Feb 062014
 

The Lab of Sonic Possibilities is a collaboration between Tansy Spinks and Iris Garrelfs in which they explore locations through listening and sound related activities, uncovering different perspectives on site specificity this reveals.

ACTS RE-ACTS blog

We were selected for a residency at Wimbledon Space as part of ACTS RE-ACTS Festival, organised by Wimbledon College of Arts (UAL) to set up a debate about contemporary performance in fine art and theatre. It took place from 13/3/14-18/3/14 and Tansy and I had fun exploring collaborative, site specific sound performance through objects and improvisation. We played with similar ideas during a one-day workshop last year (which made it into my piece Object and Process), and it was very interesting to see where this lead to! An interactive closing event took place on 18th March at Wimbledon Space, You can find a film from the night below.

20 March 2014

Here is a video from our closing event The Laboratory of Sonic Possibilities:

We received some very lovely comments! A big thank-you to all who joined us for the event, making it possible!

 

18 March 2014

A slideshow from the performance today:

Here an image of our program notes:

Download as pdf

14 March 2014

Day 2: Here is Iris’ improvised response to Tansy’s score:

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Here are a few more images from Day 2, mainly Tansy and Iris improvising with crappy speakers and contact mic:

13 March 2014

Day 1: Tansy and I are settling down at Wimbledon Space. Fabulous space, super helpful and kind people! I love the quiet acoustic of the place, each small sound takes on huge significance… We have each brought a few objects along for the other to respond to: Iris: Strawberries, a mini plastic toy violin and a poem. Tansy: A wondrous set of images scores alluding to objects and sound, cut our from locate newspapers, and a tennis racket.

We also go for a little trip around the area and pick up some bits and pieces. What a fabulous day to be doing it on! We pick up some bits from trees, steal some stones from the Wimbledon tram line and purchase a couple of books from a local charity shop. We start making sounds, record, drink coffee, order more contact mics…

And: Instead of ears there will be cones!

You can see a slideshow of what we’ve been up to:

 

01 March 2014

Having discovered that Wimbledon based otologist Joseph Toynbee (1815 – 1866) carried out around  2000 ear dissections in the lifetime, we thought we must, somehow, get hold of 2000 ears of some description. Perhaps we could make a mobile of noise-making ears, made from tin foil for example. Sadly, our quick-fire experiments failed. Perhaps, we thought,  we could get hold of 200o broken headphones instead, but that also didn’t materialise in time. Thanks to all though who responded to our twitter and Facebook messages with suggestions, next time! Nevertheless, we have one other idea… More about that later ( hint: Toynbee cones)!

We are also thinking about objects as scores.

13 February 2014

Iris has been busy designing  a flyer for the closing event and setting up a Facebook page. Do join us if you have the time!

6 February 2014

This week, Tansy made a trip to Wimbledon and has this to report:

  • good thing,the space is only 4 stops on the overground from Waterloo – so very quick to get to!
  • Great big space it is too with amazing computer controlled lighting… and a good show on at the moment – beautifully installed..
  • I picked up some things from the local library and so am beginning to get a few ideas.. The best snippet so far is that a local worthy family – the Toynbees – had a surgeon amongst them – mid c19th and he specialised in ear conditions and apparently carried out “2,000 ear dissections”…

29 January 2014

It may be a bit early, but we have started already! This week, Tansy and I began talking about the parameters we have in mind for the residency. Here are a few miscellaneous notes:

  • Wimbledon being the home of tennis we were amusing by the notion of Live Scores. How fitting!
  • With this in mind we’d like to distribute large sheets of paper around the space for writing, scribbling and drawing.
  • The Museum of Wimbledon is worth a visit, promising 3000 years of local history
  • A trawl through local charity shops is a must. It always reveals lot about an area!
  • We’d also like to set up a time-laps camera. Other gadgets, in addition to our regular sound stuff: plinths for emphasising objects, a projector
  • For our performance on the 18 March we’d like to rope the audience into making music with us. strategies (for example designing a path through the gallery that leads to the bar…) are needed. As are release forms.
  • We’re debating whether to use our regular instruments or be purist…

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