DIY: 2012 – Adam Young: During And Enduring This Presence We Seek

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DIY 9: 2012 – Call for Participants

A 24 hour development opportunity to explore the possibilities of presence in relationship to performance.

Project summary:
A common goal for live/performance artists is to achieve a state of absolute presence in their work. For many, this is the end goal; the reason for continuing to return to the live practices at all. We are unable to prove, dispel or sufficiently communicate through language, the existence of this much contested trope. It remains only as a belief that it exists at all. It could be argued that the only way to understand it is to experience it and once understood becomes the object of fetish and mysticism. Like the hand of God or the vanquish of Love the ‘presence’ we speak of in the context of performance negates definition yet is worthy of a thousand books.

The framework for ‘During & Enduring The Presence We Seek’ is laid out as follows:
A single day of non verbal action. 24 hours spent in one single room together. The day will be carved up into ever increasing measures of time cycles. Participants will make use of this time however they wish. Each participant may bring one object into the space. There will be an audience so it is inferred that participants will be performing. Participants will be free to leave as they wish. Once they have left they will be unable to re-enter the space.

The time cycles occur as such:
3 seconds
30 seconds
3 minutes
30 minutes
3 hours
6 hours
12 hours
Before the cycles are activated we begin with breakfast served at 12am. This will last for one hour. This hour will be the only hour participants will be able to communicate verbally. From then on with each marking of time (3seconds… 30 seconds… 3 minutes…) the room will be washed with a new lighting colour (red… green… blue…). Between each [coloured] time cycle, there will be observed a moment of darkness. This will act as a space for reflection and will increase in duration as follows:
1 minute
2 minutes
3 minutes
4 minutes
5 minutes
6 minutes
Indeterminate period of time (this will mark the end of the time spent together and people will be free to leave as they please)

Dates, times and location:
Venue: The LAB (Live Art Bistro), Leeds.
Date: 8 – 9 September
Times: 12noon till 12noon

Application procedure:
Please email the following to [email protected] (cc’ing [email protected])

An Artistic Bio with any weblinks/images/video you wish to submit. Between 200 & 500 words on why this project would be of benefit to your professional development. You should also indicate whether you haveever performed for 24 hours or longer. Also include email address and contact telephone number.
Closing date for applications is Monday 9 July, 2012.

The artist:
Adam Young has performed widely across the Yorkshire region in various spaces both institutional and DIY. Spaces include Club, Gallery, Theatre, Offices, Studio, Found, Public (plus also performed at Shunt [London] & Acud [Berlin])
Adam is cofounder of Live Art company Indivisible and artistic director of (in)Xclusion Live Art Festival. His practice has taken him to perform durationally for 72 hours, 24 hours and on many occasion between 4 & 8 hours. Duration plays a significant role in the efficacy of Adams work both for himself and his audience.

Contact information:
Please email in the first instance: [email protected]

This DIY project is supported by Sound and Music.

This project was a response to the DIY 9 Call for Proposals