EVENTS
EVENTS
SLAPmoves
SLAP (Salacious Live Alternative Performance) are very excited to announce our second edition of SLAPmoves. The SLAPmoves prize is all about emerging art from the next generation of pioneering talent. SLAP has invited recent graduates and final year students (of dance/theatre/film whose themes of focus are based upon ‘movement’) to submit proposals of new work. Throughout the evening you will have the chance to see our shortlisted artists and works, an eclectic mix of dance, live art, film and music. Showcasing not only local talent but international artists. The audience also has a say in who is deserving of the prize. The successful artist or company will then be offered a place in Yorkshire dance’s spring platform dedicated to the region’s most exciting emerging talent, taking place in May. The artist will also receive studio space, a one to one meeting with a producer, artistic mentoring and technical support.
Our shortlisted artists are:
Arnold & Whittle
Amy Lawrence
Christie Barnes
Michael Robbins
Dan Craddock
Joshua Hubbard & Anton Hinchliffe
Headlining the evening will be last years winners The Disco Disco Project!
We are very happy to announce that the winner of SLAPmoves is Dan Craddock with Rhythm is a Daniel!
We are very excited to work with him. You can see how the show has developed at Yorkshire Dance on the 1st of May.
If you missed the event at the Guildhall you can read a review of the evening from Michelle Dee here.
The Artists
JOSHUA HUBBARD & ANTON HINCHLIFFE - THE BRIGHTEST OF CARPS!
It's about nothing, its about something, and that is nothing....
ARNOLD & WHITTLE - TOUCH TALES
Touch Tales blurs the roles of dancer/musician to examine forms of touch.“If the cello had hands it would play itself. Since it has none it has only one wish: to do what it is supposed to.” What makes touch loving, manipulative, abusive? Does the cello want to be played?
DAN CRADDOCK - RHYTHM IS A DANIEL
A dance master-class that will span the history of space, time and dance; this show is a one- man performance by DanieŁ, (see performer for correct pronunciation) teaching the world how to dance. Watch and engage as he attempts to create a real life dance company. Let the show commence!
MICHAEL ROBBINS - GL_TCH.
A fragmented ballet.
Spaces pixelate, bodies distort, and sequences piece together in the wrong order.
Referencing ballet repertoire, the piece moves episodically through familiar imagery warping from it original form and has used apps as a choreographic tool to inform disruption. GL_TCH. is unsettling with ever-changing costume, counts, and music.
AMY LAWRENCE - WHAT it's not/and then SOME
A dialectic between auditory, visual and physical experiences of the 'moment' using uncorrelated and correlated interactions exploring the problematic nature of the present moment, nostalgia and the audience's gaze through a focus on hyperbolised gesture within an immersive environment using found footage/and then SOME.
CHRISTIE BARNES - AGITATED ATOMS
The tiny wriggling atom who dances to make bigger things work. We played like microscopic atoms, we played like groups of atoms conducting the rhythm of the engine. The conclusion: a playful analysis, a playful gesture, a playful explosion of energy under the notion of thermodynamics.
SLAPchat
Let’s talk about live arts in York…
It’s not you, it’s not me, it’s us, and it’s about time we took some time out to discuss the state of the creative industries in this city.What are we getting absolutely right, what’s happening under the radar, what could we be doing better and how can we do more to promote this city and its kaleidoscopic cohort of brilliant native creative people?
Whether you’re a performer, a promoter, a journalist, a gallerist, curator, arts lover, production worker or just about anything else, we’d like to invite you along to SLAPchat, a live arts and creative industries forum event that’s taking place at the fantastic Skeldergate offices of locally based digital agency The Distance on the evening on January 28th.
We hope that the event will provide creative people from York and the surrounding areas with an opportunity to meet and discuss pressing issues within the current artistic scene, and to offer advice to those freshly embarking upon or considering a career in the arts.
We’re not here to create a manifesto, a clique or even a network. This is about freely exchanging ideas in the hope that we can learn something valuable to the future of our own endeavours and to the culture of York as a whole.
And let’s have a drink or two while we’re at it.
SLAPpy New Year
SLAP are turning the grand old age of ONE! To celebrate SLAP’s 1st Birthday we have invited 6 artists/companies to create guerrilla style performances in public spaces in York. The interventions will be taking place on the 28th and 29th of November. All of these will be captured by 4 local filmmakers working with AlterNative Pictures to create a short film that captures the essence of SLAP’s Ambition to bring high quality art, to unusual spaces in the city of York. For SLAP’s birthday we will be having at a Premier Party at independent cinema and bar 1331 on the 10th of December. The evening will also include live music from SLAP musicians and a selection of Live performances.
ARTISTS INCLUDE:
Elise Nuding
Connor Quill
Lowri Evans
The Paula Davy
Top Joe
The Dog-Eared Duo
SLAP FILMAKERS:
Hamish Logan
Tom Barratt
Dale Saxton
Ben Mattless
EVENING PERFORMANCES:
Top Joe
Wildlife
Lydia Cottrell
SLAP Interventions
SLAP are hosting a series of performance interventions throughout the City of York.
All events are FREE.
Friday 28th November
Elise Nuding - Shift, spin, warp, twine
Exploring the imaginative spaces within material realities, Shift, spin, warp, twine follows one person’s attempts to untangle. But often, the more you try to untangle something, the more tangled it becomes. It’s a ropey business.Shift, spin, warp, twine" was originally commissioned by Wilton’s Music Hall.
1PM - St Marys Tower, Scarborough Bridge.
Connor Quill - Dancing Glitter Man
Dancing Glitter Man is a roaming party man, covered in glitter & possessed by the ‘tunes’ playing through his headphones. He’s just looking for someone to dance with. If you find him, or of he finds you be sure to dance with him - you won’t regret it!
2:30PM - 5PM - City Centre
Lowri Evans - Moon Landings
Join me up a ladder and have a rest on the moon.A magical one to one experience where you will stop and wonder at it all.Inspired by working with older people and conversations with strangers. An investigation of what things stick with a person for a lifetime.
7PM - 10PM - The Habit
Saturday 29th November
The Paula Davy - Jigsaw of the Queen
On Saturday 29th November 2014 Paula The Disappointment will occupy a York pub and attempt to succeed at the arduous and gruelling task of: Completing a jigsaw of The Queen of England in under two hours whilst blindfolded. You are invited to witness this extreme feat of endurance
12:00 NOON - 2PM - The Duke of York
Top Joe
Top Joe is a timid character who wears a hi-vis jacket and occasionally braves leaving the house in order to create intimate performances. He has had work performed/shown at Live Art Bistro, Hazard, Cornerhouse Manchester, FACT Liverpool, the Impossible Lecture at Beaconsfest and 4749 Tanner St.
2PM - 6PM - City Centre
The Dog Eared Duo - I Dream of Jean B
After a lifetime in Yorkshire, DEC creation Jean Butterworth is a sharp-shooting, straight-talking senior with an expert opinion on everything. Especially things she knows nothing about. So join Jean for a riotous review on everything from sperm-smuggling to Sudokus as she SLAPs York with a very big piece of her mind.
7:30PM & 8:45PM - The Gillygate Pub
I’d never been to York before, but I knew when I got off the train in my moon boots and was met by a castle, things were looking pretty good for it. Then there was a river, and a bridge, and a woman wrapping herself in rope. I had arrived to SLAP Interventions. I saw Elise Nuding’s Shift, spin, warp, twine which was graceful and poetic on the side of the river. What a backdrop. Passers-by stopped and walked away. Then I saw Connor Quill’s Glitter Dancing Man which upped the tempo as he danced and pranced his way through ‘Black Friday’ in York with pink hotpants and gold chest with a sign that said ‘DANCE WITH ME’. The odds were against it, but a joyous Pied Piper-esque riot ensued.Or a silent musical with the entire cast of York shoppers. I can’t be sure. Catching those two different performances made me think about the possibilities of place and made me aware of the gaps there are to play in. How art and life can reveal things about each other. A celebration of chance, of one-offs.
Then I made my way with what I had come to do in the first place, a one to one performance called Moon Landings. I set up a moon on top of a pub roof and invite people to sit with me, for a while, wrapped in a foil blanket, to look back on planet earth. To stop and wonder at it all. From that perspective, I wanted to know what moments you could still see from so far, what would be the things that stick out to you from your lifetime. This is a new performance that I was testing out, inspired by my work with people with dementia. I am struck by what stays for a lifetime. What ensued were about ten unforgettable encounters, riveting conversations, brief but intimate disclosures. I was really touched by how open people were and willing they were to sit with me on the moon in the middle of their Friday night out. I have collected snippets of the stories I was told on a till roll from the bar, which I will publish soon- watch this ‘space’.
had time for a quick drink, a Blue Moon, naturally, and zoomed off for the last train to Manchester.
- Lowri Evans
I remember it was grey, but not too cold—November temperatures could (should?) be so much worse. I remember no rain was forecast, but it drizzled for a short period. I remember feeling drawn to some potential performance spaces more than others, and then being attached enough to the first site we chose to locate the second performance in almost the same place. Almost, but not quite. I remember a small child wanting to pick up a piece of twine, but shyness (or was it suspicion?) got the better of him. I remember two people who tend the adjacent park walking by, and one of them stopping: “I just had to ask— what are you doing??” I gave her some twine. I remember the ground was wet and cold. It left dirt smears on my dress and shoes, and made my ropes damp and heavy. I remember Dancing Glitter Man being ten times brighter than his surroundings. I remember not being sure whether I had started the performances or not. The endings were clearer. I remember the funny looks from the construction workers on the embankment, the goose who eyeballed me, the baffled cyclist, the waiting women, the man with the rat (Oscar was its name), the cigarette smoker, the perfectly timed leaf fall— things you can’t plan but that come to define the experience of the work, both for those performing and for those observing…if you can even separate them.
- Elise Nuding
I spent the day in York documenting meetings with strangers. I approached people who were sitting alone on benches. I set up a medium-format camera in front of them and played a song on a cassette player to set the mood. I sat next to them on the bench and nodded to them. They would then realise that we were going to be the subject of a photograph together. At this point there would, or would not be, a silent bond created.
We then looked into the camera and I fired the shutter with a cable release. After this myself and the subject would talk. I would tell them about my life and they would tell me about theirs. I would ask why they were here at this place, why they were sitting alone. I would ask if they liked the choice of music. After talking, I would offer to post a print of the photograph to their house to commemorate our meeting. They would write down their address and I would say goodbye. After our meeting I would write down what I remember about them.
Deciding to take your photograph together with someone is a ritual that we might do to commemorate getting to know someone. I wanted to explore that ritual and create a bond of intimacy that might have otherwise been absent with a stranger.
I liked the weather in York. It was slightly foggy, and the temperature was mild. The museum gardens were a great setting I felt.
- Top Joe
SLAPsolo
SLAP presents an evening of solo performance from critically acclaimed regional and national artists, incorporating dance, theatre, live art and multidisciplinary performance. Expect to smile frequently, be moved by moments of intimacy and experience something new. The evening will showcase an array of works by 6 different artists celebrating comedy, dance, the autobiographical and everything in between .
Margerita Elliot- Gli Angeli / The Angels
When finding ways of filling the void of a performative space,Angels recount short stories of my body.A body feeling hybrid as it is mutable through movement,uncomfortable in any defined and definitive form.A flowing cluster of images, options and ways of being after the Great Flood.
Sophie Unwin- The Chronicles Of Joy
In the words of Betrand Russel, Aristotle, America and myself, I will teach you the steps to happiness. I will jump head first into the murky world of Joy. Rule number 1; say yes.
Hannah Buckley- Woman With Eggs
Via Sophie Calle, a 90 year old woman, 7 year old girl and Kate Bush this is a solo about women’s ability to be many things.
Joshua Hubbard- Monochrome to colour
The enigma behind Joshua Hubbard F*#¿!D hails from the ‘Land of the Mills’ around the back of The Dog Inn pub. Sporting a dysfunctional and strong-minded persona shaped by bricked in windows and moving from school to school supported by a grunge soundtrack, Joshua has embraced the doom and gloom and has been projectile vomiting gothic/punk aesthetic, reggae veggie friendly, 'love it or leave it’ spectacles for the past four years.
Paul O’Donnell - So Far West
So Far West: A show led by a cowboy, a real, REAL cowboy. Using everything he owns — his horse, his mystery, his gun, his fancy clothes, his secretive ways — the man and the myth will stand in front of you, and will prove himself; join him to discover the truth about the rootin’ tootin’ cowboy deep down inside everyone.
This bar IS a saloon. You ARE Buffalo Bill / the Sheriff / the Bad Cowboy / the Town Whore. So, put on your hats, tie up your horse, and join this cowboy So Far West.
Nathan Birkinshaw- I Wish You Were Here
I Wish You Were Here comically aims to look at loss, love and loneliness and what it means to let things go. Blending performance, comedy, video and movement, Nathan picks at the heartstrings as if playing the washboard. Mixing personal and fictitious narratives, he would like you know he’s sorry, he doesn’t want to be alone anymore, and he’d like to know what love is.
Homage to SLAP-ping By Maggie Elliot
SLAPsolo happened, and it was epic in its elegance, aesthetics and contents.
It was a new experience, a variety show of experimental theatre comedy and dance work. All separate even though all together simultaneously. It was fairy lights and wine. It was edgy and comfortable. It was a fest for low budget artistic philosophies, celebrating solo performers and their solo performances.
Each piece was different and unique in its nature & outcome, becoming one ensemble of solo pieces on the night as they were all existing there and then, using not much more than a body, a (beautiful) space and a bit of time that a ‘caring hip familiar participating friendly funky relaxed interested’ audience agreed to dedicate to the night.
SLAP makes events that WORK and I can really say that, having been part of one.
It’s also work that is worth watching , it was RIGHT, as it felt to me it was answering to the question: how to make something big and of great artistic value out of a small scale production?
Watching other performances made me feel like I had time to digest information in between each act; being audience made me feel exposed as I was able to interact with the performative action, but still breathing a very homely atmosphere.
On the 12th of November 2014, performing SOLO became a shared experience; I was alone without feeling lonely.
Thank You SLAP-pers.
Current, Alternative and Radical….One of the most well organised events I’ve had the pleasure of being involved in, completely breezy as Goliath’s flatulence, maybe a little to breezy for a drama queen such as myself. Very responsive jam packed audience, it was fantastic performing to an audience that its pie graph percentage wasn’t majored other dancers (non dancer heavy).I encourage the future of Slap and look forward to being involved hopefully again, giving artists a platform to present work GENUINELY pushing the bounds. -
Joshua Hubbard
SLAPover 2014
SLAP are hosting a creative lab for 7 artists to create, work and sleep in a space for 48hours to experiment collaboratively and create new work.
SLAPover will be held on the 30th and 31st of October with a public sharing on the 1st of November to coincide with the Illuminating York festival.
The time spent in the space will be live streamed allowing the public to interact with the process.
The aim of SLAPover is to create a safe space for artists and performers to experiment and share skills in a collaborative atmosphere.
The Artists:
Andreas Louca
AJ Garrett
Aymee Smith
Joley Fielding
Kallum Corke
Vijay Patel
Robert Foster
Now that the flurry of creativity and artistic experimentation that was SLAPover is behind us, the SLAPover artists have taken the time to comment on their experience throughout the process.
AJ Garret
The work we created was called ‘The Last Days of the Office’ and it grew out of a) being in an office and b) mucking about and playing. It took the form of a combined performance, installation, exhibition (including a film that we shot in the middle of the night where I could not look more rough and I have mixed feelings about ever seeing again, although it is quite good I think). The performance element involved creating a pseudo-serious officious environment mixed with extremely silliness and the just playing about. There were some aspects that there was no way in hell I would take part in e.g. dancing to Boyzone, which I left that to the others, but overall it was a very collaborative and fun event with superb support from SLAP in York. It may sound intense to live and work with total strangers and create work, but it was more like a refreshing retreat from the ‘real world’ of ongoing projects, day jobs, etc. We spent most of the time just playing, and it is worth remembering to play sometimes, especially if you want to create.
Andreas Louca
59 hours before. I enter the white space. I see 11 chairs, 3 tables and 7 lamps. I’m about to spend two and a half days with 6 or 7 other people in this room. After we finish, the space is going to turn into a restaurant. He is not here. “You’re just too short for me” he said. I wonder around, struggling to be an artist among artists. “Ebola”.
45 hours before. I like orange. It makes me feel confident. For no purpose. Just like a “Boyzone” hit: 1 song, 222 clicks. We dance. We have our own dance, our own song, our own pact. I feel like I’m stuck in the elevator with these people. “Ebola” again.
21 hours before. I’m red. My face is red. Look at me. With all this lipstick on my face. I resemble a tomato. I sit on a chair, look at the girl in this painting and fall in love with her. She has a glass in front of her face to protect her redness. “Ebola”.
The light is purple, the sky looks like a big yellow balloon dog and the sun looks like an inflatable green banana. “Didn’t you kill my brother?” she said. That’s not what I heard.
We celebrated misery, claustrophobia, institutionalization, bureaucracy and administrational-ism: the last days of the office. We were 8 blue pictures for the last 3 hours. Office-ism and “Ebola” again.
The noise is black. 1 buzzer. Any outcome.
Aymee Smith
A Final Report from the Office by Ms Susan File
When myself and my colleagues were informed of the imminent closure of our office and its future renovation as a restaurant, we felt that we could not let the fact go unnoticed.
Through a series of misadventures: divorce, separation and conflicts with landlords among others, seven of us had come to call our office not only our place of work, but also of sleep - home. We were not simply being turfed out of an office space but also our place of habitation and refuge, with only Percy Prittstick having a new job (and place of residence) definitely lined up.
And so during the last days of the office we decided to hold a party - inviting the outside world into our inside world - both to celebrate and commiserate a job well done.
The two days between the closure of the office and the proposed party were days of play, of freedom from our office serfdom, yet the continuation of confinement within the space. Without our personal desks and administrative duties we felt lost, we hadn’t a clue what to do with ourselves. The office phone had even stopped ringing (although every so often one of us would head downstairs and press the buzzer to enter the building, meaning that the intercom phone would ring, filling us all with a fuzzy sense of warmth and normality).
We whiled away the time, drawing imaginary pictures of Ricardo - the employee who sadly never was, his new job having been dissolved with the closure of the business - we also danced, badly; we listened to our favourite tunes on the radio and thought of a Picture of You, the world outside: what would you expect from our party? How would we manage to interact with normality, with representatives of the outside world from which we had retreated during our collective time of residency within our working space?
Well, we went out with a Bang. Sadly though we had only a stack of bananas with which to realise this onomatopoetic term - other fruits being too expensive, and not nearly as useful when conducting a shoot-out. We sincerely hope that all who came along to our humble party had a jolly time, and that they took a moment to imagine the office in all its glory, the office that is sadly, no more.
I would like to end with a poem, a few lines from our favourite song:
You will be there, when I needed somebody
You will be there, the only one to help me
I had a picture of you in my mind
Never knew it could be so wrong
Why’d it take me so long just to find
The friend that was there all along.
Joley Fielding
With risk of speaking for you…
I remember when we first met. We were sat on those chairs in a circle, asking questions of one another, trying to find out who we were and who we wanted to be, here. I remember telling you all that I would have liked to suggest swapping who we were, or who we had told each other we were. I think you agreed when I said that, being that it was only one person that we were waiting for, I would worry that they would feel isolated by this game, or lied to even. I didn’t think this would be a good place to start.
It’s funny, on reflection, because (I think) without intention, that we might have played that game anyway.
Our home, officey as it was, lent to our play. It made it feel almost like there was a job to be done, 11 Little Stonegate was ready for some life. Different, to working in a place usually reserved for creative activity - the work there almost, has already been done; it lines the walls and forms the dust.
Ready to shake off its office smells for something human, ready to hear laughter and shouting and Boyzone and snoring and balloons popping. I’d like to think that the job there was done - what lucky restaurant owners, with all that life in their walls and in their dust?
We spoke about ‘seriously ridiculous’ as what we were doing. I’m not sure if that’s true or not, but I like it. Working with you has certainly taught me to embrace the absurd.
Writing this makes me a bit angry, because it means that our experience is carrying on, except, not carrying on in quite the way I would want it to. I feel a bit angry that you’re not here to ask questions, it’s a bit difficult writing about collaboration alone. In writing this I feel always on the verge of getting it wrong, of speaking for you. This of course, wouldn’t be a risk was I to write about my own experience. But the thing is, it feels impossible to write about it from a singular perspective, I’m finding it hard to separate your experiences from mine, my memories and my thoughts from yours.
Thinking of our hours together I remember the moments of being between things, we seemed to always be between things. Between dinner and performance, between shopping and writing, between laughing and drawing, between biscuits and games, between drinking and Polaroid’s, between sleep and filmmaking.
In our difference was where we found connections – accidents mostly.
During our sharing I found the most pleasure from watching you, from watching you work out what we were sharing, as we were sharing it. I remember the moments of playing when we didn’t need to, when nobody was really looking or listening. Sometimes I was unsure if I was shooting Kallum or Norris Notepad, chatting to Aymee or Susan File, and, when talking to an audience member on the phone via the buzzer downstairs, I was unsure if I was answering and asking questions as Joely, or Suzy Swivelchair. These lies or untruths were my favourites, never quite sure of the proximity between our world, and theirs.
You have knocked my shoulders so that now I’m looking square in the eye at possibility – at new forms, at collaboration, at things that scare me.
Kallum Corke
When I applied to be a part of SLAPover, I never imagined that seven artists who had never met could come together so effectively in the space of forty-eight hours. Especially seven artists with as varied interests as ours. Amongst us there were performance artists, storytellers and visual artists, with many of us existing somewhere between many disciplines. And though my own practice is chiefly concerned with ‘error’ – with the aestheticisation of mistakes or damage, there were no issues during the time we worked together.
Of course, when we arrived bleary-eyed at the space on Thursday morning, there was some awkwardness. Each of us was surrounded by people that we’d never met and as quickly as we’d been introduced to one another, we were left to our own devices. We made the obligatory introductions, but getting to know another human being takes time, it’s a process – unfortunately for us, we had very little time to get to know one another. In the end, this wasn’t an issue. It’s surprising how quickly you get to know someone when you’re living in the same space and by the end of our time together, I think we had grown surprisingly close. The hands-off approach that SLAP took to the event helped contribute to this, as in the absence of their mediation we had no real choice but to get to know each other.
Over the course of the project, a supportive atmosphere emerged organically and we shared ideas and explored concepts, learning about each other’s practice along the way. In the absence of any external stimulus, our first point of reference in creating our show was the space itself – then, ourselves. Each of us contributed a great deal of our own experience and expertise, with the resulting show reflecting the disparate nature of our practice as individuals and the harmonious nature of our collaboration.
Having previously studied performance, before focusing my practice on visual art firmly rooted in the digital, the experience represented a return to performance art. For me, the process of creating new work is often intensely myopic, with little to no external input. Working with the other SLAPover participants afforded me an opportunity to engage with wildly different artistic practices and consider the ways in which those practices related to my own. Just having the other artists around, sharing their thoughts on my work, while collaborating on our show was beneficial and there was a genuine willingness to teach – and to be taught, which amazed and humbled me.
I’ve learned a lot from this experience, and if there’s one thing I want to share – it’s that if you get the opportunity to collaborate with strangers; if you get the opportunity to share you work with others, take it. We stand to learn so much from one another, as artists and as human beings – and it’s important that we make the most of the knowledge and experience others have to offer.
We lived together, we ate together and we made art together. And I was fortunate enough to get to know six interesting and talented people whom I now count as friends.
Robert Foster
Precarious Play – Thoughts On SLAPover
“You’re the Simon to my Garfunkel”
“I’ve been hearing that a lot lately, and I don’t like it”
Last week I was one of seven participating artists in SLAPover, a 48-hour collaborative experiment designed to investigate the process of working collectively.
The event, organised by SLAP, a York based artist-led initiative focused on performance and live-art, brought together artists working in different disciplines to reside and work in an ex-office over the course of two days, with a public showing of the results at the end of the process.
Prior to the start of the event I was intrigued by whether the group would establish a truly collaborative methodology, and whether the work produced would achieve a sense of coherency. Collaboration is a particular kind of beast, more often than not building on mutually held interests between participants. How would we operate as a group with no former ties to one another, with such a short timescale with which to create work? The potential for risk alone was enough to pique my interest.
Upon arrival to the space, the organisers Lydia Cottrell and Sophie Unwin, gave a brief introduction explaining the practicalities; when food would be delivered, we were free to leave the space when we wished, and a budget of £200 was available. After which we were left to our own devices, free to develop ideas however we deemed best, working collectively, within smaller fragmentary groups, or as a number of individuals under the umbrella of the project.
After the following awkward introductory phase sat on chairs in a circle, the group adjourned to the kitchen for the stage of upmost importance in the formulation of ideas, a cup of tea and a chat. The group consensus was one of a laissez-faire approach to the process, with openness to potential results. Even with hindsight, I am still surprised by how quickly we slipped into a collaborative, playful approach to interacting with the context of the situation, staging games together, with little regard to whether the time spent would yield “work”.
Perhaps the context of the project, and the diverse range of interests of the participants, led to play as the most holistic method in finding common ground with one another, with a meandering process the best course for developing a kind of logic with which to frame our results.
Over time it became less and less relevant, to attach a particular outcome to a specific person, with the whole becoming a sum of its parts, very much reliant on our collective working method and the collaborative working process as we participated together.
The mood over the course of the event was compared to the last day of school, with the group adopting an intuitive response to the time given. These changing, responsive, sometimes task based, activities gradually began to shape the space, with remnants of this play forming a site for performative actions that would involve the audience when open to the public.
‘Last Days Of The Office’ became the title and theme for the work, with a series of actions devised to make use of this detritus as props or objects to be responded to. The residue of our collective work began to act as visual triggers, akin to the jumbled pieces of a puzzle, with each of us shifting from performing individually, performing collaboratively, involving the audience, as well as informally interacting with the visitors.
Most striking was the extent to which improvisation became integral to the experience of the space; the audience becoming key participants in games or activities devised in reaction to new actions, in an unfolding series of minor events, that possibly alluded to an over-arching rationale, or narrative, but asked the audience to fill in the gaps and involve themselves. These unplanned responses led to some dynamic moments, which through the sense of spontaneity, seemed to epitomise the very process we had engaged in over the prior two days of working together.
One criticism that could be raised with the results is that our logic became internalised, with the different elements perhaps too disparate or disjointed, without the knowledge that came with being one of the participants involved in there making. However, this nebulous, puzzling quality, teetering between reason and nonsense, seemed to be indicative of the response of the group to the context of the event, on one hand intensive and involved, and on the other intuitive and unbridled.
With the world of contemporary art seeming increasingly focused on promoting the notion that artists develop a particular recognisable product by which to market themselves, SLAPover offered a generous alternative that stood opposed to these fixed expectations. By working as a group with no preconceived agenda (other than to create something) in a context that promoted risk, and in embracing the playful, intuitive and absurd, we seemed able to be able to gain some respite from these restraints, hopefully bringing the audience with us, if only for a short while.
Vijay Patel
After spending 48 hours of working, eating and sleeping in the same space, I can honestly say that SLAPover was equally very fun and intense. Within the first 12 hours of the process, we were having conversations about our devising plan in tin foil hats and having sleeping bag races. The next 24 hours consisted of Ebowling (Ebola-themed bowling), Halloween masks, Bananas and Boyzone’s greatest hits on repeat. It’s a great project for anyone looking to try something different
SLAPstock
SLAP IS READY FOR A FESTIVAL!
We have programmed a wonderful bunch of artists to perform throughout the weekend of Galtres Festival.
The Artists:
Jamhed Theatre - Galleon Stage - Sunday 18.15
Humanah Productions - Zeitgeist - Galleon Stage - Saturday 11:00
Katharina Arnold - Tamed - Walkabout
CT - This is not a performance - Walkabout
Feet off the Ground Dance - Tracing Spaces - Walkabout
Shelley Owen - Are We Dancing? - Walkabout
SLAP in a Box
For the next instalment of SLAP we are presenting SLAP in a box.
SLAP in a Box is an experiment, taking performance out of the Black Box studio and into the White Cube gallery.
SLAP in a Box is a durational 2.5 hour performance, the same length as a traditional theatre show, but in this instance the audience is in complete control.
3 Performers will be in a room.
The audience will be able to see them on a screen.
The performers cant see the audience.
The audience will be able to select from a list of commands and actions for the performers, some will have a price.
At anytime a spectator will be able to replace one of the performers.
We are creating a performance Jukebox to explore what York audiences want to see and how much live performance is worth.
Thoughts on SLAP #4
SLAP in a box was an offering of something new, an experiment if you like, putting members of the SLAP team in a gallery space to conduct a live directed improvisation. Looking back the idea was attractive, a performance art jukebox whereby audience members send commands through an IPad, to a second iPad in a concealed performance space. Live streaming was then projected in an adjacent gallery space for audience members to observe their commands turned physical.
As a performer I found the experiment to be liberating, offering up all responsibility to an audience, they decided what they wanted to see and we gave it to them. Resourceful and chaotic movement, sound, words and disorder all had a part to play in the performance jukebox. It was also interesting to see how differently audience members interpreted commands when they were to eventually replace us in the space.
In hindsight SLAP in a box was ambitious yet we managed to pull it off after a few technical difficulties. I say a few, but at a point during the night the live stream jittered so much that we had to take down our wall of cardboard concealing us from the audience. It was shame because it defeated the concept of the performance, but it did give the audience a chance to see behind the wall which kept us from them.
I think it’s safe to say that with a bigger technical budget SLAP in a box has the capacity to be a really interesting and interactive performance model. We have already started planning the next attempt at SLAP in a box. We would like to give the audience more structure to the experience and host the event at a completely different venue, a Victorian house perhaps? To invite audiences to flick through channels screening performance happening in different rooms of a house watched on a television screen. Watch this space….
SLAP Co-director Sophie Unwin
SLAPmoves
SLAP (Salacious Live Alternative Performance) are very excited to announce our 3rd event in the city of York.
The SLAPmoves prize is all about emerging art from the next generation of pioneering talent. SLAP has invited recent graduates and final year students (of dance/theatre/film whose themes of focus are based upon ‘movement’) to submit proposals of new work.
Throughout the evening you will have the chance to see our shortlisted artists and works, an eclectic mix of dance, live art, film and music. Showcasing not only local talent but international artists. The audience also has a say in who is deserving of the prize.
The successful artist or company will then be offered a place in Yorkshire dance’s spring platform dedicated to the region’s most exciting emerging talent, taking place on May 2nd. The artist will also receive two days of studio space, a one to one meeting with a producer, artistic mentoring and technical support.
The Artists:
Rachel Gildea and Hannah McBrien - The Disco Disco Project
Alicia Wallace - Chronocyclegraphs - Wakefield
So - kool, Haptic & A.L.V - O(Negation) - South Africa
Tom Stubbings - Opening the Heart - York
Feet of the Ground Dance - Passing Through - London
JUCK - Sweden
Ryan Thompson - Kidulthood - Act #1: What Time Is It Mr Wolf? - Leeds
The Disco Disco Project were chosen by the judges to receive the prize package.
