propellerblog

Reviews for Five Rooms

2009-07-23T13:54:00.000-07:00

propeller arts collective are pleased to announce the publication of their first book, Five Rooms: a collaborative writing project.

Five Rooms is published by ACTS OF LANGUAGE.

Five Rooms costs £10.00 and is available to purchase at http://www.actsoflanguage.com/?cat=1

Reviews for Five Rooms.

Dr Cathy Turner, Reader in Performing Arts, Convenor Centre for Research into Expanded Dramaturgies, University of Winchester, Wrights and Sites.

A tree falls into writing. Or does writing uproot the tree? The collision of words and things reverberates through this book. Copper - wood - bone - flesh - stone are scattered across the geography of the page, frequently transmuting into one another: stone breathes, the body petrifies, copper sings. The book suggests and enacts not only our dispersal into the life of objects and materials, but also the other in whom we touch coherence through the exchange of voices, writing and naming - the summoned 'Andrew' falls from the tree, born out of leaves, copper, flesh, bone and arriving on the ground like a ripe fruit.

Dr.Wallace Heim, Independent Curator, Academic and Writer on performance and ecology.

I’ve loved reading this, thankyou.

The intimacy of the intertwining of flesh and world moves outward, in propeller’s hands, to mingle gravity, time and metal with the same proportion as the co-evolution of skin and stone. There are redemptions and instructions, but also cleaves and trip wires in these narratives. Can propeller be trusted? Yes, in their fidelity to care, for the falling, for those that land, for liberty and Frank Sinatra.

Dr. Tracey Warr, Lecturer, Art History & Theory, Oxford Brookes University.

Five Rooms addresses the mystery of matter through diverse meditations on metal, wood, stone and flesh. It engages with the making and unmaking of the world by human and other hands. It is an almost story of birth and death where the fragments and threads generated by the five writers perpetually teeter on the edge of connection. Its locations range across Cuba, the US and Dorset. Its unlikely cast of characters include Apollo, the Statue of Liberty, a copper-obsessed doctor, a Cuban spy, a gardener, a poet turned human rights activist and a grandmother obsessed with Concorde. In style it ranges through the registers of narrative, memoir, list, song lyric and instruction manual. Bernini’s marble sculpture of Daphne pursued by Apollo and transmogrifying into a laurel tree, is in its turn transformed into the shape of a constellation of stars, a diagram of finding ammonites on a beach, or a plan of a room in an old people’s home. In a thrilling display of associative glee the text enacts its own themes of transmutation and metamorphosis.

David Williams, Professor of Theatre, Dartington College of Arts.

These collaboratively authored texts constitute a book of motion: of fallings and flyings and journeys of many kinds. Materials here are in perpetual flux. Matter circulates at differing speeds and transforms, as do spaces, times, images, narratives, selves. Identities and their constituent elements migrate in a dynamic unfolding/infolding of translations of things, people, stories. The authors trace the mortality of forms, and the trajectories and contours of time’s metamorphoses and of matter’s becomings: its dynamic ‘fidelities’ and ‘infidelities’.

For everything here is on the move, in transit: information (genetic, viral, sonic, electronic, visual, semiotic, ideological), people young and old, past and present, and events. Here events are protean in their meanings, and promiscuous in their proliferative ripples and dispersed echoes. A meteorite falls, and elsew/here so does a leaf, a seal in snow, light, rain, ‘Andrew’. Moments of shock, tiny or momentous, recur - eruptive occurrences when the doors of perception are cleansed, or at least re-written, by a sudden transformative ‘appearance’, a visitation, as untimely and unforeseen as that of an angel. A catalogue of epiphanies and revelations in the everyday, some of them read as portents, symptoms, coded messages. Others trigger memory or breed confusion in this exquisite cartography of a politics of wonder, belonging, displacement and connectivity. At such moments – carefully distilled invitations to attend, imagine and connect - an infinite web of perceptions and circuits are activated, and the shape of time, memory, history and geography morphs, stretches, tears, and pulses.

This is also a book of passages, mapping a weave of interconnecting territories and the mysterious wormholes that both link and separate them. Here the world is re-membered as ‘something slippery, elusive, open’. Trace elements of lives – extinguished, sputtering or aglow - are continuously unmade, re-routed and refashioned. Within these pages coexist gods and dogs, dream and fear, love and loss, the exhaustion and hope of flesh and stone. And as readers, we are invited to inhabit the spaces between fragility and persistence, chance and fate, regimes of order and the apparent formlessness of a deeper grammar of complexity.

Listen again: Early Stories, propeller's first radio show

2009-02-18T09:52:00.000-08:00

Early Stories is now on our website - please go to http://www.propelleronline.org/writing.htm and follow the instructions.

On Tuesday 3rd February propeller presented Early Stories on SoundArt Radio.

Early Stories consists of reading from new texts written by four members of propeller, in response to a two-part writing task:
1. write a one-page text, about anything you wish, and send it to the group,
2. read the one-page stories and write a three-page story in response.

The stories are interspersed with music connected to the contents of the writing.

Enjoy x

Happy 2009!

2009-01-09T10:55:00.000-08:00

Hi,
Happy New Year -

In the last few months we have been busy in other corners of the internet, setting up a Facebook group and our YouTube channel, propellerfilms, of videos promoting our work, and an archive of excellent interviews with writers and artists - for our Facebook group, copy and paste this address into your address bar: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5141558035

For propeller films, copy and paste: http://uk.youtube.com/user/propellerfilms

please do join and subscribe, in that order!

2009 is looking very good for us at propeller, beginning with a radio show and a writing residency - more details very soon

pete
propeller

Workshop poster

2008-10-06T09:17:00.000-07:00

propeller workshop at CCANW

2008-10-06T08:24:00.001-07:00

UPCOMING EVENT

propeller at CCANW

when birds look into houses what impossible worlds they see

A full-day workshop in Haldon forest, near Exeter.

Sunday 26th October
10am-5pm

£15 (£12 concs)

In this workshop we will spend time outdoors, practicing different ways of perceiving, experiencing and responding to place. How can we catch a glimpse of novelty, of beauty, of terror, behind phenomena that we normally ignore or take for granted? Using performance, text, and installation, participants are invited to engage with the interweaving of minds, of words, of natural processes, of bodies, of internal and external landscapes.

Booking essential - contact CCANW on 01392 832277
or email info@ccanw.co.uk

Please bring a packed lunch

We look forward to seeing you in the forest

This was the week that was

2008-09-29T06:30:00.000-07:00

A busy week here for the propellers:

On Thursday Tim Vize-Martin and Donna Shilling arrived at Dartington, having walked 222 miles from London to Dartington to mark the end of Dartington College of Arts in Devon. They started off in London on the 4th of September, and arrived at Dartington on the 25th. Along the way, people closely connected to the college (students and staff, past and present) joined them to walk and talk about Dartington and what this end means to them.

On Friday, and again on Tuesday, Emma Bush presented a village walk:
The walk is a reflection on passing through, noticing and being in a place. The route has been found through a practice of repeating the same path and an investigation into spaciousness. Material has been sourced through conversations and walks with old friends and new, strangers to the village and locals.

The Light Switch Project launch, Dana Centre, July 1st

2008-06-25T05:46:00.000-07:00

In February Pete Harrison and Tim Vize-Martin participated in a week of talks and presentations on climate change at BAC with fellow artists, Toby Jones and Lucy Foster. The result is The Light Switch Project.

In collaboration with BAC and the Science Museum, we will launch the project with a free event at the Dana Centre on Tuesday July 1st at 7pm.

Investigate basic everyday activities, including flicking on a light switch, with artists and scientists. From practicalities to the ethics of climate change, this collection of short performances will explore consumer habits, energy efficiency and sustainability.

The idea for The Light Switch Project is to take a seemingly simple, domestic activity and explode it into a series of microscopic moments. How do our eyes perceive darkness? How do physiological processes drive our decision to turn on the light? What happens inside the light switch? And where does the electricity come from? This project aims to challenge understanding of the relationship between the simple and the complex.

Emma Bush - Fields

2008-05-26T05:33:00.000-07:00

Emma Bush - Fields

Saturday 31st May
12.30pm
The Ship
Dartington Hall
Totnes
UK

A free event

On Saturday afternoon Emma will perform Fields.

In the winter months a series of fields are visited, often at twilight. The fields lie in the Westcountry in a village named Harbertonford. In this presentation you are invited to come and see something of what happened there.

In the fields lies a promise, a stillness, a pause for reflection with the impermanence of things, the myth of stability and the longing for 'home'.

Standing alone watching the light change, a rook flies over on its way to roost, across the valley a line of houses nestles into the hill. The sun illuminates their bright colours as it leaves the sky, blue smoke rises from the chimney in the middle of the line.

Emma Bush is an artist working in the field of performance investigating places and how we find ourselves there - our approach, our looking, our breathing.

She asks questions like "How do places travel with us (or into a theatre); a bridge, a cathedral, a field, an empty house?" For the project 'Fields' Emma spent time in conversation with a geologist, a farmer and an oceanographer. Other ongoing research includes collecting a list of shadows found on the sides of houses.

Emma is a founder member of propeller and is developing a series of lectures and workshops with Pete Harrison (also of propeller) which look at range of subjects including; rain, wilderness, plant and animal sensitivity to weather systems, light and visual orientation.

She is also currently collaborating with Neil Callaghan, Leigh Farmer and Catherine and Teresa Grimaldi to produce a new children's book and performance.

Quartet and Quartet #2 in Bristol

2008-05-14T04:07:00.000-07:00

Hey,
this weekend those near Bristol will get a chance to see two excellent performances:

On Saturday, 17th May, Augusto Corrieri will be showing Quartet (for Anna Akhmatova) at the Tobacco Factory in Bristol, at 4pm, as part of Mayfest.

Click here for details

The next day, Sunday 18th, Donna Shilling will perform Quartet #2 (for Anna Akhmatova) an exact replica of Augusto Corrieri’s Quartet. Performer Donna Shilling meticulously reproduces every movement and gesture of the original show, down to the smallest detail.

Click here for details

new year

2008-01-23T10:46:00.000-08:00

hey
happy new year
things are going well here in the propeller lighthouse -
we are meeting these days to talk about ways of working this year - more about this soon -
Both Neil and Augusto are showing their work reguarly, next week in Lancaster they do a rare double bill, worth travelling vast wildernesses for -
have a good winter -
pete

12.35pm, Totnes, November 2007, northern Europe.

2007-11-15T04:11:00.000-08:00

Hi,
We have updated our facebook page with pictures of Haldon Forest in East Devon and the old days.

The website has been added to by Neil recently - we now have a page dedicated to Whale Tales (Neil's Barry White-heavy talk on whales) and Fields (Emma's talk on land, legacy and home).

Next weekend all five propellers meet up in Harbertonford to plan out a few things, scribble out the future (as if we have control of it) - these kind of meetings are rarer than seeing Haley's commet thru your cornflakes, we are looking forward to it, and we'll keep you posted.

pete

The Lacuna Voyages update

2007-10-15T02:04:00.000-07:00

Last week we presented the new show at BAC, a great few evenings - we were reviewed by the londonist.com -
"...The Lacuna Voyages, a delightful presentation of landscapes, love and the great outdoors by Propeller. The portable ice-capped mountain, portrayal of arduous arctic expeditions with Lego figures and zoom-in options for the audience who each got a pair of binoculars was a gentle and joyful way to learn about the people who love the great outdoors enough to live and even die for it."

see the full review here:
http://londonist.com/2007/10/review_the_lacu.php

The Lacuna Voyages at BAC

2007-10-02T08:11:00.000-07:00

propeller presents
The Lacuna Voyages

BAC
Lavender Hill, London
Tuesday 9th, Wednesday 10th & Thursday 11th October
8.45pm
(Doors open half an hour early for drinks)

Join us on a journey through the stories we've forgotten.
A performance dedicated to the landscape; to the high seas, to the icy tundras and to the forest floors. To the world just outside these doors. Two performers tell true stories that’ll lead you home and stay with you. Here is our homage to the life all around us; swimming folk, the flappy people and the hairy guys.

Tickets: £10/£6
Box Office: 0207 223 2223
www.bac.org.uk

Desire Lines 2007

2007-09-25T08:14:00.000-07:00

Here are a few phoots from an excellent weekend -
We recieved some wonderful responses, and some very interesting in-depth analysis. The conference was on language this year, and resonances aplenty bounced from piece to piece.
Gareth Davies, a Third year Theatre student at Dartington College of Arts, developed and managed a very creative process of documenting us propellers during the conference. We wore pedometers to measure the number of steps we walked, he sat in on rehersals, and he arranged audience feedback. Thank you to everyone who attended, and here's to next year -

pete

Rain

2007-09-06T01:31:00.000-07:00

propeller present
Rain

At Totnes Festival Fringe Club

Civic Hall, Totnes; 7pm

Saturday 8th September.

Rain

Here now is a short talk about rain. We present stories and music and funny
miracles to honour and respect the wet, falling stuff. We look at how people
run from the rain and how it is understood. We look at the dangers and the
benefits of rain—how we can have too much, and too little.

Rain is the beginning of a lecture presented by Emma Bush and Peter
Harrison of propeller performance company.

Rain is one of a series of eight lectures and workshops, with subjects
including; the way light falls, visual language in performance, and the
sensitivity of plants and animals.

Summer Holiday

2007-08-21T07:55:00.000-07:00

The Play festival in Plymouth at the end of July saw all five propellers together for the first time in a while. We had a great time there and all of our work was very well received.

We have had a little break in August, meeting in the sunshine now and again, but we are back with The Lacuna Voyages at Desire Lines, 20th-22nd Sept, at Dartington, Devon.

The Lacuna Voyages then comes to Battersea Arts Centre for three nights - Tues 9th-Thurs 11th October.

Enjoy the rest of the summer.

Fields

2007-07-08T09:13:00.000-07:00

This Sunday Emma hosted a lunchtime event at Harbertonford village hall, as part of her new project, Fields. Emma invited local people to drop in for a scone and to share photographs and stories of floods and snowstorms in the village. We met some wonderful locals, who were generous with their recollections and photos. collected some very interesting stories, and some great old photos of the village under water and deep in snow.

Fields is an ongoing investigation into a number of fields that overlook Harbertonford. During January and February Emma spent a series of days visiting the fields, recording weather, wildlife, atmospheres, human and non-human comings and goings.

The first public outcome of Fields is a 55-minute presentation, to be shown next at PL:ay festival in Plymouth on Friday 27th July, at 6.30pm (see below).

propeller at PL:ay festival

2007-07-07T12:42:00.000-07:00

Here's an update of all propeller business -
All five propellers will be at PL:ay festival, Plymouth, (http://playfestival.pcad.ac.uk/) Friday 27th and Saturday 28th July, showing four pieces. Its a great opportunity to see our work, and catch up with us. There's also a lot of other good work happening over the two days -
pete

Emma Bush - Fields
6.30pm Fri 27th July, Plymouth College of Art and Design
In the winter months a series of fields are visited, often at twilight. The fields lie in the Westcountry in a village named Harbertonford. In this presentation you are invited to come and see something of what happened there.

In the fields lies a promise, a stillness, a pause for reflection with the impermanence of things, the myth of stability and the longing for 'home'.

Standing alone watching the light change, a rook flies over on its way to roost, across the valley a line of houses nestles into the hill. The sun illuminates their bright colours as it leaves the sky, blue smoke rises from the chimney in the middle of the line.

Augusto Corrieri - Performance for Beginners
8pm, Fri 2th July Plymouth College of Art and Design
10 performers stand roughly in a line, shaking their bodies loose, jumping and falling and dancing, in and out of sync with each other. The 10 performers, of different ages and skills, are all from Plymouth: each person has rehearsed the piece on their own, at home, by watching an instruction video posted on the YouTube website.

propeller - The Lacuna Voyages
2.30pm Sat 28th July, Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery
Its been a good few weeks since our scratch at BAC, and we have shown longer works-in-progress at Jumble It Up, in Oxford, and Barbican Theatre in Plymouth, as part of their Ocean project. We have been getting great responses and in a few weeks Tim and Pete will be at PL:ay. The performance will be a little experimental, as we're performing in the Maritime Gallery of Plymouth City Museum!

Neil Callaghan and Simone Kenyon - To Begin Where I Am, Mokado
5.30pm Sat 28th July, Plymouth College of Art and Design
"Our through line is thin. Thin enough to be passed through a hole in your ear, thin enough to floss your teeth with and yet this is the fibre we dangle upon."

'To Begin Where I Am, Mokado' explores the intensities of seperation, loss and longing - the difficulties of saying goodbye, the uncertainties of being parted and the confusion of being reunited.

"When we can't touch, words are all we have and words fail us."

"What shade of blue is longing?"

"So we'll dance and we'll do, we will listen and venture outside. I hate to watch you go, but I love to watch you leave."

The Lacuna Voyages - BAC Scratch showing

2007-05-08T06:44:00.000-07:00

On Saturday night, May 5th, we participated in the End Of The World party at Battersea Arts Centre. We presented a few ideas we are working with for the new performance. We'd had a good few days in the studio beforehand - Augusto and Neil invaluably helping to shape the material Tim and I had bought in. The scratch showing was intended to try out experiments, see how they looked in a live setting, and we feel they were well accepted. If you were in the audience, how do you think it went?

The next showing is a few weeks away, June 25th, for Jumble It Up, in Oxford. So, we have some time to work on the material, and then we'll try out some more ideas.

More soon -
Pete

welcome

2007-04-22T10:44:00.001-07:00

Hi,
Welcome to the new propeller website and blog.
Over the next few weeks and months we'll add posts about our work, and upcoming performances.
First up, we are making our new studio performance, The Lacuna Voyages, over the Summer, and we have a few showings coming up:

May 5th, The End of The World party, Battersea Arts Centre, London
This is our first showing of ideas from the new show.

June 25th, Jumble It Up, Burton-Taylor Studio, Oxford
A work-in-progress showing

PL:ay, 28th July, Plymouth
propeller will be presenting work at PL:ay, keep posted for further details nearer the time.

We want this to be a meeting place of ideas, so please take a look around, tell us what you think, and keep on trucking.

Pete