My Jerwood Journey (And Hopefully tbc!)
I guess it is a story told hundreds of times by now but when I applied for this bursary in early 2020, I could not imagine how the rest of the year would have planned out - although with all the amazing support from Jerwood, this is not the tail of isolation it could have easily been!
Does your rock talk?
Well yeah it does – but apparently not as much as ours in Torbay! Torbay is a UNESCO Geopark and it is a unique one as we are the only Geopark that has people living, sleeping, going to work, being educated and playing! Daily life and vitally important conservation, a portal into the rock and earth history are deeply bounded in a tapestry of what it means to be human now and for the rest of the earth’s time.
An Almost Out-of-Body Reflection
The 15th September was a truly magical, transformative, joyful and creative evening. Aided by the fact that we were discussing the potential conclusions to the content we were sharing to an invited intimate audience/outside eyes 5 minutes before we began, there was a powerful balance between improvisation and structure. From the feedback we received, a lot of the Squeeze Box aims and objectives came across in the sharing and we are so excited to use the learning from the 15th in exploring new ways to develop Squeeze Box. After our critical friends arrived, we explained, in an informal chat, that this will be an open devising session and we encouraged the invitees to roam around the space soaking in different perspectives and feelings. The space itself was a barn divided into two rooms – one we had lights on and one was kept dark except for the projections. What follows is an abstract, distant, almost out-of-body reflection of the journey of that evening:
Behind the Magic
In order to be able to remove background from original footage, you need state-of-the-art camera technology, a lot of lighting and as much green as you can get, but for our process the magic is definitely not all in the equipment but the brilliant people operating it!
A Return
With all the countries have a chief focus on some sort of cup final I thought I had to do something productive to distract me from just watching the clock tick to kick-off! I focus well when I’m writing with a purpose and this blog is as much as settling my nerves as anything! Enjoy…
After what seems like years, I have the privilege to go to live devising sessions. It was so joyful! The whole Squeeze Box team were there and together we used experimental projections, sound and spoken word to create states and begin weaving some of the content into being. A hundred thank yous for Marissa at Cockington Court for allowing us to just play within the historical, culturally rich landscape. The Zoom before (there’ve been many Zoom – all productive, a platform to share ideas, schedule, plan and explore but lacking in so many ways) we plotted on the map the likely locations that projections would work. Basically a large surface area on a big building that is in shadow until the sun goes down – Cockington is full of big buildings that are in shadow – lot’s of hidden and wonderful nooks and crannies to explore. It takes many hours of fascinating exploration to see projections work on every available surface …from the old stables to rickety stairs, hidden rooms and ancient doorways.
Scouting for Stares
Any comments on why this title is not appropriate are truly welcome! – I couldn’t escape from the alliteration. Anyway, moving swiftly on Squeeze Box process has begun brilliantly. Naturally it would with the all star cast of local creatives but confirming it feels good. We have been ‘confined’ to Zoom, our offices, backrooms and bedrooms yet the energy and creativity has flowed!
Beginnings of an R&D
I make no apology on beginning this blog as follows:
This blog is like a London Bus…… I’m going to spell it out!!
You wait ages for one and then 2 come along at once. Unlike the London bus – where you have to choose which bus to go for, you can have the ‘pleasure’ of reading both!! I have actually been feeling like I’m riding two buses. With the process of Still Suspended having been in an element of suspension, until its glorious release to the digital world last Friday and the groundwork being cemented for this new R&D, the feeling of being on two journeys has been strong!