Live Practice when We are Forced Online – Goodluck with That?

No Galleries, No Theatres, No creative spaces – not even outdoor live events or interventions – a tough period for live practice and the arts in general just got more impossible! The reminder of how everything shut overnight is probably to welcome at the moment but to tell the story of these two extraordinary opportunities needs to be set in the backdrop of Lockdown. It is said that artists work is like an iceberg, the bit that audience see is a small percentage of the work being put in. Yet, for me this imagery is more then just us artist wanting recognition for all the background paperwork, application writing, marketing and self-promotion, networking etc etc etc…..No, I think the iceberg also demonstrates that the little bit above water that can be observed, interactive with and critique is not necessary the most vibrant and alive piece. Speaking from the way I’m aiming to create, ‘the practice’ (the act of putting my creativity into motion – there will be a lot more on what the practice means just bear with me for now), can only be realise if my energy is focused on the messy, wonderful incredible journey of collaboration and creativity, rather than fixating on producing something that can be consumed.

[Image description: black and mostly straight lines overlap each other creating box like shapes on a white background]. An abstract way to illustrate the confusion and never-ending demands of the virtual world – a word of warning though, even if you can work out the place to start and end, I can’t remember whether the maze is doable 😊

The Changing Rooms

Firstly, massive Thank you to my undergrad tutor, Dr Joanne 'Bob' Whalley for sending me the Tempting Failure opportunity. The residency saw a massive shift in my approach to workshop, allowing me to rediscover how much I love the workshop space both has a facilitator and participant. I feel truly humbled that Bob sent the opportunity to me.

The sessions, held over zoom and with a host of developing artists, where stretch over a series of months, allowed us to meet and learn together. My training in theatre and devising gave me a footing in these inspiring sessions but my language for workshop and playing as a participant/facilitator expanded 10-fold. Each of us had our unique practise but all shared a passion for live art. In between motivating workshops, our hosts and guides Dr TJB and John Kurzynowski from Tempting Failure set us thoughtful, challenging and joyful assignments to help us understand our practise and how we run workshops. When we gather as a collective, we went beyond the too often awkward zoom platform with games, conversations and meditating rituals.

The warm and welcoming invitation The Changing Rooms, began with its very name: the use and protest of technology in live performance/workshop; the space shared between performance (the literal changing room); the workshop space and how it has changed and continued to evolve with future generations; how thought and discourse is embodied and changed in the workshop space to empower and challenge perceptions; how we as artists share our space and open up the room etc.

This online residency saw my perception of workshop shift powerfully, moving away from the restrictive space of the ‘all powerful’ workshop leader giving instructions and the student expected to merely listen and regurgitate. This isn’t to say that this way of sharing skill should be abandoned altogether – the expectation of, newly (literally the term has just popped out of my head) coined ‘skill-based workshops’ (the participant ‘signs up’ to learn a skill or method of creation) have their place. It is just when I apply my practice, my artform, if that is a way of describing it, is enriched by every participant having their voice, a way to protest hegemonic narratives and to play – in other words to have true agency. I need to practice what I preach – or more specifically, I need to apply what I practice – to create a space for creativity, freedom of thought and accessibility. The Changing Rooms residency demonstrated how we, as artists, awaken the creative spark in individual’s eyes.

The sessions felt to me like a practical theoretical session – workshop literature cannot belong on the page but expanded and steady through play. There was potentially some hypocritical feeling around The Changing Rooms – I can feel it now as I write: I have probably only facilitated and participated in a handful of workshops over the last three years and even less so in space. And this was another magic to the residency – demonstrating that we can create a safe, playful, risky and experimental space online.  Zoom fatigue is a thing and asking people to feel creative and in tune with each other after days and weeks of screen time is a tricky place to facilitate. Online workshops can break down barriers but often create new ones – the ‘You’re Still Muted’ may be less novel/funny to the group at large but still seems quite humiliating when you’re the one forgetting to press the button. The online workshop space has to be different from the online business meeting space and the facilitators of The Changing Rooms showed us how you can begin to use Zoom tools in ways they were not intended to be used. We have to ‘change the room’ in the virtual conference software just like we create a different experience when running workshops in classrooms or conference halls.

Now back to that practice definition promised at the top – the other main aspect of The Changing Room was how do we apply practice… We start by defining what our unique practice as artists, educators and facilitators is. Full disclosure here, the Tempting Failure guides put this elegantly and it was like you were taken through dimensions of thought and understanding – my interpretation will not come close … I’m still struggling with just what kind of word I actually mean here: practice or practise – or maybe part of my practice is creatively confusing the English language to make the meaning shine through rules of grammar and spelling.

So, if you were a pianist your practice would be to play the piano and by practicing you would be potentially hoping to improve your technique and skill and your interpretation of music. If you are a musician or a storyteller that plays the piano and you approach said instrument to practice, your attempt might not be to showcase or perform but to apply your practice… A dancer might use the piano as a balancing tool or a visual artist as a canvas. All these disciplines might indeed play the keys in a beautiful musical melody but that is a tool in order for them to practice rather than to compose. A scholar might use words on page to improve their craft as a writer – researching old and new texts, perfecting the use of a colon, writing the same words in a different order to emphasise a sentence. Indeed, I will craft and shape this blog on word before putting it out there but my practice isn’t to perfect the sentence structure but to portray an image or message or to instigate thoughts and emotions. A participant in a poetry workshop may use writing and the spoken word to express themselves – not to scan perfectly or to digest a rhyming dictionary – often with new words invented and funky new sentence structures which speak beyond words on pages.

My practice involves a lot of writing, from refined arts applications to networking emails to storytelling and describing the essence of work within blurbs. Although these bring different stress levels, I think deep down I enjoy all of them. The app, for example, needs to cut directly to the point – beginning with brush strokes and ending with very precise sentences. This blog however, is a personal expression and an extension of my identity and hopefully useful in some way to fellow artists

You may have noticed another key aspects of my practice is play, becoming distracted and distant, allowing attention span to drift and then refocus and allowing my mind and collaborators to wander from the point… So what is practice – I’m not sure I can truly answer that but I definitely have an inkling, that, in turn will allow me to apply and facilitate on a more equitable footing.

If I am low on confidence, stuck for a creative spark or downcast at politics at large, I remember back to these Zoom sessions and a shimmer of inspiration comes to me. Just the switch from thinking I as an artist have to have all the answers and knotty society needs to run in a certain way, to let’s play and how can I create a parameter for play is a massive help. Creatively thinking like this helps massively and allows me to be optimistic about whatever is next!

[Image description: Open book rests on a monitor displaying two colourful pages. The nearest to the camera reads in white on a multi-coloured background: ‘You, Me and My Voice’. ‘Grit’ and ‘DoorstepArts’ can clearly be read on the next page. A white keyboard with black letters holds the book open next to a black microphone and a tower computer with white paper on the side. Hugh’s hand and blue sleeve can be seen on the edge resting on the wooden desk].

Tech for Public Good

I was linked to this opportunity by the newly named Anchor – Thank to Artsadmin for their weekly newsletter of opportunities, courses for artists and workshop offers – I couldn’t recommend it enough and the regular emails both show you a wealth of things to get involved in and allow you a way to connect with our often too scattered art world.

This was a radical 10-day online residency with Leeds 23: an international landmark event of culture that is bursting at the seam. A complete release of colour, collaboration, music, performance, dance, moving image, circus, joy, community and so much more, nurturing a home for artists, creativity and hope. In 2032, culture is going to be let loose.

TFPG saw nine extraordinary artists and thinkers from around the world come together to discuss and debate through theoretical concept and practical exploration. Our creative minds dismantled and reconstructed everything and anything to do with Tech – thinking beyond wires and code to consider human knowledge and conversations and the power of teaching as technology in itself. The chance to experiment and play amongst such company created a unique space. Our journey of progressive conversation, difficult but necessary questions, input from vast range of practices (from live, visual and alternative arts practice to academic pursuit) saw an organic prototype emerged.

[Image description: red, lime and green squares/rectangle with round edges are scattered on a white background. They have black writing on which is illegible. Some are on bold orange and blue circles and others are inside them. Other titles are random words too. There are faint black lines that might be connecting some of the text or might be just random circles. The only text that is readable is bold and yellow and says: ‘tech for public good tool kit’ … the last word ‘replica’ is slanted].

Alongside the joyful and meaningful process, I felt true empowerment listening to these extraordinary minds and how they find resistance and connection in the everyday – sometimes through the most difficult of circumstances. It is all too easy just to play along with hegemonic narratives and writing on a website that you rebel toxic narratives of disability can be a bit empty without real practice and action. The group demonstrated an outward and bold stand against systems that seem too oppressive to fight back against – anti-capitalism, reforming education to empower young people, demanding change to how governments deal with climate change/climate justice etc. The 10-day residency was over in a flash, yet the effects will be lasting way beyond the Zoom boxes.

It was therefore amazing to be brought back recently for a reflecting session with the gang, and it was fascinating – reflecting session are almost always fascinating, do more of them! The session had a playful mix of catch up and sharing what we had been up to, planning and plotting for future adventures together and evaluation activities. We all responded to questions like ‘what has international working meant to you? … what skills have you gained? … what have you learned from working with a range of practitioners?’ and so on. Then, a really interesting question arose in our ranks – paraphrased, it went a bit like this: ‘Was there a reason why we developed a tool to help individuals/groups to navigate and question the use of tech rather focusing on a particular issue and prototyping how technology can tackle this issue head on?’.

 My initial response was to discuss that potentially we did not (or could not) focus on a pedicular issue because it was impossible to define ‘tech’ or the ‘public good’ and therefore the prototype had to be generic, giving individual’s a chance to define it themselves. Paraphrasing my fellow genius answers included: ‘that our short stint together didn’t allow us much time to bash out what issues we wanted to focus on… Perhaps we jumped into the residency showback too quickly… There wasn’t a natural leadership framework within our group so our process could only dig so far into a particular way of working or issue and therefore a more overview of the subjects explored was more productive etc’. We then reflected that our creation was all about the process of discussion and conversation and out of that came the prototype. The devising wasn’t a means to an end, but the very process organically created a tool that in itself is designed to inspire more conversation and debate – and that’s brilliant!!!

[Image description: A digital image sees 8 minifigures sitting or standing on a wooden stage. The stage is on a purple background with a dozen or so faded out figures sitting watching. Behind the stage is a grey wall with posters reading: ‘British Council’, ‘Leeds 2023 Year of Culture’, ‘Tech for the public Good & the world in our city, our city in the world presentation’, ‘University of Leeds’].

Alongside the joyful and progressive journey of Squeeze Box and mentoring from a range of inspiring artists and producers, I feel like these two residencies have been milestones in a creative journey. Together they teachers me to stay playful and not to measure myself by ticket sales or indeed readers of this blog. The Changing Rooms have given me a toolkit that will be ever involving – a belief in my practice and how to apply it. TFPG has connected me with some of the most creative and intelligent people from around the world who are still fighting against inequality in all its forms. And how they are fighting!! – showing me the power, on both a societal level and a personal level, that a anti-capitalise fuel practice must sit alongside environmental awareness, diversity and promoting disability as positive identity, anti-racism and a genuine sustainable way of working.

A Dada inspired anti-capotaTist manifesto is shortly to come (depending on where my practice leads me next)…