Refining...Structuring...Making...Finding...

MindShark,

The blog feels empty, but that's because you're all here, in rehearsal, working hard to find the connections, the junctures between the work that lives in records and minds and bodies and the work we're making. It's a constant negotiation, the new and the old together on top of each other. "This is how we did it yesterday" and "This is how we can do it today" - it's exciting to watch the situations develop, the work grow.

It's good to remember: the people here at the time are the 'right' ones, we are the right people to make this work, the questions we ask are the right ones, the answers we find are the right ones. There is no Show 'just over there', something to be discovered - separate from ourselves, - something to be found like it was always there, waiting. We're making it, we're in it, we're off it, even as we search for more.

The Bimini Road emerges before me...

Bimini Road - Inspirational music

Over the months, I've been thinking of songs and sounds that reflect the material we've been experimenting with and developing.

Below is the track list for a CD I've made for the company. Think of it is a source for inspiration. I hope it sparks some ideas while we create the world of "Bimini Road:"

1. Not Having Found - The Dirty Projectors
2. Darkness - Scott Walker
3. Crazy for You - Slowdive
4. Spirit Fingers - Four Tet
5. Untrue - Burial
6. Cue - Scott Walker
7. Heart and Soul - Joy Division
8. Kappsta- Fields
9. Feeling Yourself Disintegrate - The Flaming Lips
10. Heatherwood - Deerhunter
11. I'm Not There (1956) - Bob Dylan
12. When We Two Parted - The Afghan Whigs
13. Orpheus - Scott Walker

Some of these we used in early research experiments. Some have recently sprung to mind as the piece grows.

I guess this is me missing being a radio deejay.

Enjoy,

Tim

Empty space...

I'm sitting in our rehearsal, watching the 'Empty Space' exercise unfold before me. It feels like painting - each person considering their one stroke and then with their body as brush, leaving their mark - not in paint but with themselves. But once they've been made, regret or stasis sets in - there's hesitation, a reluctance to de-construct our bodies and dis-entangle them - or perhaps no one wants to make the first move. It's a stand off...

~ JK

Matt Collishaw's "Deliverance"

There's an art installation that I thought might be worth a visit given all our discussion of disaster and devastation last week. I'm going to go on Saturday at 2 PM if anyone would like to join me:

http://flavorpill.com/london/events/2008/4/11/matt-collishaw-deliverance

This is my first ever blog entry! A bizarre feeling,

- Tim

The 'Real' Bimini Road...

Hi all,

Wanted to send these little images out into your Mindspace.

They are of the Bimini Road. I think they're suitably eerie.

Hope you're enjoying your time off.

John K

chasms and illusions

Hi Y'all -

I enjoyed the text-response movement session today, and the exercises and sharing from Monday and Tuesday. I wanted to share some of my personal responses to those things here. Maybe it will connect with something you've seen or thought, or spark something else entirely.

On Tuesday, the discussion of lost socks vs. lost sons brought up a lot of emotion for me personally. I witnessed the murders of two family members I was very close to, when I was growing up. These events happened a long long time ago, and I don't sit around dwelling on them, but these things still affect my life. For me at least, there is something about profound loss that feels like a chasm between myself and other people. A big loss can feel like a barrier to normal human connection, a fear that others cannot possibly 'understand,' even though the mind knows that these are universal emotions. Losses are losses, however big or small - everyone knows this place where your feet touched the earth, then what was solid, what held your weight just a moment ago dissolves.

I responded to "The sound of another person's voice that makes you feel there's an emptiness you can't cross" in Andy's text. I had an image of myself on a little ledge, sort of like an island, barely bigger than me. Beyond the edge of this tiny parcel of land was a dropoff into deep ocean, like the Tongue of the Ocean photo. I saw the others moving across the room and reached to them, but they did not see or hear me. Finally, I decided to roll off the ledge, over the cliff, into the unknown depths. There was a fear of what might happen, but I went anyway. I sunk to the bottom, felt the fine flat sand of the ocean floor, soft and quiet like human skin. There was something secure in being there. I sensed others through darkness, then began to feel the lines of their energy tracking towards me, as if we had always been connected, but I had never noticed. I started to realize that the chasm was an illusion, that the separateness is an illusion, that all of what I felt and saw had some common source, were kin. Only the fear was real.

Anyway, I hope that others will share what they've experienced or felt in regards to the process of making this piece, on this blog. I think it will help us all get a window into each other's processes, and hopefully enrich the work.

Warmly,
Raven

Some info on our Mentor...Guy Dartnell

Guy Dartnell is an award-winning solo and collaborative artist whose work crosses the realms of theatre, music, dance, circus and film. His solo work is often semi-improvised and semi-autobiographical, mixing a disarmingly conversational style of delivery with a highly dynamic synthesis of voice and movement. He is also an Associate Artist with Improbable.

http://www.guydartnell.org.uk/

He's very cool...

John K