B      E   D   L   A   M

PROPOSAL FOR BEDLAM                     TERRY SMITH

BEDLAM is multi-screen video installation and performance. Incorporating recorded images and music with live music, dance and vocals. It is bespoke work designed to tour and reference each site and location. Using not only the regular members of the company but working with local performance groups.

WHERE

The ideal sites are large industrial spaces that are a feature of most towns and cities in the UK.  - A cattle market, and empty industrial estate, a defunct television studio, a multi story car park any place where the performers and audience are on an equal footing. This is a piece that surrounds, engages and unfolds right up front and personal with the audience.

LIGHTING

The lighting is stark and simple. The lighting for bedlam comes from a massive range of fluorescent lights and neon, that operate singularly, and in combination with others, it is a stark modern lighting that borrows both from Nauman and Flavin, industrial and office. They are hung in clusters from the ceiling, on the wall and on the floor. Sometimes they are all on at other times just a single tube.

Sounds. There is a mixture of recorded sound and live sound and music. The music comes from different sources, From Linda Hirst, improvised vocals, commissioned works from British composer Ian Dearden and also from American film sound track composer Keeghan De Witt.

We are inundated in the media with fantastical images, religion as become a force again in the media and in political life. These two things show that we are in a dark time, where we face the resurgence of superstition and fantasy, escapes from reality.

Bedlam is an anti-religious work in as much as it treats all religions as cults that are designed to describe one group as distinct from another.

In difficult times it seems characteristic of people to look to reinforce their tribe or group and do de-humanize those that are not part of the group. These basic instincts serve to bond together and ostracize others. In enables group decisions to be made that would seem unthinkable in other circumstances. Once you create a them and us, crimes against them seem lesser, human rights becomes something to forget.

Bedlam is not an allegory and does not employ any symbolism. In the present climate, a financial meltdown, there has been an amazing outbreak of fantasy and symbolic messages. Endless films from Hollywood, depicting giants, dragons and celebrate the supernatural. Even the current Venice Biennale is packed with painting that offer the same thing, images that serve to take us out of the present time and transport us to another place. What is this place, it is what it is, its clear it’s a match for a world retreating from secular societies to states dominated by religious dogma.

The current degree to which religion has become more and more powerful, I have never known a time so dominated in the media by religious opinions and ideology. Since the fall of the soviet block, there has been an unprecedented interest and influence on society. The proliferation of popular media with fantasy and the supernatural, from films like Twilight, Lord of the rings, Harry Potter the obsession with the superstition, the fantastic and religious beliefs are all part of the same issue. And it’s not a surprise. In periods of economic uncertainty art supplies the narcotic that offers an antidote to the grime reality. Art as tried to be an always express the real.

Bedlam is an attempt to readdress the prevailing move towards fantasy that always seems to dominate culture in dark times.  But Bedlam is not a sour project full of resentment but a celebration of beauty the real, the desire for truth as a reality rather than as an ideal.

Perhaps in these times there is a strong cultural need to escape from reality.

Bedlam operates in the same way Shakespeare used metaphor to describe the world as a stage. Shakespeare

What it responds to and has no hidden agenda. Bedlam is here and now, in a world dominated by invisible forces of commerce and politics, this piece attempts to describe and involve the audience in an environment that is both intelligent and dynamic.

The construction of Bedlam is made through a series of workshops with performers, composers and non-professionals.

The audience enters and in doing so begin a contract that involves them experiencing things like kettleing, herded together, and shouted at. But this is not an aggressive work, but a work that desires truth.

This fund allows for an ambitious project that takes people on a journey that goes nowhere, that starts with place and ends with place. A bit like a travelling circus, it puts up its ‘stage’ and performs, a travelling troupe.

The performers are from all areas of the community; the permanent company members are made up of professional dancers from trained ballet dancers to disabled performers and musicians.

I have been working for many years as advisor to the Adam Reynolds bursary an annual award for disabled artists. I am currently organizing Venice Agendas where I have invited shape to be involved. I have worked with disabled groups since 1994 when I was part of the Dockland Community Poster project, producing larger billboards in East London. I worked for five years with the collective which then became the Art of Change.

I have been an audience member watching performance art since the mid seventies and documented early performances by Station House Opera and directed a work by Gary Stevens called Simple at the Serpentine Gallery in 1???. I have recently crossed over into making performances and since 2007 I have been working with composers and musicians. In 2012 I made my first dance work called Combine*. This piece follows on from that work, and I am able to include many aspects of visual art, movement and sound to make a work that is real.

This is not a work that hides its intention; it is embarrassed about its purpose to uncover and the lies and deception that dominate the media. This is not however a political work in the sense of it supporting a political party or ideology, although my own political upbringing in a working class Marxist family does of course sketch out where my political leanings are focused. But this is an attack on all institutions that propose to offer simple solutions to complex issues.

I am inspired and continue to influence by the works of Rauschenberg, Cunningham and Cage and more recently Pina Bausch and Anna Teresa Keersmaker.

Bedlam, although an anti-dote to the bling, fantasy pulp that features heavily in Hollywood movies, this is not a grainy black an white work that speaks about the futility of life, it is a joyous and exhilarating epic work that beauty of creativity that intelligent work does not have to be bleak. The truth is not stark, it is lustful, and rich in content colour and adventure.

It’s a work that incorporates different ethnic backgrounds, diverse abilities and serious and world-renowned professional composers and performers.

It is not a work that would sit comfortably in a church or mosque it is a deeply secular work. 

Since 2007 I have been working with singers and composers on video works and live performances. In 2012 I began a new collaboration with dance and performance that developed from the choral works where movement became more and more dominant. In all these projects the work was devised and constructed via a series of open workshops. This proposal is to support a range of research strands that work towards a particular direction a work called at the moment Bedlam. This is not a proposal for production but for the research towards a new work. In all of my research for a project I explore many different areas so become part of a new project while others become valuable experiments that often trigger new pieces.

This collaborative project I made in 2007 was called Broken Voices, I invited Linda Hirst, a singer renowned for her improvised work who among her many achievements has sung for Berio and John Cage; along with the British Composer Ian Dearden. As well as a recorded composer he is also a sound designer, who worked with Stockhausen and regularly works with Steve Reich.

In 2010 I made a piece called the Foundling and in 2012 a work called Unsung a solo work for singer and in 2012 a piece for singers and dancers Combine.

How research leads my projects

I constantly experiment this is reflected in my Experimental Art School project. When I decide to work on a project that falls outside my skill base I recruit a range of people who are eminent in that field, not only does their expertise support the project these workshops also teach me and the team about certain areas. The learning process is a collective experience for everyone involved.

The research is reflected in different ways sometimes its general, for example I spent one day a week for six months attending a master class in singing, just listening taking notes. This informed not only the project I was working towards but also since then every other project. In this proposal I have out lined some specific and some general areas of research.

In all these cases, the research is essential but not necessarily all of it is included in any one project. Usually it informs my general practice.

In all of these works I start usually with a working title and a set of conditions but in the intense workshop period the titles may change and the concept can radically shift focus. In 2012 aware that in many of the choral works I was asking the singers to move and occupy different spaces physically I realized that there was a strong untapped choreographic element to the work. So in my next project Combine I invited the Italian Choreographer Paola Piccata to work with me on the new piece. As well as live singers, we also employed five professional dancers and two non-dancers to work collectively on the project. The choreography was joint designed by myself and Paola.

That work was shown for one night at V22 space in south London. This is a huge very high ceiling in a space about half the size of the Tate Turbine Hall. There were five large projection screens, recorded music and voice and performance combined with live dance, voices and music.

It was a very successful event and as often happens through up lots of more possible directions for performance and for involvement of non professionals. The ethos of Combine is that it is a site specific performance work that varies and changes wherever it is performed. And that I would work with local dancers and musicians. Projects for Combine are next year in Caracas and Prague.

In combine I spent two days on the lighting although there was limited lights available. This is one area that I wish to research. I also want to explore the ideas of using non-professionals and performers from their disciplines in the work. I also wanted to play with the idea of where the audience see and experiences the work.

In combine the piece took place in different parts of the room and the audience were able and encouraged to move around and follow the action.

When I first began working with musicians in 2005 I met with Linda Hirst who is also professor of Vocals and trinity Conservatory in Greenwich. Once a week for seven months I sat in her master class and watched, drew and made notes. This was part of my research, but of my learning process. With Ian we went to many music concerts, listened to hours of music, from percussion drumming recorded in African villages to Stockhausen and many contemporary classics. In every respect both Ian and Linda were my tutors or mentors in this process.

With Paola, this process continues. We have watched hours of dance on DVD and go frequently to see live dance from Pina Bausch to Tina Segal. I also go regularly to see live performance work. I am currently organizing a series of debates that began this May at the Venice Biennale in a project called Venice Agendas and continue in the UK and NY this year. The focus is on live art. These debates are also part of my research, by bringing together different practitioners with the performance arenas from dancers, performance artists and organisations like rAndon International.

I have a new project called Bedlam. All I know about this piece so far, is that it should be an antidote to the kind of surreal fantasy that has gained prominence at the moment which I think is more than a coincidence in a recession for elaborate fantasy. This is a work of fiction about reality.

I have begun the initial research about Bedlam and how it developed how Victorians would pay to go and see the lunatics in the asylum and that it was a curiosity a freak show. I have worked with SHAPE over the years, an arts funded organization dedicated to disabled artists. And I have been curating projects recently with a deaf performance artist.

So my areas of research are three fold. Through a series of workshops with dancers and non-dancers, with performance artists and interested members of the public experiment with tow things.

AUDIENCE

In Combine the audience were allowed to be in any part of the room, the performances were designed to give allow for a long view and for a close up. So sometimes the dancers would perform close in touching distance of the audience. I want to continue this approach, keeping away from theatres and stages and looking at warehouse spaces, foyers, multi story car parks etc.

I want to explore the concept of Ketteling - the controversial method of crowd control. And I want to explore this and other ways authorities use to control mass of people. This research would also look at shopping mall crowd flow and how to evacuate people from buildings quickly and safely. In other words look at sporting events, railway stations, different ways that involve the flow of people. I will be talking to designers, archeetctics and the security forces to get a few on our this can be done as part or elment of audience experience.

I will be talking to architects and designers and looking closely at public spaces out side and in.

LIGHTING

I have this idea to investigate different ways of lighting. I want to explore  possibilities of just using florescent lights. So I want to explore how to do this how to put them in sequences, if they can be dimmed, our they flutter when switched on, how powerful the lights are, how we can go from a full on flood light space to just having one strip light over a space. I want to play with where the lights are situated, on ceilings but also on floors walls etc.

MUSIC

I would begin discussions with musicians and composers in particular with Ian Dearden to see how we can combine recorded elements with live parts. I want to investigate how the combinations have been used in the past for example a piece by Steve Reich called New York Counterpoint.

I want to workshop with singers so they can be also interact how they might also speak and make abstract sounds.

DANCE

This process of a long workshop period will be used with dancers and non-performers. This will also be undertaken by six-month regular open workshops, which will include people of different ages and genders and different abilities and disabilities. In this area I want to play with movement and non-movement. How standing still or minimal actions can be used to increase awareness of space. I am also keen to continue to work with performers with disabilities, I think its very interesting to put infront of an audience p

 WHERE

The ideal sites are large industrial spaces that are a feature of most towns and cities in the UK.  - A cattle market, and empty industrial estate, a multi story car park any place where the performers and audience are on an equal footing. I want to research where performances can be made and also look at how to get permissions etc. For example if a work is made in a warehouse space, do you need mobile WC’s. I want the research to be thorough and considered.

PROPOSITION

Interaction : intersection as developed from a project first made in NY in November 2001. It was featured in the Architectural Associations magazine AA Files in November 2001. 

WALK DON’T WALK 2001

I made a walk in NY that was determined by the walk dont walk street signs. I left the decision of where I walked entirey in the hands of the instructions of the signs.

WORK FOR NEW YORK PEDESTRIAN INTERSECTIONS

A work that uses the streets of New York as the site, the structure and the score.
The particularity of the New York Street and sidewalk system means that on many junctions if someone was to walk very slowly they could keep moving continuously in a loop without needing to stop.
The crossing guidelines, the grid system, the traffic flow and the commands to walk and don’t 
walk, give not only a structure but also the instructions and timings.
Participant volunteers will be drawn locally and include dance classes and people without any dance or performance training. Through a series of workshops each of the players will develop a simple routine that will form part of a collective ensemble work. The final work, a continuous circus – circuit  around one intersection, will be performed either once, or a number of times at a single place or at a number of intersections. It’s a piece that can be scaled up from five participants to fifty.

Intersection : interaction forms a live loop of repetitive actions. However there will be deviations and development of the actions as they repeat, some becoming more complex.  Starting with one performer and increasing at each corner until the full ensemble are walking, moving, bending, singing, speaking, shouting etc

Identify a number of possible locations, to document each one, to time the crossing, measure the distances and locate, street furniture, - public telephones shop signs etc. And most importantly access – entrances and exits. 

This work follows on from my interest in measurement, movement, and the voice. It is a work that combines many elements of drawing, not only in the physical act of drawing on paper, but also in using the existing street drawings, lines and the complete theatre of signs and instructions already on the street.

The intersection. The Interaction (possible route)

Act one
First one performer walks the crossing, slowly balancing a book on their head. The walk is timed for the exact duration of the walk light indicator to stay on WALK. This enables them to continue to walk on to the next crossing. This way the performers circle continuously without stopping. After two crossing, (half way) another performer enters- another action, gradually the circus grows with different actions, someone walking backwards. Someone stops/starts, a couple argue, each action repetitive. Gradually the group gets bigger and gradually they exit and leave the original book person alone.

Act two
This time the performers are broken into two groups. One group circles clockwise the other anti-clock wise. Perhaps more interaction as dancers swap partners, movements are reversed.
t’s a work that would need to be timed for a particular location but once a set of rules and actions have been designed and with the confidence of the performers it could be re-timed for other locations. Although it will be carefully planned, measured and timed, it will not be so fixed or structured that a ‘wrong’ move could disrupt the work. There will be an inbuilt level of tolerance and improvisation. 

As well as physical actions there will be vocal and musical actions that would be explored through the London and New York workshops to accumulate variations in which to make the selection of actions. However it is apiece not only designed for the specific conditions of the street it is also designed for particular performers and reliant on what they will bring.
Technical requirements
A large space inside or outside to workshop and rehearse. It would need the commitment of the time from the performers, so it might be that there are regular workshops for an intensive two weeks or spread over a month. This will depend on availability of the performers. At a certain time rehearsal will need to take place on the actual location.

Below, I have included images from workshops in Caracas in April 2O11. We met twice a week for a month. I worked towards a number of projects that involved the performers walking while singing. There was for a piece called Hola, a pop up piece which was performed three times in the main shopping area called Sabana Grande.