We will be presenting a Live Preview Show of SCHOOL OF CHANGE  at Camden Arts Centre on Saturday 17th Dec. 3.00pm go HERE to book

SCHOOL OF CHANGE
is a new franchise of Girls’ Schools, existing in a post-apocalyptic future. CHANGES, so radical that they have caused mutations in the working of reason itself, are threatening the viability of humanity.
SCHOOLS OF CHANGE attempt to shore up against this breakdown, to educate a new generation to adapt, building an alternative ‘hive mind’ that has a new, stronger kind of logic.

Each student’s learning is bio-technically monitored through the Personal Circle lodged inside them. High-scoring pupils perform their learning through a rhythmic song and action practise: ‘the Production’. This trance-like group activity produces small solids – Units of Knowing – the currency through which the new economy tries to function.

Artist Jennet Thomas and composer /performer Simon Bookish present a live show- a taster of this epic sci-fi musical to be shown at MATTS Gallery next year, including a recruitment presentation, songs, film clips, lessons, a quiz and prizes.

This event will explore a hybrid, cross-over space between art, film, music, speculative fiction and performance. ENROL NOW!

Synthesis Exchange Laboratory

The Synthesis exchange laboratory is being devised and led by Professor John Ward and colleagues at UCL with artist-designers Oron Catts and Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg. The exchange process is intended to explore and challenge the notions of synthetic biology, the level of control and manipulation of living systems, the application of engineering logic, and the social and cultural dimensions of synthetic biology; with the hope to inspire proposals for future projects from all participants. Other contributors to the laboratory include scientists Alastair Elfick, University of Edinburgh, and Ferman Federici, University of Cambridge, historian and philosopher Joe Cain, UCL, designer Tuur Van Balen and artist Andy Gracie.

Artist Melanie Jackson is being commissioned to make an artist’s film from her engagement with the laboratory process and investigations of synthetic biology.

Exchange lab participants are:

Melanie Jackson, artist, UK
Laura Cinti, artist, UK
Brendan Clarke, philosopher & historian, UK
Irilenia Nobelli, bioinformatics, UK
Tom Bailey, theatre practitioner, UK
Veronika Valk, curator, Estonia/Australia
Niccolo Casas, architect, Italy
Eliza Dominguez Huttinger, systems & synthetic biologist, UK
Anne Brodie, artist, UK
Thiago Soveral, architect, Brazil/UK
Helen Bullard, artist, UK
Joy Yueyue Zhang, social scientist, UK/China
Jennet Thomas, artist, UK
Nathan Cohen, artist, UK
JD Talasek, curator, USA
Sneha Solanki, artist, UK
Katy Connor, artist, UK
Orkan Telhan, artist-designer, USA
Matt Johnson, industrial designer, UK

Synthesis is organised by The Arts Catalyst with UCL and Synthetic Aesthetics. It is funded by a Wellcome Trust Arts Award, with support from The Arts Catalyst (Arts Council England funded), the SynBion network (funded by BBSRC and EPSRC), SymbioticA (The University of Western Australia) and Synthetic Aesthetics (funded by EPSRC and the National Science Foundation).

Further labs are intended in Edinburgh, Stanford, US, and Perth, Australia.

Click HERE for more info on Synthesis

click HERE  for the link to my page

Above is the lovely Asif Kapadia, who interviewed us.

Below is the Text that the documentary makers wrote about their programme on our collective ..not totally accurate in all its Exploding facts ( we did several shows at the Ritzy cinema in fact!) but fair enough. Its a pretty well – made documentary, and rather satisfying to be nestled in between The Archers and Gardener’s question time on a sunday morning.. = respectability at last?!?!

“Exploding Cinema, or ‘Exploding’ for the initiated, is turning 20 this year and still going strong. A collective of filmmakers and film-lovers, it pledges to screen any film that someone submits. No selection, no censorship, Exploding Cinema holds firmly by the principle that, the question of what’s good and what’s not, is solely for the audience to decide.

Their screening events are legendary. Usually held in some disused warehouse or factory – and never at a cinema – to enter an Exploding Cinema show is to step into a grotto of film. There is colour everywhere, vintage super 8 footage ticking away on a constant lop, covering every bit of wall in shimmering light and images, comedy, horror, animation, a live band playing and, on the main screen, there’s a succession of about 20 short films, people sitting on cushions watching them or wandering about chatting and drinking.

Asif meets with the founders of Exploding Cinema to rummage through their archive of films and to hear how the group emerged from some strange filmic goings on at a disused suntan oil factory in South London’s Brixton neighbourhood – The Cool Tan, which, in the early 90s, a bunch of film makers had claimed as a squat.

We hear from filmmakers who currently show their work at Exploding Cinema: interactive filmmaking group Genetic Moo describe their maggot-themed installations which feed off the light emitted from other films, Mucky Puppets talk about their shadow puppet films exploring the darker side of well-known fairy tales, and we follow Ryd Cook as he films the sequel to his “60 Second Documentary About The Stuff What Is In This Room.

Now that it is possible for anyone to show pretty much any film online via video sharing websites like YouTube and Vimeo, we ask what that means for a group like Exploding Cinema? Does it still have a place?”

Producer: Hannah Rosenfelder
A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4.

Click HERE  for information ( basically what is written above) in context of the BBC series-  on the documentary, broadcast on Sun, 16 Jan 2011, 13:30 on BBC Radio 4.

I’m developing a new longer film work for a second show at Matt’s Gallery in  2012  called ‘SCHOOL OF CHANGE’

A live preview show ‘SCHOOL OF CHANGE – The Recruitment’ will be presented at Camden Arts Centre on Saturday December 17th at 3.00pm – Click HERE to book a place

SCHOOL OF CHANGE is a project that collides genres and ideas; a sci-fi musical + experimental narrative film, based in another reality where a number of rapid changes; geographical, organic, mathematical – even mutations in the workings of reason itself- are threatening the viability of human society.

This work will be a musical collaboration with composer and performer Simon Bookish

The film will last 40 minutes, the action taking place over one day inside a School – its classrooms, canteen, staff room, playing fields, will be filmed in my old  secondary school. We see the results of ‘the Changes’ played out within this microcosm, during the first- and last- day at school of the New Girl, who has been brought in to replace a student who ‘faded away’. She is ‘The New Tenth’ and as she joins her class, 2a, an exact replica of her also joins class 2b, 2c, and 2d. The School appears to be part of a franchise of ‘Schools of Change’: an initiative to shore up against this breakdown, to educate and prepare a new generation to adapt. Ritual, music and rhythm are deployed continually in the daily routine to help stitch together the community, raise the spirits, and possibly build some kind of alternative ‘hive mind’ that has a new, stronger kind of logic.

Students learn a New Mathematics to cope with the increasing difficulty of all attempts to measure or calculate objectively – now that mathematical laws only work for the very old – and a New Geography to map the rapid flattening out of the surface of the planet and its consequences.  Some of this is very familiar- a teacher stands at the front of the class disseminating facts,
manipulating diagrams and doing demonstrations, but then it frequently becomes strange; each student’s learning score is continuously, biolo-technically monitored, and those who score the highest perform their learning
into an actual, physical result through a peculiar rhythmic song and action practise- a kind of clapping, conjuring game called ‘the Production’.  This trance like group activity produces small colourful solids; the Units of Knowing -
these are of immense value, fit together like a puzzle, and are evidently the currency through which the new economy functions.

This project is an ambitious development of core themes that run through my work; a skewed reflection on contemporary fears and desires for radical change, both social and spiritual, as well as a critical play on current dilemmas in education and economic philosophy.

SCHOOL OF CHANGE: MORE PRACTICAL INFO – for Participants and their Parents

Where and when?

This project will be filmed on location in Bishops Hatfield Girls’ School in August 2011.  The filming at the school will take place over approximately 5 days, and we are currently looking at the week 15th -19^th August in which to do most of this filming although there may be a date in the previous or following weeks (TBC)

With whom?

I will be working with a small crew, that will consist of  Film maker/ Cinematographer Paul Tarragó, production /set design Frances Scott, and two assistants who are current undergraduate BA Fine Art: Print and Time Based Media students of mine at Wimbledon College,  University of the Arts London. The Cast will consist of a maximum of 15 people;  5 or 6 actors/ performers and 8 or 9 current pupils at the School. Only one or two of the actors will be on location at any one time as we will film a different ‘lesson’ each day.

 What times?

The filming sessions involving the girls will not last for more than 4 or 5 hours- running usually from 1.00pm to 5.00pm  and there will be plenty of breaks.A detailed schedule will be sent out nearer the time.The girls will be asked to stay on school premises during these sessions and we will have a dedicated area for them to relax in during these periods and light refreshments will be provided.

 What kinds of things will they be filmed doing?

As explained previously, the narrative follows one day in school of the strange, yet familiar altered reality of the film. This will involve a number of activities and scenarios:

• The class of 10 girls will sit behind their desks during 2 lessons and watch the teacher disseminating the strange logic of this future-world, some girls will have short lines to say, asking or answering questions, and using the strange new technology of their ‘Sphere’ ( a crystal ball in which a number of special effects will be created)

• The class will take part in a peculiar science lesson in which they experiment with  the process of making ‘edible growths’ appear in beakers by hitting photographs of objects with  wooden mallets

• The class attend an assembly in which multiple versions of themselves are edited together to form a gathering of 60. This also involves some singing and some simple dance movements.

 Costume?

The girls will wear a costume provided: a school uniform (currently in design stage) this will be a simple yellow and black pinafore style dress with a specially designed QR code-like print pattern that relates to other motifs about technology in the film. They may also wear a 1950’s style headscarf in the same print material. Coloured  tights, shoes ( simple black) will be provided unless the girls already have a similar item they can bring in.

What will the experience be like?

I have worked with young people on many film projects before –and I am very aware for the need to make the experience as fun, stress free and as comprehensible as possible for everyone in order for things to run smoothly.          Filming is a process that requires patience and self control as, unlike performing on stage, a great deal of time is spent setting up the technical side of things ( Camera, lighting, sound etc) and the performers have to wait between each shot for these elements to be ready, and then have the poise and accuracy to perform their actions and lines in place.

The young cast in this film will get insights into these behind the camera processes and our crew will explain the whys and wherefores of what we are doing as much as possible.

What will the Young cast members get out of doing this?

Although this is not an educational workshop I believe this will be a valuable learning experience for the participants, especially those who may want to pursue a career in the arts or creative technologies. They will gain insights into the filming process of a professional project , and I will ensure that every participant receives a number of items for their portfolio:

- film clips on DVD of scenes from the film that they are performing in

-electronic stills from scenes they are in

The participants are welcome to take their own photographs/documentation of the behind-the scenes filming process.

In my role as a Senior Lecturer in  BA Fine Art: Print and Time Based Media at the University of the Arts London, I am also an admissions tutor, and so am very aware of how valuable it is for applicants to University to be able to demonstrate their energy and commitment with a portfolio that shows involvement in exciting extra- curricular projects.

Where will this film be shown?

SCHOOL OF CHANGE is not intended for a cinema or DVD release, it is being made  as part of an installation in an Art gallery show at Matt’s Gallery www.mattsgallery.org where it will be projected in an endless loop in a cinema-like environment alongside other sculptural elements. Matts Gallery is a non-profit art gallery in Mile End, East London, with a outstanding critical reputation supported by a number of sponsors including the Arts Council England. One of Matt’s Gallery’s artists Mike Nelson is currently representing Britain at the Venice Biennale. http://venicebiennale.britishcouncil.org/timeline/2011

This show will be free and open to the public. All participants – and their families and friends! – will be invited to the special opening of this work which usually happens on a Sunday afternoon.

Some notes on the cast

Head of Change: Sebastian Baczkiewicz

Sebastian Baczkeiwicz is a professional actor now better known for his writing, he has written more than 20 radio plays including the acclaimed epic fantasy drama series ‘Pilgrim’ for Radio 4 and ‘The Prettiest Girl in Texas’. A charismatic and extremely intelligent performer, he has been a friend and admirer of my film work for some time; I wrote the role of The Head of Change based on my interpretation of his performative character and writing.

            Leo Chadburn (aka’ Simon Bookish’) http://www.simonbookish.com/

Musical development and direction / recording of performers / Music for Songs / musical score for film / Mr. New Structures

Leo is best known as Simon Bookish, under which guise he has released three albums of investigatory pop and electronic music. He is also a classically-trained composer, producer, arranger, vocalist and live artist, whose work includes experimental music, improvisation, remixes and scores for the theatre, contemporary dance and visual art. He wrote the music for Richard Grayson’s acclaimed film/installation at Matt’s Gallery ‘Golden Space City of God’

Ms. Language: Frances Scott

 Production assistant / artists assistant / set design / sound assistant / Ms. Geography:

Francis is a filmmaker and performance artist who has also worked extensively in production and co ordination of various projects at Artsadmin, and Matt’s Gallery; I worked with her on my previous project at Matt’s Gallery. She is a multi-skilled individual to whom I will be able to confidently delegate a number of key tasks, and whose artistic input on set design will be invaluable.

Mr. Maths: John Wagland

John is an accomplished professional actor, who played the lead role as the Purple Preacher in ‘All Suffering SOON TO END!’ and my previous film ‘Return of the Black Tower’. He has a unique combination of skills as both physical/circus performer and classically trained actor, with very distinctive ‘character actor’ qualities. The role of Mr. Maths has been written for him and was inspired by his character and performance in my previous work. After training at the Drama Centre London John Wagland made numerous theatre and film appearances and playing one of the young leads in Michael Palin’s BAFTA nominated film for the BBC, ‘East Of Ipswich’.  In Barcelona he joined up with the notorious Catalan art collective ‘La Fura Dels Baus’ whom he then performed and collaborated with over ten years.

I’m doing this again on 17th October 2011 for a special event at Loughborough

I’ve been commissioned by RADAR http://www.arts.lboro.ac.uk/radar/ to make a new work for their  programme ‘This Is Not A Performance or a Lecture!’ to be presented on Saturday 18^th June 2011,  at a kind of festival of 7 of these commissions around the campus at Loughborough University. Ryan Gander is doing one too. So Save the date and come along! I’m developing a new 2- handed performance piece ‘ECHO vs. GOWN’ which takes two very different local texts as its material starting point; the Loughborough Echo newspaper, and the Loughborough University website ( specialist subject: Sport Science and Systems Engineering) A dialectic-cum- duel will be fought as a 2-handed illustrated lecture between the costumed personifications ‘Echo’ and ‘Gown’; a live collage of absurd collisions in rhetoric, sound, text and image, mining through explosions the latent ideologies, varied human aspirations and mysteries of Loughborough life. The methodology is poetic, analytical and mischievous, sometimes making hard sense, sometimes making a structured anarchy of sense-making nonsense.