DIY: 2012 – When I was a little girl/ When I was a little boy

Nigel Barrett and Louise Mari

‘When I was a little girl/ When I was a little boy…’
Who actually gives a shit?

Morecambe, Lancashire

DIY 9: 2012 – Call for Participants

A workshop questioning the assumed interest of an audience in an artist’s life and opinions.

Project summary:
During a three day intensive workshop we want to investigate a prevalent belief among artists that they, their lives and their opinions are inherently interesting to the general public.

We want the group to look at the use of autobiographical detail, the physical exploration of the artist’s body and the expression of personal opinion in live art, theatre, music, art and performance to investigate when the use of self as ones material becomes indulgent, therapy inflicted on the public, or simply uninteresting to anyone else except the artist themselves (and maybe their mother). We will explore when it is and when it isn’t, where a line might be and why we believe that is.

We aim to meet in Morecambe on a Friday morning and work and eat together for three days, during which we would make and perform a series of personal or group presentations which we will show to a variety of audiences and culminate in a public showing on the Sunday night in a local pub.

At the end we hope to publish (in a mutually agreed format) a manifesto that is created and approved by the whole group. The presentations on the Sunday night should support and make manifest the principles of the manifesto.

The outcome, we hope, for all involved will be a broadening of knowledge, perspective, methodology and a deeper and more sophisticated consideration of the audience as part of all of our practices.

Dates, times and location:
Friday 14, Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 September 2012
Starting 10am Friday, ending midnight Sunday

Morecambe, Lancashire

Application procedure:

We would welcome anyone who is interested in exploring these questions and feels they have something to offer to the debate. You do not need to be a performer but you will need to be comfortable getting up and presenting ideas to the group and to the general public.

We would like you to send us a short cv, an expression of interest or why you want to be involved and write us a one page statement of your thoughts about the subject, using examples. We will try to select a broad spectrum of people with conflicting interests and opinions on this subject.

You will need to find and pay for you own accommodation and travel but we will provide all meals for you. If you have special dietary needs please let us know.

Please send your application to [email protected] (cc’d to [email protected])

Closing date for applications is Monday 9th July, 2012.

The artist:
Nigel and Louise have been working in theatre for more than 20 years, Nigel as a performer/director and Louise as writer/dramaturg/live artist. They have spent the last six years making work together as a partnership. Louise is a founder member of shunt and Nigel is an Associate Artist of shunt and also of Sulayman Al-Bassam Theatre.

www.nigelandlouise.com

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

This project is supported by Live @ LICA.

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