these ideas are all grounded in a position of reflecting and analysing the world.
So what is my main Idea I will be working on this week? Well it is quite simple:
To Record a period of 10 hours of just me in my bedroom recorded through video, photographic and sound recordings.
Why would I being doing this? It is interesting to show the effect of media documentation of a nobody, do I end up performing to the camera? Why?
This is my main idea for this week, I will report back on Friday as to whether it is successful or not!
To finish up with here's an interesting set of links to some of the companies and performances I have mentioned in this blog!:
http://www.imitatingthedog.co.uk - - The website of Imitating the Dog
http://www.proto-type.org/Proto-type_Theater/Proto-type_Theater.htmlco.uk/ - The Website of Proto-type Theater.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYGwvJ_kh7o - Trailer for 'Kellerman' Which came to the Nuffield Theatre in Lancaster in May 2009 (ITD)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybuIbK2gwAg&feature=related - Trailer for 'Hotel Methuselah' by ITD, the previous show to 'Kellerman'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_C3_iUbWwc&feature=related - 'Virtuoso' by Proto-Type Theater which had its world premier at the Nuffield Theatre in April 2009.
http://www.gobsquad.com/ - The Home of Gob Squad
Friday, 22 October 2010
ACE's Cuts and 'Remapping Lancaster'
It is the end of the second week into my masters. A lot of important things have been happening this week both related to work and in the wider world, which I kind of feel I need to report and reflect on because they are really interesting subjects for me, and hopefully if you are reading this, then it is of interest to you!
I don't think we could get away from it this week as it was just about everywhere: The Comprehensive Spending review by the CON-DEM coalition government. This was billed as George Osbourne's superman effort to safe Britain from the bring of collapse and economic meltdown. I could never hope to try and explain the overall picture of the cuts, because I am not an economist but I what I can do is try and reflect on the cuts to the DCMS (Department for Media, Culture and Sport) and ACE (Arts Council England.
In factual terms this is the result for Culture in the UK:
15% cut in funding to national museums, but free entry will be reserved.
The total budget for DCMS is £1.1bn (a decrease of 24%)
30% in Arts Council funding overall, but only 15% will be passed on to 'front line services' a.k.a. Regularly funded Organisations of which there are 880.
The Arts Council will have to cut its Admin costs by 50%.
Now in headline these numbers look dreadful, however these were forecasted, with the exeception of the UK Film Council which was a terrible shock, the arts community has been preparing for these cuts for many months. It is terrible that people will loose their jobs and less funding will be available, and it is so sad that it is presented with such ease by the Government, but unfortunately these cuts are across every Government department and so we as members of the arts community cannot feel that is us just being picked on.
These cuts come at an interesting time, mainly because we are going through big social changes in our society anyway. The advent of Twitter and social networking has made communications, PR, Networking, marketing, making contacts easier than ever and ultimately we are able to stay in touch the sector that we love easier and more effectively than we ever have done before. How we talk about and report on the sector is changing, it is no longer static it is bubbling with creativity and responses to the world. With bigger investment in the last 15 years than ever before the sector has thrived and enchanted audiences in every artistic discipline. The arts are thriving and we as members of the artistic community should not be disheartened by the cuts, because for the simple fact although we want to make money from the arts, we do it for the passion and love we have for making the arts accessible to everyone, and as long we have that passion, we will still make the best art we can. Even though it will be tougher to get funding, it will force us to make the best possible response to the Government to show that we can respond to the economic times and still make the best art we can.
My view is this: The cuts won't stop me wanting to be an artist, I do it for my passion for the arts. My artistic practice has never been defined by money and it will never be. I am making work for everyone to involved with, I respond to the world and part of that includes realising that the world is going through tough times and art can reflect that, by entertaining, by inspiring, by allowing people to reflect.
Just to divert of the cuts (I am sure you are as bored of it as I am!). This week I have been trying out a real life excerise based on something really interesting I've been researching. Taking inspiration from an exercise from Proto-Type Theater's summer school 2 years ago called 'Remapping Lancaster'. The exercise itself is quite a simple one and can produce very interesting results!. In essence you are given a series of questions in this case it was 16 (not because I am specific with numbers but due to the fact I didn't charge my camera enough I ended up with 16 rather than the 20 I planned for!). I set myself these questions with the simple aim of only using my imagination to come up with the photographic representations.
Now you maybe wondering like I was, what on earth is the point of some guy wondering around the streets of Lancaster taking photos of things which don't seem to have point to them. Well I when I was planning and actually taking the photos, I always kept the audience in mind, the huge fan base for comics globally gives a demonstration to the fact that people like to pay money to be taken away from their natural surroundings of their real life and like to be entertained. Its something that film companies also employ, why do they use real cities and real locations to make movies? To take us away from the real world, to use the world we are based in and use it in another way. We as people want to be entertained, see the world differently. Not to sound like know exactly what people want, I only can really say that personally I love being entertained and taken away from the real world.
Anyway here's the exercise in full:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=244771&id=524662090
Have a look, see what you think!, I will hopefully be doing this exercise again soon!
I don't think we could get away from it this week as it was just about everywhere: The Comprehensive Spending review by the CON-DEM coalition government. This was billed as George Osbourne's superman effort to safe Britain from the bring of collapse and economic meltdown. I could never hope to try and explain the overall picture of the cuts, because I am not an economist but I what I can do is try and reflect on the cuts to the DCMS (Department for Media, Culture and Sport) and ACE (Arts Council England.
In factual terms this is the result for Culture in the UK:
15% cut in funding to national museums, but free entry will be reserved.
The total budget for DCMS is £1.1bn (a decrease of 24%)
30% in Arts Council funding overall, but only 15% will be passed on to 'front line services' a.k.a. Regularly funded Organisations of which there are 880.
The Arts Council will have to cut its Admin costs by 50%.
Now in headline these numbers look dreadful, however these were forecasted, with the exeception of the UK Film Council which was a terrible shock, the arts community has been preparing for these cuts for many months. It is terrible that people will loose their jobs and less funding will be available, and it is so sad that it is presented with such ease by the Government, but unfortunately these cuts are across every Government department and so we as members of the arts community cannot feel that is us just being picked on.
These cuts come at an interesting time, mainly because we are going through big social changes in our society anyway. The advent of Twitter and social networking has made communications, PR, Networking, marketing, making contacts easier than ever and ultimately we are able to stay in touch the sector that we love easier and more effectively than we ever have done before. How we talk about and report on the sector is changing, it is no longer static it is bubbling with creativity and responses to the world. With bigger investment in the last 15 years than ever before the sector has thrived and enchanted audiences in every artistic discipline. The arts are thriving and we as members of the artistic community should not be disheartened by the cuts, because for the simple fact although we want to make money from the arts, we do it for the passion and love we have for making the arts accessible to everyone, and as long we have that passion, we will still make the best art we can. Even though it will be tougher to get funding, it will force us to make the best possible response to the Government to show that we can respond to the economic times and still make the best art we can.
My view is this: The cuts won't stop me wanting to be an artist, I do it for my passion for the arts. My artistic practice has never been defined by money and it will never be. I am making work for everyone to involved with, I respond to the world and part of that includes realising that the world is going through tough times and art can reflect that, by entertaining, by inspiring, by allowing people to reflect.
Just to divert of the cuts (I am sure you are as bored of it as I am!). This week I have been trying out a real life excerise based on something really interesting I've been researching. Taking inspiration from an exercise from Proto-Type Theater's summer school 2 years ago called 'Remapping Lancaster'. The exercise itself is quite a simple one and can produce very interesting results!. In essence you are given a series of questions in this case it was 16 (not because I am specific with numbers but due to the fact I didn't charge my camera enough I ended up with 16 rather than the 20 I planned for!). I set myself these questions with the simple aim of only using my imagination to come up with the photographic representations.
Now you maybe wondering like I was, what on earth is the point of some guy wondering around the streets of Lancaster taking photos of things which don't seem to have point to them. Well I when I was planning and actually taking the photos, I always kept the audience in mind, the huge fan base for comics globally gives a demonstration to the fact that people like to pay money to be taken away from their natural surroundings of their real life and like to be entertained. Its something that film companies also employ, why do they use real cities and real locations to make movies? To take us away from the real world, to use the world we are based in and use it in another way. We as people want to be entertained, see the world differently. Not to sound like know exactly what people want, I only can really say that personally I love being entertained and taken away from the real world.
Anyway here's the exercise in full:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=244771&id=524662090
Have a look, see what you think!, I will hopefully be doing this exercise again soon!
Monday, 18 October 2010
"The idea of glamour as tightly bound up with modernity and particularly with Hollywood"
I should really learn shouldn't I? drinking and student life do tend to go hand in hand and so therefore I did end up quite drunk on Friday evening!!. I won't bore you to tears with my drunken antics though as I am never that interesting when I'm drunk apart from getting a little bit louder and thinking that I am much funnier than I really am! (if anyone has ever been drunk and not thought that then something must be up!!).
Anyway to depart away from my tales of drunken immaturity and back to what is happening at the moment. I don't know whether I have mentioned at all in previous posts, but I'll say it again just in case: Monday's and Fridays will be my blog days. In essence Monday will be a kind of overview of where I currently am and what is planned for the week ahead and Friday will in essence be a reflection / evaluation of what has happened during the week.
I keep a file of interesting bits of paper, newspaper articles and any other interesting things that might be interesting stimuli in a folder in my room. Its interesting to keep these things together so that you have a collection of sources in which to keep referring back to! Yesterday I came across a really interesting article from the Observer which I pulled out months ago called "Why glamour has been good for women - and feminism" by Carol Dyhouse (here's the link if you would like to read it: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/mar/21/glamour-feminism-cinema-carol-dyhouse). A fascinating article about how glamour has gone in out of fashion in society, the link between Hollywood glamour post war and the associations of modernity. This got me thinking about the impact of technology in this case the cinematic impact because of its dominance in the cultural arena in the latter half of the 20th Century and early 21st Century. The cinematic presence is something which is at the centre point of our society I would argue. The way the media (i.e. newspapers and magazines) hold film stars in such a high regard, we want to know everything about them, every minor personal detail. The allure of the film star is now something which is fading. Look at films from the 1940s and 1950's (Classical Hollywood's heyday) and you see 'glamour' presented in such a way that it is almost impossible to replicate. Films were a special occasion because of the fact it took people away from everyday consequently earning the nickname "dream factory", dreams and aspirations were played out on the screen in front of the audiences. Where as with film today, the realistic presentations of the world in which the films are set, mirror our lives and so therefore we have greater opportunities to look like our film idols of today, the look and the glamour is so more unattainable. Surely the look of glamour is something you aspire to and work for not something you copy. Carol Dyhouse makes an interesting point in the final paragraph of her article "Glamour can represent self assertion, sexual confidence, playfulness, pleasure and delight. But in the end, nothing empowers women so much as a good education and a well - paid job". A really interesting counter argument presented to juxtapose the idea of glamour. The women in films of film noir, which have always been a filmic style which interests me since I studied it at A - Level, are an endorsement of how glamour is presented on screen: sexually confident, educated and fully rounded characters. The allure of these glamorous actresses made them immensely popular and sought after, but what is the idea of glamour today? Glamour models? Lady Gaga?.
Moving away from theory for a moment, this idea of glamour is an interesting one and I am really interested in possibly developing a short performance (upto about 5 minutes) which could possibly include cinematic projections as well as live performers in the space. The idea is a very sketchy one at the moment and will need to be tried out to have any idea whether there is any grounding but I am interested in it none the less!. It is doable, just how interesting and incentiful to my audience is another one!, but I want to try it out and see what comes of it!. I will update you on Friday with progress.
Anyway to depart away from my tales of drunken immaturity and back to what is happening at the moment. I don't know whether I have mentioned at all in previous posts, but I'll say it again just in case: Monday's and Fridays will be my blog days. In essence Monday will be a kind of overview of where I currently am and what is planned for the week ahead and Friday will in essence be a reflection / evaluation of what has happened during the week.
I keep a file of interesting bits of paper, newspaper articles and any other interesting things that might be interesting stimuli in a folder in my room. Its interesting to keep these things together so that you have a collection of sources in which to keep referring back to! Yesterday I came across a really interesting article from the Observer which I pulled out months ago called "Why glamour has been good for women - and feminism" by Carol Dyhouse (here's the link if you would like to read it: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/mar/21/glamour-feminism-cinema-carol-dyhouse). A fascinating article about how glamour has gone in out of fashion in society, the link between Hollywood glamour post war and the associations of modernity. This got me thinking about the impact of technology in this case the cinematic impact because of its dominance in the cultural arena in the latter half of the 20th Century and early 21st Century. The cinematic presence is something which is at the centre point of our society I would argue. The way the media (i.e. newspapers and magazines) hold film stars in such a high regard, we want to know everything about them, every minor personal detail. The allure of the film star is now something which is fading. Look at films from the 1940s and 1950's (Classical Hollywood's heyday) and you see 'glamour' presented in such a way that it is almost impossible to replicate. Films were a special occasion because of the fact it took people away from everyday consequently earning the nickname "dream factory", dreams and aspirations were played out on the screen in front of the audiences. Where as with film today, the realistic presentations of the world in which the films are set, mirror our lives and so therefore we have greater opportunities to look like our film idols of today, the look and the glamour is so more unattainable. Surely the look of glamour is something you aspire to and work for not something you copy. Carol Dyhouse makes an interesting point in the final paragraph of her article "Glamour can represent self assertion, sexual confidence, playfulness, pleasure and delight. But in the end, nothing empowers women so much as a good education and a well - paid job". A really interesting counter argument presented to juxtapose the idea of glamour. The women in films of film noir, which have always been a filmic style which interests me since I studied it at A - Level, are an endorsement of how glamour is presented on screen: sexually confident, educated and fully rounded characters. The allure of these glamorous actresses made them immensely popular and sought after, but what is the idea of glamour today? Glamour models? Lady Gaga?.
Moving away from theory for a moment, this idea of glamour is an interesting one and I am really interested in possibly developing a short performance (upto about 5 minutes) which could possibly include cinematic projections as well as live performers in the space. The idea is a very sketchy one at the moment and will need to be tried out to have any idea whether there is any grounding but I am interested in it none the less!. It is doable, just how interesting and incentiful to my audience is another one!, but I want to try it out and see what comes of it!. I will update you on Friday with progress.
Friday, 15 October 2010
The Flag has dropped, the challenge is on!
It is the end of my first week of my MA at LICA, it has been a very long week to be honest, not in a bad way but just in terms of doing a lot things and trying to get my head around the challenges of the upcoming year for myself. (Not that I am looking for sympathy from anyone because I would not be taking up this challenge if I did not want to push myself and set myself a challenge in the first place!!). The main difference I have noticed from my undergraduate studies to my postgraduate studies is the amount of freedom I have not just creatively,(which I will say more about later on this in this blog) but also personally and socially. I have started to feel more secure in myself and also started to take up very strange habits, such as doing the washing up straight after eating and tyding my room and as anyone who knows me can testify (particularly my girlfriend Anoushka!) I am not the world's most tidiest or cleanest person! but I am slowly starting to take an interest in actually looking after myself, which for long periods of undergraduate studies I didn't! and subsequently I felt like I had no direction. Sorry to sound so depressing, I know doing the ashing up isn't the sexiest image to imagine whilst reading this but we all have to do it I guess!
Anyway back to this week and what did I get upto? On Tuesday I went to Manchester to visit two exhibitions which I had been interested in seeing to try and get to grips with the notion of exhibiting digital art / new media art in a public gallery, which is something I have no experience of doing. The first was at the Manchester Art Gallery: "Recorders: Rafael Lozano-Hemmer",Hemmer is a Mexican artist and the exhibition is based around interaction between the spectator and the instillations, many of which employ technologies used by Governments to keep tabs on the general public. It was a fantastic exhibition mainly because the instillations were interactive, you as the gallery visitor felt like the works were designed with you in mind. That for me has probably been the most important thing I have taken from this week, the sense that good art whether that is in a gallery, theatre space or whatever the ability of the audience to gain a personal meaning from the art is vitial. It is the personal connection I definitely felt whilst walking around the exhibition, not just from seeing myself on a camera, or a device that felt my pulse. It was the fact that it made me reflect on my own connections to technology and if there is one thing that art should be able to do aside from anything else it is for the spectator to leave knowing it has made them reflect on their views of the world.
The second exhibition I visited was at the Cornerhouse (next to Oxford Road Station in Manchester) called 'Unspooling: Art + Cinema', a nice exhibition showing responses to two huge areas of the cultural landscape: Art and Cinema. Some of the works I felt didn't really do much for me, of course Art is deeply personal but it didn't really feel to me as though some of the works were entirely designed and thought out to reach as many people as possible, but that is just entirely a personal opinion, overall I thought it was an interesting concept for an exhibition and one which I can take some ideas from for my practice.
Finally I saw at the Nuffield Theatre in Lancaster the new performance from Forced Entertainment 'The Thrill of it', which I have blogged on in more detail on the LIVE@LICA blog. Forced Entertainment are a great and unique company in the field of contemporary performance, notably for their longevity and excellent body of work. Their previous show 'Spectacular' in 2008 did not win me over, I did not feel it actually was conceived with audience reaction in mind. Not to say I lost any respect or admiration for the company during this time. 'The Thrill of It' was a masterclass in how to put on a show which had everything at its disposal, film and stand up references. Comedy, music, dancing. Like the exhibition at MAG, they clearly thought about how to communicate with their audiences.
Moving on now to what I have been working on myself. My MA is practice based, i.e. developing my own artist practice so studio time and personal reflection is vitial. This week I have only had one opportunity in the studio, so I only really have one idea I can report on!. In essence the idea is based around the development of new technologies and how we as media and technology consumers have been targeted as a target market and react to this. My starting point is films from the 1960's as I said in my last post, the 1960's holds a personal fascination with me because a) I wasn't there so I have had to experience it through media documentation and b) the 1960's are always seen as the heyday for prosperity, design, ambition and happiness. With this in mind the idea I had was mixing film clips with music (the film clips I have been working on are: the Ipcress File, Robbery, Bullit and the Italian Job - for no particular reason aside from these are some of my favourite films!). There are several reasons for my interest in mixing music and films and re editing them in a performance based scenario:
Firstly the dominance of soundtracks in films, and how these come to have such a cultural importance and significance for people (taking the example of The Italian Job and 'Get a Bloomin' Move On'). This fact is also illustrated when I was writing my blog response to Forced Entertainment the only thing I could really think of was the soundtrack, underlying not just the significance of it to the performance, but to me in my overall response of the piece.
Secondly the ability in our current era of new technological developments. The ease and speed with which we can edit films. We can edit them at home by picking alternative endings, picking the version with an audio commentary and selecting the chapters we even want to see. On Youtube we can dub funny voice overs and post our own responses to our favourite films. So the ease with which I was able to change the meanings of the film examples I was working on, just access to Youtube and the free music service Spotify.
Thirdly the dominance of music videos in our daily media consumption and the effect it has on us. The dominance of sex based music videos and the effect that has on us, have we become to descentised to it? You look around in any night club when a song comes on and the dancing and theme of the music video will be immediately represented on the dancefloor.
This idea is as I say the only real idea I have been working on this week and hopefully by next week it maybe a bit more grounded.
Its the end of the first week, and I am feeling very positive. Being able to work freely on my own passions is fantastic!. For the last two years I have felt a bit frustrated at not being able to take ideas further due to being confined to working within a set brief (i.e. course outlines and marking criteria). For example last year in our end of degree show (THEA 313) I was in charge of media, I shot the videos, sorted out the projections and controlled all the media during the final performance. During the rehearsal process I found that my own interests were leading me over to different areas and I became increasingly frustrated personally because I knew the one thing I wanted to do was to have the space and time to really find myself creatively (not wishing to sound completely up myself here!) and now I have the fantastic opportunity here at LICA. But of course contrary to this enthusiasm and the ambition I have for this year, I do have worries. Chiefly is how much of a challenge it will be for me. I am currently recovering from depression and so for me, I am very worried that due to the fact I will be on my own for a long period of the next 12 months, and in previous years when that has happened I have just turned in on myself and not looked after myself. So for me It is essential that I keep in touch with the wider world and keeping visiting exhibitions, and performances and to keep a work / life balance otherwise It will be a complete waste of my time.
Anyway not to end on such a downbeat assement, Tonight I will be going to the pub and getting very drunk! So I will report on my expectant hangover next week!.
Have a lovely weekend!
Anyway back to this week and what did I get upto? On Tuesday I went to Manchester to visit two exhibitions which I had been interested in seeing to try and get to grips with the notion of exhibiting digital art / new media art in a public gallery, which is something I have no experience of doing. The first was at the Manchester Art Gallery: "Recorders: Rafael Lozano-Hemmer",Hemmer is a Mexican artist and the exhibition is based around interaction between the spectator and the instillations, many of which employ technologies used by Governments to keep tabs on the general public. It was a fantastic exhibition mainly because the instillations were interactive, you as the gallery visitor felt like the works were designed with you in mind. That for me has probably been the most important thing I have taken from this week, the sense that good art whether that is in a gallery, theatre space or whatever the ability of the audience to gain a personal meaning from the art is vitial. It is the personal connection I definitely felt whilst walking around the exhibition, not just from seeing myself on a camera, or a device that felt my pulse. It was the fact that it made me reflect on my own connections to technology and if there is one thing that art should be able to do aside from anything else it is for the spectator to leave knowing it has made them reflect on their views of the world.
The second exhibition I visited was at the Cornerhouse (next to Oxford Road Station in Manchester) called 'Unspooling: Art + Cinema', a nice exhibition showing responses to two huge areas of the cultural landscape: Art and Cinema. Some of the works I felt didn't really do much for me, of course Art is deeply personal but it didn't really feel to me as though some of the works were entirely designed and thought out to reach as many people as possible, but that is just entirely a personal opinion, overall I thought it was an interesting concept for an exhibition and one which I can take some ideas from for my practice.
Finally I saw at the Nuffield Theatre in Lancaster the new performance from Forced Entertainment 'The Thrill of it', which I have blogged on in more detail on the LIVE@LICA blog. Forced Entertainment are a great and unique company in the field of contemporary performance, notably for their longevity and excellent body of work. Their previous show 'Spectacular' in 2008 did not win me over, I did not feel it actually was conceived with audience reaction in mind. Not to say I lost any respect or admiration for the company during this time. 'The Thrill of It' was a masterclass in how to put on a show which had everything at its disposal, film and stand up references. Comedy, music, dancing. Like the exhibition at MAG, they clearly thought about how to communicate with their audiences.
Moving on now to what I have been working on myself. My MA is practice based, i.e. developing my own artist practice so studio time and personal reflection is vitial. This week I have only had one opportunity in the studio, so I only really have one idea I can report on!. In essence the idea is based around the development of new technologies and how we as media and technology consumers have been targeted as a target market and react to this. My starting point is films from the 1960's as I said in my last post, the 1960's holds a personal fascination with me because a) I wasn't there so I have had to experience it through media documentation and b) the 1960's are always seen as the heyday for prosperity, design, ambition and happiness. With this in mind the idea I had was mixing film clips with music (the film clips I have been working on are: the Ipcress File, Robbery, Bullit and the Italian Job - for no particular reason aside from these are some of my favourite films!). There are several reasons for my interest in mixing music and films and re editing them in a performance based scenario:
Firstly the dominance of soundtracks in films, and how these come to have such a cultural importance and significance for people (taking the example of The Italian Job and 'Get a Bloomin' Move On'). This fact is also illustrated when I was writing my blog response to Forced Entertainment the only thing I could really think of was the soundtrack, underlying not just the significance of it to the performance, but to me in my overall response of the piece.
Secondly the ability in our current era of new technological developments. The ease and speed with which we can edit films. We can edit them at home by picking alternative endings, picking the version with an audio commentary and selecting the chapters we even want to see. On Youtube we can dub funny voice overs and post our own responses to our favourite films. So the ease with which I was able to change the meanings of the film examples I was working on, just access to Youtube and the free music service Spotify.
Thirdly the dominance of music videos in our daily media consumption and the effect it has on us. The dominance of sex based music videos and the effect that has on us, have we become to descentised to it? You look around in any night club when a song comes on and the dancing and theme of the music video will be immediately represented on the dancefloor.
This idea is as I say the only real idea I have been working on this week and hopefully by next week it maybe a bit more grounded.
Its the end of the first week, and I am feeling very positive. Being able to work freely on my own passions is fantastic!. For the last two years I have felt a bit frustrated at not being able to take ideas further due to being confined to working within a set brief (i.e. course outlines and marking criteria). For example last year in our end of degree show (THEA 313) I was in charge of media, I shot the videos, sorted out the projections and controlled all the media during the final performance. During the rehearsal process I found that my own interests were leading me over to different areas and I became increasingly frustrated personally because I knew the one thing I wanted to do was to have the space and time to really find myself creatively (not wishing to sound completely up myself here!) and now I have the fantastic opportunity here at LICA. But of course contrary to this enthusiasm and the ambition I have for this year, I do have worries. Chiefly is how much of a challenge it will be for me. I am currently recovering from depression and so for me, I am very worried that due to the fact I will be on my own for a long period of the next 12 months, and in previous years when that has happened I have just turned in on myself and not looked after myself. So for me It is essential that I keep in touch with the wider world and keeping visiting exhibitions, and performances and to keep a work / life balance otherwise It will be a complete waste of my time.
Anyway not to end on such a downbeat assement, Tonight I will be going to the pub and getting very drunk! So I will report on my expectant hangover next week!.
Have a lovely weekend!
Monday, 11 October 2010
The 1960's and Me - a mediated view.
I am back in Lancaster after my summer break, which was a bit eventful to say the least!. I am back in Lancaster doing my MA in Professional Contemporary Arts Practice (PROCAP for Short) at Lancaster Institute for The Contemporary Arts (LICA). I had a tour around the wonderful new building LICA have had developed, which is amazing! If I remember in time for my next blog entry, I will try and upload some pictures of the new building, it is a truly inspiring building!
Over the past few days I've trying to put some general themes together in terms of what I am most interested in artistically at the present moment.
The main theme which keeps coming back to me is the 1960's. For a few years now the appeal of the 1960's has grown on me. As I am only 21, I can probably say that I didn't live through the 1960's so of course I have lived with the mediated view of the 1960's through television, film, music and documentaries. My first film I really enjoyed watching was the Italian Job (1969), a film I still enjoy watching today. What attracts me to watch it is the glamour, the cars, the locations, its a boys film but its funny, glamourous and fast. The sense of determination and desire to improve life is seen in every aspect of 1960's. From the Labour leadership of Harold Wilson in 1964 in the UK replacing the Conservative PM Harold MacMillan and to probably the most glamorous American President in US political History John F Kennedy.
The sense of ambition is mirrored throughout the 60's from the space race, to the designs of the cars (Mini, Lamborghini Mura, Ford GT40), to travel, clothes and art, everything was changing, a new world seemed to be developing. Of course with only having a mediated view of the 60's one can forget some of the awful injustices that occurred in the period such as sexism, racism, homophobia which would horrify us today. The 60's for me are an incredible time for social and cultural change. Which is so exciting to watch from a position of not having lived in the period because, you are allowed briefly to see the 1960's as a perfect collaboration of design, innovation and change, forgetting the injustices and the inequalities because you are allowed to construct your own view of the 1960's. Not wishing to cause any offence hear by saying inequalities such as sexism and racism are fine, I HATE RACISM, SEXISM AND HOMOPHOBIA!. Its very much like the comparison with James Dean and Marlon Brando, you saw Brando get old, you never saw James Dean loose his youth, with a mediated view of the 1960's it will never loose its innocence and youth.
This brings me to the question of how to utilise this passion for the 1960's into performance? Well As an individual artist I don't have the scope for a huge theatrical piece but I am open to lots of ideas none the less. Currently it is serving as more of an inspiration for ideas rather than a piece about the 1960's as my main research / practical interests lie in media and performance / live art / digital art. For me the influence of the 1960's is still so apparent in modern society, most notably the comparisons between Barack Obama and JFK, the sense of destiny placed upon both Democrat Presidents and the sense of ambition and generation defining Presidencies. I still get so much inspiration from watching two of favourite TV shows 'Thunderbirds' and 'Captain Scarlet' because they are just so timeless and seem to be so modern and forward thinking, even though they were made 40 years ago. I guess what I am saying with all these things is that I am interested how the 1960's is still present in our shaping our society today, and how me as an artist can try and show that to audiences because I feel the influence of the 1960's socially and culturally is extremely dominant in shaping our lives. A very current example is the success of the hit HBO series 'Mad Men' has taken off, showing their is still a yurning for anything from the 1960's.
This week I am visiting the Cornerhouse in Manchester to see the UNSPOOLING - ARTISTS & CINEMA Exhibition (http://www.cornerhouse.org/art/info.aspx?ID=417&page=0) and also visiting the Manchester Art Gallery to see Recorders: Rafael Lozano-Hemmer (http://www.manchestergalleries.org/whats-on/exhibitions/index.php?itemID=73)
Please Contact me:
http://twitter.com/#!/MarcusLilley - My Personal Twitter
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=524662090 - My Personal Facebook page.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=124476677586329 - Lancaster Creative Arts Network, "A Network for all those involved in the creative arts in and around Lancaster to come together to share ideas, try out ideas, meet other people in the arts sector.
Actors, Directors, Artists, Film-makers, Co - Directors, Dancers, Musicians, Composers, Technicians, Video Artists, Digital Artists."
http://liveatlica.blogspot.com/ - LIVE AT LICA blog, where I am a regular contributor
Over the past few days I've trying to put some general themes together in terms of what I am most interested in artistically at the present moment.
The main theme which keeps coming back to me is the 1960's. For a few years now the appeal of the 1960's has grown on me. As I am only 21, I can probably say that I didn't live through the 1960's so of course I have lived with the mediated view of the 1960's through television, film, music and documentaries. My first film I really enjoyed watching was the Italian Job (1969), a film I still enjoy watching today. What attracts me to watch it is the glamour, the cars, the locations, its a boys film but its funny, glamourous and fast. The sense of determination and desire to improve life is seen in every aspect of 1960's. From the Labour leadership of Harold Wilson in 1964 in the UK replacing the Conservative PM Harold MacMillan and to probably the most glamorous American President in US political History John F Kennedy.
The sense of ambition is mirrored throughout the 60's from the space race, to the designs of the cars (Mini, Lamborghini Mura, Ford GT40), to travel, clothes and art, everything was changing, a new world seemed to be developing. Of course with only having a mediated view of the 60's one can forget some of the awful injustices that occurred in the period such as sexism, racism, homophobia which would horrify us today. The 60's for me are an incredible time for social and cultural change. Which is so exciting to watch from a position of not having lived in the period because, you are allowed briefly to see the 1960's as a perfect collaboration of design, innovation and change, forgetting the injustices and the inequalities because you are allowed to construct your own view of the 1960's. Not wishing to cause any offence hear by saying inequalities such as sexism and racism are fine, I HATE RACISM, SEXISM AND HOMOPHOBIA!. Its very much like the comparison with James Dean and Marlon Brando, you saw Brando get old, you never saw James Dean loose his youth, with a mediated view of the 1960's it will never loose its innocence and youth.
This brings me to the question of how to utilise this passion for the 1960's into performance? Well As an individual artist I don't have the scope for a huge theatrical piece but I am open to lots of ideas none the less. Currently it is serving as more of an inspiration for ideas rather than a piece about the 1960's as my main research / practical interests lie in media and performance / live art / digital art. For me the influence of the 1960's is still so apparent in modern society, most notably the comparisons between Barack Obama and JFK, the sense of destiny placed upon both Democrat Presidents and the sense of ambition and generation defining Presidencies. I still get so much inspiration from watching two of favourite TV shows 'Thunderbirds' and 'Captain Scarlet' because they are just so timeless and seem to be so modern and forward thinking, even though they were made 40 years ago. I guess what I am saying with all these things is that I am interested how the 1960's is still present in our shaping our society today, and how me as an artist can try and show that to audiences because I feel the influence of the 1960's socially and culturally is extremely dominant in shaping our lives. A very current example is the success of the hit HBO series 'Mad Men' has taken off, showing their is still a yurning for anything from the 1960's.
This week I am visiting the Cornerhouse in Manchester to see the UNSPOOLING - ARTISTS & CINEMA Exhibition (http://www.cornerhouse.org/art/info.aspx?ID=417&page=0) and also visiting the Manchester Art Gallery to see Recorders: Rafael Lozano-Hemmer (http://www.manchestergalleries.org/whats-on/exhibitions/index.php?itemID=73)
Please Contact me:
http://twitter.com/#!/MarcusLilley - My Personal Twitter
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=524662090 - My Personal Facebook page.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=124476677586329 - Lancaster Creative Arts Network, "A Network for all those involved in the creative arts in and around Lancaster to come together to share ideas, try out ideas, meet other people in the arts sector.
Actors, Directors, Artists, Film-makers, Co - Directors, Dancers, Musicians, Composers, Technicians, Video Artists, Digital Artists."
http://liveatlica.blogspot.com/ - LIVE AT LICA blog, where I am a regular contributor
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