Compass Festival of Live Art, Leeds

Held over three unfortunately miserably wet and windy and days in late November, the Compass Symposium and accompanying live arts festival is a new venture by East Street Arts, festival curator Sarah Spanton and director Annie Lloyd. The programme of events, workshops and discussions set itself apart from other similar arts festivals through on two fronts; its setting in Yorkshire (and the Humber) an area keen to expand its realtively small live arts community, and a strong focus on socially engaged practice. Both of these aspects appealed straight away to the research agenda of RECITE PhD one, and with links between Compass and the Sheffield School of Architecture already established through MArch tutor / fellow researcher Carolyn Butterworth, the decision to attend this exciting-looking 3 days of art just up the road (or train line) seemed like a no-brainer. Unfortunately, other commitments in Sheffield meant that I didnt see a huge amount of performers, and as a result this review focuses on the symposium half of Compass.

While I have a genuine appreciation / interest in live art as a spectator, I sometimes feel that the elusiveness of the language that is often used to describe some the practice is a little difficult for other academic disciplines to access. This was certainly one feeling left by Intimacy and Generosity, a workshop held to question issues around how willing people are to share their deepest feelings, public & private space, one-to-one encounters, and the awkward relationship between contemporary society and the 'intimate'. Although the coordinator Rajni was very skilled at creating a real sense of intimacy within the group, I felt the personal level conversations perhaps restricted a more interesting debate about the wider social context of the issues.

This theme continued at the late afternoon Show & Tell session (where the Pecha Kucha style format quickly broke down reinforcing the cliche of artists being unwilling to stick within the rules). While I was not really in a place to be too critical of the presentations (having failed to find the time to produce one myself) there seemed to be several practioners who either failed to either gauge their audience or were just simply not interested in socially engaged practice! Fortunately many of the others were fascinating, and both Rita's smartphone dance documentation and Rich from Invisible Flock sparked really useful conversations and plenty of ideas.

The trade-off for a friday night back in Sheffield was a very rushed Saturday morning to get to Sensing the City, and after the first day full of discussion it was nice to be told that the workshop would commence with a silent walk. The walk is of course a well used tool for the urbanist-artist, and there was little embellishment here other than the suggestion of a 'perfomative' single file parade, and an instruction to really focus on the relationship between your body and the soundscape. Artist Bob Levene suggested that experiencing the sometimes harsh urban environment in this concious method enables an 'awakening' from the dominant passive modes of experience. A number of aspects of the sound walk, not least the intrusion of the somewhat in-your-face documentor, meant that it somehow fell short of providing an immersive subjection by the environment. I think the fairly linear route to Patrick Studios (and with most of the attendees having already walked there yesterday) made it feel more like a 'route' to a destination rather than a journey or drift. The tone was (dramatically) shifted by Bradley Garrett's ethnographic research into the (sometimes literal) underworld of urban explorers, venturing into Victorian sewers and to the top of half-built skyscrapers. A well-paced delivery of fascinating anecdote and theory mixed with hyper-real photography was well-received, with the suggestion that this activity, apparently 'useless' in capital terms, was a meanwhile use that fell outside or subverted the sensory experiences normally 'on offer in the city. Some of this grandstanding stood him for criticism, particularly the some strong critiques of his method, the overt 'masculinity' of the explorers and the underplayed ethical / political implications of this type of work, particularly when disseminated via the stylised imagery.

Sennet's idea of the regulation and pacification of the body in 'public space', very often for capitalist consumption, is one strong theme that emerged from several of the workshop and informal discussions, and one of the key contributions that can be made by art/performative practices is to be critical / transformative of this situation. Coming from an architecture background (and SSoA in particular) participatory practice, social engagement, intervention, mapping, site, space and are second nature both in terms of design and research, and the wide range of other disciplines that engage (or are now engaging) with the same set of issues is therefore very interesting and may open up space for more collaboration. From the point of view of an architecture trained researcher/practioner, one potential criticism of artists working in urban public space that struck me over the weekend (albeit perhaps a generalisation)is that there seems to be more of a concern about making an impact and not so much interest in following up or developing the situation to develop a more tangible legacy. Legacy could be in terms of feeding back responses to inform policy, establishing new programmes, or proposing wider projects off the back of a performative intervention. Perhaps there just needs to be a better understanding of just how much an architectural toolkit of skills can contribute; it was perhaps telling that the architect-dominated conversations in the third workshop, Intentions and Unitentions, architecture was still thought of by most as being concerned only with static / permanent buildings designed for a paying client.

PQ 011_day five

As the programme on the morning of day five looked fairly empty and the weather looked damp, I decided to take advantage of the comfort of my free room upgrade and work on my overdue literature review and methodology. This productive session was in danger of taking over my day when a break in the weather forced me out into the city centre to return to visit the remaining 10 or so Intersection 'Boxes'. The architecture of these pavilions was somewhat less inspiring than the first visit a few days previously, perhaps something to do with the weather or general wear and tear - the ongoing plastering and repainting suggesting a poor choice of construction and detailing given that the buildings only needed to sustain 10 days of intensive public use. Once inside the 'black box' interiors this was soon forgotten as the theatrical experiences continued. The three standout installations were the total sensory deprivation of Brett Bailey's labyrinth (and then the chilling 'sculpture' when you found the middle), Ionoa Mona Popovici's 'Cosmic Harmony Club' - a miniature and realistic recreation of a techno-club where users were invited to become part of the installation, and Egon Tobias' 'Comment Dire' - where an interactive projection of an 'audience' watched and responded (laughed, yawned, cried) to your voice as you were invited onto a podium to give a speech / song / stand-up routine.

Just down from the Piazetta of the National Gallery was the site of the highly anticipated Third Act (Vltava) by Louise Ann Wilson and students. The crowds gathered at the bridge across to the Slovansky Island were disappointed to learn that the increased interest had led to a late ticketing policy for the event, but I was extremely fortunate to meet someone in the queue with a spare ticket. On the Island, viewers were greeted by a series of eerie living sculptures and vignettes, each of which told a story about someone (historic, fictional or recent) whose life was connected to the river. The audience were then presented with an unexpected surprise - a fleet of pedalos and other small boats was awaiting them (the ticketed policy suddenly became clear). Once on the water, your perception of the relationship between the city and river suddenly changed, though this feeling was interspersed with the surreal and ridiculousness of being part of a pedalo flotilla for the sake of art. However the return of the rain, along with further encounters with performances as we journeyed across the river, changed the atmosphere of the group. The sight of three women dragging themselves out of the water and clawing the muddy riverbank was a particularly poignant image. On a personal note, I was lucky to share a boat with Nigel Stewart (partner and collaborator of Louise Wilson), who I chatted to about Fissure (their last project in the Yorkshire Dales), architecture and northern humour, as well as receiving PhD advice and references.

Despite the soaking and the chill (or maybe because of it), this was group experience that will live long in the memory for those lucky enough to take part.

PQ 011_Day Two

Day two began with a wander through the sprawling market district of ... where the purchase of a small day bag (somehow forgotten) was successful despite my frailties in the Czech language and a market seller determined to try to charge 10x the price I was willing to pay!

One of the architectural installations I had been most excited about was the 'Boxes' an intervention on the Piazetta of the National Theatre. This outdoor showcase formed a central part of the Intersection (Intimacy & Spectacle) 'undisciplined' programme of events. The highlights were the audio installation for one person by Hans Rosenstrom, and Monka Pormale's beautifully simple installation of two local performers frozen in embrace in a glass box. While you had to be a PQ accredited to gain entry into the intervention, two public spaces a cafe / bar and open air cinema for the evenings are perched over the top of the boxes. Here I met the architect of the pavillion Oren Sagiv, who gave his insight into the project and after two years planning, he was clearly excited about its inhabitation (though he had mixed feelings that the building would last only 10 days). An enjoyable morning was topped off by a birthday lunchtime treat of a beer & Czech pasty in the sunshine.

Rushing from the Piazetta I made it in time to get a seat in the packed spatial lab for the lecture from Charles Renfro (of Diller Scofidio & Renfro), who romped through the backcatalogue of the practice's projects, drawing a thread from architectural / performative installations to their current multi-million dollar commissions. While he was hugely engaging speaker and showed off an enviable array of projects (how could anyone fail to make a great project of the High Line!), not everyone in the audience (including me) was convinced about the theoretically-lite terms he explained the dramatic leap from installation (eg. blur building) to the huge museum constructions in Boston & Rio in particular.

Despite all of this, the unexpected highlight of day came from Voicequake, who used the streets and passageways around the Piazetta area to put on a walkabout piece that comprised of from a musical / choral troupe and physical theatre / clown troupe, whose performances intersected as we made our way through the city. The sizable and diverse audience (which grew and shrunk as we twisted and turned through the narrow streets) were guided simply by a lead and rear megaphones (!KEEP WALKING!), and were entertained by vignettes that were at one moment comedic and hauntingly beautiful the next. And of course, the flashmob-style appearance of 100+ people suddenly arriving outside of a restaurant of public square kept the passers-by confused and entertained.

PQ 011_day one

After the initial disappointment of arriving in Prague too late to register for the Scenofest workshops, the first real day of PQ11 got off to a good start with the sun out and a proper czech buffet breakfast. After topping up on sun cream I headed for walking to the Veletrezni Place HQ (the whole day was on foot due to a europe-wide public transit strike).

The national expositions inside the modern art gallery (of which I saw only 6) were fairly big budget pavilion-type structures, and generally either celebrated a range of recent (avant garde) national performers or attempted to give a more general impression of the country's culture through performance / architecture. Im looking forward to finishing the rest along another day, as the time came for the first scenography talk to kick off the rebranded 'Quadrennial of performance design and space'. Arnold Aronson described how the new name for 2011 represented the recent blurring of boundaries in theatre and scenography and the intersection of many other disciplines. He went on to argue that it wasn't theatre that changed in the last 10 years but audiences; the cardinal technology of the internet, hypertextuality, and visual bombardment has redefined our concept of reality, therefore new audiences have a different set of expectations for what (a) theatre should/can be. Jane Collins of Wimbledon College of Art then gave a whirlwind tour of the theories associated with scenography and performance (essentially a long book plug but well presented and useful nonetheless).

Due the transport situation, the next destination was the architecture section- a long and very sunny walk away, but there were plenty of distractions as I crossed the Vltava into the narrow twisting streets of the old town. The exhibtion and 'open spatial lab' above are housed in a fantastic refurbishment of st Annes church, a deconsecrated building tucked away in a private courtyard at the original crossroads of the city. Commissioner Doritta Hannah of Wellington University introduced the concept for the section and broad theoretical grounds to be covered during the 10 days of talks, workshops and symposium. One key contested point was the statement that theatre really had 'left the building', and following the talks there was a lively debate, which gave the impression that theatre makers were much more keen on the idea of found space while architect-practioners were suspicious and much more keen to design specific buildings for them. We then heard Omar Khan of Buffalo University talking about designing for (rather than trying to control) the agency of crowds as well as rolling out the much-hyped Tahrir / facebook link. Jane Rendell was not in attendance but a lecture delivered on her behalf covered the spatiality of language both in her own practice of 'site-writing' as well as highly relevant theoretical ground of Bhaba and

Benjamin's Arcades (the dialectical image). Finally Andrew Todd tried to cross theory and practice and posited the notion that something is lost when the theatre building leaves the civic centre. He certainly would lose - as his practice has collaborated on a number of high-profile new and refurbished theatre projects.

Crossing the Letenske park (with an ice cream) to the last third main event of the day I passed Claudia Bosse's billboard installation; 'The Tears of Stalin'. I was responding to an open call to a rehearsal for the second and third parts of the same performance event, which involved a mass occupation of a 'public space'. The major road bridge into Prague was due to be closed to cars, and participants would descend upon it en masse, standing silently for 50 minutes before whispering secrets to the passers-by/audience. Unfortunately for Claudia, the people of prague / PQ did not seem to be quite as keen on participating, and for a whatever reason only around 30 turned up- bit of a disaster as she was genuinely planning for 500 (!). After some interesting discussion about this gap between utopian expectation and reality, why people in prague dont use their public spaces, why people in general dont want to take part in this sort of collective art/protest, and what alternatives could be offered (500 empty chairs was a popular idea), the PQ organiser began to get stressed about all of the expense and effort they had taken to close the bridge and book the hall for rehearsals etc. From a research point of view the whole thing turned out to be quite good, but in the end we had to choose whether 30 of us should try and do something different (whisper through megaphones from a boat?) or whether just to call it off, which descended into an argument in czech (not translated by this point) so I chatted with the artist for a bit, wished her luck and left!