On the value of things...

So last Friday I managed to escape the weather nightmare at Gatwick and only suffered three hours delay. I was flying to Spain for the festive season after a year’s absence. And now…? Now I am in Alicante, a place I can only really call home because my family lives here and there is a room full of my stuff – old stuff. Anyway, last night I had a long and somewhat overdue chat with my mum: told her everything about i am small THE WORLD IS BIG. I don’t know what this kind of conversation is like for other fellow creatives out there, but for me it’s an important moment. Though my mother is certainly cultured she does not necessarily have a full understanding of the ins and outs of contemporary performance practice. Furthermore, though she is certainly supportive she is equally critical and analytical. And so, the moment I tell her about one of our new projects is always exciting because I know I will get a barrage of questions followed by her honest opinion. She was excited about i am small THE WORLD IS BIG and was impressed by its scope and scale, but that is not what I wanted to write about…

We were talking about world atlases and how we plan to use them for our project when she referred to them in passing as a ‘defunct technology’. That strange thought grabbed me. We live in the age of Google Earth and other such technological marvels. In fact this morning my brother showed me that Spain is the most ‘photographed’ country after the US, on Google Street View that is. So it is strange to think that I could give you my ‘home’ address and you could have a peek at my family’s house! Though to be honest I’m not sure how I feel about that… At any rate it was something I had not considered before: the possibility that good old world atlases printed in book form might already be a thing of the past. Where does that leave i am small THE WORLD IS BIG? At the moment I cannot say. Of course you don’t yet know what we intend to do with the atlases we have collected – and we have collected quite a few! (We already have atlases in English, German, Spanish, and we are still hoping to find more in Easter languages such as Arabic, Cantonese, Japanese, Hindi, and Mandarin.) For the time being all I will say is that we will be cannibalising these world atlases… So, if we accept the statement that printed world atlases are a ‘defunct technology’, does that mean they are becoming historic artefacts? Should we therefore treat them with more respect? I am not sure.
A telling moment came a few weeks ago when we received in the post an atlas I had bought on eBay. It was printed in 1917. When he saw it Rick put his foot down and was adamant that we could not cannibalise it. This, he said, was a precious thing… But why? Do we feel some strange nostalgia? What happens when we see Canada appear as the Dominion of Canada; or see that Pakistan, India and Bangladesh were united under British rule; or that Germany was once huge? I don’t know. Or is it rather that we value artefacts such as this 1917 world atlas because they have survived the relentless passage of time, because they offer us a window into the past?
After taking into account other, more practical considerations (such as the quality of the paper), Daisy and I compromised and agreed not to use the 1917 atlas in the same way as we intend to use the other ones. However, my mother’s comments put this into perspective and problematise our attitude. If all world atlases are ‘on their way out’ and will eventually be replaced by electronic copies, then does that not mean that even newer atlases (from the 1960’s to 1990’s say) are already in the process of becoming historic artefacts? Will we be cutting this process short by using them in our project? Or rather, do we mind that they will become different and transformed artefacts once we have cannibalised them? The whole question reminds me a little bit, though tangentially, of the discussion that ensued after the Chapman brothers (Jake and Dinos) ‘defaced’ or rather ‘rectified’ 80 of Goya’s famous prints (http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2003/mar/31/artsfeatures.turnerprize2003). Not that I think we are operating on the same level of course! I am aware that the world atlases we will be cannibalising are not precious works of art, but they do have a value in themselves. Hum… Many questions. Few answers. For now.

Pablo

PS: and if I don’t blog before the end of the week… Feliz Navidad!

YOU GOOGLE WE GOOGLE

Now, now....
Here is something interesting about the individual and the global...

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article5489134.ece
(Thanks go to Ian Baird for sharing it with us.)

Pablo

It's not all child's play....

For those of you who do not know, I am a confessed addict to BBC iplayer. And there is nothing more tempting than a good documentary on BBC4. Last night I watched the second episode of Games Britannia. The series traces the development of games throughout British history, from mysterious druid board games to Monopoly and beyond. For those of you living in the UK, here is the link:

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00pf0rr/Games_Britannia_Monopolies_and_Mergers

And there is something I want to share with you… Bear with me.

Half way through last night’s episode presenter and historian Benjamin Woolley discussed the subtle, almost stealthy political role that games can play. I quote:
“In the years leading up to the First World War, in 1909 an apparently conventional race game was published. It was titled 'Pank a Squith', and it encoded a radical political message. It represented the escalating battle between Emmeline Pankhurst, leader of the women’s suffrage movement and her arch enemy Prime Minister Herbert Asquith. The aim of the game was to get a woman into that bastion of male oppression and exclusion, the Houses of Parliament. Her path was strewn with obstacles such as imprisonment and ridicule, and opportunities such as financial sponsorship and public support. Each player had to pick their way through this political mine field.”

Woolley then talked to Andrew Sheerin, the designer responsible for the satirical board game ‘War on Terror’ (http://www.waronterrortheboardgame.com/). I quote Sheerin:
“I think games are ideally suited for exploring current events, and particularly very difficult and complex subject matters. And it sets up a conflict around a table, but a safe conflict. You are not having a political debate, which can turn personal, but you are having a staged conflict and through that you come to a resolution.”

Now, why would I mention this to you? I am aware that we have not yet outlined the particular activities involved in i am small THE WORLD IS BIG (I am enjoying the mystery at the moment, so watch this space for more info in the future). The one thing I can tell you is that it is not anything close to a board game. However, I think that Sheerin’s statement is relevant to the project nonetheless. Through this piece we are tackling a number of current events that are certainly difficult and complex. So, who are the players? Well there will be a core of selected collaborators who will be engaging directly in the activity. That said, the audience will not be relegated to simply spectate, but will be able to ‘join in the game’ in different ways. So, what is the game? As I said above we don’t want to give much away just yet. What I can tell you is that it will not follow a conventional set up like the games discussed in Games Britannia or the games that Sheerin is referring to. With that I mean that the rules of engagement are not based on a conventional structure where two or more parties directly confront each other (as it might be in chess or Trivial Pursuit). In our ‘game’ the conflict is not between the different ‘players’. Instead the conflict lies in the tension between the activity and the time dedicated to it. In a way, i am small THE WORLD IS BIG is a race against the clock. The different ‘players’ (collaborators and audience alike) will directly and indirectly engage in an communal activity that is set to take place over a finite duration. Jointly, as a team, we have to get it done –or rather, as much as we can. How much will we achieve? Will we ‘save ourselves’ in time? What role will you play? i am small THE WORLD IS BIG is a challenge to us all, it is a safe space we can use to practice/rehearse/play-out many of our current challenges and conflicts. Will we arrive at any resolutions?

Well, that’s up to each and every one of us…

Pablo

SPACE

It’s official! Dates and location have been confirmed! (thank you Dee)
i am small THE WORLD IS BIG will take place on Friday 26th and Saturday 27th of February 2010 in the Senate Building at the University of Kent. We are terribly excited that the project will go ahead as we had envisioned at the start (i.e. using the Senate and lasting two days). Why insist on this particular space, why this particular duration? The answer for us, I would say, might be summarised by simply stating: form and content.

Let me start with the Senate and perhaps later I will get to the duration. For those of you who might not know it, this building is situated in the neuralgic centre of the University of Kent’s Canterbury campus: in front of the library, Eliot and Rutherford Colleges at either side, and a stone throw’s away from The Registry and the Gulbenkian Theatre. This central position, as well as its name, reflects its role: a symbolic seat of power. The Senate’s large upstairs room serves as the meeting place of various university governing bodies (for instance the Humanities’ Faculty Board will be convening there on the day before our project take place). It is a space where statements are made, discussions take place, votes are cast and counted, and decisions are arrived at. I am trying to remember my own impressions of the building whilst I was an undergraduate. It’s proving to be difficult. I had certainly not been inside the Senate, nor did I have any actual knowledge of what happened inside it, but what I find most confusing is that although I was a conscientious student I seemed to lack any curious desire to find out, to sneak in (surprisingly the building is open throughout the day and it would not have been hard to take a peek). So in my mind at least, the Senate was simply an amorphous presence on campus which I loosely associated with power, its mystery and inaccessibility.
So how did we come to choose the Senate as our location? As a principle, when we start a new project we attempt not to get bogged down in practicalities, allowing the concepts to develop freely before exploring how they will be realised. However, as it the case with much of our work, this issue is not as simple and linear as that; the chicken and the egg, the snake biting its own tail. There is a moment -difficult to pinpoint- where the core concept of a project meets the various practicalities involved in its realisation and begins to be shaped by them. Location, of course, is the first of such on the list. Once i am small THE WORLD IS BIG had begun to take shape and the project’s core had been established we reached this moment. Where should it take place? Schengen Smile, the piece we devised last February for WorldFest 2009 took place in a series of teaching spaces: a corridor and two seminar rooms. The starkness of these spaces contributed to the bureaucratic atmosphere we were creating and so the marriage between the site and the piece was easy. Now thou, our desire to produce a more ambitious project was coupled with our conceptual interest in facilitating a coming together. The small and out-of-the-way rooms which had been the setting for the solitary journey the audience took in Schengen Smile would not do. We had to upgrade to a space that was larger, more ‘important’. There are only a few such spaces at the University of Kent’s Canterbury Campus: the large dining halls in Eliot and Rutherford Colleges and the Senate Building’s upstairs meeting room. And so the decision was made. With its substantial dimensions, central location and powerful associations the Senate presented itself as the ideal location.

And what will be doing in the building? I will leave that for later. For now it will suffice to say we will open up the building, inviting individuals to come together in a joint effort. In a way, the event will not be that dissimilar from the Senate’s normal use: meeting, discussing, deciding. We intend to occupy the entire building, transform it, and offer the audience a unique experience. As with Schengen Smile we are considering the possibility of creating a coherent route through the building, though in this case it will be multifocal and more complex. In regards to transformation, well, we are yet to find a specific relationship to the site. Will we ruthlessly colonise? Will we sympathetically stay within the vernacular of the building? That is, of course, only the first stage of our space-induced dilemmas. This search for conceptual clarity will then inevitably be followed by a series of practical negotiations. Please, please let us move the furniture around. Please, please let us use bluetack... When last year we had to relocate Lost In Translation from Canterbury city centre to Liverpool’s Victorian St. George’s Hall these practical negotiations resulted in significant formal changes to the piece. With that experience under our belts I hope that the process it more efficient this time. Fingers crossed.

Last Thursday Dee (Gulbenkian Theatre Director) kindly took us to the Senate. Since it was our first visit together and we did not have much time we could not go into much depth. But it is workable. We were excited by the motion sensitive sliding doors to the foyer and the red walls of the downstairs rooms. We were excited about the dramatic walk up the stairs. We were excited about the little square space just outside the upstairs meeting room and we were excited by the latter’s circular shape and significant dimensions. We were excited by the ten second lift ride and the feeling of disorientation when reaching the ground floor. We were not so excited by the artwork on display (sculpture of elephants and corporate-looking paintings downstairs, and portraits of past university Deans upstairs). But it is workable.

On a different, yet space-rated note, last Tuesday Rick and I met Fiona Watt (http://www.fionawatt.com/). She is a scenographer Cathy Westbrook (always the fairy godmother) had put us in touch with. We had a chat with Fiona about our company, past works and our current piece. She seemed enthusiastic and described i am small THE WORLD IS BIG as ‘life affirming’. Though at this stage we are designing the event on our own time will tell, and this might become the first project where we collaborate with a fellow creative. For the time being we have to sort things in our own heads, and Fiona’s questions were particularly useful because they pushed us towards clarity. We might have a few more informal chats and if a true collaboration is to take place it will do so after February’s presentation. As I said, time will tell.

Pablo

PS: We intend to take i am small THE WORLD IS BIG further, developing it beyond its first presentation next February. We want to take it elsewhere and tour. What about the location then? Ideas are beginning to flow and conversations are taking place. I wouldn’t want to give too much away just yet. We will keep you posted.

wow... i really am small

It has been a month and a half since we last blogged. My how time flies.
What have we been doing? well.......
Learning to stitch, looking for stitchers, making money and looking for money, reading and writing, listening and looking. That has kept us pretty busy.
However, Dear Blog, we have not forgotten you and indeed may have missed our regular little tet-a-tet. the regular mental emtetic, the mind enema that you gratefully serve....

I am fircely aware of how small i am and how short my reach is. We have been scouring the globe for Atlases in various foreign languages... how hard can that be?
There is an awfully long way between here and China, more than a simple afternoon stroll! in fact it would take weeks of strolling. despite the long ang gangly nature of my legs.
Its not such a long way to Germany (where my better half's parents have been visiting the Christmas markets this past week) Even that is a fair walk for my pins!
it takes me around twenty mins to get into town, a further twenty to get to the other side (Wincheap, say). i wonder how far i could go in a day, a week, a month.
How long would i have to walk to get to a point where i have no relation to my surroundings? What would it be about my surroundings that means i have no relation?
Can you negotiate ebay in Mandarin? me neither! i cant even negotiate it in languages closer to home, French, German, Spanish... Thank goodness for Pablo!
So i have instead fixed my focus closer to home... right on my doorstep instead.
I can reach to there... just.
Its funny how much there is and can be out there when you go looking for it!
People with pep, get up and go.... organiser, performers, writers and artists of every hue. All so close to home!!! in the words of Balloo the bear... "if you look under the rocks and plants and take a glance at the fancy ants... and maybe try a few" (obviously not in the literal sense here).
i may be small ant but i am small along with the myriad of other ants on my doorstep and that makes me feel a little bit better about myself and a little lesss scared of the world at large!

Rick

What happens when you consider “the world”
…That view from the space shuttle where the Earth looks peaceful, beautiful, arcs of harmless white cloud?
… maps?
… endless stretches of ocean, of desert, bustling cities?
… Cars, trains, planes traversing the expanse of it all disseminating pollutants and choking as they go?
... Farmers tilling the land?

Do you remember that bit in “The Fifth Element” when Milla Jovovich see’s all those images of war, genocide, cold killings, atomic mushroom clouds, and cant see anything good in mankind?
She says “everything you create, you use to destroy”
Is this really true?
I hope that Bruce Willis’ dry “Yeah, we call it human nature” is nothing but a negative reflection on a narrow base of evidence or we might as well all go mad, right?
But as he points out later… “…there are things worth saving”

That’s what I want to ponder now… “What is worth saving?”
I don’t just mean your Mum or Dad (though I don’t underrate their import) What is worth saving for the benefit of mankind?
We, as members of an international community, are required by necessity to work together to build and preserve for future generations. There are always references to “building a better world” but what would it be like to re-make the world according to our own individual priorities or whims?
What would we chose to keep? Would be separate warring neighbours? Bring together dissparate peoples?
There are currently 890 Unesco World Heritage Sites around the world, declared as such because of either their natural or cultural Outstanding Universal Value. There are over 4,000 Sites of Special Scientific Interest in the UK. (over half of which have been declared to be of international significance).
It seems to me that these have things covered on the “landmarks of history and science” plane of things...
But what of you and me…
6 Pubs are closing a weeks in the UK, sweetshops where you can buy real aniseed balls and chocolate mice from big glass jars are the exception rather than the rule these days… bowing out to supermarkets and chain-stores stocking international chocolate giants like Mars, Cadburys…
But look how many empty stores there are now… standing empty… could we stuff them full of jars of cherry drops, resuscitate Woolworths?
How would you change the world to make it a better place?

This world of ours is in a state of constant flux. Andrew Marr (of “Britain from Above” fame) recently said in an interview that the primary experience of the latter half of the 20th Century was one of acceleration. Of mankind’s readjustment to a world where the world we live in now is less and less like that of our forbearers and is certainly little like the one our children and grandchildren will know…
How do we then negotiate the things we miss and the things that are yet to be when sometimes it simply feels like they happen or cease to happen all around us?

Remember It’s a small world after all!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIabgPX14R4

Internationalism it is...

So, after an initial research phase we are beginning to shape our new project. Because at this stage we are still throwing ideas around we have far more questions than set answers. On the one hand I could not resist the opportunity to give you a little glimpse into what is going on. On the other hand I recognise that the project is very much in its embryonic state, and therefore quite vulnerable. At the same time we would not like to 'give it away' just yet... In an attempt to reconcile these disparate desires I have produced the document you see below. It is deliberately and cheekily edited, but I hope it wets your appetite...

Pablo