Due to popular demand Alain Badiou will be making another absent appearance at the Black Lab on Weds 7th April. Not appearing alongside him will be Simon Critchley. We will be listening to a join-lecture/conversation between the two philosophers that lasts about 1hr and 50mins and is available on-line at
http://slought.org/content/11385/
Listening will start at 6pm. We might put a break in this one.
Don't feel like you have to have listened to the lecture in advance (I won't be) but, equally, feel free to listen to it 20 times beforehand. Different levels of familiarity with this and Badiou and Critchley's other writings in the room will help prompt an interesting post-listening discussion which is the aim of the evening. Therefore if you plan on coming expect to be there until 9pm - that way we won't simply be theory-consumers.
There is now a microwave in the space and coffee so feel free to bring food and drink to share. Hope to see some/all of you there.
Saturday, 3 April 2010
Wednesday, 31 March 2010
Sound Afternoon Pt.II - Tuesday 6th April 1.30pm
Hi all, next Tuesday is set for a further session of playing with sound at Black Lab.
The session will be very open but a general focus will be to create live soundtracks for film. Bring along anything you think might work for this - could be still or moving images, or even 3D objects and food... though I imagine that moving image film will be the main focus so don't be too disappointed if your fried peach doesn't have a song written for it.
This will not in any way be a high brow music jam, more a fun and experimental muck around with sound with the aim of collectively producing some kind of coherent din and thinking about how sound and image might relate.
'Instrument' wise, again, bring anything that produces a sound that you fancy using or trying out, but there's no shortage of noise-makers around the space already, including wine glasses, passing traffic and a large shed. There will be a small PA system and i'll make sure we have a couple of vocal mics too.
Any questions please get in touch, preferably on this blog so all can see.
The 22nd and 23rd of April are booked for some more performance-based sound events, which may include among other things a 24 hour improvisation and the construction of at least one sound sculpture. This is all to be discussed!
Stu
The session will be very open but a general focus will be to create live soundtracks for film. Bring along anything you think might work for this - could be still or moving images, or even 3D objects and food... though I imagine that moving image film will be the main focus so don't be too disappointed if your fried peach doesn't have a song written for it.
This will not in any way be a high brow music jam, more a fun and experimental muck around with sound with the aim of collectively producing some kind of coherent din and thinking about how sound and image might relate.
'Instrument' wise, again, bring anything that produces a sound that you fancy using or trying out, but there's no shortage of noise-makers around the space already, including wine glasses, passing traffic and a large shed. There will be a small PA system and i'll make sure we have a couple of vocal mics too.
Any questions please get in touch, preferably on this blog so all can see.
The 22nd and 23rd of April are booked for some more performance-based sound events, which may include among other things a 24 hour improvisation and the construction of at least one sound sculpture. This is all to be discussed!
Stu
Black Lab Week Seven
sorry for not getting these done yesterday - had a busy day but hopefully I've not forgotten too much of what happened..please feel free to make additions or contestations!
Present: Michael Burkitt, Jo Clark, James Hill, Dave Ronalds, Martha Jurksaitis, Yvonne Carmichael, Dan Robinson, Richard Ormrod, Stuart Bannister, Lucy Bannister, David Thomas
We now have a microwave so we can eat something other than crisps! Or, better, we can have hot crisps!
The first half of the meeting was spent revising last week's activity. Andy talked about the Badiou evening and tried to give a synopsis of the main points and the discussion that followed. We talked about the 'Western/Capitalist' and 'Eastern/Islamist' paradigms that Badiou outlines (the former being predicated on experience of death within life or 'enjoyment' and the latter being based on life in death i.e sacrifice). Badiou proposes that art (through the event and trace) can help find a third paradigm not wholly consumed by the power of death. Richard suggested that Badiou perhaps overlooks the life in life that already exists as a 'third paradigm'. Andy mentioned the book 'Death' by Todd May. Lucy and Stu both agreed that similar themes were covered in Chris Morris's 'Four Lions' which they had been watching in Bradford whilst we listened to the lecture last week. It was agreed that it was a challenging but enjoyable evening and that a follow-up event would make sense as more people would like to join in the discussion.
Martha discussed the movie marathon and the group talked about how it had been a good experience putting the night together and spending time working on something as well as enjoying the content of the films. We talked about how the Black Lab might provide a different viewing collective environment from a cinema or watching at home. People were comfortable talking during the films and responding immediately. This is something of a faux-pa in contemporary cinema-going. It was agreed that more films should be watched together in the space, even if they are ones we have seen before. Dan initiated a brief discussion about repetition and the value and problematics therein with specific reference to repeating events or performances.
We had a short break before Dave Ronalds showed a short documentary he had bought along about El Bulli restaurant in Spain renowned as the world's best and most experimental place to eat. The head chef Ferran Adria works with a team of collaborators year round in a lab experimenting with new cooking techniques, styles and ingredients.
Following the documentary we had a discussion about food as art and how the sensory aspects of it have been focused on by the Futurists and Fluxus, the social aspects by relational practitioners like Rirkrit Tiravnija and the ethical issues around food production in projects like Feral cafe which Lucy had some experience of. Andy mentioned that he had met an interesting artist called Jayne Bradley at the Placemaking conference who works in food and has organised Flux-feasts. We decide it would be good to have a food event and invite her to the lab.
We also talked about other aspects of the documentary including the collaborative nature of the lab; the commitment and fidelity (in Badiou's language) demonstrated by the team; and the perceptions of experimental cooking as elitist or intellectual but how its ultimately bodily/sensory/material/emotional nature might make it distinct or more accessible than avant-garde art. A quote that stuck out for Andy was Adria saying something along the lines of that in order to experience deeper emotions we need new techniques and technology.
David Thomas showed a short experimental film he had made manipulating found footage and sound. Everyone enjoyed it and made a few suggestions; perhaps it could be shown again to a larger group with more time for discussion?
We then began to put some dates in the diary as there are less than six weeks left in the Green Sands according to our original agreement with Igloo. We got out the big calendars and added the following events:
APRIL
Tues 6th at 1.30pm - Sound workshop muckabout
Weds 7th at 6pm - Another evening with(out) Alain Badiou
Thurs 15th at 6pm - Watching La Jetee by Chris Marker
Weds 21st at 6pm - Watching Some Kind of Monster Metallica documentary
Thurs 22nd all day (and eve) - Alvin Lucier reconstruction sound event
Fri 23rd all day (and night) - 24 hour durational music jam
Sat 24th all day - Bas Jan Ader documentary and performance event/workshop
MAY
Sat 1st 2pm - Watching Art School Confidential
Tues 4th May at 6pm - Food night
Weds 6th May - Anne Curtis film
Tues 11th May - final meeting!
There will also be the general meetings/crit sessions every Tues at 6pm.
Actions
All to organise/publicise/attend events as above
All to continue to contribute to fanzine/publication
All to book in extra events, speakers, visitors to the lab
Next Meeting Tues 6th April at 6pm. Check calendar, blog and above for events in the interim
Present: Michael Burkitt, Jo Clark, James Hill, Dave Ronalds, Martha Jurksaitis, Yvonne Carmichael, Dan Robinson, Richard Ormrod, Stuart Bannister, Lucy Bannister, David Thomas
We now have a microwave so we can eat something other than crisps! Or, better, we can have hot crisps!
The first half of the meeting was spent revising last week's activity. Andy talked about the Badiou evening and tried to give a synopsis of the main points and the discussion that followed. We talked about the 'Western/Capitalist' and 'Eastern/Islamist' paradigms that Badiou outlines (the former being predicated on experience of death within life or 'enjoyment' and the latter being based on life in death i.e sacrifice). Badiou proposes that art (through the event and trace) can help find a third paradigm not wholly consumed by the power of death. Richard suggested that Badiou perhaps overlooks the life in life that already exists as a 'third paradigm'. Andy mentioned the book 'Death' by Todd May. Lucy and Stu both agreed that similar themes were covered in Chris Morris's 'Four Lions' which they had been watching in Bradford whilst we listened to the lecture last week. It was agreed that it was a challenging but enjoyable evening and that a follow-up event would make sense as more people would like to join in the discussion.
Martha discussed the movie marathon and the group talked about how it had been a good experience putting the night together and spending time working on something as well as enjoying the content of the films. We talked about how the Black Lab might provide a different viewing collective environment from a cinema or watching at home. People were comfortable talking during the films and responding immediately. This is something of a faux-pa in contemporary cinema-going. It was agreed that more films should be watched together in the space, even if they are ones we have seen before. Dan initiated a brief discussion about repetition and the value and problematics therein with specific reference to repeating events or performances.
We had a short break before Dave Ronalds showed a short documentary he had bought along about El Bulli restaurant in Spain renowned as the world's best and most experimental place to eat. The head chef Ferran Adria works with a team of collaborators year round in a lab experimenting with new cooking techniques, styles and ingredients.
Following the documentary we had a discussion about food as art and how the sensory aspects of it have been focused on by the Futurists and Fluxus, the social aspects by relational practitioners like Rirkrit Tiravnija and the ethical issues around food production in projects like Feral cafe which Lucy had some experience of. Andy mentioned that he had met an interesting artist called Jayne Bradley at the Placemaking conference who works in food and has organised Flux-feasts. We decide it would be good to have a food event and invite her to the lab.
We also talked about other aspects of the documentary including the collaborative nature of the lab; the commitment and fidelity (in Badiou's language) demonstrated by the team; and the perceptions of experimental cooking as elitist or intellectual but how its ultimately bodily/sensory/material/emotional nature might make it distinct or more accessible than avant-garde art. A quote that stuck out for Andy was Adria saying something along the lines of that in order to experience deeper emotions we need new techniques and technology.
David Thomas showed a short experimental film he had made manipulating found footage and sound. Everyone enjoyed it and made a few suggestions; perhaps it could be shown again to a larger group with more time for discussion?
We then began to put some dates in the diary as there are less than six weeks left in the Green Sands according to our original agreement with Igloo. We got out the big calendars and added the following events:
APRIL
Tues 6th at 1.30pm - Sound workshop muckabout
Weds 7th at 6pm - Another evening with(out) Alain Badiou
Thurs 15th at 6pm - Watching La Jetee by Chris Marker
Weds 21st at 6pm - Watching Some Kind of Monster Metallica documentary
Thurs 22nd all day (and eve) - Alvin Lucier reconstruction sound event
Fri 23rd all day (and night) - 24 hour durational music jam
Sat 24th all day - Bas Jan Ader documentary and performance event/workshop
MAY
Sat 1st 2pm - Watching Art School Confidential
Tues 4th May at 6pm - Food night
Weds 6th May - Anne Curtis film
Tues 11th May - final meeting!
There will also be the general meetings/crit sessions every Tues at 6pm.
Actions
All to organise/publicise/attend events as above
All to continue to contribute to fanzine/publication
All to book in extra events, speakers, visitors to the lab
Next Meeting Tues 6th April at 6pm. Check calendar, blog and above for events in the interim
Monday, 29 March 2010
Movie Marathon Pics
Terence the Tiger gives Freya a playful mauling.
It was a really enjoyable night & many congrats should go to Martha for pulling together such an oustanding programme, as well as co-ordinating bringing all the kit in.
I think Martha is completely right to say that, in the morning, we all felt 'closer to the space' & that in some sense we had done something quite special with it. Not just creating a comfortable & workable arthouse cinema, if only a temporary one, & with some goddammed lights which don't appear to have off switches... Without sounding TOO grand, it felt like it changed us all a little bit (not just in the sense that I hadn't seen those films before, & now I have). I had some great conversations & felt closer to several people... Phil, Freya, Lee, Helen, & even some nice new people I had never met before.
I think every time I bump into those people at private views, or around town, we will both share a smile at a fond shared memory. Hopefully some of them will keep coming to the Black Lab, or we will do some work together soon.
I think the first film was my favourite, in a way. It was a good way to bring in some theory in a way which made people laugh out loud, but at the same time wasn't belittling that theory by making comedy out of it.
As for the very trippy one with the big tower in it, well, maybe accusing the director of taking too many psychotropic drugs was a bit unfair, or at least a bit of shorthand for something else that I didn't quite like about it. It was beautiful & I did really enjoy it... but sometimes I think these things ONLY have 'meaning' in the sense of a drug-induced sense of meaning which is in danger, sometimes, of having no meaning at all. Sometimes, of course, that kind of wilful bizareness for bizareness' sake can itself be quite revolutionary, if only in the sense that the film maker is revolting against the percieved need for meaning in everything. It was a riot!
There wasn't a single film on the night which I DISLIKED (although I slept through two of them). I felt more energised by the Badiou Lecture and this night than anything we have done in there thusfar, & it feels like, post the BBC break, we are starting to come up with a really good form, shape, idea for space. Can't wait for more!
Sunday, 28 March 2010
Movie Marathon Recollections!
Big thanks to everyone who made it to the movie marathon! Here’s a “synopsis” of the event.
Please add your own recollections and thoughts to this!
Stu and David brilliantly set up the PA on Thursday morning, which allowed us to have great sound quality for all the films, helping recreate a real big screen environment! Speaking of screens... Well, we had a MUTHA of a screen! David and I transported the necessary kit and some beanbags down to the space at about 4.30pm, and James, David, David’s brother (sorry I’ve forgotten your name! Alan?), Sam (David’s wife) all mucked in with transforming the space into a cinema! James had (luckily) put up screens before so could direct us on that, and David’s brother showed me how to use the data projector which was so great! I think we all shared some knowledge with each other during set up, and it was a very nice atmosphere, full of excitement about the coming night. Then David, his brother, and Sam left (to attend a gig and party).
Freya was the first guest on the scene, quickly followed by Michael and Charlotte. The first film screened at 8.30pm. I ceremoniously popped a bottle of rose cava. A riotous celebration of Wilhelm Reich’s work and ideas, mixed with a healthy dose of politics, and some full on nudity and male erections (at which point James said “cue: your boyfriend walking in” and, as if by magic, he did!). There was lots of audience reaction to some political/sexual tenets in the film. Great fun yet profound, it was to become James’ favourite film of the night (though you’d have to ask him how it fared in comparison with “Snakes on a Plane”). There was some talk of maybe playing the film silently as James performs Das Kapital one day soon. Yvonne arrived near the end of the film, and admitted that she was indeed “expecting this sort of thing” (though the film’s ending could not be said to be indicative of what had preceded it I think!) Two people arrived, a couple, the girl was called Jo I think, and I can't remember the guy's name. Helen (who works in the Town Hall with James) and her boyfriend Lee arrived after this first film, accompanied by Terence – the Tiger! A huge stuffed tiger which managed to charm the socks off each and every one of us – particularly Freya, who throughout the night remarked on all the different types of animals present in the films - this included lots of horses, a llama, and a lemur, in various films. Helen and Lee’s bed was complete with duvet, pillows, mattress thing, Terence (who doubled up as an extra pillow for people), and Helen thoughtfully brought some pairs of really comfy socks to share around – “I’m all about the comfort!” – which Michael and James gladly indulged in (for the fourth film).
I have jumped ahead! The second film was Armenian, and full of beautiful extravagance and flamboyancy, a real vision, tableaux vivants, full of mysterious rituals and movements repeated, and is certainly a “very special film” (Michael). Freya and Phill loved it too (it happens to be one of Freya’s favourite films, and she loved seeing it on the big screen for the first time). James enjoyed it too: “It’s amazing, yeah. Quite nightmarish. I’m glad I’m not asleep!” Chris headed home. The table of communal food was looking very good indeed! Lots of bread, cheeses, crisps, cakes, hummous, salad, apples, bananas etc. Kept us going and there was plenty left over.
Andy, Stu, Lucy, David and David’s brother arrived from the British Wildlife gig at the Brudenell. Next up was a great fun animation, re-telling the story of the ancient Indian text The Ramayana, and essentially recasting it as “the greatest break up story ever told”. Much laughter was enjoyed by all, and the great PA really came into its own for the brilliant music. After the end of the film, Andy and Yvonne went home to get some much needed sleep.
The fourth film was a very psychedelic and visionary film full of symbolism and rites of passage and dealing very much with the notion of expanding consciousness – it had a lot of energy. Michael and I sat on the white sofa throughout and had discussions about Catholicism, sexual repression (making links between the current film and the first film, where “fascism is the frenzy of sexual cripples”), and Charlotte woke up just before a really loud scream in the film, which must have been quite a shock! James thought the film was “a bit silly really” and the filmmaker had maybe taken too many drugs. I thought he was being reductive, and lumping psychedelia in with drugs as derogatory, rather than considering them both in the context of consciousness. Michael, James and I also marvelled at how the filmmaker had managed to get so many people involved in the film, and Michael voiced how impressed he was that lots of old people were participating in a visionary and very modern film – “Beautiful”.
The fifth film was an anarchic Czech delight with fabulous avant-garde techniques and a celebrated work of the Czech New Wave. I totally fell asleep.
Then came the sixth film, an original Swiss tale of a man’s eccentric nature and coping strategies, as well as a tender, beautiful and heart-breaking portrait of a family trying to cope with his eccentricity (and maybe breakdown/mental health issues), set against a backdrop of themes like global tourism and the romantics’ notion of the “Sublime”.
James boomed in my ear to wake up and put the next film on, which I did – and stayed awake for! A multi-layered experimental work of great beauty. Phill loved the sound recordings of nature used in the piece, and Freya spotted many animals, and concluded that some found footage must have been used (the close ups of lava flow would have probably been too dangerous to film in person unless you had an exceptionally long lens). This prompted Freya and me to discuss technical film-related stuff for a while, which I loved – cameras, film stocks, chemicals etc. By this point the room was fully light (the sun having risen) and it looked like a bright and beautiful day outside. Those remaining at this point were Freya, Phill, Helen, Lee, me, and James, and Lucy and Stu (who had been sleeping but awoke and went to catch a train). We packed up and tidied everything away, but left the PA and screen in place – the screen to be dismantled on Tuesday. The mood was very jolly, and very friendly, and I think we were all feeling closer to the space and the people we had shared the experience with. We left when it was about 10.10am.
I then went to Bradford to see a film with Chris in the cinema called “The Woman With the 5 Elephants”, a documentary I’d recommend, that’s showing in the Bradford Film Festival. My gorgeous man then took me out for lunch to the Love Apple, we came home, I had a bath, and crawled into bed. Now I am wide awake and it’s about 1am and so I’m getting all this down before I forget it! I’m going to go to bed again and try to sleep – wish me luck!
Please add your own recollections and thoughts to this!
Stu and David brilliantly set up the PA on Thursday morning, which allowed us to have great sound quality for all the films, helping recreate a real big screen environment! Speaking of screens... Well, we had a MUTHA of a screen! David and I transported the necessary kit and some beanbags down to the space at about 4.30pm, and James, David, David’s brother (sorry I’ve forgotten your name! Alan?), Sam (David’s wife) all mucked in with transforming the space into a cinema! James had (luckily) put up screens before so could direct us on that, and David’s brother showed me how to use the data projector which was so great! I think we all shared some knowledge with each other during set up, and it was a very nice atmosphere, full of excitement about the coming night. Then David, his brother, and Sam left (to attend a gig and party).
Freya was the first guest on the scene, quickly followed by Michael and Charlotte. The first film screened at 8.30pm. I ceremoniously popped a bottle of rose cava. A riotous celebration of Wilhelm Reich’s work and ideas, mixed with a healthy dose of politics, and some full on nudity and male erections (at which point James said “cue: your boyfriend walking in” and, as if by magic, he did!). There was lots of audience reaction to some political/sexual tenets in the film. Great fun yet profound, it was to become James’ favourite film of the night (though you’d have to ask him how it fared in comparison with “Snakes on a Plane”). There was some talk of maybe playing the film silently as James performs Das Kapital one day soon. Yvonne arrived near the end of the film, and admitted that she was indeed “expecting this sort of thing” (though the film’s ending could not be said to be indicative of what had preceded it I think!) Two people arrived, a couple, the girl was called Jo I think, and I can't remember the guy's name. Helen (who works in the Town Hall with James) and her boyfriend Lee arrived after this first film, accompanied by Terence – the Tiger! A huge stuffed tiger which managed to charm the socks off each and every one of us – particularly Freya, who throughout the night remarked on all the different types of animals present in the films - this included lots of horses, a llama, and a lemur, in various films. Helen and Lee’s bed was complete with duvet, pillows, mattress thing, Terence (who doubled up as an extra pillow for people), and Helen thoughtfully brought some pairs of really comfy socks to share around – “I’m all about the comfort!” – which Michael and James gladly indulged in (for the fourth film).
I have jumped ahead! The second film was Armenian, and full of beautiful extravagance and flamboyancy, a real vision, tableaux vivants, full of mysterious rituals and movements repeated, and is certainly a “very special film” (Michael). Freya and Phill loved it too (it happens to be one of Freya’s favourite films, and she loved seeing it on the big screen for the first time). James enjoyed it too: “It’s amazing, yeah. Quite nightmarish. I’m glad I’m not asleep!” Chris headed home. The table of communal food was looking very good indeed! Lots of bread, cheeses, crisps, cakes, hummous, salad, apples, bananas etc. Kept us going and there was plenty left over.
Andy, Stu, Lucy, David and David’s brother arrived from the British Wildlife gig at the Brudenell. Next up was a great fun animation, re-telling the story of the ancient Indian text The Ramayana, and essentially recasting it as “the greatest break up story ever told”. Much laughter was enjoyed by all, and the great PA really came into its own for the brilliant music. After the end of the film, Andy and Yvonne went home to get some much needed sleep.
The fourth film was a very psychedelic and visionary film full of symbolism and rites of passage and dealing very much with the notion of expanding consciousness – it had a lot of energy. Michael and I sat on the white sofa throughout and had discussions about Catholicism, sexual repression (making links between the current film and the first film, where “fascism is the frenzy of sexual cripples”), and Charlotte woke up just before a really loud scream in the film, which must have been quite a shock! James thought the film was “a bit silly really” and the filmmaker had maybe taken too many drugs. I thought he was being reductive, and lumping psychedelia in with drugs as derogatory, rather than considering them both in the context of consciousness. Michael, James and I also marvelled at how the filmmaker had managed to get so many people involved in the film, and Michael voiced how impressed he was that lots of old people were participating in a visionary and very modern film – “Beautiful”.
The fifth film was an anarchic Czech delight with fabulous avant-garde techniques and a celebrated work of the Czech New Wave. I totally fell asleep.
Then came the sixth film, an original Swiss tale of a man’s eccentric nature and coping strategies, as well as a tender, beautiful and heart-breaking portrait of a family trying to cope with his eccentricity (and maybe breakdown/mental health issues), set against a backdrop of themes like global tourism and the romantics’ notion of the “Sublime”.
James boomed in my ear to wake up and put the next film on, which I did – and stayed awake for! A multi-layered experimental work of great beauty. Phill loved the sound recordings of nature used in the piece, and Freya spotted many animals, and concluded that some found footage must have been used (the close ups of lava flow would have probably been too dangerous to film in person unless you had an exceptionally long lens). This prompted Freya and me to discuss technical film-related stuff for a while, which I loved – cameras, film stocks, chemicals etc. By this point the room was fully light (the sun having risen) and it looked like a bright and beautiful day outside. Those remaining at this point were Freya, Phill, Helen, Lee, me, and James, and Lucy and Stu (who had been sleeping but awoke and went to catch a train). We packed up and tidied everything away, but left the PA and screen in place – the screen to be dismantled on Tuesday. The mood was very jolly, and very friendly, and I think we were all feeling closer to the space and the people we had shared the experience with. We left when it was about 10.10am.
I then went to Bradford to see a film with Chris in the cinema called “The Woman With the 5 Elephants”, a documentary I’d recommend, that’s showing in the Bradford Film Festival. My gorgeous man then took me out for lunch to the Love Apple, we came home, I had a bath, and crawled into bed. Now I am wide awake and it’s about 1am and so I’m getting all this down before I forget it! I’m going to go to bed again and try to sleep – wish me luck!
Wednesday, 24 March 2010
Movie Marathon on Saturday!
Hey all!
Really looking forward to Saturday! It's an 8pm (ish) start, and will run throughout the night til about 8am or so. There will be 6 feature-length films, and some info on sheets about the films that David and I have put together. We'll be setting up from 4pm on Saturday, so anyone who wants to come and help out would be really welcome! There's not too much to do, but the screen is a whopping 14.5 foot by 10 foot! Should be ok just me, Phill, David and his brother, but the more the merrier.
The general consensus about the night is that anyone can be invited, but I'm not putting it up on bit forums etc. so that it remains a bit intimate and manageable - I'm not concerned as to whether 5 people show up or 50, I just want it to feel good and fun and a nice atmosphere. So please invite whoever you want to invite!
If you're coming, please bring with you something to share - food/drink wise - so that people can keep going throughout the night. This doesn't stop you bringing things for just yourself too, but bring something to add to the "communal table" that Black Lab has lovingly cultivated over the past few weeks! I think we'll turn the shed into a bar/chill place.
James Hill - will you please perform Das Kapital after one of the films? Would be much obliged!
It's not going to be a really extravagant "do", and we won't massively transform the space aesthetically, but hopefully a really nice thing to be part of. Anyone wanting to contribute their ipods to the "in between films" music is totally welcome to plug it in - bring music! I won't list the films here, you'll find out on the night (remains mostly what I told you all at a meeting weeks ago with a few minor changes). . . some of them are very relevant to some discussions which have been occurring at the lab sessions too. I'm looking forward to spending an epic session with y'all at the Emerald Beach.
See you then,
x Marth
Really looking forward to Saturday! It's an 8pm (ish) start, and will run throughout the night til about 8am or so. There will be 6 feature-length films, and some info on sheets about the films that David and I have put together. We'll be setting up from 4pm on Saturday, so anyone who wants to come and help out would be really welcome! There's not too much to do, but the screen is a whopping 14.5 foot by 10 foot! Should be ok just me, Phill, David and his brother, but the more the merrier.
The general consensus about the night is that anyone can be invited, but I'm not putting it up on bit forums etc. so that it remains a bit intimate and manageable - I'm not concerned as to whether 5 people show up or 50, I just want it to feel good and fun and a nice atmosphere. So please invite whoever you want to invite!
If you're coming, please bring with you something to share - food/drink wise - so that people can keep going throughout the night. This doesn't stop you bringing things for just yourself too, but bring something to add to the "communal table" that Black Lab has lovingly cultivated over the past few weeks! I think we'll turn the shed into a bar/chill place.
James Hill - will you please perform Das Kapital after one of the films? Would be much obliged!
It's not going to be a really extravagant "do", and we won't massively transform the space aesthetically, but hopefully a really nice thing to be part of. Anyone wanting to contribute their ipods to the "in between films" music is totally welcome to plug it in - bring music! I won't list the films here, you'll find out on the night (remains mostly what I told you all at a meeting weeks ago with a few minor changes). . . some of them are very relevant to some discussions which have been occurring at the lab sessions too. I'm looking forward to spending an epic session with y'all at the Emerald Beach.
See you then,
x Marth
Black Lab Week Six
Present: Mick Welbourn, Martha Jurksaitis, Lucy Bannister, Dan Robinson, Michael Burkitt, Yvonne Carmichael, Liz Murphy, Steve Allbutt, Phill Harding, James Hill, Andy Abbott.
We began with a recap on the previous night’s ‘Morse event’ where we watched an episode of Inspector Morse about the murder of an artist and then had a conversation about stereotypes and clichés of artists (in the media) and how they impact upon our individual and collective practices as well as our willingness to embrace or distance ourselves from the title ‘artist’ or ‘art’.
Liz talked about the motivation and interests behind the event: a parallel she saw between the role of the artist and the detective (both in Morse, other fiction and in life) based on their ‘distance’ or ‘outsider’ position to society which leads to depression, cynicism, boozing and (in the artists case more than the detective’s) reckless behaviour. Those of us that attended the event collectively tried to revisit some of the conversation from the previous night about whether we call what we do art or ‘admit’ or announce ourselves to the world as artists. Phil mentioned that he considers himself an artist but not (all) his work to be art. Lucy and Steve both brought up the complexity in describing what we do as art and how it can be a long or difficult conversation not always worth having. Michael Burkitt suggested the term ‘arter’ as preferable to ‘artist’ reasoning that it places it in a bracket with decorator, actor, runner, and so on rather than sexist, facist, racist or narcissist.
An interesting point for us had been that although the clichéd romantic figure of the artist still exists and is something many of us would like to distance ourselves from that ‘running away’ from identifying ourselves as artists or what we do as art only perpetuates the stereotype as there is no reform. Can we contribute towards a change in the stereotype of artist and art through our actions and by announcing it is art and that we are artists? Steve suggested that it would be a difficult task in the face of the media and commodity-producing artists that rely on a ‘personal brand’ to progress their careers.
This led to a conversation about the ‘outward facing’ potential of the Black Lab. James asked the group how we were thinking about disseminating what happens in the Lab outside of the group. We agreed that the fanzine/publication idea was still the best way of gathering/documenting activity in the Lab. The blog too is acting as an archive and a window into the activities there (Lucy brought up the fact that it has been twittered /tweeted/twatted/ ) and that perhaps we’d consider documenting after the three month period is over and to not let it stall activity in the Lab by becoming an overriding concern. Phill asked if the events that we organise can be open to the public to which the answer was yes, by invitation as we don’t want it to be perceived that we are running a gallery/event space/venue. Dan put forward that sometimes it can be unhelpful to make a too-hard distinction between ‘talking about things’ and ‘doing’. The Lab is for conversation as much as events. Andy suggested that a common project to help anchor the conversations seems to be useful and forming organically. If the ‘experiment’ of the lab is to ‘open up the forms that critical discussion about art can take and who can contribute‘ (or something like that) then the talking is the doing and, in turn, the documenting.
Yvonne showed segments of a DVD documenting the mutlipleCITIES public art festival in Panama 2003 curated by Adrienne Samos and Gerardo Mosquera. The motive behind the festival was to place art in the city (that has an absence of art/cultural history) so that ‘the city could return the ball’. We watched short documentaries of some of the works that all aimed to intervene into public space or provoke response from the audience in various ways including: placing a ton of ice in the street that people then skied down; a billboard project ‘semantically recharging’ an everyday phrase used by Panamanians; a minute of silence (dubiously) carved in public space via a radio show (by Francis Alys); simulating a fire in the city’s museum and finally a work where the artists spent a year ‘as an anthropologist’ working with two rival teenage gangs that resulted in a two-screen projection uniting the gangs in a rap-music video that was projected as a public event onto mid-rise flats in the gang’s neighbourhood.
Yvonne uses the DVD (along with other texts including Dave Beech’s ‘Include me Out!’) to prompt discussion about what constitutes a collaborative practice between students on a module she runs at Leeds College of Art. She said that most students agree that the last example (the gang piece) is the most collaborative. We talked about how on paper it would read as very problematic (almost colonial and patronising as it tries to unite rival gangs in ‘sameness’ and through dazzling technology) but, it seems on the DVD at least, that it was very well received and was genuine. Steve suggested this is because of the commitment shown by the artist and the trust developed.
We talked about how multipleCITIES as a model is less well known than other art biennials or festivals and whether there was anything to be learned from it in relation to Leeds’ events like Situation Leeds or Light Night. It appears that the coherence of the curatorial direction and the addition of artists from outside the area contributed to it being an interesting festival. Michael brought up that we have seen from things like Art Sheffield that this tactic does not guarantee interesting or provocative work. James openly asked what Light Night might look like if it were to include more of the poorer areas of Leeds or move out of the city centre. Lucy commented that the Glasgow International festival seems to be well received by both public and artists in the city.
This led to Steve talking about some research he has been doing on the current state of Detroit. Following a film that was shown on TV and an article in the Guardian Steve attended a seminar at the London School of economics where it was revealed that in the wake of the devastating economic collapse of the original Fordist city (and such the birthplace of a specific form of accelerated capitalism) houses and land are almost worthless. Communities have been drawn to Detroit due to is being perceived as a clean slate and are working with poorer (mostly black) community that have been left behind in the mass exodus from Detroit. Currently there appears to be a ‘rebuilding’ of the city using urban farming methods and radical education. Steve suggested that he will take a trip over in the next 12 months to learn more as it presents a very interesting opportunity to both document and contribute to this process. Andy brought up the fact that the ‘conditioning’ of capitalism and Fordist production methods (those of specialisation) seems to be present in some of the current recovery plans (different areas of Detroit making specialist products like honey, hay or animal produce which they trade with one another) despite their agricultural appearance. Could this just lead to a repeat of the previous disaster scenario or will there be genuine change? Would this require a more critical distance or even education about the inherent failings of capitalism?
Actions for next week
All to book in activity and event in the Lab via Calendar. Liz’s event proved that interesting conversations can arise from the humblest of starting points.
There is also a pot of money for travel for speakers/artists. Don’t wait for permission/approval to book someone in. Just do it!
All to continue to contribute material to the potential publication. Thusfar we have bits of writing and images from Andy Abbott, Amelia Crouch, Martha Jurksaitis and Michael Burkitt.
Next meeting Tues 30th March 6pm. Activity booked in before then includes Andy Abbott’s ‘An evening with(out) Alain Badiou’ on Thursday 25th March and Martha’s all night film night on Saturday 27th March (see blog for details).
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