A busy Saturday, all spent preparing for the live ArtSwarm event, First Time. I always fear that not many people will come, but there are always a few people who come who weren't expected, and always a few who don't come for whatever reason. Three performers pulled out, two of which I expected and one who let me know shortly before. This is an inevitable consequence of organising any participatory event, whether unpaid and voluntary or paid. I try to make performers feel welcome and that they should want to perform or try something. I rarely ask people to perform because most of the will and desire should come from the performers. Myself, I have a 'show must go on' attitude and I don't think I've ever cancelled an appointment or gig or appearance or event of any sort (but then, even at my senior school I had a 100% attendance record for all 5 years, attending even when ill).
But when organising anything, one or two missing acts are inevitable. I aim to be forgiving of such things, especially for things like ArtSwarm where performers might well do something next time anyway and where the atmosphere is ersatz, experimental, fun; but I still want to treat the audience respectfully and the performers professionally. Special guests who promise to be there up to the last minute, but don't turn up, insult everyone and had better be dying and unable to apologise for it!
This didn't happen on Saturday though, there were no special guests and the whole night was easy and relaxed. It's amazing how different each of these nights are. I sometimes struggle, as I did with ArtsLab, with the balance of fun and entertaining versus serious and artistic. I made another post about the fun being serious, and indeed, every expression is still art. This time, perhaps due to the shorter span, I felt the need to be more entertaining. I did struggle with the topic, First Time, too.
My first, very silly, song was about Neil Armstrong, sang to a simple backing track with a few live synth elements. Alice Smith supplied an image to project, and Nick Ferenczi kindy brought his projector for this (I hate borrowing or relying on other people's equipment! I need to test and check everything and know the tech inside and out, this is a lesson from the two years of Mash events; with technology, rehearse and try everything). Alice's piece involved her talking to her younger self. Maggie sang a few songs, as did Nick, and we had poems from several people. I read random words from first lines of books.
Highlights for me: Nick sang a song which was more like a prose poem, and used the guitar to make sound effects more than actually play. It had a punk-like feeling. Deborah had a silent disco in the dark. All of the lights were switched off and, in silence, the audience stood up and danced. We could make out each others silhouettes, but not faces. It created a strange feeling, communal and intimate and yet distant and free too.
There was enough time left to just chat for 45 minutes or so, something I rarely get time for. It made me appreciate the meeting aspect of the nights, which were an important part of some of the Mash nights, all of the parts in between the performances. Perhaps the acts could be inside the group more, like a 'happening' or spontaneous show. This is another balance between a staged, rehearsed performance, and an improvised, loose performance. Loose implies interactive, which normally feels better for the audience, but is less controllable, and less reliable; a bad audience might ruin the show, or at least transform it. Anyway, with ArtSwarm, the acts can choose what to do; anything goes.
Eleven people came in the end, plus Deb and I, too few to pay for the hall so I subsidised the costs a bit. I had decided that I would stop hosting these when this happened, but I nearly broke even, and also feel that this is an important thing for local arts, and (more selfishly) that I'm still learning and want to do more. A lot of local groups and meetings seem to have stopped or paused this month, so I think I should push on, and after the dark winter months, perhaps the events will grow again. Next time I will have a projector of my own for acts to make use of, another reason why I thought I'll organise another show.
I got home at 11pm, tired out after lugging around the heavy equipment. A sleepless night of shivers and exhaustion, I need to find a way to eat and drink enough during these nights; I assume this is the problem. I was up early this morning to take the freezing box of bus to Macclesfield for a day as a volunteer shopkeeper in the Macc Art Lounge. A few sales today (not mine) on a busy Treacle Market day, but not exceptionally busy in the lounge according to John.
Art sales are difficult now it seems. It seems that people buy these things for decoration, no regard to the artist or artistic development or knowledge. Is this due to the mechanisation of creation? Is this ignorance about the arts? Is this always, has this always been, the case with contemporaneous art? Hindsight creates masters, not current knowledge. I'm more confident than ever of my artistic path, busy, inspired, more skilled, full of new ideas, goals, targets.
I must get Burn of God finished. It's dragging on and is difficult.
