Everyman, an enquiry

We'll be hosting a discussion group at the Whitechapel Gallery that will kickstart a year of performance workshops building the new Lotos Collective event 'Everyman'. With invited guests from a variety of professions we'll be investigating the archetype of the Everyman across disciplines, attempting to decipher a universality of the urban citizen.

Discussion group is free and is part of The Nature of the Beast installation by artist Goshak Macuga.

The discussion will open to audience participation for the latter portion, come share your ideas!

One in 8 Million

This is a biographical series from the New York Times about everyday people in the Big Apple. Its absolutely poetic and reinforces the notion that the true makers of culture and society are the unsung heroes that join us in the machine.
1-in-8-Million

Ensemble of Interstices

I'm currently researching micro-stories and place-making for the Beirut project this summer. I think this poem is a great metaphor for using those important elements in-between the everyday that may actually be holding us together:

The Picket Fence

One time there was a picket fence
with space to gaze from hence to thence.

An architect who saw this sight
approached it suddenly one night,

removed the spaces from the fence,
and built of them a residence.

The picket fence stood there dumbfounded
with pickets wholly unsurrounded,

a view so loathsome and obscene,
the Senate had to intervene.

The architect, however, flew
to Afri- or Americoo.

by
Christian Morgenstern
English translation by Max Knight
Original version:
Der Lattenzaun

Es war einmal ein Lattenzaun,
mit Zwischenraum, hindurchzuschaun.

Ein Architekt, der dieses sah,
stand eines Abends plötzlich da -

und nahm den Zwischenraum heraus
und baute draus ein großes Haus.

Der Zaun indessen stand ganz dumm,
mit Latten ohne was herum.

Ein Anblick gräßlich und gemein.
Drum zog ihn der Senat auch ein.

Der Architekt jedoch entfloh
nach Afri- od- Ameriko.

Conference Paper: Aesthetics and Applied Live Art

Wednesday 3rd September to Friday 5th September

As part of the Applied Practice Working Group, I presented a paper entitled: Aesthetics and Applied Live Art at TaPRA conference in Leeds

www.tapra.org

There's a lot I could write to respond to this, beginning with being the "practitioner" in an academic circle to now being the "academic" when around practitioners/production people.

I've added the paper I presented to my website for public scrutiny, if anyone feels like reading and responding:  

> >  Aesthetics and Applied Live Art  < <

What I can say now was the similarity between TaPRA and the many other organisations I have been a part of. Of course with the difference of content, the working group reminded me of working at the non-profit in Brooklyn and the voting and general organisation reminded me of my self-managed coop building in NYC. In essence the organising and presenting format model was in place everywhere and very similar if not the same. I guess it works is all, makes me wonder again about why it doesn't in government, maybe it just gets so big it stops working. Thats the optimistic viewpoint, I just think its greed...

Awarded the Helen Schackleton Fund

This will kick-start post-production on the Ghana doc and hopefully get me to my new live art project (of undisclosed location)   

The Helen Shackleton Fund was established in 2003 following the death of Mr WHJ Richardson. Mr Richardson bequeathed the fund in memory of his late wife neé Constance Helen Rickards Shackleton. Miss Shackleton was a graduate of the College in circa 1929 and died just a few weeks after being married to Mr Richardson in 1943. The fund will be used to support undergraduate or postgraduate students in their studies, usually as a bursary to contribute towards the costs of foreign travel connected to their academic work.

Objects of Engagement Conference

Co-organised: Objects of Engagement Conference for emerging scholars and practitioners, at Royal Holloway, University of London.... To keep the buzz going the blog with the conference info will be opened up to anyone seeking to contribute.   

Check it out: http://objectsofengagement.blogspot.com/