Paper leaves and other constructions
a reading companion to Always Already
compiled and edited by Karen Christopher & Tara Fatehi Irani
Always Already is an 8-hour performance installation by Karen Christopher & Tara Fatehi Irani, which uses materials, text, sound and movement to explore the weaving together of plant, human and machine, including human/plant and human/machine hybrids.
Paper leaves and other constructions is a 32-page booklet, introducing the themes and content of the project, and responding to many of the questions that arose in the creative process. Drawing parallels between a path through life and one through the making of a particular work of performance, the booklet answers the question “how did you do that?”
The booklet includes contributions from Karen, Tara, Payman Kassaei (Professor of Mathematics, Kings College), Felipe Ribeiro (performance artist and researcher), Omikemi (poet), Eirini Kartsaki (performance writer and teacher), and an interview with Henry Dagg (sound sculptor and builder of experimental musical instruments).
An interview focused on An Extraordinary Rendition, performance created in response to the work of Goat Island. In misc. folder 7.
A video essay reflecting on the work and process of Forced Entertainment combining interview fragments, performance excerpts, backstage and rehearsal room material from diverse projects, focused around an excerpt from the group’s 2001 performance First Night.
Part of LADA Screens 15.
A new book about “do it yourself” performance, with contributions made by over 30 arts practitioners and collectives. It’s a sequel of sorts – or rather; a continuation – to a recent text that platformed a growing community of voices in theatre, art, dance and performance making.
An extensive series on Lin Hixson and Goat Island.
Aims to articulate and contextualise an ethos and practice within contemporary art called “DIY” theatre and performance.
Goat Island A Last, A Quartet, a collection of Goat Island films (made with Lucy Cash) and reading companion including essays by David Williams ('Inter-views and the flower mind: An Exploded View of Goat Island's Films'), and Theron Schmidt ('After This, Birdsong'). It's Aching Like Birds, Dark, Daynightly They Re-School You the Bears-Polka, A Last, a Quartet, performance group, collaborative performance.
Goat Island, A World of Art (documentary series).
Mel Dolan reports on the Goat Island Summer School in Bristol 2001
How might performance engage us in thinking and feeling our relationship to money, magic, pretending, imagination: what is it we are looking for in the make-believe world we live in?
Followed by post-show discussionSacred programme notes:Begin with a tree whose roots embrace a gaggle of displaced gravestones, and add the question: what’s the difference between pain and itch? The earth moves, old-time film stars dance, and a description of happiness from 1938 sounds as melancholy as a Victorian epitaph
Symposium programme notes:This symposium will consider questions of performance, belief, and credit.One way in which some kinds of performance distinguishes itself from other kinds – that sometimes go under the name of ‘theatre’ – is by emphasising that what it is doing is ‘real’, as opposed to the acting and pretending that goes on elsewhere. ‘Performing the Real’ was the subject of the 2009 symposium held as part of SACRED. This time we are turning away from the ‘real’ to think about the many ways in which performance is still interested in make-believe, and how make-believe itself might turn out to be part of the ‘real’.The current financial crisis has revealed how the system upon which we supposedly all depend is itself dependent upon how much we believe in it. Value is an expression of belief: if we believe that such and such a company, or bank, possesses the assets it purports to possess, then, in effect, those assets exist. The moment we stop believing, the value of the company or bank collapses, and the assets in question cease to exist.A credit crunch is what happens when people suddenly stop believing in the financial system – or when we start to wonder why we believe what we are seeing on stage. How might performance engage us in thinking and feeling our relationship to money, magic, pretending, imagination: what is it we are looking for in the make-believe world we live in? The symposium will feature: * a discussion with Richard Foreman (Ontological-Hysteric Theater); * keynote presentations from performance scholars Sara Jane Bailes, Jen Mitas, and Nicholas Ridout; * performative provocations from artists Karen Christopher and Sara Juli, also presenting work in the SACRED season; * break-out panels from a range of researchers and artists; * a Long Table discussion hosted by Lois Weaver; * the attendance of Richard Maxwell (New York City Players) and PS122 Director Vallejo Gantner; * the UK premiere of New York City Players’ ADS.
Symposium programme notes:This symposium will consider questions of performance, belief, and credit.One way in which some kinds of performance distinguishes itself from other kinds – that sometimes go under the name of ‘theatre’ – is by emphasising that what it is doing is ‘real’, as opposed to the acting and pretending that goes on elsewhere. ‘Performing the Real’ was the subject of the 2009 symposium held as part of SACRED. This time we are turning away from the ‘real’ to think about the many ways in which performance is still interested in make-believe, and how make-believe itself might turn out to be part of the ‘real’.The current financial crisis has revealed how the system upon which we supposedly all depend is itself dependent upon how much we believe in it. Value is an expression of belief: if we believe that such and such a company, or bank, possesses the assets it purports to possess, then, in effect, those assets exist. The moment we stop believing, the value of the company or bank collapses, and the assets in question cease to exist.A credit crunch is what happens when people suddenly stop believing in the financial system – or when we start to wonder why we believe what we are seeing on stage. How might performance engage us in thinking and feeling our relationship to money, magic, pretending, imagination: what is it we are looking for in the make-believe world we live in? The symposium will feature: * a discussion with Richard Foreman (Ontological-Hysteric Theater); * keynote presentations from performance scholars Sara Jane Bailes, Jen Mitas, and Nicholas Ridout; * performative provocations from artists Karen Christopher and Sara Juli, also presenting work in the SACRED season; * break-out panels from a range of researchers and artists; * a Long Table discussion hosted by Lois Weaver; * the attendance of Richard Maxwell (New York City Players) and PS122 Director Vallejo Gantner; * the UK premiere of New York City Players’ ADS.
Value is an expression of belief: if we believe that such and such a company, or bank, possesses the assets it purports to possess, then, in effect, those assets exist. The moment we stop believing, the value of the company or bank collapses, and the assets in question cease to exist. A credit crunch is what happens when people suddenly stop believing in the financial system – or when we start to wonder why we believe what we are seeing on stage. Symposium Notes
DVD – AUDIO ONLYThis documentation has since been presented with the permission of the artist as part of the Performance Matters, Performing Idea, Performance Lecture Archive; an interactive video archive housed at the Whitechapel Gallery between 2-9 October 2010. The archive looked at examples of the performance lecture as a form of artistic and critical expression and its potential to address a broad range of cultural issues and philosophical ideas.
Begins with Samuel Beckett and considers failure in performance as a hopeful strategy.
Documentation from LADA’s artist-development programme.
Part of Sacred at Chelsea Theatre, London
Yearlong writing project for radio broadcast
Excerpts from The Sea & Poison and It’s an Earthquake in My Heart, Goat Island