A groundbreaking theatrical experience from Duncan Speakman

London, 12th November 2009
Bristol, 13th November 2009
Liverpool, 14th November 2009

“Putting on a pair of headphones you find yourself immersed in the cinema of everyday life. As the soundtrack swells, people in the crowd around you re-enact the England of today. Sometimes you’re just drifting and watching, sometimes you’re creating the scenes yourself. This is no requiem, this a celebratory slow dance, a chance to savour the world you live in.” Duncan Speakman

Duncan Speakman, Vauxhall Collective member and critically acclaimed theatre practitioner, invites you to join him as he re-examines the classic British street scene. Our everyday lives are set to be re-invented as Speakman takes to the streets and asks us all to reconsider the ground we walk on. Famous for his “subtle mobs” and cinematic style of theatre using soaring soundtracks and beautifully presented framed scenes, Speakman is asking the people of London, Bristol and Liverpool to arrive at a secret venue at a specific time and date in November, armed only with an MP3 file and headphones. The audience, who can sign up to take part in the free event through the website www.subtlemob.com, will be sent an MP3 file to download onto their i-pod or mobile phone prior to the event, and asked to gather at a given time and location, put on their headphones and press play to begin their own simultaneous experience of the subtle mob.

The audience will at once be transported from an average street in a big city to another world where nothing is quite as it seems. Speakman applies the poetry of our routines to his work, creating invisible public artworks, inviting us all to look at the everyday in a creative light. Working closely with a plethora of performers, actors, sound engineers, musicians and contemporary “makers”, as well as speaking to local residents in each of the cities and asking them to contribute to the voiceover in each location, Speakman will lead the public in a very personal re-interpretation of life today in Britain.

Each individual audience member will become part of a larger group, all experiencing slightly different versions of the same events. A pattern of activity will slowly emerge as participants see a plot unfolding through the events and information presented throughout the walk. Both spectators and participants, the audience members will see the street they walk down framed in a very different way as Speakman offers them an alternative view of their surroundings.

Winner of the Vauxhall Collective commission for theatre, Speakman was chosen by a panel of industry experts from Soho Theatre, Pleasance Theatre and interactive theatre specialists Gideon Reeling who were last year’s Vauxhall Collective members for the category. The Bristol based theatre practitioner was selected for his ability to create compelling experiences that both physically and emotionally engage audiences in public spaces.

Speakman was commissioned by Vauxhall Motors to create a piece of theatre with the theme of “re-inventing British classics” and he has produced the three performances as part of his ongoing exploration of how the use of sound influences the perception of public places. He toured the three UK locations in his Vauxhall Astra EcoFLEX to get a feel for each city. The theme of re-inventing British classics was chosen by Vauxhall as it fits well with the re-invention of the car, something the car company is doing with Ampera, their first electric vehicle.

As If It Were The Last Time soundtrack has been co-written with Sadie Anderson of Chrome Hoof, with additional contributions from Laura Groves (Blue Roses) and will be devised with members of Uninvited Guests (Lynn Gardner’s Edinburgh festival favourites), Action Hero and a number of other contemporary theatre/performance makers and performing arts students.

To sign up to be part of Duncan Speakman’s subtle mob performances visit www.subtlemob.com

Duncan Speakman
Duncan Speakman is an artist based in Bristol, UK. Originally trained as a sound engineer at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, his work now examines how we use sound to locate ourselves in personal and political environments. Seeking out the poetics of the everyday, he creates socially relevant experiences that engage audiences emotionally and physically in public spaces. Alongside his art practice he is a senior lecturer in Media Practice at the University of the West of England and is currently developing site-responsive soundwalks, street games and pervasive theatre works.

He has been exhibited internationally and in 2001 was awarded the Clark Trust Bursary for digital arts and has received critical acclaim for his videoblog, 29 fragile days. In 2007 he was peer advisor on the Almost Perfect locative media residency at Banff New Media Institute and since 2008 has been an artist in residence at the Pervasive Media Studio, Bristol.

Vauxhall Collective
The Vauxhall Collective is one of the most ambitious commercially-funded creative support schemes in the UK.

Members of the Vauxhall Collective are supported financially to carry out projects, consequently raising their profile in the industry and in the media, and giving them the resources to fulfil their creative potential.

In previous years Vauxhall successfully ran the VX Collective based on collaboration between members. Previous members have included Giles Deacon, Christopher Kane, Jonathan Kelsey, Simon Hasan, Ben Rivers, Gayle Chong Kwan, Matthew Darbyshire and Gideon Reeling.
tables.

Contacts
For further information / Use of pictures / Interviews
Idea Generation: +44(0)20 7749 6850
Ellen Harrison: ellen@ideageneration.co.uk
Marta Bogna: marta@ideageneration.co.uk
Vauxhall Collective website
Vauxhall website
Subtle Mob website

The Mighty Boosh star launches comedy film night with screening of The Heartbreak Kid

A new comedy film night hits London when Big Screen Big Laughs opens at the Shortwave Cinema in Bermondsey on October 21st.

The night features a unique stand-up performance from The Mighty Boosh’s Rich Fulcher, before a screening of his ‘guilty pleasure’ film The Heartbreak Kid (the original starring Cybill Shepherd) – with the whole evening compered by top film-fanatic comedian Richard Sandling.

Tickets, £10, available from Shortwave Box Office on 0207 3576845, or on the door

Big Screen Big Laughs is a co-production between Idea Generation Events and The Fix, the UK’s comedy bible. It brings film and comedy together in a unique way in one of London’s leading independent cinemas.
The first is compered by movie-fanatic comic Richard Sandling and features star comic Rich Fulcher (known for his manic turn on The Mighty Boosh).

Richard Sandling, compere, said: “I’m really looking forward to being the compere for the Big Screen Big Laughs and working with the legendary Rich Fulcher from the awesome Mighty Boosh! It’s a golden opportunity to bring together my two main loves of stand-up and films. The Shortwave is such a great venue to have an event such as this one; it’s going to be an awesome night’s entertainment combining brilliant comedy with some brilliant ‘guilty pleasures’ films.”

Rob Wray, Director of Shortwave Cinema said: “I’m so pleased that this comedy concept is coming to the Cinema. Everyone is really excited about bringing something new to Shortwave and London cinemas more widely – and, of course, who doesn’t enjoy these guilty pleasure films. There’s some real treats lined up for the next few months!”

Carl Froch tops the bill as the UK’s newest pay per view sporting and entertainment channel Primetime launches.

Primetime will exclusively broadcast the first two bouts of the inaugural Super Six World Boxing Classic tournament, which will see Froch face Andre Dirrell and Arthur Abraham fight Jermain Taylor.

On 17th October 2009 new satellite channel Primetime looks set to knock you out as they exclusively broadcast the first two bouts of the inaugural Super Six World Boxing Classic tournament.

The unprecedented new boxing tournament is a round-robin, six-fighter tournament featuring the class of the Super Middleweight division from home and abroad. At the end there will be one man standing. The world renowned fighters have a staggering combined record of 163-4-1* with 119 knockouts. There are four undefeated fighters, two current world champions, two young, unbeaten, world-ranked contenders and one former undisputed world titleholder. The tension is high, the fighters are ready and Primetime is waiting.

The dangerous and talented six fighters have signed on to fight any, and potentially all, of the five other contestants in the tournament. All bouts will be scheduled for 12 rounds. Froch’s WBC title and Kessler’s WBA championship will be on the line at the start of tournament competition.

Bringing these premiere fights to the British public Primetime will broadcast from 9.30pm on Saturday 17th October when Arthur Abraham and Jermain Taylor explode onto your screens in the first of the super six bouts live from Germany. Then we head straight to Nottingham for what is guaranteed to be a WBC championship title explosion – Carl Froch V Andre Dirrell. Anyone who caught the last Froch fight will know that it was one not to be missed. Well now, thanks to Primetime you don’t have to…

A new wave of Vauxhall Collective commissions are announced

Katie Paterson, Duncan Speakman, Seba Kurtis and Studio Glithero are this year’s brightest creative talent to be commissioned by Vauxhall Motors

Four of the most hotly anticipated artists, designers, theatre practitioners and photographers in the UK have been commissioned by the car company Vauxhall to create art works around the theme of re-inventing British classics. The result of the commissions is four stunningly imaginative and exciting works that throw open the concept of what is a British classic and highlight Vauxhall’s commitment to supporting style and design in the UK.

Chosen by a Style Council of industry experts and previous Vauxhall Collective members including Gideon Reeling and the photographer Gayle Chong Kwan this year’s members are the latest in an impressive line-up of up and coming artists that the initiative has supported, enabling them to take their work in new directions with complete artist freedom.

For 2009’s commissions, Scottish artist Katie Paterson has taken the British seaside town as her inspiration and will create an entrancing installation named Streetlight Storm, where a series of lights along a pier will flicker in sync with storm patterns around the world. The location of the installation will be announced later in the autumn. Paterson was chosen for her innovative approach to reinventing the British classic. The combination of this exciting work, bound up in the relationship between connectivity and the landscape through technology is eagerly awaited.

Theatre practitioner Duncan Speakman, using his unique form of “subtle mobs”, will take to the streets of three major cities in the UK. Combining cinematic style soundtracks and narrative on downloadable MP3 tracks, Speakman invites you to join him on a street near you and re-examine the everyday classic British city scene.
The Style Council chose Speakman for his pioneering approach to interactive theatre experiences and was excited to see how he would frame the UK’s urban landscape, turning the performances into a unique experience for each of the individual audience members.

Photographer Seba Kurtis will examine what it is to be British; combining images of Kurtis’ stereotypical idea of the classic British resident, from the English rose to the country gent, right through to his own modern interpretation of multicultural Britain. His proposition to capture the UK’s residents won the Style Council over and will be at once a compelling and a beautiful representation of Britain today.

Design partnership Studio Glithero will create a selection of ceramic objects entitled A Brief Moment of Happiness using an innovative technique that involves impregnating the surface of the ceramics with light sensitive chemicals to create ethereal and fleeting images of flowers. Taking inspiration from the blue and white china of the 18th century and detailed scientific drawings by British botanists, the Style Council was impressed by Studio Glithero’s ability to take inspiration from antiquated objects and bring them up to date with new technologies.

Last year’s commissions were based on the theme of The Great British Road Trip and saw photographs of the Scottish landscape inspired by Daguerre’s dioramas, a film that visits the self-declared King of the British Eccentrics, an art exhibition inspired by Funhouses, a 1950s tea party followed by a 1980s wedding reception, a glamorous, metallic leather driving set and a collection of design objects based on lost British craft techniques. With such strong commissions from the last year, the work of the Vauxhall Collective 2009 promises not to disappoint.

Each of the creatives will have the use of a Vauxhall car and will travel around the UK seeking out inspiration for their individual commissions. The commissions will be completed between October and December 2009 and will see a range of art works being produced by this exciting and varied group of artists.

The theme of re-inventing British classics was chosen as it chimes well with Vauxhall’s own work re-inventing the car as we know it in the form of the Ampera, its first electric car.

The Vauxhall Collective 2009 members’ biographies:

Fine Art: Katie Paterson

Katie Paterson’s artistic practice is multi-disciplinary, cross-medium, and conceptually driven, often exploring landscape by means of technology, and connectivity by way of moonlight, melting glaciers, and dead stars. Recent works include Earth–Moon–Earth (Moonlight Sonata Reflected from the Surface of the Moon), which involved the transmission of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata to the moon and back; Vatnajökull (the sound of), a live phone line to an Icelandic glacier; and All the Dead Stars, a large map documenting the locations of the 27,000 dead starts known to humanity.

Paterson graduated from the Slade School of Fine Art in 2007, where her final exhibition gained much attention and recognition among art critics, academics and the media, and was restaged a year later at Modern Art Oxford, where she was the youngest artist to be granted a solo-show. She has recently exhibited at Altermodern: Tate Triennial 2009, Tate Britain, Universal Code, Powerplant, Toronto, and Lifeforms, Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm. Upcoming shows include PERFORMA 09, New York.

Theatre: Duncan Speakman

Duncan Speakman is an artist based in Bristol, UK. Originally trained as a sound engineer at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, his work now examines how we use sound to locate ourselves in personal and political environments. Seeking out the poetics of the everyday, he creates socially relevant experiences that engage audiences emotionally and physically in public spaces. Alongside his art practice he is a senior lecturer in Media Practice at the University of the West of England and is currently developing site-responsive soundwalks, street games and pervasive theatre works.

He has been exhibited internationally and in 2001 was awarded the Clark Trust Bursary for digital arts and has received critical acclaim for his videoblog, 29 fragile days. In 2007 he was peer advisor on the Almost Perfect locative media residency at Banff New Media Institute and since 2008 has been an artist in residence at the Pervasive Media Studio, Bristol.

Photography: Seba Kurtis

Seba Kurtis is an artist and photographer who grew up in Buenos Aires. He studied journalism and was a political activist. With the political difficulties in Argentina, he left for Europe and remained in Spain as an illegal immigrant for over 5 years. This experience became the main inspiration for his work, an exploration of the dynamics behind irregular migration and the subsequent impact on culture, society and the individual. His recent work 700 miles, a series of portraits of illegal hispanic immigrants living on the US border, explores the identity of these often nameless people and celebrates the story behind the sitter. In Drowned, Kurtis highlighted the plight of tens of thousands of Africans who head for the Canary Islands every year. Many are suspected to have drowned off the coast of Spain, Kurtis recorded scenes around the Canary Islands and dropped the negatives into the ocean. The images that washed up on the shore are the images that survived.

Craft & Design: Studio Glithero

Studio Glithero is a London based Anglo-Dutch design alliance. Founded by Tim Simpson and Sarah van Gameren, who met at the Royal College of Art, the studio creates miraculous time-based installations, and processes which give birth to unique and wonderful products. With their own concoction of design performance, they aim to bridge creative disciplines and reach a universal audience. Recent projects include Pique & Double Pique, a pair of self-supporting candles, a series of vases impregnated with light sensitive chemicals and Big Dipper where an audience can witness the complete life of a product, from the moment the chandeliers are conceived until the moment they burn and perish.

Editor’s Notes:

Vauxhall Motors

With an ongoing commitment to championing style and design in the UK, British car marque Vauxhall is a keen supporter of creativity through initiatives such as the Vauxhall Art Car Boot Fair 2009, the Vauxhall Fashion Scout and the Vauxhall Collective.

Latest models include Insignia, the 2009 European Car of the Year and New Astra, a car that shares the same design language as Insignia and that will be built in Ellesmere Port, Liverpool.

Vauxhall is reinventing the car as we know it with Ampera. Vauxhall’s first electric car. The wheels are turned electronically at all times and all speeds and can be plugged into any household 240v outlet for charging.

Vauxhall Collective

The Vauxhall Collective is one of the most ambitious commercially-funded creative support schemes in the UK.

Members of the Vauxhall Collective are supported financially to carry out projects, consequently raising their profile in the industry and in the media, and giving them the resources to fulfil their creative potential.

In previous years Vauxhall successfully ran the VX Collective based on collaboration between members. Previous members have included Giles Deacon, Christopher Kane, Jonathan Kelsey, Simon Hasan, Ben Rivers, Gayle Chong Kwan, Matthew Darbyshire and Gideon Reeling.

Contacts:
For further information / Use of pictures / Interviews
Idea Generation: +44(0)20 7749 6850
Ellen Harrison: ellen@ideageneration.co.uk
Marta Bogna: marta@ideageneration.co.uk
Vauxhall Collection website
Vauxhall website

A month long celebration of art events
November 2009

Tate ARTIST ROOMS, a series of artists’ talks, 15 artists in 15 days, an interview with Akenfield author Ronald Blythe – all mark firstsite’s 15th year.

firstsite, the arts organisation based in Colchester, marks its 15th birthday with a series of events, commissions and exhibitions bringing life changing and relevant contemporary art to the local and wider community. firstsite has built a reputation for showing work by a diverse range of international, national and emerging artists. Now in its 15th year firstsite looks back at its legacy and track record of exciting programmes and commissions new work to mark the occasion, demonstrating its strength in working with artists despite not having a permanent home to exhibit the work.

In its first 15 years, firstsite has created its own unique and enviable blend of artistic programming, learning opportunities, and developing artist support.

As well as supporting local artists, firstsite has been responsible for bringing internationally renowned artists to Colchester and the East of England. Highlights include: Louise Bourgeois (1996); Yoko Ono – ‘Have you Seen the Horizon Lately’ (1998); and Antony Gormley’s ‘Field for the British Isles’ (1999).

firstsite has published artists’ monographs since the mid 1990s giving now significant artists their first publication including Mariele Neudecker; Paul Rooney, Hiraki Sawa and Leo Fitzmaurice.

firstsite has always showcased East of England talent presenting the first full retrospectives of Masterweaver Peter Collingwood (1996) and painter Roderic Barrett (1997). Both exhibitions went on to tour nationally and internationally as well as supporting new artists including – Simon Carter; James Dodds; Dale Devereux Barker and Sarah Sabin.

Events to mark firstsite’s 15th birthday include:

Tate ARTISTS ROOMS
Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y by Johan Grimonprez
3rd November – 28 November 2009

Part of the acclaimed ARTIST ROOMS programme, firstsite is presenting this work in a very different location.

Taking place in a converted shipping container in the grounds of Colchester Institute’s School of Art & Design, Grimonprez’s acclaimed documentary on plane hijacking and modern society’s morbid fascination with terror will be screened. Using found news footage of the media’s portrayal of terrorism, the piece is at once a critique and an eerie prediction of the climate of fear we currently live in.

It is particularly timely for firstsite to be showing this work as part of Tate ARTIST ROOMS as it was originally shown as part of firstsite’s exhibition Trauma which opened the week of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The film has remained a poignant moment in firstsite’s 15 year history.

ARTIST ROOMS
Tate and National Galleries of Scotland. Acquired jointly through The d’Offay Donation with assistance from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and The Art Fund 2008

15 artists, 15 days
23 November – 12 December 2009

To launch firstsite’s Artist Space programme and to mark the organisation’s 15th birthday, 15 artists, 15 days will begin on 23 November.

Based on an open submission process, 15 one-day artistic residencies will take place in Colchester. The artists, all from the East of England, will create their work in full view of the public, allowing the processes and ideas behind their art to be demystified. This initiative is developed as part of firstsite’s ‘Artist Space’ programme, a new initiative which is supported by Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.

Queen and Country talks programme
26th October and 9th November 2009

Working in partnership with the University of Essex, firstsite has devised a programme of talks to complement the exhibition of Queen and Country by internationally renowned artist Steve McQueen at the University of Essex Gallery in Colchester. The talks programme includes:

Bearing witness: The role of war artists in the 21st century

Acclaimed artists Paul Seawright and David Cotterrell will be talking about their experiences of working in Afghanistan as representatives of the Imperial War Museum and the Wellcome Trust.

Conflict and flute bands: the Troubles in Northern Ireland

Scottish artist Roderick Buchanan will discuss his current work on a film which explores the legacy of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Commissioned by the Imperial War Museum in 2008, Buchanan focuses on Loyalist and Republican flute bands, considering how war and conflict shapes the lives of band members.

Home Fires Burning: supporting the soldiers of the Great War

Letters are a way of communicating and containing the pain of war. They are poignant reminders of the vulnerability of soldiers and the conflicting nature of their emotions and the tasks they are required to carry out. Mike Roper, from the University of Essex’s Department of Sociology will draw on his recent book The Secret Battle: Emotional Survival in the Great War to discuss these issues.

All the talks are opportunities to hear about a subject which is particularly relevant in a town whose garrison is an important British Army base.

In conversation with Ronald Blythe
Celebrating the 40th anniversary of Akenfield, a portrait of an English village
1st November 2009 2.30 – 4pm

To mark 40 years since its publication, critic and writer Ian Collins will be in conversation with the prolific writer Ronald Blythe about his seminal book Akenfield.

Described by Roger Deakin as ‘subtle and compassionate’ and by John Updike as ‘exquisite’, Akenfield is a portrait of an English village in the middle years of the 1960s, charting the stories of three generations of its inhabitants. Blythe combined the experiences of people from the village of Charsfield in Suffolk, the author’s own adjoining village of Debach, and a few surrounding hamlets. Considered to be an enduring record of life on the land, firstsite invites the novelist to discuss his works, the land and people of the East of England with the critic Ian Collins.

This event is part of a series of talks, events and films – Here in the East – commissioned by firstsite which celebrate artistic legacy, new talent and sense of place.

Contacts:
For further information / Use of pictures / Interviews
Idea Generation: +44(0)20 7749 6850
Ellen Harrison: ellen@ideageneration.co.uk
Natalie Tacq: natalie@ideageneration.co.uk
firstsite website