the institute for crazy dancing

Bradford

by Jason 72 days ago

The Rhyme of
the Modern Mariner

by S J Goodwin

 

Good evening ladies and gentlemen,

On tonight's journey our ports of call will be

A new moon above, and some stars to see.

Gaining our bearings: North, East, South, and West,

While looking and listening could be for the best...

The inner, the outer, a plank man on view,

Temptation, contemplation,

Oh there's Death and Hope too.

Inch by inch it's a cinch, yard by yard, it's hard.

But if we all pull together we can make it better.

 

United as one, to the rope we clung

To face the storm ahead, in trepidation up steps we tread.

On the upper deck, seven hammocks strung

Around them in a circle, did we all breathe as one.

Three times in, three times out

In - out, in - out, in - out.

 

Shoulder to shoulder, we handled the rope helm

To circumnavigate together, great dominions, our realm.

With the bow pointing North,

Migration

bellowed a voice

(Not mine)

"Ahoy! Where do we draw the line?"

With the bow pointing East, another question to share,

On ethics

and

"Oh, is it fair?"

With the bow pointing South, we heard the voice blast

Sustainability,
"how long will it last?"

With the bow pointing West, we heard "What on earth?"

"Trade? How much are you worth?"

 

While the questions set were thoughtfully mooted

Music and movements were at once executed

Two planks above his head raised he,

Then down to the ground on bended knee:

First one foot, and then the other

Some people wondered, why did he bother?

Repeat, then repeat, then repeat, yet again…

On every four the drum went boom,

Handclaps reverberated around the room:

As the fish organ hummed and whirred,

A spoon tinkled gently in a tea cup stirred;

Minds were focussed while the keyboard vamped

Questions answered, passports stamped.

One and a half times plankman went round

The ship now adrift neither lost nor found.

 

To get back on course that's what's needed

The coming few words were duly heeded:

'No booze this time we'll keep a clear head

We're going to try this method instead'

As all hands were held and eye contact too

We smiled for enlightenment 'tis good for you';

'Let's steer this ship to a fairer future' he said

Anchors away and full steam ahead.

A song was then sung:

"Oh show us the way to the next whisky bar
Oh don't ask why, oh don't ask why
For if we don't find the next whisky bar
I tell you we must die, I tell you we must die!"

 

The sea now becalmed, peace and quiet abound -

To the sound of a metronome, slowly wound,

I paused.. stepped forward took a deep breath

Then said …'Now is the time to consider death.'

Darkness and hush prevailed in the room

Only the skeleton (and time) lit the gloom.

Silence was broken with a drone and a ting

Hmmm tick, ching, tick ,bong ,tick ,chang

Piano, xylophone, finger cymbals rang

Perfect harmony some would say zen

Simply created by three notes and three men...

 

On the piano a length of rope was now tied

'Let's all pull together again!' I cried

Heave and hoe, and we heaved and hoe'd

By pulling as one we could bear the load

Our hearts full of love we now felt as one

On piano, drums and organ a song then begun:

When you walk through a storm
Hold your head up high and don't be afraid of the dark
At the end of the storm is a golden sky
And the sweet silver song of the lark
Walk on through the wind walk on through the rain
Though your dreams be tossed and blown
Walk on walk on with hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone
You'll never walk alone.

 

 

Ship o'FoOls / Hammocks, Musicality, Questions, Death & Hope / Bradford

Theatre in the Mill / 07 - 19. 11. 2011:

Collaborators: Stevie Goodwin, Jason Hird & Dave Lazonby.

Aim: To work on ideas, participatory structures, musicality, performance material & provocations / questions with regard to Migration, Ethics, Sustainability & Trade - all in order to explore qualities of 'other-worldliness' to accompany the proposed participatory installation: Ship o'FoOls - 21 Hammocks on a rotating, tilting keel.

DESCRIPTION - room layout & contents:

No Seating.

7 Hammocks strung - using anchor knots @ 60cm centres - diagonally across the middle of the room.

4 tables covered in canvas @ North, South, East & West.

North table: letter 'N' in silver foil, metronome, large piece of driftwood, N-stamp & ink-pad, small jar containing earth, notes on Migration.

North East corner - keyboard & laptop with sound - scapes & effects, 2 planks (1 ash, 1 cedar).

East table: letter 'E' in silver foil, Flash3 (ICD cuddly toy dog), E-stamp & ink-pad, small jar containing air, notes on Ethics.

South East corner: drum kit.

South table: letter 'S' in silver foil, S-stamp & ink-pad, small jar containing an unlit match, notes on Sustainability.

South West corner: Piano, Tibetan singing bowl, and a short length of chain.

West table: letter 'W' in silver foil, home planetarium, W-stamp & ink-pad, small jar containing water, notes on Trade.

North West: Fish organ (keyboard) & amplifier.

1.8m tall skeleton suspended over a chunk of wood to the inner S.W side of the piano.

A light-box titled HOPE suspended from the LX bars over the entrance/exit into the room.

DESCRIPTION - planned programme of event & musicality:

1. Audience welcomed and 'passports' distributed in the theatre foyer from 19.25 to 19.40.

2. Length of rope unraveled in foyer - audience-participants invited to hold on to the rope and the programme of voyage announced in brief.

3. Whilst holding the rope the participants and crew make their way upstairs to the theatre space - with trepidation.

4. Coats & bags placed upon the folded away seating block.

5. Formation of a circle around the hammocks - everyone still holding the rope: consider the inner and the outer…

6. Get your bearings… Circle turns as one to the N, E, S & W points in the room.

7. 1st track - Home Planetarium Instruction tape with sound effects, chain rattling, drones and Tibetan singing bowl.

8. Speak plainly - Announcement of questions / provocations: to the North - Migration: Where do you draw the line? To the East - Ethics: Is it fair? To the South - Sustainability: Will it last? And to the West - Trade: How much are you worth? Track 2 under-scores: the 'Gentle Overture'

9. Plank Man: JH walks the never ending plank 1 ½ times around the room - slowly & precisely - engaging with the participants only when engaged by them. Track 3: Plankman -  repetitive, rhythmic monotony - with peaks and troughs of differing musical intensities. The participants respond to the provocations, and collect N, S, E & W stamps in their passports.

10. Reformation of the circle - this time holding hands and not the rope. Explanation that often at ICD events we have a break and a drink / refreshments but that on this occasion we are going to look at each other instead.

11. 'Temptation' is announced as the theme and Track 4 - the 'Alabama Song' is played on drums, fish organ and piano with three voices, from three corners of the room.

12. Silence. The contemplation of Death is announced. Track 5: Zen - low and high drones, metronome, over-scored by a single note on the piano, xylophone and thumb-cymbals every other beat (7 minutes).

13. Moment of shift - the participants are asked to help move the piano from the SW and the drum kit from SE to the NE corner.

14. HOPE light-box is illuminated - once everyone is gathered together facing NE, track 6: You'll never walk alone - percussion, keyboard, piano & three male voices leading the sing-a-long.

END - conversations & departure at leisure…

 

PARTICIPANT RESPONSES:

We undertook two very different approaches to our two performance events. On the Friday evening we used very little guidance and structure. On the Saturday evening we kept a stronger hold on the shape of the event...

 

Friday 18.11.2011

Migration: Where do you draw the line?

On Paper

Nowhere

Migrate to change better / worse

Is there space.

J G Ballard's A Drowned World.

 

Ethics: Is it fair?

No, because I'm poor : )

No.

Worldwide revolution baby.

Not a lot in the UK. Could be better.

 

Sustainability: How long will it last?

Whatever.

It is eternal. Things are not.

Not long enough.

As long as you choose.

Nihilism will end it all.

 

Trade: How much are you worth?

Priceless.

Priceless.

A smile.

I am not worth it.

 

Saturday 19.11.2011

 

Migration: Where do you draw the line?

We shouldn't

 

How long is a piece of string?

 

Here: [rambling single line drawing of circles and crossings drawn on an A4 page]

 

Plasticine when you buy it [drawing of neat rows of plastercine]

Plasticine after you play with it [drawing of a ball of melded together plastercine]

 

I am a migrant and enough in terms of people movement is almost certainly never enough. It's just a shifting, no? The issue is, I guess, not migration but birthrate and consumption and a sharing of resource.

 

No Lines

 

When the island is full… then we go elsewhere. Realistically we will continue to expand until resources are insufficient. Do we need passports? No, if we allow free movement. Why does the government control passports? To control the people…

 

What line? Do you see any line? Because I don't, and if you see it, it is because you are imagining it. Passports, pieces of paper that you can easily fake, that's a very basic way of trying to establish a limit. Passports belong to governments? Probably yours belong to your government; mine belongs to me!

 

There is no line, you draw your own lines.

 

Migration is like faith & doubt & breathing in & out intrinsically linked like ebbs & flows and there isn't a line to draw more like a shape that changes and movement that happens like birds doing that nice flocking thing which sheep are good at too. This means that sometimes people feel squashed and they start playing pushing & shoving which isn't a very nice game if you're on the receiving end and should be discouraged. When you rearrange stones in the river you can change the flow of the water and this can be a good game… If you are nomadic which it has been argued is our natural state then you might like to wander about. If you are prevented you might end up wandering about in your mind which is nice for some but not for others.

 

There is no line except the one that are fixed by others.

 

We draw the line where other people already did draw a line. We draw a line around our own world and believe in only allowing in who we want inside!

 

Migrate - ate - grate - great - age - time - rare - rat - mate - mat - get - git - tea - team - gem.

 

We should not need passports to go around, we should be free to go everywhere we want. But put limits on our stay. You cannot permit everyone to stay forever in your country and take over their jobs.

 

No borders. No passports! No lines (except straight ones!)

 

Passports are needed in order to identify individuals and their nationalities. They are also a way of controlling an individuals movement. The line should be drawn when a passport becomes a form of assessing someone's "value" and how "free" they are to travel and have free movement only measured by where they are born.

 

Ethics: Is it fair?

No, less money for politics and their expenses.

 

Is it possible to be fair - is fairness and the perception of fairness transient? Can a human ever be fulfilled?

 

Is the current economic / political system fair? - to some, yes; to others, no. What can we do to make it better? Nothing, all changes will never suit everyone. So that is life - idealistic but not achievable.

 

No, it's not fair when the system is corrupt, we all have athe chance of changing it in elections though.

 

Somethings are fair some are not; some people give more, some take more, some need more. Is it fair if your child dies at 13 after years of pain - can joy and love make up for that?

 

Develop the inner moral code of our children because they contain the future within them (and then practice what you preach)

 

Educashun educashun educashun

 

It is not fair, it is very very dark, but we can make it light in our own ways.

 

Fair? No it's not fair - why should it be! No I do not think it is fair. How can we make it fair? No idea.

 

Worldwide revolution baby.

 

No, it's not fair, as in equitable. Whilst we have those who have and those who do not have It is not fair.

 

Some things feel fair when they are not and somethings don't feel fair when they are - so where does that leave you? Fairness has to be measured against somebodies morality. It's not fair that I don't have enough time to answer this question for example.

 

Yes it is!

Sustainability: How long will it last?

Not long enough usually unless you're in a hurry.

 

Can we afford to sustain what is costing us the earth? All things must pass but can we pass on something to our childrens childrens children?

 

Not long enough.

 

It will last as long as we make it last, so we are the key.

 

There is another way (x3) But what is it (x3) But But [all in the shape of a large question mark]

 

We will end in chaos due to all the issues discussed, but that is our course. Business makes things not last forever - profiteering is how the world works.

 

Sustainability is something very difficult to predict! I think you make things sustainable on an on-going basis!

 

[Picture of a cobbler - with a speech bubble saying: Hi I'm an old cobbler!] - But isn't art a load of cobblers. I'll give you a fiver for every bucket of shit you can produce!

 

In built obsolescence is (one of) the biggest sins of modern society.

 

The current situation is not sustainable / economic / environmental. But many people are working very hard to sustain the current status quo and economic systems of global capitalism.

 

Things should last with pride! We have to be conscious that things do not last forever!

 

Things are not made to last forever. Everything changes and with change the resources will diminish.

 

It will last until I achieve my aims and then I'll still continue to fight - meaning that it will last until I die!

 

[drawing of a bear] Let humans die out to save the polar bear. Priority - build time machines.

 

'It' is eternal - things are not - all physical matter is transient, whilst permanent. We exist in a state of contradiction. Clearly we're fucking it all up. But then we are just a blip. I blame the parents!

Trade: How much are you worth?

I am worth what I do in my day to day basis and that defines what I am and what I stand for!

 

Nothing and all.

 

A second glance.

 

We are priceless.

 

Depends on what you do with your life - to some you are worth a lot, to others you are worth nothing.

 

I am worth it. I am worth 5. I am worthy. Have you got a measuring stick? Lots and lots and lots and lots. Not much What do you want me for? The same as you.

 

It depends on who can "value" my worth. It could be a little or a lot.

 

Respect if I deserve it. Trust if I earn it.

 

£20 - 60000 per life year of health care.

 

You are worth as much as you feel you are. It comes down to self-love and how much you are able to open up to yourself and love your abilities as well as your flaws.

 

Your value as determined by others would be different as the individual changes.

 

Leave it! It's not worth it! Did you spill my pint? [Drawing of 2 figures, one with a dagger, one falling backwards].

 

Depends… Father mother leader lover boss stranger African provider fun-giver teacher opponent son daughter foreigner friend. 25000 babies die every day due to lack of clean water.

 

I am worth a smile

 

£2

 

1 pint of lager and ½ packet of cheese and onion crisps.

 

Priceless.

 

Well… If all of us are equal, then we all worth the same. The answer is the same as you!

 

It depends - how do you quantify. Should you quantify. I don't think so.

 

I am worth the sum of what I inherit and bequest.

 

1.No more & no less than every other person on the planet. 2. Everything & Nothing!

 

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