Organiser’s blog LDN ‘10 – Day 5
This blog is a little late but the aftermath of day 5 was rather large this time round. And so Original Cultures London 2010 ends just as quick as it begun in many ways. Everyone has left and life is slowly returning to normal.
The last day was a blur for me. The artists spent the first half of the day putting the finishing touches to their work before we were let into the venue at 2pm to set up. With only 4 hours to get everything up and running, soundchecked, tested and so on there was a fair bit of pressure to say the least. And despite our original worries that 4 hours may not be enough, it proved plenty. Considering the difference in venue between Bologna 09 and London ‘10 I’m not really that surprised – however I did have my doubts until the last minute. Where Bologna was a ‘proper’ venue, our London venue was much smaller and not really equipped for what we had envisaged. This didn’t stop us from putting together make shift columns and a ’stage’ out of tables and barrels. Creativity can’t be stopped.
We kicked off the show a little later than planned to let the venue fill up. Things got underway with a little solo from Tatsuki, who performed the two tracks he wrote for us live (check the soundcloud to hear them), before Om Unit and Tayone joined him for the 40 or so minutes of music they’d spent three days putting together. From electro to house and hip hop, the set felt a lot more cohesive this time and the music a lot less improvised. While the guys were busy making heads nods and bodies move, Hiraki, Ericailcane and Will sat behind their laptops controlling three projectors and a variety of hand-drawn animations they’d spent the previous days creating.
Here is a little low-res video preview of what went down…
To have the visuals more involved in the live show this time round was a real highlight for me. Whereas in Bologna they sort of set up their installation and let it run for the night, this time they were actually involved in the live show which really made the difference and left many people speechless – including us.
The night ended with Tayone showing London just why he’s Italy’s best, and considering the feedback from his set from those I spoke to I really hope he gets another chance to come back and show his stuff as he really deserves it. It’s funny, I’ve been trying to get him to London for 5 years and it feels good to have finally managed to do it, especially in a situation like this.
We all had a celebratory dinner on the Saturday, before some of us left and then on the Sunday we had a rather surreal cinema session. We went to see the new Banksy film with Will, Ericailcane and DEM which was a totally crazy experience as the movie speaks about their ’scene’ to a degree but also people and things they’ve had an indirect hand in. All in all though it was the perfect way to round up the week and it was nice to see everyone relaxing and smiling.
With London now done, the only city left for us is Tokyo before we embark on a new cycle of events with new artists. Right now it’s a bit early to say when it will happen but I for one know that if we’ve managed to come this far we’ll definitely make it all the way over there. Realistically it probably won’t happen for another year and whether or not we do something else in the meantime is still undecided. Stay tuned and find out as we do. I would love to take the show on the road to other cities and countries, and I think that’s a possibility in the meantime while we sort out how Tokyo will happen.
A huge thanks and eternal gratitude goes to the artists for their passion, hard work and dedication to a project that is as much theirs as it is ours. I never tire of marveling at the power of an idea I had nearly 2 years ago in bringing people together. More thanks and gratitude go to my fellow organisers Cris, Yass and Ale without whom this project would have never happened. I will always be in your debt guys. Thanks also to all those who came from far and wide to help us and those who supported and worked with us: Davide, Fabio, Luca, Stewart, Brian, Caitlin, Beth and Richard at Stolen Space, Tom, Charlie, Andy, Paul, Cristina, Bonsai TV, Samurai FM, and anyone I forgot. And last but not least huge thanks to the public who came and supported and followed us online.
You can find a round up of all the week’s action at the following links and stay tuned for videos and audio coming up in the next few weeks.
Peace!
Original Cultures London 2010 online:
http://originalcultures.tumblr.com – daily blogs with photos and video
www.vimeo.com/originalcultures – all the videos
www.flickr.com/photos/original_cultures – all the photos
www.facebook.com/originalcultures – all the Facebook action
www.originalcultures.org/category/blogs/ – all the daily blogs
Organiser’s blog LDN ‘10 – Day 4
It’s funny how fast time goes during these weeks – it’s as if it was only yesterday I was thinking we still had 3 days ahead of us. In reality we’re as close as it’s going to get with the show in less than 24 hours and pressure and excitement are competing and keeping me going.
All the workshops technically ended today, though as with Bologna last year while the musicians have wrapped up more or less ‘on time’ and kept a degree of freestyle/improvisation for the show tomorrow the visual artists went back to the studio after dinner tonight and will most likely still be working tomorrow when we’re trying to get them to the venue to set up.
And like last year even though they’re all pretty tired, they keep finding the energy to work together and just create – from their work for tomorrow, to colouring in exclusive prints for our exhibition closing party and painting in the freezing cold for 3 hours outside the gallery. Both DEM and Will mentioned it tonight – even though they feel exhausted they’re still excited to see the result of their work and wish they had more time to work on it.
The closing party was a nice way to unwind a bit ahead of tomorrow as well. While it did definitely add to the visual artists’ load, like last year it meant we were all together relaxing after a long week worth of work. To top it up new friends have arrived from London, Italy but also from Belgium – big up Lisa, Luca, Davide, Brian, Beatnick and Alex from On Point. Big thanks also to Charlie Whatley for his photos (online soon) and to Stolen Space for being amazing hosts (big up Beth).
The day ended at Song Que up the road, the baddest Vietnamese in Little Hanoi for those who like a good Pho. With new friends in town it was the perfect end to the day.
See you tomorrow!
Organiser’s blog LDN ‘10 – Day 3
Improvisation is the name of the game, not just for the artists who start from improvised ideas and develop them into a full show in the space of a few days but also for us at the level of organisation.
Even the best laid plans require a degree of flexibility and this time round even more so than the first event last year. From transport to catering, technical supplies to venue logistics the plans have changed daily and sometimes even hourly. Flexibility is not always easy though but as long as you are able to keep a cool head it’s never that much of a problem. A cool head isn’t always a given though, and I’m the first to sometimes be a little too emotional. Still you live and learn and I have definitely learnt a lot in the last 4 days especially with regards to being flexible and rebounding fast and quickly rather than getting caught up in the fact of things not going according to plan.
I spent most of the day with the visual artists as the musicians had to take a day off due to work duties, and that’s been rather insightful. Last year I never saw inside their world, never stepped foot into their workshops and to be able to do it this time has only given me more respect and appreciation for their art but also for who they are as people. I feel privileged to be privy to what they do but also to have become friends with them over the last year. Coming from the world of music, the visual side of our project has been a constant learning curve for me and one I’ve greatly enjoyed.
The way we are managing to combine two art strands and sets of artists never ceases to amaze me and further proves the power of creativity in uniting people and bringing them together outside of their comfort zones.
I’ll leave you with a video feature The Freak Show shot for the opening of our exhibition a few weeks ago. Come down tomorrow night to see the closing party which will feature some small scale live painting from our guys alongside the usual free drinks and merryment. And then be sure to come down on Friday for the final show. Without hinting at what will be there too much I can definitely say it will blow a few minds I think. We’ve stuck to our words – what people will get is something they’ve never seen.
Organiser’s blog LDN ‘10 – Day 2
The picture above sums up the day quite well in a way. Like I said yesterday I’ve realised quickly and harshly that getting ten/fifteen people travelling around London without problems isn’t really easy and doing it by public transport only makes it more of a headache. Still though it’s part of the fun and I’m enjoying it in a twisted way. The timing could have been better though, with the end of the tax year in sight there’s more roadworks in town than ever. You can’t even walk straight down the road anymore let alone take a bus.
While we managed to get a lot of people to give some of their time and skills for our project we’ve also suffered from a bout of bad timing with a lot of the people who had offered their time having to reduce it or cancel due to last minute work duties. That’s what happened with our film guy, an old friend of mine from uni, who unfortunately can’t be with us during the day as originally planned. However this has had a plus side in that we’re now relying much more on handheld cam footage filmed by ourselves, the organisers. Due to this I took some time yesterday after dropping by the visual workshops in Dalston to film the market which was in full swing at lunchtime and basking in the spring sunshine. I came back 5 hours later to film it at dusk again when it takes on an air of ghost town. I can’t wait to see how the footage came out and more importantly how we piece everything together for the documentary. The idea is to bring together footage shot on different cameras, with different ‘textures’ and quality but also shot from different points of view. I really think we could end up with something interesting.
Filming around yesterday also made me realise just how much the location makes the event. While I’m a typical Londoner who likes to moan and groan about the hassles of life in the big city, I do love this place and looking at it through the lens of a camera is a great way to make you realise just how amazing a place it is. All the little things that you take for granted or ignore become fascinating again, part of the make up of the city.
Apart from that yesterday continued to prove that to pull off something like this you definitely patience and strong nerves, two things I’m not always good at. One hour things are smooth, the next they’re about to fall apart and the next they go back to being smooth. I guess it’s best not to do this if you’re a little weak of heart. The rush keeps you going though, no doubt.
We spent most of the afternoon masterminding the layout of the venue to accommodate what the artists need now that we have a clear idea of what they are doing. This is especially true for the visual artists whose work is in many ways the most involving at a logistics and planning level. At least with the musicians we know that it’s just a case of making sit together nicely and making them sound good – though of course now that I’ve said that…
That’s also where being in 4 at the organisation level makes a difference – we can each bring our own experience and knowledge to the table to circumvene any problems that arise or even just to bash heads and come up with a solution to what at first appears to be a big problem. It’s been hard enough preparing everything mainly by myself, but there’s no way I could pull off the even without the guys.
As day 3 starts and I’m writing this up I am really starting to get excited about the show on Friday. I can’t wait to see it for myself but also see people’s reactions. After Bologna last year I know that we can make a big impression, and I love that.
Organiser’s blog LDN ‘10 – Day 1
And so it starts again. The second original cultures event. We’ve swapped the heat of summer and the historic streets and old buildings of Bologna for the less scenic streets, though still inspiring in their own ways, of a rainy London in early spring. That’s the beauty of this project, being able to transport the idea around different cities and see just how it changes and takes on a different form based on the location.
Our six artists have returned alongside a seventh, the Japanese visual artist Hiraki Sawa. The guys all met together for the first time since last June last night and already the creative juices are flowing. This morning they are setting up in their workshops in East and North london. They’ll come out in four days with a one hour show. What shape it takes is still anyone’s guess at this point. Edit: by the time I’m posting this we already have an idea of the shape, but I won’t give it up just yet. Stick around for the week via the various social sites (and here) and you can get an idea for yourself – see below for links of where to see things as they happen (more or less). And if you can be sure to come see the final result Friday evening in Brick Lane.
With the Italian contigent playing the guests this time I’m already seeing the same cultural exchange and learning that made our first event so special. From the weather to the food, transport and people they are learning just how different a city and place London can be. And seeing just how this impacts them and what they do is definitely one of the best things to come out of this project.
For me personally it’s a much bigger challenge this time round as I’m having to look after and organise movements and the such for 10-15 people for a week. Anyone who lives in London knows just how difficult that can be. Thankfully bologna 09 served as a good preparation and once more we’re seeing the same supportive spirit where everyone is helping out and people are giving us their time and help to ensure the event runs as smoothly and professionally as possible. Shouts to Mauritz and Erwan for the rehearsal space and help, proving this point once more.
I was speaking to Word to Mother last night, a visual artist and friend of our visual artists and our host Stolen Space. It was interesting and rewarding to hear him relate to the idea behind Original Cultures and the need for a structure behind artists so that they do retain a degree of control but can also focus on what they do best.
All in all it’s been a good day and it’s all just started. More caffeine and more coffee and then some sleep. Oh yeah and big up to the waiters at Somine’s for being good hosts even though they wouldn’t go lower on the discount. Anyone looking for a good, honest Turkish meal in Dalston needs to check them.
Follow us around for the week (and after) as we go along at the following spots:
Facebook page
Tumblr blog
Twitter
Organisers’ blog – Day 4
Whoa. That is the most direct and natural reaction to what happened last night, on the evening on day 4 at the closing of the Original Cultures pilot. Whoa. The live showcase, the crowning of the 4 days of work for the artists and the cherry on top of the pilot if you will, the event where the public gets to see everything that we’ve all worked on for so long, was a success – and as an organiser this isn’t a boast, it really, truly was.
We had a packed house, with over 300 people, we emptied the bar, the artists got a thunderous round of applause and demands for an encore, which they obliged leaving us with people in the venue until 2am, when we’d officially announced it would end at midnight. One of the members of the city’s council, who sits on the cultural board came at midnight, on a saturday, and personally shook the hand of the artists, thanking them for the show. One of the guys who runs the company which handles the space was dancing and smiling all night, telling us at midnight that we could have another 30mins of show if we wanted – so the 4 musicians, Tayone, 2tall, Tatsuki and Bruno Briscik, went back on stage and jammed for 20 mins. By 2am Will Barras, DEM and Ericailcane were still painting – which is all the more hilarious considering what happened earlier in the evening. Let me rewind for a sec…
We got to the venue around lunch – the musicians soundchecked in the PM while the visual artists put the finishing touches to their creations and masterminded how the visuals would play out throughout the night. Things were going well, with the necessary high level of running around involved when you put together an event. And then as we approached opening time, the decision was made to cancel the live painting aperitivo due to technical issues – partly true, but also due to the fact that the visual artists actually stopped working as people entered the venue. Having been at it for 5 days non stop, there was no way we would force anyone to do something just because it was originally written in the programme.
With this in mind we opened and hoped for the best. People came looking for the live painting and decided to maybe come back when they learnt it wasn’t happening. Others came in regardless, curiously looking around the venue, trying to understand what was going to happen 4 hours later. As I stood in the courtyard next to the bar, DJing, I kept thinking to myself that maybe even without the live painting we’d still manage to bring enough people in. You see the thing is, the whole live painting is quite popular here in Bologna, and the visual artists were definitely one of the main attractions of the project for people in the area, mainly because Ericailcane and DEM are local artists who everybody knows. Losing the live painting meant we might well lose a big amount of people. As I tried to not think about it too much, considering that we knew we still had something incredible prepared but that we couldn’t really tell people without giving the game away, I got on with trying to make people drink and enjoy themselves as the evening rolled on. And then I looked up, around 8 or so and Will was walking around with a tub of paint… and that’s when it all started going crazy.
DEM, Ericailcane and Will painted from 8 till 10, as they did people flocked to the venue, by the time I finished the DJ set in the courtyard, the venue was nearly full and I could barely believe it. The show started with the first hour split between Tatsuki and 2tall/Om Unit doing solo shows of about 30mins and the second hour with Tayone, Bruno and the two of them doing the live show they’d spent the last 3 days creating. As I stood there looking at Tatsuki on the stage playing to the audience a piece he’d finished writing 2 hours before it started to hit me just how special this all was.
The stage was set in the center of the room, so that people could stand all around the musicians. On the walls projections made by the visual artists played using Chinese shadow concepts. And on one side a giant screen played elements from an animation that they also created during the week. Tatsuki for his part ditched the entire 30 mins set he’d originally prepared and instead played a beautifully atmospheric 20 or so mins using sounds he’d recorded the day before and inspired by the visuals created by DEM, Will and Ericailcane: us talking, him speaking Italian, the ticks from the clock of one of the guys who runs the venue… it was incredible to hear all these sounds which I knew were ‘ours’ coming together while people stood around trying to understand what was happening. It was the perfect way to start.
2tall/Om Unit came up next, playing 20 or so minutes of new material and bringing the vibe and energy up a level, perfectly as if we’d masterminded the whole thing from start to finish. But we hadn’t, no one had heard the others’ bits, no one apart from the artists knew what would happen…
And then the final hour started and it continued to be incredible – the three of them played as if they’d known each other all their lives. The audience went crazy, the vibe was unbelievable. 10 mins before the end we were turning people away by the tens, and wondering how the hell it had all happened. Everywhere I looked people were smiling, dancing and enjoying themselves. The visual artists were more happy than I’ve seen them all week and so were the musicians.
Fast forward two hours, and we’re all sitting around coming down from the adrenaline rush and thinking back to various elements of the night. Everyone, from the artists to the organisers, the technical crew to the film crew was on a high. And everyone was responsible for the beautiful event that took place last night – everyone worked for nothing more than the want to do this, we came together as a whole in the most organic manner.
And to me, as the person who had this idea, who brought this idea to this town nearly 1 year ago to get some advice, to see the idea turn into reality like this (pretty much one year to the day since I first came up with it) is just simply incredible – tears came to me early on in the night and by the end I was just floating on a cloud, words unable to do justice to the feeling of seeing this idea birthed into reality. To know that every single person involved also felt the same is the best reward ever.
We’ve worked on this for 6 months solid, plus 6 months before of masterminding, and one week of just working non stop – and there has never been a point in all that time where someone argued or something went truly ‘wrong’. And that’s something I can’t even begin to comprehend. It gives me incredible faith that what we are building, is something that will continue to grow organically and that will hopefully be enjoyed by more and more people in the future.
For now, the best brunch in Bologna awaits me. HD video teasers of day 3 and 4 will be online by tomorrow. And full reports from the editors and artists too. And then stay tuned as we start to roll out the documentation of the project starting this month until the end of the summer.
To everyone who came last night, thank you. To everyone who took part in this, bless you.
Laurent
Videos:
Day by day HD teaser vids on Vimeo
Behind the scenes videos on Vimeo
Links:
See behind the scenes on our Tumblr – originalcultures.tumblr.com
Catch the daily blogs on our site – originalcultures.org/blogs
Catch us over at Shook Magazine on the daily too – shook.fm
Hear us tweet as we go – twitter.com/og_cultures
And don’t forget to check/add/friend/fan us on the Flickr, Facebook and Myspace.
Organisers’ blog – Day 3
And again, sitting here in the kitchen with coffee on one side and brioches and panini on the other. It’s the morning of day 4, and even though they say all good things come to an end, I really feel like I don’t want this beautiful experiment to end. Looking back on day 3 though there’s been plenty of great moments, more lessons learnt and some great memories made.
In the morning the musicians had the last of their workshop session, using the 3 or so hours to tighten up their set as well as working with Bruno Briscik on how to bring his Cello on three of the tracks they’d already prepared. Two of them Bruno will be adding some bass, while on one of them he’ll be an integral part of the track. Bruno has a bit of a reputation round these parts for being hard to work with and bringing a certain element of jinx to shows. Seeing him connect with 2tall and Tatsuki was a real pleasure, as we all drank coffee and he reminisced about his days in New York, and seeing as he and Tayone have been working together for years the whole issue of being hard to work with never really reared its ugly head. As for the jinx though, he managed to break his wah wah pedal and blow up his amp in less than 2 hours, which didn’t surprise our resident technician Yassin who took it all with a smile, and the hope that today when it comes to the show, the same thing doesn’t happen.
By lunch time the musicians were done and we were ready to move their equipment from the workshop space to the venue (which are luckily next door to each other) and prepare for a quick soundcheck. First though was a quick lunch with a bonus chocolate ending as our local ice cream sponsor was having a chocolate day much to the pleasure of Tatsuki and 2tall who’ve been wolfing down more sugar this week than in an entire year.
Following lunch I sat down with the Slow Breakfast guys, our resident film crew, to try and figure out what was the issue with our movies not displaying properly on Vimeo. Thanks to some help from the homie Hentsix and the FAQ pages we got to the root of it and as we all sat down at Alessandro’s place to work, things started to go a little wrong – my PC overheated and refused to work, leaving with me with the only choice to cool it with a fan. At the same time the Slow Breakfast were having a nightmare figuring out how to maintain the bit rate for the videos, but after an hour or two of pulling our collective hair out it all started working again and the videos and websites were updated and working as they should have (peep the embed below)
Elsewhere in the afternoon the musicians went to do a radio interview on Citta del Capo, while the visual artists continued to work on the various elements needed for their animation and shadow based visual show. Work which even at midnight after dinner was wrapped was still ongoing (more on that in a bit). Another crucial element of the afternoon was the need for us to prepare and map out our seminar which was taking place in the evening from 7 to 9 at the Modo Infoshop, a famous bookshop in Bologna and meeting place for many of the city’s artists.
Having realised the lessons we needed to take from the seminar on the previous day we tried our best to put together a stronger approach for this seminar, deciding on precisely who would do what, when and how – give or take the unpredictable element that always comes with these things. In the end the seminar and q&a session was still a success, with a good turnout and a strong presentation of the project and feedback from the artists about their experience so far. And yet still we lapsed: we forgot to print out the questionnaires to get feedback from the public, we still didn’t quite get the translation to work as well as it could have and we also still needed to tighten up our seminar game. It’s by no means a big deal, but for me personally I now know that the biggest lesson I will take from this pilot so far is the need to really prepare and oversee the activities where the public is involved. When it comes to activities with the artists we have pretty much on lock, we’re strong in that area and we’ve only got a few small lessons to take away. When it comes to the public’s involvement though, we still have a lot to learn.
I kind of live tweeted the seminar, partly for fun and partly to further prove our point that we want to use the internet as much as possible to give people a chance to have an insight into what happens even if they’re not there.
The evening wound down with some drinks in the bar next door to Modo Infoshop, as the artists and organisers mingled with the public, friends and others. And that’s when something amazing happened. Tatsuki introduced me to a Japanese woman, Ayami, who has come all the way from London after discovering Original Cultures on the Samurai FM website. Not only that but she’d come from London with no money, and so decided to find a couch to surf on using the internet, finding herself in the house of one of the girlfriends of one of the guys who works at Modo Infoshop! They were only too happy to host her for a few days as they knew about our event. To know that someone went to that much effort to witness what we’re doing, and to know that things worked out for them as much as they’ve been working out for us, was simply incredible. She’s a big fan of all the visual artists and also Jim 2tall’s work and so we introduced her to the artists and spoke for a few hours. As Jim said afterwards, it’s not just bless, it’s a manifestation of what we’re trying to do here – bring people from different cultures and countries together under the banner of the arts, to allow them to share and experience together.
The day ended once more with an amazing dinner from Lisa, and for the first time pretty much everyone involved in the pilot was around the table: from the artists to the organisers, the film crew, the photographers, the technicians and the venue owners. To see us all there in the courtyard, drinking, eating and being merry, sharing stories and experiences, discussing the week’s event was really special for me. I know we have achieved one of our aims, especially when I think back to the fact that there hasn’t been one time this week where I haven’t bumped into one of the artists involved in the project and he hasn’t smiled at me as the first thing he did. We have brought people together and made them share something unique, through this idea of cultural exchange. We’ve allowed artists to create something they’ve never done before, to take part into an ‘experiment’ that was taking shape as it was happening, controlled by them as much as by us. And so I now know that as much as I don’t want it to end, it’s really only the beginning of something that we are all going to ensure lasts as long as possible.
I’ll leave you with some quotes and the usual links, and the knowledge that our showcase tonight will truly be something unique, never to be repeated. If you can’t be there, don’t worry we’ll have you covered in the coming weeks with videos and more. And if you can be there, then I look forward to sharing this experience with you all.
Bless.
Quotes:
It’s like Big Brother but without the bullshit and wasting time. Instead we make art on the spot.
Tayone, speaking about the documentation aspect of the Original Cultures project.
I’ve never done a collaborative project like this, it’s amazing.
Will Barras, talking about the visual arts workshops he’s been taking part in all week.
Links:
See behind the scenes on our Tumblr – originalcultures.tumblr.com
Catch the daily blogs on our site – originalcultures.org/blogs
Catch us over at Shook Magazine on the daily too – shook.fm
Hear us tweet as we go – twitter.com/og_cultures
And don’t forget to check/add/friend/fan us on the Flickr, Facebook and Myspace.
Organisers’ blog – Day 2
And so we continue, day 2 less coffee and cigarettes but just as much adrenaline pumping through my veins and it’s not even midday yet. I’m writing this at the start of day 3, looking back over the second day of the Original Cultures pilot, where the highs were kept and lessons were learnt.
Something ticked in my head in the morning of day 2, as I walked to the venue for more workshops. I realised that we (the organisers) had been working to ensure everything was as perfect as possible, without thinking twice about it, and yet this was still just a pilot – if things went wrong it was ok, it was ’supposed’ to happen because we were there to learn more than anything. This didn’t mean I wanted us to take it easy, but in a way it made me feel better about the possibility of things not going according to plan.
The artists meanwhile were as happy and productive as the previous day. I met up with them following their morning of workshop, where they told me that they’d managed to put together another 6 tracks in the space of 3 or so hours. Productivity is definitely the word there.
As the afternoon kicked in we continued the music workshop, and started to set up in the Spazio Si for the first open activity of the pilot, a 2h q&a/seminar session with the musicians. We fed a stream from their room into the Si, while people came in and sat down for 50 mins or so, watching and hearing what the guys were doing as they did it.
And this is when things started to deviate from the plan, and lessons started to be learnt, for me as an organiser at least. A professor of music who was supposed to come with his students could not make it at the last minute, leaving us with an audience of passers by, curious music fans and producers and DJs, I’d say about 15 people.
As I brought the musicians out to start the seminar it hit me that I should have prepared this a lot better than I did. Due to time issues, other duties and importantly my high level of tiredness I made some simple organisational mistakes when it came to moderating the panel, taking it on me to not just moderate but also translate, and within about 20 mins, my brain was so frazzled from doing it all at pretty much once that I started to slip.
In the end though the seminar was a success I think we can fairly say – the audience enjoyed it, the feedback questionnaires showing some interesting points and great reception. The artists enjoyed it and so did we, but the lesson was definitely learnt, and soon as the seminar finished I was sitting with Cristian, one of the other organizers, and discussing how to avoid these mistakes on the evening of day 3, when we do a second seminar and q&a session at the bookshop Modo Infoshop, where we will also be presenting the project to the public.
Day 2 was also the first time I got to see what the visual artists, DEM, Ericailcane and Will Barras, had been cooking up in Erica’s workshop as they set up in the Spazio Si in the evening to do some tests for the final showcase. The simple rehearsals and tests of their visual ideas left me simply speechless… and I won’t give away too much but enough to say that they’ve come up with ideas, both artistic and technical, to essentially create projections on the walls using cut out characters and a Chinese shadow technique that has been modified. And that’s just one bit of it! ù
Talking with them and seeing their ideas take shape was not just a pleasure but also essential to allow me to start understanding just how everything might fit together on Saturday. Talking to Will we agreed that ultimately regardless of preparations and aims, the visual and the musical will come together because they always do, and a narrative will come out of it, whether or not we aim for it (and by the way we’re not really). And beyond that, the beauty for me is that this narrative will most likely be different for everyone who witnesses the showcase.
The day wound down with another beautiful dinner courtesy of our splendid chef Lisa and some very deep and pleasant chats with 2tall, Will, Tatsuki and my homie Hentsix (who has joined us for the rest of the week) about art, culture and the internet. More on that later, maybe.
For now though I have to rush back to the Spazio Si and see how Bruno Briscik, the famed Italian multi instrumentalist, is getting on with the musicians. That’s right, we’ve managed to get him to join them for 3 tracks where he’ll be playing his cello alongside their more or less electronic compositions. I’ve already seen about 30 mins or rehearsals and discussions and I know it’s going to be something very special too. Bruno, a classically trained musician who loves to play in non classical situations, and 3 producers and DJs who are as far removed from classical training as you can imagine. Check our Tumblr and other sites for sneak peeks as it happens!
I’ll leave you for now. Be sure to check our other blogs too, and stay tuned for the last two reports of day 3 and 4 as well as more video and audio.
Bacci da Bologna!
Laurent
Links:
See behind the scenes on our Tumblr – originalcultures.tumblr.com
Catch the daily blogs on our site – originalcultures.org/blogs
Catch us over at Shook Magazine on the daily too – shook.fm
Hear us tweet as we go – twitter.com/og_cultures
And don’t forget to check/add/friend/fan us on the Flickr, Facebook and Myspace.
Organisers’ blog – Day 1
Whoa. I barely know where to start. Fourteen hours days combined with an unhealthy amount of coffee, cigarettes and sugar have left me a bit of a shivering wreck, and it’s only the beginning of the second (official) day. I’ve been for 3 days already, preparing everything and to be honest while I am a bit of a shivering wreck, I’m also incredibly hyper and I feel truly blessed to have witnessed what I have so far. More than that I feel blessed, as one of the organisers and the person with whom the idea for Original Cultures sort of originated, to know that our ideas, our discussions and our wishes are somehow turning to be true, and even better turning out way better than we’d expected.
I’ll keep this first blog post short as I’ve still got tons to do, but to balance the input from our team of writers and some of our artists (blogs from whom you can find here in Italian for the writers and here in Japanese for the artists) here’s an overview of the first official day, and some bits from the first few days.
The mood has been high since all the artists arrived on monday evening and tuesday morning. I think it’s fair to say that the (so far) beautiful weather, the incredible food (cooked by our resident badman chef/caterer Lisa) and the historical surroundings have a lot to do with helping to elevate the mood of all involved.
The music workshops, where Tayone (from Italy), 2tall/Om Unit (from England) and Tatsuki (from Japan) are working for 3 days creating music that will be used in the final showcase on Saturday June 6th, are taking place in the Teatro San Leonardo, a building that was first a nuns’ covent, some 400 years ago. And as we sat for dinner on the Tuesday evening in the courtyard of the Teatro it somehow felt very appropriate that we would be adding our bit of history to this beautiful place.
I’ve primarily been involved in overseeing the music workshops, as I know all 3 artists personally. They are first and foremost friends, and I am a fan of theirs as much as a friend, and so to see them come together and in the space of 8 or so hours put together an already lenghty amount of music and tracks has been incredible to say the least.
Our original thoughts, as organisers, was that on Saturday the showcase, which will last 2 hours, would be composed of roughly 4 movements, 3 x 30mins of solo (one for each artist) and one collective movement of 30mins. This went out the window by the end of the first day of workshops, with Tayone explaining that he felt much happier doing as much collectively as possible. Jim 2tall and Tatsuki both agreed, and so we decided to move forward with the first hour featuring 2tall and Tatsuki doing solos (being that they are the ‘real’ guests as Tayone lived in Bologna for years) and the second hour (or more) composed of a collective movement which the guys are creating as we speak. And truth be told, this is exactly I’d hoped for originally – the reality was that I know that asking artists to put together a 2h live show is demanding a lot, and rests on a lot of factors, especially people getting on and ‘gelling’ if you will. In the end, my hopes are turning reality it seems, as the guys are more than happy to do as much together as possible, and considering we’re about 1/3 of the way through the music workshops I’d say it’s even fair to think that we’ll have a lot more than one hour of music on our hands by the end.
And so day 2 starts. Today are more music workshops, as well as a seminar/meeting/q&a session between the musicians and music students in the late afternoon. While I sit here at home, coffee-ing it up and overseeing the content output of our event, the musicians have already started and I can’t wait to see what rested minds come up with today. Tiredness set in yesterday towards the end, and as Tayone put it “the more we do, the more we have, but also the more we come up with bits that aren’t as good”. Very true, but as 2tall countered “at the end the more we have, the more we can choose from to make sure it’s outstanding”. And that kinda sums it up for me.
I’ll leave you with a few choice quotes, as well as the amazing news that Bruno Briscik, a famed Italian multi instrumentalist with whom Tayone has collaborated on many occasions, will be joining the 3 artists for a couple of featurings on the evening of Saturday.
Oh and as for the visual art workshops, featuring the amazing talents of Ericailcane, DEM and Will Barras, well I’ve not had the time to see much yet, but you can read about it in our writers blog (Italian only for now) and know that what I have seen and spoken about with them leads me to believe that saturday will be special indeed. The 3 of them, from Italy and the UK, will essentially act as directors/choreographers for the showcase, orchestrating a full live, visual show for the music being made. And so far this show includes Chinese shadows, a black box and some very spooky figurines… Considering we’d originally hoped to have them paint walls during the day, something Ericailcane and DEM are known for, to know that they’ll now be doing something pretty much no one has ever seen them do makes me only feel even better. More pics and words soon come. Stay tuned.
From Bologna, with love (and a hell of a lot of coffee).
Laurent
PS: for those interested, so far the music is ranging from slow beats to house to jazzy hip hop and abstract instrumentals. Will post audio soon as I can.
Quotes:
You try and do an event in Italy and not make it about food!
Me, in response to Mark from Skratchworx’s tweet that Original Cultures was basically just about food.
It’s a pleasure to leave the studio, go to a new country and work with new people. The inspiration is unbelievable!
Tatsuki, at the end of the first day of workshops. With some pistaccio cookies on the side.
It just keeps getting better and better!
Jim 2tall, not sure when he said that though!
Links:
See behind the scenes on our Tumblr – originalcultures.tumblr.com
Catch the daily blogs on our site – originalcultures.org/blogs
Catch us over at Shook Magazine on the daily too – shook.fm
Hear us tweet as we go – twitter.com/og_cultures
And don’t forget to check/add/friend/fan us on the Flickr, Facebook and Myspace.
