Friday, June 5, 2009

last days...





























i flew back to the uk on 29th may, but hit the ground running and have only now found time to update the active crossover blog and finish my story...

the night time recording session with john grzinich and taavi tuulev was excellent - we went right out into the countryside once more and visited a couple of lakes as the sun rose. i was aprticularly happy with recordings of creaking trees and some crazed birds singing their hearts out as dawn broke. the mosquito bites i could have done without!

the last entry described the first workshop, which seemed to go well, but i had reservations about. the second day the weather had turned and it was raining. i gave the short presentation of my work, equipment and methods, abley assisted by john, and then we took the group into a disused part of the polymer factory we had been granted access to.
this part has large open plan rooms with debris littering the floor and windows missing. the perfect place to blindfold participants and leave them to negotiate the space using their other senses. we split the group so two people could ensure 3-4 blindfolded participants did not injure themselves or each other. i ran this part for well over 30 minutes and the group i was overseeing were incredible to watch. they moved slowly and carefully around the space, but stopped by open windows, corners, doorways, and really listened.
when we removed the blindfolds and returned to the residents room i asked the question, how long do you feel you were blindfolded for? most said 10-15 minutes! that was the answer i was hoping for! the response the previous day was good, but the second workshop hit all the buttons i was aiming for.

that evening the art container had organised an event where films were shown, a dj played, john and i, and two who from finland, also performed, and estonian painter, peeter allik, took live fish from a huge tank of water in the middle of the red hall at the polymer factory, killed them and cooked them. it was a strange night - very busy, and lots of people getting up to catch the fish - but the image that will stay with me is when the first fish was caught and taken to the preparation table, another guy (tutu?) tried to cut the fish, or skin it while still alive. peeter then took an axe to the fish, beheading it thankfully, but gradually all eyes turned to the fishtank, one end of which faced the prep table. all the remaining fish had lined up to face the tale, pressing their faces up against the glass, as if watching their fallen comrade! weird stuff... from what i understand, it has caused many people to reconsider eating fish...

the thursday workshop started shakily with technical problems with projecting from my laptop, but we overcame them and i showed the very basics of multitrack composition using audacity. the biggest challenge was working with participants using both pc's and macs! the response to this part was also very positive, and i have a number of compositions that will be included in all exhibitions, installations and the framework radio show i am compiling.

john left, after arranging to return to run workshops with ernest - a good relationship has started there i feel - and i threw a small thank you and goodbye party for the residents of the polymer factory who helped and supported me during my time there. beer and vodka flowed forth into the night....