spaceofmemory blog

Story Surgery at Whitstable Biennale 2008 *

2008-08-05T17:30:00.002+01:00

Story Surgery at Whitstable Biennale 2008

2008-08-05T16:17:00.007+01:00

As part of Whitstable Biennale 2008 Satellite Programme: LOCAL I enacted a third version of Story Surgery, a one-on-one encounter and participatory piece on the nature of reprise and intimate exchange, which grew out of the R&D project, Space of Memory: Intimate Narratives.
http://www.whitstablebiennale.com/

Feed back from one partaker of Story Surgery at Whitstable Biennale satellite programme, June/July 2008:

"There's not enough moments like this - little pockets of reflection and memory - space to return to times long gone yet a part of us still. We become so caught up in the present we forget to remember the past, and forget that it not only teaches, reminds, but nourishes too.

What a magical moment, being left alone on the beach in the afternoon sun. It felt like a gift too, sharing your photos and memories. And having a chance to remember a special place from my own past. It's not often we're given the chance to step out like this and I'm glad and grateful. Many thanks! x

I would just like to take this opportunity to thanks all those who partook of a surgery for sharing these moments with me...

As part of Whitstable Biennale 2008 Satellite Programme: LOCAL I enacted a third version of Story Surgery, a one-on-one encounter and participatory piece on the nature of reprise and intimate exchange, which grew out of the R&D project, Space of Memory: Intimate Narratives.

http://www.whitstablebiennale.com/

I last presented the work at INTIMACY in Dec 07 - see: http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/intimacy/programme.php

Surgeries last from 15 minutes to an hour depending on the individual - I do not rush a person if she wants to stay with the reverie. The final 5 minutes of each surgery involves a recording. The collection of surgery recordings explore both the nature of how space, the home and memory reside, the visceral and sonic experience of reprise and autobiography. I intend to continue to collect recordings...these will make it into a new sound-based work - installation or performance in the near future. All recordings are anonymous although I will credit those who do not mind their names revealed (but a match between names and recordings will not be made).

Please get in touch if you would like to have a surgery - I am on the look-out for more partakers - also if there is an event you are running in which I could hold some surgeries or a space - gallery - park - etc in which I could do so (I am London-based but would be willing to travel to an event in which I could hold surgeries)...

email me: info@lisaalexander.co.uk

[All images taken by Lisa Alexander, except image of arms & hands by Biggi Stiller]

Selected quotes from audience feedback

2008-03-31T16:41:00.001+01:00

STORY SURGERY
During Franko B residency, Artsadmin, 26-30 March 2007 and a one-off event at Candid Arts, 10 May 2007

“a really atmospheric environment in which to elicit…(my) thoughts…. It was excellently done…and laid out with a clear degree of intelligence (of all kinds!)….

- Sarah Rubidge

64c
an installation in an empty flat, experienced alone, 64c Ickburgh Road, Hackney, East London, 28 May – 1 June 2007, by appointment

“I wanted to thank you for the experience - it was both reassuring and unsettling to experience memory in such tangible form, a validation of this much neglected part of our existence. What happens to what is no longer happening? You gave it existence.”

- Claudia Jefferies

“I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed your installation 64c.

I felt like a detective piecing together a fragmented assemblage of memory, emotional loss, private journals, and other fragmented narratives. The space felt erotically charged and gendered old stockings, the bathroom ribboned in black, the red pod that felt womb-like and secretive, the peep hole video
work. Something melancholic and sexual lurked in the spaces, and as spect-actor I both acted upon the props and objects that I came across and reflected on the people who wrote or left these pieces of text, clothing and diaries.

It’s difficult not to recall Gregor Schneider’s Die Familie Schneider when poking about in a domestic space on your own. Schneider allows the orderly nostalgic everyday domestic home to possess you like a horrible claustrophobic nightmare, but Lisa Alexander’s world is one of loss and sadness, messy but intriguing it is the possession of an empty flat temporarily inhabited by an ensemble of memories.”

- Manick Govinda

“The work has possibilities…it has anthropological potential in terms of being a touring
piece in other countries, the geographical cultural, political landscape that you
could engage with…nothing exists alone... we don't invent language, we appropriate it.”

- Franko B

64c: examples of messages left in the red cupboard

Very very moving listening to the lady who'd had scarlet fever and lost her little brother to it…it is so good to be reminded that everybody has their story - the way our narratives chatter side by side and we only get these small glimpses - but not normally on the level of these interviews. This is inspiring and human in a big city…It's also a strange and rare privilege to be given permission to read someone else's diaries - full of such familiar angst! v. brave! x

How odd and reassuring to see the past made tangible like this.

Eerie combination of womb-like yet like a coffin of the heart - surprised I can stay in here, more comforting than I expected with its lushness

The worlds within our worlds and the worlds within them live and die, emerge and fade away............but remain in traces of smell, sounds, sensings

I can’t find you and you’ve got the things I’d often leave unspoken
Work-in-progress, 11 & 12 June 2007, White Room at The People Show, London

I just wanted to thank you and your performers again for Tuesday night. It was an evening of incredible beauty, and was very easy to get lost within…Your process, from what I've read about it, looks fascinating, and the accumulation of recorded stories must have helped the performers a great deal in getting into the frame of mind where they were as willing as they were to share their own histories and stories as they were… It never once sank into the self-indulgence that everything without a pre-planned structure that I have seen normally falls into, yet there was a lovely haphazardness that hid any rigidity of form that may have hindered the honesty… keep me informed with what you are doing with the piece. It was a wonderful experience to witness.

- Tim Jeeves

and two audience members’ answers to projective questions
[each audience member was given a sheet to fill out quickly before entering studio]
I smile
Think
The world is the same
By myself
Very few very important
About the desert
A candle
Being married…I didn’t want it anymore
That I’m a very bad person
Rob / kill people
I remember the sound of the voice and the shape of the hands
I go away
Of something to say I wish I could see the stars.
Is in peace with herself I feel very fortunate.
A letter I have had moments of utter weakness.
After being awake all the night: amazing! When I wasn’t thinking of you?
A fox comes close All the things that will come back to me as I die.
My earrings That I actually mean something
When I want to be alone The days start getting longer again.
I could open my theatre in Italy To stay alive he broke down like I have never seen him cry before.
Nobody The story of my life would it make it easier to live?
I think of swimming forever Remember how short the feelings I have now will last.
Being seen as a baby I lose myself.
Thought that London was very far I feel awkward and wish we had a relationship where silence didn’t matter.
The sofas! (joking!) Jane & Lisa They forget that they’re a person.
They don’t count the money in the wallet Some dirty old leaves and used them as toilet paper when I was sledging.
Of the world upside down Late but better than I did last night.
Yes but not a lot… The day is consumed in its embers.
Relationships.
Yes.
No ifs, no buts. I am happy. Sometimes.
The people I daren’t break away from.
I am reminded of infinity as I gaze at the sea and the stars.
How much I masturbate.
I decided I never wanted my life to change. It did.
Me, I’m alone right now.
They stop feeling sorry for themselves.
Slippers and open fires.
Nothing I’d change.

more images of day 3 in the studio and all of us

2007-07-11T22:18:00.000+01:00

to come...images of sharing to invited audience

more images of day 3 in the studio

2007-07-11T22:15:00.000+01:00

Images taken by Biggi

Day 3 in the studio

2007-07-11T18:52:00.000+01:00

I presented my findings of Space of Memory - a research and development project in 2 parts....

part one was an installation in an unoccupied flat "64c" - a try-out for a future touring installation

and part 2 was a devised performance which used the material from 64c as a starting point in addition to all the research I've done over the past year...(prog notes 4 each are on blog - scroll down)

I worked with Rob Canning, composer and sound artist on both parts 1 & 2 and with Robert Cook, Rebecca Bogue and Jane Munro on part 2.

For part 2 we had 5 and half days in the studio before presenting a 1 hour 30min performance as a sketch for a future piece to be rehearsed and toured, entitled:

"I can't find you and you've got the things I'd often leave unspoken"

the images here are of day 3 in the studio....and were taken by Biggi Stiller

sound was integral to the process and its re-inscription and erasure as part of an exploration of spaces of memory, and how we all "take our laires with us" (Bachelard)

- Lisa Alexander

from my space to yours

2007-07-03T02:25:00.000+01:00

a space in my memory is you're enthusiasm for things in a flurry

so i posted some images into your memory,

for you to share and care with to love n to hug,

to cry and to scream or to sit and daydream.

to stumble our words because of anxiety and nerves who gives damn but the audience take away a moment, a thought, a feeling, we all leave them thinking...

Link to images of installation: 64c

2007-07-02T22:40:00.000+01:00

an installation in an unoccupied flat - viewed alone

One audience member's answers...

2007-06-29T14:59:00.001+01:00

An audience member’s answers to projective questions / feedback sheet given out at:

I can’t find you and you’ve got the things I’d often leave unspoken

- thank you x

I smile
Think
The world is the same
By myself
Very few very important
About the desert
A candle
Being married…I didn’t want it anymore
That I’m a very bad person
(Rob / kill) people
I remember the sound of the voice and the shape of the hands
I go away
Of something to say
Is in peace with herself
A letter
After being awake all the night: amazing!
A fox comes close
My earrings
When I want to be alone
I could open my theatre in Italy
Nobody
I think of swimming forever
Being seen as a baby
Thought that London was very far
The sofas! (joking!) Jane & Lisa
They don’t count the money in the wallet
Of the world upside down
Yes but not a lot…

messages left in 64c...

2007-06-29T13:53:00.000+01:00

here are some of the messages left in 64c by visitors to the installation...and thank you x

Messages:

The past is but a hypothesis of what we thought it was...Upcoming and implicated + (in-) (complete) complicated . ASC 2007

Very very moving listening to the lady who'd had scarlet fever and lost her little brother to it - couldn't "find" any of the other narratives - but it is so good to be reminded that everybody has their story - the way our narratives chatter side by side and we only get these small glimpses - but not normally on the level of these interviews. This is inspiring and human in a big city and as an artist. It's also a strange and rare privilege to be given permission to read someone else's diaries - full of such familiar angst! v. brave! x

My gran - and aunt 'nan' in Dunfermline

Maybe I've taken on the persona of the memories in the flat? It's eerie but strangely familiar

I hope that this gets the angst that ails you out like infected puss that then scabs and heals over. It is good for people to Listen to other people. These thoughts and feelings and worries are nothing to be ashamed of

How odd and reassuring to see the past made tangible like this. If only I could relax more and explore like I was told to. Thanks.

Eerie combination of womb-like yet like a coffin of the heart - surprised I can stay in here, more conforting than I expected with its lushness

What will be important to me when I grow old?

It is like a psyche of the house or a person's mind or dreamscape...smelling snippets of recollections. C-A-T cat (from the corner) - you can learn it and you never forget it! - x

I'm looking for something, but I can't find it

Am I supposed to write on this?

Yes if you want. I saw a mouth hanging in sky and then someone brushed passed me. Thanks.

At first I cased the joint - like a detective - checked out what was there throughout - was relieved to find the lighter and tealights - which gave me a feeling of autonomy / free will - not just being led a dance by you the artists. Then for a while I imagined it being my flat and how I'd decorate it - imagined feeling secure and stable!!! xxxxxxxxxx Now I'm beginning to look at what you're doing in greater detail - I love this womb/coffin though one of the recorded voices sounds disturbingly like Margaret Thatcher.

Another reminder that the inner world inside contains the gem / germ of experience of our memory. That somehow this me contains the power of knowing.

Feels a little lonely...but that's sometimes a nice place to be :)

The worlds within our worlds and the worlds within them live and die, emerge and fade away............but remain in traces of smell, sounds, sensings

Voices images help to inhabit a world of ghosts and forgetting. To be free of this - to come home. Pineneedles.

Voyeur or detective? we are never known.

Is what I lived a memory? Or is it not this connection(?) that continues to move in time?

Pictures of devising week by Biggi

2007-06-19T13:57:00.000+01:00

For some lovely shots taken by Biggi Stiller on day 3 of our devising week go to:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/biggi_stiller/

there will be some excerpts from the work-in-progress performance in a little while...

Lisa
x

I can't find you and you've got the things I'd often leave unspoken

2007-06-10T10:45:00.001+01:00

part 2 of space of memory: I can’t find you and you’ve got the things I’d often leave unspoken

11 and 12 June, 7:30pm
Location: The White Room, People Show Studios, Pollard Row, London E2 6NB

3 performers create a sketch for a performance, an experimentation with material used in 64c, a dialogue with you and katabasis....remembrance and forgetting...in the home...in society at large...versions of the truth...the weight of an individual's life, breath, presence, memories, self

Starts 7:30...last entry 8pm...visitors are free to come and go as they wish - please RSVP to put your name on the door as this is a private event

To book email: spaceofmemory@gmail.com

concept/artistic direction: Lisa Alexander
composer/sound artist: Rob Canning
performers: Rebecca Bogue, Robert Cook and Jane Munro

This event culminates a research and development project into spaces of memory and intimate narratives of the home, how we take our lares with us. The project has included home visits and interviews in London, Liverpool and Glasgow, a story surgery event in person and by email, and in the last phase a collaboration with a composer/sound artist and performers, including an open-studio–turned installation in an unoccupied flat, 64c

space of memory is supported by Arts Council England and Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation

hi chuckles

2007-06-05T22:03:00.000+01:00

lisa i'm gobsmacked some of the photo's alone stand so well as a piece of work. thanks for the call last night you always make me chuckle. After the phonecall i was all fired up and went into the studio until 2.30 this morning. hope to see you next tuesday as i'm working on the recyclled chess set this thursday and next monday. hugs for now x

I can't find you and you've got the things I'd often leave unspoken

2007-06-02T08:23:00.000+01:00

part 2 of space of memory: I can’t find you and you’ve got the things I’d often leave unspoken

11 and 12 June, 7:30pm
Location: The White Room, People Show Studios, Pollard Row, London E2 6NB

3 performers create a sketch for a performance, an experimentation with material used in 64c, a dialogue with you and katabasis....remembrance and forgetting...in the home...in society at large...versions of the truth...the weight of an individual's life, breath, presence, memories, self

Starts 7:30...last entry 8pm...visitors are free to come and go as they wish - but please RSVP to put your name on the door as this is a private event

To book email: spaceofmemory@gmail.com

concept/artistic direction: Lisa Alexander
composer/sound artist: Rob Canning
performers: Rebecca Bogue, Robert Cook and Jane Munro

This event culminates a research and development project into spaces of memory and intimate narratives of the home, how we take our lares with us. The project has included home visits and interviews in London, Liverpool and Glasgow, a story surgery event in person and by email, and in the last phase a collaboration with a composer/sound artist and performers, including an open-studio–turned installation in an unoccupied flat, 64c

space of memory is supported by Arts Council England and Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation

(images of 64c)

visitors to 64c - please post your comments

2007-06-01T20:06:00.000+01:00

Once again I would appreciate any more feedback, comments, musings on your visit - post here or by email

and thank you for attending!

and...some more...but minus the major element: sound...

2007-06-01T20:01:00.000+01:00

and more...

2007-06-01T19:58:00.000+01:00

more of 64c

2007-06-01T19:55:00.000+01:00

a few more...

2007-06-01T19:53:00.000+01:00

a few images I took of 64c....more to come...

2007-06-01T19:50:00.000+01:00

more images from 7 huntingdon road

2007-06-01T03:27:00.001+01:00

Hi Lisa, some more images for you. I'll be in london later today, seeing Franko around 11ish. I'll phone you on my way to the capital, hugs jon

Dear visitors to 64c...

2007-05-30T19:56:00.000+01:00

I would welcome and value your feedback to 64c...if you feel you can post it onto the blog...however random or specific...and feel free to be anonymous also...just click on comment below and type on...if you'd prefer - email or call.

thanks,

Lisa x

from stevenage to clapton

2007-05-28T21:39:00.000+01:00

hi lisa, an image for you. Would have been more but neither of my camera batteries are charged fully. hugs jon

2007-05-27T14:46:00.000+01:00

2007-05-27T09:49:00.000+01:00

2007-05-25T13:54:00.000+01:00

These events are intended show aspects of a research and development project into spaces of memory and intimate narratives of the home, how we take our lares with us. The project has included home visits and interviews in London, Liverpool and Glasgow, a story surgery in person and by email. Parts 1 & 2 have involved a collaboration with composer and sound artist Rob Canning. The project culminates in a performative event on 11th and 12th June, 7:30pm at the People Show Studios, London. Part 2 performers: Rebecca Bogue, Jane Munro, Robert Cook

The intention of the R&D is to devise a blueprint for a new production, a site-generated triptych:

1. A touring installation to homes, flats, abodes in the UK and abroad
2. A touring performance as a palimpsest, re-inscribing its traces
3. A live music piece to be composed, created and performed spatially / for a particular building or site: possibly choral / voice-led

2007-05-24T11:17:00.000+01:00

don't be led astray by images of the empty flat below...all is not what it seems...

copy for e-flyer invite...

2007-05-19T08:40:00.001+01:00

space of memory parts 1 & 2
invitation to a work-in-progress

1. 64c
Mon 28 - Fri 1 June
an installation in an unoccupied flat, to be viewed alone

Appointments are available between 10am and 6pm. You are free to visit for up to an hour
Rendezvous: You will be met outside Clapton rail station in Hackney, E5 and escorted to the flat - which is nearby. Full details will be provided upon booking.

2. I can’t find you and you’ve got the things I’d often leave unspoken
11 and 12 June, from 7:30pm...you are free to come and go as you please...ends: 9:30pm

3 performers create a sketch for a performance, an experimentation with material used in 64c, a dialogue with you and katabasis…remembrance and forgetting in the home…in society at large...versions of the truth…the weight of an individual's life, breath, presence, memories, self…

Location: The White Room, People Show Studios, Pollard Row, London E2 6NB

To book email Lisa: spaceofmemory@gmail.com
Please note: numbers limited to 8 per day for Part 1
RSVP for Part 2 to give us an idea of numbers

2007-05-19T08:40:00.000+01:00

domestic / everyday sounds for studio

2007-05-19T08:28:00.000+01:00

I want us to experiment with narrative / character sign-posting with domestic / everyday sounds -(e.g. morning birdsong, street sound from open window, hotwater pipes, tick tock of gas boiler (+ clock!) etc - i want this to be inlcued in your 'palette' of recorded soundfs that you'll ahve to hand... ALso a form of sonic-scenery/ contextualisation

I want these to be recognisable - as cheesy as that may sound (ha) - but this will be part of my play re devising with performers...aural cues..

Speaker Locations

2007-05-14T19:06:00.001+01:00

Rob - can u bring projector 4 next time

Living Room
1. Left corner as you walk in
2.. Left of main window
3. Right of main window - round corner

Stairs
4. Cupboard behind grate

5. Loft

Bedroom
6. Low right cupboard

Kitchen
7. Kitchen
8. To set-up (one of your powered speakers)

Other
2 x minidiscs
Transistor radio (e.g. 2nd cupboard on stairs)
Metronome - Bathroom
Dictaphone (e.g. in wardrobe - as a kind of visitors book)

Story Surgery by email / phone or post

2007-05-13T15:44:00.000+01:00

INSTRUCTIONS – how to take part:

Pick a room in your home
1. Every day over a 7 day period, record a moment in that room – in any way – [text, sketch, photo, sound etc]

2. Write a timeline of the places you’ve lived in: noting down events that took place in your life as you go– do this quickly/automatically – take no longer than 5 minutes (mark when you moved into your current home)

3. Take one picture of your room and take a further 2 – 3 of selected details (you can use your mobile)

4. Select something from the Timeline to tell me about in a letter or email or as a message left on my phone

Please note: for questions 1, 2, 3 – please text, email or phone through each moment, timeline, picture (as appropriate)

catalogue - Funeral of unwanted things - so far

2007-05-13T14:26:00.000+01:00

1. [white sandals] circa 1999. I’ve eaten two third’s of a loaf of bread. And I’m sat here printing out words to – to see my words in print. And I’m comparing them with Matt’s.

2. [grey stockings] c1992/1. Don’t be frightened! The important thing is to get well. FORGET!

3. [fan] c2005. Sicily. I was so scared that my teeth would go black and fall out as I child. I had dreams. Now I have four teeth missing and part of my bridge cracked. Mortality. Fragility

4. [50s reading glasses bought off ebay] c2004. bought off ebay. Alex. Lust. Affectation.

5. [mum’s woollen hat] c1980. keep her informed of our location at all times. (Mum). Wait for her instructions. Can’t move.

6. [page from A-Z] c1991/2. first A-Z. Pat. Beginnings of order.

7. [teeth moulds] c2003/5. Dream came true. Be careful what you dream.

8. [white dress].c2000. Never worn. Crouch end. Pretence.

9. [paper bag]. c2004. contained present from former friend. Cologne. Talking at cross purposes. No sex.

10. [various items] 2004/6. unwanted gifts from my mother.

11. [black basque top] 1999. if you could only unclasp my hands hold me hold me I would weep forever

12. [brown woollen shall] c2003. Hackney Town Hall. Walking round in circles

13. [black trousers] trousers taken in. 1998. grief couldn’t swallow

14. [pink Detroit t-shirt] St Petersburg 2001. Sergei red roses fakery?

15. [burgundy zip up top] living in Middle Lane avoiding each other in the kitchen c1999

16. [rice recipe book] multivitamins. B-complex. Fruit. TV. Futon. Sounds. Monday 5th August 1991

17. [pink corduroy skirt] trying hard tom impress. Old Street. c2001

18. [black V top with striped edging] Edinburgh 2004. heavy limbs. A strong wind blowing

19. [small black bag] something to hold onto whether I needed it or not. 2000

20. [Kodak bag] given to me c1999. someone else’s memory

21. [napkins sent from Ukraine] c2002. Igor’s mother. He said you’re not allowed to interrupt me

22. [metal teapot holder] c2001. Dutch ex-flatmate she’s blowing the crumbs off all the surfaces before going to bed

23. [black top with fish-shaped zipper] c1998. a month of waking thoughts like walls 18/4/00

24. [blue shirt] for job interviews. For ‘proper jobs.’ 1997.
25. [brown suede skirt with broken zip] c2000/1. body so hard to regulate water runs straight through me. Parched 28/11/98

26. [white and light blue adidas trainers] c2004. trying to fit in

27. [old jeans ripped in crotch] 7/11/98. catch train to suburbs. Limitations. Respectability. Semi-detached

28. [fake fur cropped coat] 2001 why don’t I believe in myself?

29. [blue v stripe skirt] 2/5/98. 71 today. he seems so frail and gentle, smaller and fading. He doesn’t want anymore fights.

30. [black miniskirt] new year’s eve 2003. Dundee. Spots on my back.

31. [string detail t-shirt] performed on the south bank. Paula came to watch. 2000.

32. [small sackcloth envelope] contained jade pendant my aunt brought back from her place of birth. c2002.

33. [black combats] even my breath’s invalid

34. [red sequin top] 16/11/98. c2001. you have to ask yourself after 6 years and you still feel like shit, STILL going over the same old ground – what the fuck is it doing?

35. [white t-shirt with blue edging] Magaluf 1999. can’t remember her name. Last place I wanted to go on holiday.

36. [buttoned comoflage top] describe the energy that drives your hands to pick. New year’s eve 2005.

37. [green skirt] cried in front of Alex at 3 or 4 in the morning. Refused to hug me. 11/7/04

38. [stripped sun top] Institute of Education about May/June 2002 confused thinking

39. [khaki combats] Berlin 1998. Bettina and Christian. Just broke-up from Matt.

40. [Women on Top book] 4/11/98 your hands are gnarled like claws, just like claws - look at them

41. [black corduroy skirt] Pub-on-the-Park the evening after the night before. What was I thinking? 2003

42. [‘Stressed’ mug] About sums it up. 2005

43. [white shirt] bought in Spain. Dry-cleaned a shirt I never wore. Always white clothes. 1999

44. [black handbag] Christmas in Reigate. Trying to be a lady. That never worked. 2001

(got up to here with recording it)

45. [pink and white striped woollen Hat] my mate pulled at Sankey Soaps, Manchester. I walked back alone to the Travel Lodge. 2004

46. [flowered skirt with frills] Broadway Market. Too tight. 2005

47. [black scarf] attempts at communication and guessing taste c2002

48. [denim skirt] Shelford place hot summer no fan eating rice for breakfast c2002

49. [green long sleeved top] kicked a hole in my door when I ate her toast c1994

50. [red trousers] he used to text me when do you need me? Need you at 5pm bring wine c2002

51. [flowered skirt] trying to fit in again c2003

52. [grey sun dress] short interlude Hackney Marshes 2002

53. [salmon pink t-shirt] got to Brighton 1ish pm 10th May 1990 Brighton Worthing Littlehampton Bognor Regis Hayling

54. [black zip skirt] I love him though perhaps he’s the first person I’ve really loved I can’t ring him now 15/2/98

55. [elvis cockerel top] 23/2/98 can’t you see me can’t you really see me? Cheeks decayed in daylight

56. [blue ribbon belt] bridesmaid 2005 on the periphery

57. [suede tassel bag] my confusion stems from blocking negative thoughts out of my mind

58. [brown mini skirt] preoccupied with appearance c1999

59. [multi-coloured top] Kew Gardens looking for a tree for my brother’s wedding present 2005

60. [grey zip trousers] I can’t find you and you’ve got the things I’d often leave unspoken 2/3/98

61.

story surgery

2007-05-11T10:20:00.000+01:00

10/5/07

metronome play 64c

2007-05-09T19:59:00.000+01:00

44b

2007-05-03T17:49:00.000+01:00

detail 44b

2007-05-03T17:47:00.000+01:00

more pics - 1st play in 64c

2007-05-03T17:44:00.000+01:00

first play in the empty flat...

2007-05-03T17:11:00.000+01:00

love the sounds Rob - will speak more on it 2nite..can we make his voice slightly clearer? perhaps tho this doesn't matter.

just a few pic's here of 2day in flat - trying out objects with memory tags attached..+earth...

c u later

clocks and david

2007-05-03T16:44:00.000+01:00

here is a quick audio clip i made using audio from margots clocks and welsh / scotish david
www.robcanning.info/clocksonthewall.mp3

comment on my comment

2007-04-30T19:45:00.000+01:00

having said all that (read my comment to your last post)...let's try it in both spaces - and see how it fits with the other stuff..

it seems more redolent of the story surgery environment - did i email you the announcement for that? Can we set this up for the story surgery next week??? Also I was thinking (if I get enough people booking slots - that we both interview people at same time - people will feel less put on the spot if not the only person being interviewed / talking into empty space...??

I am also interested in hypnosis, lucid dreaming and the like...to get ideas...maybe not for the piece itself...but I've been thinking on other off-shoots from this also...

look i'm going now - yes project schedule is still in the offing...i'll be in touch 2moro. i'm still wresting myself away from the bloody admin electrics space hire contracts third performer budget invites vips funders blah de blah arrrgH! Am looking forward to a continuous period of the creative stuuf itself arrhgh..

theta theta theta!

2007-04-29T00:30:00.000+01:00

Theta is the frequency range from 4 Hz to 8 Hz and is associated with drowsiness, childhood, adolescence and young adulthood. This EEG frequency can sometimes be produced by hyperventilation. Theta waves can be seen during hypnagogic states such as trances, hypnosis, deep day dreams, lucid dreaming and light sleep and the preconscious state just upon waking, and just before falling asleep.

lets bathe the space in binauraly out of phase sine waves beating in this frequency range

fits nicely with your backwards walking memory hunt trance approach and also the idea of oscilations as measurments of time - pendulum ---> hypnosis etc.

before you know if we will be making new age relaxations cds ; )

performers can also use blog text

2007-04-28T11:11:00.000+01:00

i.e. they can pick out and read bits from it perhaps - to audience - to show bits of process...a nice way to do this maybe having a projection of blog on wall whilst as audience members enter....+ when they leave....one of performers reads at random exceprts from blog (thry will have printed version to refer to) like a roll call (so also reading dates and times of posts etc including post itself....-so may even include this one...hmmm)

- to show process...which is what this is all about

notes on presenting material

2007-04-28T10:59:00.000+01:00

On the work in prog day/s - I would ideally like invited audience to visit flat one at a time and to encounter there its corners spaces walls emitting / filled with bits of memory - bits from the interviews as if that person (s) is inside their head at times.

Perhaps a way to get round this situation of having the computer in the studio space and therefore not being able to have it in flat at same time is to do our experiment + work in the flat...compose together the spatialisation of the individual memories in and around the flat ( i can invite several people to visit/encounter this if we feel its right)

- and then using that as a blueprint re-create/record in a v accruate way this to be listened to on headphones... - so you still get a sense of WHERE in the space each track was meant to be....Sooo that on day of work-in-prog an audience member visits the flat and is given a set of headphones to listen to (and perhaps instructions of places to stand during) whilst wnadering through flat on his/her own

THEN the invited audience members' 2nd encounter of the (same) material in a different form will be in the studio with performers - both live and recorded usage of interviews (etc)

Tech stuff for week in studio with performers

2007-04-22T19:02:00.000+01:00

Rob,

What I need in studio / you need to set-up:

[any issues re this - let's get it out of the way now. I do not have any more budget - it all went on computer. Any extras (speakers - I have a few etc - we'll have to beg borrow steal)

- 8 track Recording and playback system - to use in diff parts of the space - re voice, other recordings and re live recordings of voice (I am concerned that the computer is not up to it - have you ironed out those problems from last week?

- I will be using props that I would like for us to wire-up and amplify sound in some way when they are touched / moved, these are: kithcen scales, 2 sets of iron weights, various memory objects - clothing, trinkets etc, a set of boules (plastic)

-Pendulum- A heavy weight to be suspended from ceiling with a microphone attached to it - which can record and play back if poss

(etc)

Please let me know now if there are any issues so we can make sure it works on the day. A week in a studio is very short...

Post reply on blog

Speak soon

Lisa

Let's do a weekend at Chichester Uni?

2007-04-19T12:48:00.000+01:00

Rob,

I'm thinking that may 19-20 (arrive eve of fri 18) at Chichester would be a good idea. I could get some theatre students on board to try a few things out too. + if poss Jane.
Think it'd be a good prep for going into a studio / black box scenario. Will add to project schedule if its possible and there's proper access to all resources.

- I am however still trying to rack my brains as to other kinds of spaces for the week intensive in June- any ideas?

Chichester is of course a place we can out on work for a paying audience post-project + a place to sue.

What kind of access cna u get to Goldsmith's theatre space ??

One day the owner moved across the street leaving the house empty...

2007-04-18T21:42:00.000+01:00

click on box and go to photo gallery 2 on website, move cursor over wheel until you find 'just a house'

beautiful images of abandoned places (think some of stuff must be placed there - but still worth a look

taken from mini installations during franko b week at artsadmin

2007-04-18T21:17:00.000+01:00

Leaving the carrot tops for the dogs or upside down on small saucers of water to grow the punishment of homemade soup it’s because of their father that she can’t behave Jane I’m going to divorce her father
[teeth moulds] c2003/5. Dream came true. Be careful what you dream.

Dead bees hanging from the ceiling . Why were they there? Shut in a room on my own to dance Scottish jigs on a record player. Where are you where are you I am scared behind a locked door. Alone alone. Kilts, ribbons in my hair. Pulling books off the shelf. Large dark space of the barn. Stung by a
[page from A-Z] c1991/2. First A-Z. Pat. Beginnings of order.

C2001 Crouch End N8 S.King a good shag
118grams [navy blue sleeveless t-shirt with zip, ‘69’ in diamonte]

if only you could unclasp my hands hold me hold me I would weep forever
[black basque top] 1999. If you could only unclasp my hands hold me hold me I would weep forever.

128grams
last few days half sleep no dreams at night no time for neuroses before I leave the house leave the house stolen fruit and veg

(image is of some steps i used to love to walk down as a child)

cross-section of a tenement

2007-04-18T21:10:00.000+01:00

lastly

2007-04-18T21:07:00.000+01:00

64c...

2007-04-18T21:05:00.000+01:00

and more

2007-04-18T21:02:00.000+01:00

64c and more

2007-04-18T20:58:00.000+01:00

64c 1st lot of images...

2007-04-18T20:55:00.000+01:00

Also...

2007-04-18T19:11:00.000+01:00

Also - i think feel free to use ANY of written material on blog (except these kinds of communiques)...in working up ideas for space of memory score(s)...

laters
L

Rob.....to re-cap:

2007-04-18T18:44:00.000+01:00

- I will post excerpts that I'm working with re possible script / script sections onto blog

- there are already some bits and pieces on..please take time to look through images I've posted too

So as a starting point.....Interview extracts to use (blog post titles:)

1. The sun goes round the rooms all the day, David, Glasgow etc
2. Slumber hold me tightly till I waken in the dawn and hear the thrushes singing in the lilacs round the lawn (Margot's cot cover)
3. item 11, circa 1999 if you could only unclasp my hands hold me hold me I would weep forever.
4. and then there's Martin...these aren't interview extracts but stuff he said outside it..hmm
5. - also Jasper: lounge, Montague street +exterior, Montague street
6. Kenny

- these of course I've just posted randomly, but it's a place to start..i'll be going through the hot stuff and pick specific bits out and will put it up on blog

will also post photos i took 2day

and am posting this for ref..

hope what you're doing's going good...please use blog..speak soon and in case you wanna come to performance its sun 8pm at shunt vaults- Pacitti Company...to book tickets call Soho theatre box 0870 429 6883

just had thought -if i show this blog as part of process will have to remove all names!! - of course don't use names either in score/comp

169b...

2007-04-15T01:46:00.000+01:00

A moment in the afternoon on Sunday 3 April 2005

Children screaming with joy outside playing, the sound of air being pushed aside by distant cars, a motorbike, the clock ticking, an aircraft, not many trains as it’s Sunday, the sound of my breathing and pressing the keyboard in quick short stabs, a bird calls twice and now the train and the simultaneous slight shaking rattle of lighter furniture against wall and floor and each other. Have I missed anything? The hollow sound as the air and echoes of outside rush up and down a redundant chimney to which I have no access but know that it exists by this sound whose haptic existence is concealed by a wall, book shelves etc – a flat no longer heated by an open fire. Another birdcall – a different one, singing its song four times, motorbike again as a fifth, then sixth bird call – and nearly seventh – recede into the background…the silly sounds of the computer programme I am using, no names will be made explicit here. Now the last birdsong and the first birdsong together – a train claps past syncopated…cars wash up and down a shoreline. Birds continue. Swallowing liquid, last bit of coffee. Rumblings are constant. No voices right now, still the cars lap up and down up and down, notice the ticking again the hollow of the chimney. A police siren in the distance, much less than usual. The siren maybe getting closer I am not sure. An airplane. It’s turned away I think. I imagine the nearby park and now a train goes by on the nearest track to the living room. The birds keep singing throughout now, another train…layers upon layers – but these are dominant layers: train, cars lapping, air up and down chimney, birds, sirens, clock ticking. A bus goes by. There are many more on a weekday when there are also the platform announcements from Hackney Central and Hackney Downs. Still no voices – the children have gone, everything else drowned out by transport. I clear my throat, have I missed anything? The sound of sun or the effect that sun has on sound and the space that a Sunday afternoon creates. There are tones to the buses and cars, the rumbles and screeches are in different keys, the airplanes sustain a high note for longer, which dips and fluctuates with its engine and altitude. Interrupted by internet dial-up tone, processed sound, full of additives not existing and affected by the air and atmosphere, the space around it, but completely self-contained.

Taken from my flat on Graham Road in Hackney E8

more of 169b graham road...

2007-04-15T01:43:00.000+01:00

phone images of 169b after moving out

2007-04-15T01:35:00.000+01:00

K, Trongate, Glasgow

2007-04-14T17:00:00.000+01:00

beautiful

Finegan's Wake. Mortality rate in area 52 years (Trongate). Pubs open at 8am. I will write in red paint on a large slab whilst reciting Birth of Orpheus in Greek and English, smear red paint as I continue. I shout in my sleep and wake myself up. Kick and punch in my sleep also. It's difficult to share a bed with me. I'm sorry about him. Spent 5 years sleeping on people's floors in London, Glasgow, Amsterdam. I was homeless. I lived in Greece for a while. Bad credit rating.

item1 circa 1999 white sandals

2007-04-14T16:39:00.000+01:00

thought you'd lie in it

How old are you?

1. [white sandals] circa 1999. I’ve eaten two third’s of a loaf of bread. And I’m sat here printing out words to – to see my words in print. And I’m comparing them with Matt’s.

D, Glasgow continued

2007-04-14T16:26:00.000+01:00

The sun goes round the rooms all the day, D, Glasgow

2007-04-14T16:23:00.000+01:00

The sun goes round the rooms all the day so if I’m up soon enough I’ll put a mark on the wall where the sun is

2/12/06 12:24

17/12 12:25

now we’re moving into summer it’ll move down to there

since ’92

face more or less
due north

sun is directly overhead

it’s 40watts

nothing extraordinary happened here

I do things other than cooking here

M, window, bed, fridge

2007-04-14T16:11:00.000+01:00

suck my cock you bastard let me bend you over backwards. I'M NOT AN AGGRESSIVE PERSON! Don't EVER punch me! (whilst punching K, P). Last time I lived in London I burnt myself badly. Spent 3 months in hospital. Heater left on too long in kitchen. I was leaning against it - back caught fire. A new guy was coming to look at the house, he came in as I was running up the stairs. A man on fire ran past him (me).

M, Glasgow continued

2007-04-14T16:01:00.000+01:00

window

you're fucking shite
mix it up
nice girl
haven't experienced much
seminary
up the bum
Catholic

M, Glasgow

2007-04-14T15:52:00.000+01:00

details of right wall

favourite work of fiction - Lanark: A Life in Four Books, Alasdair Gray

item 11, circa 1999 if you could only unclasp my hands hold me hold me I would weep forever

2007-04-14T15:42:00.000+01:00

11. [black basque top] 1999. If you could only unclasp my hands hold me hold me I would weep forever.

desk and paintings, Bearsden

2007-04-14T14:49:00.000+01:00

the oak tree outside the window is twice its normal height

to left of desk....

granny is a lovely lady. And I love her. Love you granny

Slumber hold me tightly till I waken in the dawn and hear the thrushes singing in the lilacs round the lawn

2007-04-14T14:32:00.000+01:00

M's favourite possession

The embroidery was by her mother and M had this on her cot as a small child

M, Bearsden

2007-04-14T14:14:00.000+01:00

Rubieslaw Drive

M often buys objects for their colour, shape, texture...and can end up with a series of bags, pots, fabrics, umbrellas etc

the portrait is of her as a girl by her mother - her mother is now considered one of the Glasgow Girls - arts&craft movement

M is an artist, her most recent painting is in the National Gallery of Scotland's collection and is of Aran and the bothie...Aran is a place she returns to again and again in life and in imagination, it is a motif in her heart, body and mind...

MS's clock, Bearsden, Glasgow

2007-04-14T13:55:00.000+01:00

Grandfather clock is from Loch End, her mother's house

lounge, Montague street

2007-04-12T19:02:00.000+01:00

excerpt from interview:

all the decor was sort of beigey brown, everything had deep impressions on the carpets where furniture and other bits and pieces had been standing round in the same place for decades

it was a cold night and I made a fire...had all these telephone directories - so I was throwing them on the fire
next thing I knew the chimney was alight
by this time it was three in the morning - had to decide whether to wake people...and cal the fire brigade...instead of having them die in their sleep

round the corner of Montague street

2007-04-12T18:55:00.000+01:00

nearby....there's a shop that deals in reminiscence..

exterior, Montague street

2007-04-12T18:33:00.000+01:00

excerpt from interview:

at about one or two in the morning there are lairy people about, coming back from The Maltings

That's always been The Maltings

but the Quarter Gill is always changing its name

it's not half gl anymore it's 35ml

'93 I moved in

the building was built in 1824

the area is dominated by students whose parents buy places for them as an investment

except for the lower ground floor where there are unhappy families, don't know why they get condemned to the basement

in the basement, Montague street

2007-04-12T18:00:00.000+01:00

\

A three-story house...has a cellar, a ground floor and an attic. One floor more, and our dreams become blurred. In the oneiric house, topoanalysis only knows how to count to three or four.

Then there are the stairways: one to three or four of them, all different. We always go down the one that leads to the cellar, and it is this going down that we remember, that characterises its oneirism. But we go both up and down the stairway that leads to the bed-chamber; we a re familiar with it. Twelve year olds even go up it in ascending scales, in thirds and fourths, trying to do fifths, and liking, above all, to take it in strides of four steps at a time

pp25-26 P of S, Bachelard

shared spaces continued

2007-04-12T17:55:00.000+01:00

more shared spaces in tenement, Edinburgh

shared spaces, Edinburgh tenement

2007-04-12T17:14:00.001+01:00

J, Montague Street, Edinburgh

shared spaces...

March 07

2007-04-12T17:11:00.000+01:00

and another

2007-04-12T17:06:00.000+01:00

SH, Maury Road, London

2007-04-12T17:00:00.000+01:00

44b...bits of kitchen

2007-04-12T16:56:00.000+01:00

more of tunnel section under carpark...its a shame its on a small scale...to be honest it felt more like a cellar of a house

2007-04-12T16:54:00.000+01:00

and some more of bits of tunnel under carpark...

2007-04-12T16:39:00.000+01:00

here are some pics of another section of tunnels...under a carpark...I was shown round by Les Coe and friend...they organised its excavation - mostly by hiring diggers and doing it themselves. The space is much smaller than last section - but is more like a tunnel, where as the heritage centre is more of a cavern.. Les Coe is quite a character and very enthusiastic about the tunnels. I recorded the interview and it might be worth using parts of it.

2007-04-12T16:26:00.000+01:00

more images of Plimsol Road + last one is of Nuttall Street...which lie over sections of the tunnels..

an excerpt from chat/interview with Mary, then living on Nuttall Street (she was re-housed in Dec 06):

Only two
Catholic Families on
the street..I know Rita
really well. She
performs
mass for people who
are house-bound..

We went on
trips to Seacombe on
the ferry..

The kids bring people
together…

ask Rita about the red
bloomers…

I don’t like Tom Jones

2007-04-12T16:19:00.000+01:00

trip to Edge Lane, Liverpool - Plimsol Road images

sept 07

2007-04-12T16:13:00.000+01:00

and some more of tunnel section/heritage centre...

this one section is really one space with a few small walkways above / to side of it...

2007-04-12T16:05:00.000+01:00

more images of tunnel section...

2007-04-12T15:24:00.000+01:00

images of part of Williamson tunnels - Heritage centre bit, Sept 06

2007-04-12T14:52:00.000+01:00

bathroom at 169b through mirror

2007-04-02T20:59:00.000+01:00

the first thing God created was the journey. And then came doubt and nostalgia

- Ulysses' Gaze, dir Theo Angelopoulos, 1996

hey Rob - hows it going?

2007-04-01T01:33:00.000+01:00

hey Rob - hope you are well - don't know if you'll read this whilst you are away...it's now the morning of april fools day...hope things are good

did u get my text / message on er...wednesday (?) - praps u were just readying yourself to leave..i myself have had a very exhausting week...maybe we should have got the recordings done in Artsadmin - but Franko not sure of time it would take and the group...had a bit of a bout of low leve insomnia this week which + low-level sleep... a strange week a good week...all a bit messy but creative...but my head like soup and hence i texted u to come round on my way back...memory a bit shot... I actually wanted to get that bit of software off u that u mentioned as i wanted to go thru recording i have and edit out the crap...did a few interviews (5 mins) during this week - good stuff....not 2 mention glasgow...

blah de blah

it's late so i'll go

post me something!

and by the way - i've made this a private blog now....

speak soon and look forward to working next week - we need to fix day - mon - tues - wednes - thurs _ which is good?

- for empty flat etc

- 1 day + half a day (guess i'm stating the obvious [i need the echoe...] )

Lisa
x

themes.....

2007-03-21T10:59:00.000Z

katabasis / moments of 'truth' on the intimate level of the home, the autobiographical....

...the interweave between:

remembrance in the home whilst forgetting in society at large....

versions of the truth
memory and forgetting - what we forget and why

Douglas McDougal tried to find the weight of the human soul and came to the conclusion that it was 21 grams...The story is based on research by McDougal in 1907 - he weighed people before and after death and discovered an 11 to 21 gram loss. This is not found in animals, and no-one has repeated the experiments on people, so...

the romantic reductionist

the weight of an individual's life, breath, presence, memories, self

Marconi, inventor of the telegraph, came to believe at the end of his life that once a sound has been generated it doesn’t die, but simply grows fainter and fainter, and given a sensitive enough ear and the right place to listen, one could hear it forever

Papua New Guinea community who drop a word form their vocabulary when a tragic event occurs - so for example if a house burnt down - instead of saying "My house burnt down" they'd take the word before or after to replace 'house' - so: "My my burnt down"

2007-03-13T19:57:00.000Z

perpetual motion pendulum, slowing down and speeding up sound, juxtaposition of sound in space

microphone swinging on pendulum

2007-03-11T17:25:00.000Z

Sunday is a special day. It’s hard to describe in what way. It 's quieter and yet there are more kids out in the street. The posh kids are dressed well on a Sunday. We seem to have the same clothes on. Sometimes we're a bit ashamed to go out. The kids who belong to families with only one or two children seem to do OK. They have better clothes. Kids like Roy Lello, Brian Blackler or Val Snape

A Liverpool Childhood, Anon

Proust's famous meditation on memory...

2007-03-10T13:28:00.001Z

Proust exquisitely describes the complex evocation of a sensation evoking a past experience-body-memory, the recognition of an as yet unrecognized memory, that is bit by bit fragilely unearthed and related:

"Many years had elapsed during which nothing of Combray, save what was comprised in the theatre and the drama of my going to bed there, had any existence for me, when one day in winter, on my return home, my mother, seeing that I was cold, offered me some tea, a thing I did not ordinarily take. I declined at first, and then, for no particular reason, changed my mind. She sent for one of those squat, plump little cakes called "petites madeleines," which look as though they had been moulded in the fluted valve of a scallop shell. And soon, mechanically, dispirited after a dreary day with the prospect of a depressing morrow, I raised to my lips a spoonful of the tea in which I had soaked a morsel of the cake. No sooner had the warm liquid mixed with the crumbs touched my palate than a shudder ran through me and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary thing that was happening to me. An exquisite pleasure had invaded my senses, something isolated, detached, with no suggestion of its origin. And at once the vicissitudes of life had become indifferent to me, its disasters innocuous, its brevity illusory - this new sensation having had on me the effect which love has of filling me with a precious essence; or rather this essence was not in me it was me. I had ceased now to feel mediocre, contingent, mortal. Whence could it have come to me, this all-powerful joy? I sensed that it was connected with the taste of the tea and the cake, but that it infinitely transcended those savours, could, no, indeed, be of the same nature. Whence did it come? What did it mean? How could I seize and apprehend it?

I drink a second mouthful, in which I find nothing more than in the first, then a third, which gives me rather less than the second. It is time to stop; the potion is losing it magic. It is plain that the truth I am seeking lies not in the cup but in myself. The drink has called it into being, but does not know it, and can only repeat indefinitely, with a progressive diminution of strength, the same message which I cannot interpret, though I hope at least to be able to call it forth again and to find it there presently, intact and at my disposal, for my final enlightenment. I put down the cup and examine my own mind. It alone can discover the truth. But how: What an abyss of uncertainty, whenever the mind feels overtaken by itself; when it, the seeker, is at the same time the dark region through which it must go seeking and where all its equipment will avail it nothing. Seek? More than that: create. It is face to face with something which does not yet exist, to which it alone can give reality and substance, which it alone can bring into the light of day.

And I begin to ask myself what it could have been, this unremembered state which brought with it no logical proof, but the indisputable evidence, of its felicity, its reality, and in whose presence other states of consciousness melted and vanished. I decide to attempt to make it reappear. I retrace my thoughts to the moment at which I drank the first spoonful of tea. I rediscover the same state, illuminated by no fresh light. I ask my mind to make one further effort, to bring back once more the fleeting sensation. And so that nothing may interrupt it in its course I shut out every obstacle, every extraneous idea, I stop my ears and inhibit all attention against the sound from the next room. And then, feeling that my mind is tiring itself without having any success to report, I compel it for a change to enjoy the distraction which I have just denied it, to think of other things, to rest refresh itself before making a final effort. And then for the second time I clear an empty space in front of it; I place in position before my mind's eye the still recent taste of that first mouthful, and I feel something start within me, something that leaves its resting-place and attempts to rise, something that has been embedded like an anchor at a great depth; I do not know yet what it is, but I can feel it mounting slowly; I can measure the resistance, I can hear the echo of great spaces traversed.

Undoubtedly what is thus palpitating in the depths of my being must be the image, the visual memory which, being linked to that taste, is trying to follow it into my conscious mind. But its struggles are too far off, too confused and chaotic; scarcely can I perceive the neutral glow into which the elusive whirling medley of stirred-up colours is fused, and I cannot distinguish its form, cannot invite it, as the one possible interpreter, to translate for me the evidence of its contemporary, its inseparable paramour, the taste, cannot ask it to inform me what special circumstance is in question, from what period in my past life.

Will it ultimately reach the clear surface of my consciousness, this memory, this old, dead moment which the magnetism of an identical moment has traveled so far to importune, to disturb, to raise up out of the very depths of my being? I cannot tell. Now I feel nothing; it has stopped, has perhaps sunk back into its darkness, from which who can say whether it will ever rise again? Ten times over I must essay the task, must lean down over the abyss. And each time the cowardice that deters us from every difficult task, every important enterprise, has urged me to leave the thing alone, to drink my tea and to think merely of the worries of to-day and my hopes for to-morrow, which can be brooded over painlessly.

And suddenly the memory revealed itself. The taste was that of the little piece of madeleine which on Sunday mornings at Combray (because on those mornings I did not go out before mass), when I went to say good morning to her in her bedroom , my aunt Léonie used to give me, dipping it first in her own cup of tea or tisane. The sight of the little madeleine had recalled nothing to my mind before I tasted it; perhaps because I had so often seen such things in the meantime, without tasting them, on the trays in pastry-cooks' windows, that their image had dissociated itself from those Combray days to take its place among others more recent; perhaps because of those memories, so long abandoned and put out of mind, nothing now survived, everything was scattered; the shapes of things, including that of the little scallop-shell of pastry, so richly sensual under its severe, religious folds, were either obliterated or had been so long dormant as to have lost the power of expansion which would have allowed them to resume their place in my consciousness. But when from a long-distant past nothing subsists, after the people are dead, after the things are broken and scattered, taste and smell alone, more fragile but more enduring, more unsubstantial, more persistent, more faithful, remain poised a long time, like souls, remembering, waiting, hoping, amid the ruins of all the rest; and bear unflinchingly, in the tiny and almost impalpable drop of their essence, the vast structure of recollection.

And as soon as I had recognized the taste of the piece of madeleine soaked in her decoction of lime-blossom which my aunt used to give me (although I did not yet know and must long postpone the discovery of why this memory made me so happy) immediately the old grey house upon the street, where her room was, rose up like a stage set to attach itself to the little pavilion opening on to the garden which had been built out behind it for my parents (the isolated segment which until that moment had been all that I could see); and with the house the town, from morning to night and in all weathers, the Square where I used to be sent before lunch, the streets along which I used to run errands, the country roads we took when it was fine. And as in the game wherein the Japanese amuse themselves by filling a porcelain bowl with water and steeping in it little pieces of paper which until then are without character or form, but, the moment they become wet, stretch and twist and take on colour and distinctive shape, become flowers or houses or people, solid and recognizable, so in that moment all the flowers in our garden and in M. Swann's park, and the water-lilies on the Vivonne and the good folk of the village and their little dwellings and the parish church and the whole of Combray and its surroundings, taking shape and solidity, sprang into being, town and gardens alike, from my cup of tea."

Proust, M. (1913-27). Remembrance of Things Past. Volume 1: Swann's Way: Within a Budding Grove.
The French Pleiade edition translated by C.K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin. New York: Vintage. pp. 48-51.

off the top of my head

2007-03-08T14:51:00.000Z

Hey Rob,

Good to see you last night - hope you are managing to enjoy some sunshine...I have to confess i still haver a hangover (I am really a light weight).

Anyway -it was a good meeting and it all feels on track...I will drop by when I've done the contract + with any potential sound material to start with.

I think we covered quote a few areas last night and I will at some point today or tonight jot a few down onto the blog. Aah just realised you not online (unline) till next week isn't it? When you've got the broadband lets try to dialogue all through the blog - shall we make it private or not?? [i will prob post this on there too so] When I go off on trips will try to keep you updated this way...we'll see if it works...

(this is meant to be a quick email...) - but just a couple of points - yes to duration re sound, passing of time, memory etc etc (guess we'll keep Bergson out of it though!). And yes DURATION it will definitely be one of the strategies I use in the studio/devising week - so feel free to go off on a tangent with that....and may be used in final piece...

I was just thinking that another idea to play with could be that each channel on computer system - that also represents a person / place / home / room / street / story - could also be a part for an instrument (e.g. string quartet....etc etc)..and that compositionally apart from the person/story/place it encompasses - along with the instrument part - the channel also relates to a part of the space / journey through space/trajectory.... R u with me?!? So composition is based on all these things...it also nicely embraces palimpsest....re-inscription....like the dip on the stone step both representing the passage of time and people passing by and its physical actuality worn away by thousands upon thousands of footsteps (-but don't worry i don't want that many layers - but you what I mean...)

When I got back last night - I read a bit before sleeping...amongst other things I'm reading the Hatha Yoga Pradipika - it's homework for the course I'm doing....and guess what I read half a page in....I quote:

"If you have fifteen grandfather clocks together on the same wall , all with pendulums of identical length and weight, you will notice that after some time all the pendulums become synchronized in their movements. This occurs quite naturally according to the law of mutual rhythms and vibrations....." (pp17-18)

synchronicity!

So maybe you should try it on your wall as planned

and I am interested in this idea to work with in the studio in some way....performers...sound...threads of story...repetition...

That's it for now....

Lisa

p.s. look at this: http://www.nighthaunts.org.uk/ - more grist for the mill

2007-02-24T02:23:00.000Z

another horn...

the idea of the palimpsest made me think of the edison wax cylinders - i have got some great old recordings of these - will play them to you when we meet - the static on the recordings is not so different from the cosmic radiation static...

2007-02-24T02:17:00.000Z

following on with the theme of resononace and decay...
this is a horn antenna used in the 60's to measure cosmic background radiation - an echo from the big bang...

"We live in an ocean of whispers left over from our eruptive creation, physicist George Gamow and his colleagues had said. Nobody was listening."

brassbands at HOME

2007-02-14T16:11:00.000Z

Church Ale 2008;
home is working with composer Orlando Gough and The Shout Choir on a large scale community choral work, The Miracle of St Margaret, which will feature a mass of singers from local choirs alongside brass bands and medieval instrumentalists. A Street Fair designed by Julian Crouch, medieval food tavern run by artist Miche Fabre Lewin and many other major new commissions are in development including from; Forced Entertainment, Wonderful Beast, Lone Twin, New Art Club, Caroline Wright, Howard Matthew.

http://www.lgihome.co.uk

2007-02-08T13:27:00.000Z

- i'm posting this because it reminded me of the potential powerful stuff you can get accross with inanimate objects and sound...the past keeps on resonating (much like how a sound itself never dies but just keeps on resonating for eternity - see Marconi, inventor of the telegraph....) - but then so do our actions - good, bad and foolish....reverberation...knock on effect etc etc

(for another image of this go to http://art.ntu.ac.uk/nrla/content/photoset.htm)