Search Party Blog

SAVE ME BOOK PURCHASE ONLINE

2011-11-01T10:07:00.005Z

Here's a link to where you can buy a copy of our recent publication Save Me: A Conversation Across The City
It is also on Sale in the Arnolfini Bookshop (Bristol) and will be distributed by cornerhouse to various galleries and shops

http://www.cornerhouse.org/bookstore/product/save-me-a-conversation-across-the-city

Save Me Book Cover

2011-10-11T18:25:00.002+01:00

Here's a sneaky peek at the cover of our Save Me book.

Save Me: A Conversation Across the City - Book Launch

2011-10-06T09:32:00.001+01:00

Save Me: A Conversation Across the City - Book Launch

2011-10-05T22:28:00.001+01:00

Save Me Book Contributions

2011-09-12T13:19:00.001+01:00

As you may know we are working towards a book of Save Me, both as a reflection of our 11-day performance during Mayfest, but also, as a continuation of our exploration of distance, separation and struggled conversations.

An integral part of the original 11-day project was the participation of bystanders who wrote of their own sense of separation and what they would like to say to people they are apart from. As a continuation of that, we are looking for people who could take their own ideas on this subject a little further.

We are looking for people to reflect upon an instance or an event that really brings to light feelings of separation and the struggles loved-ones have in keeping in contact over distance. This could be an event or a circumstance that is very personal to you, or it could be a story of others that resonates or/and moves you. We are inviting a few people to write about this in any way they like, at any length they like: it could be fifty words or several hundred – whatever it is, we will do our very best to include it in our book.

We have a very tight deadline and want to try and gather these by next Monday 19th September, really can be something very small but we are interested in the idea of having other voices in the book.

Do let us know whether you feel able to contribute….. jodie@searchpartyperformance.org.uk

Book Launch at Arnolfini, Bristol

Saturday 22nd October 2011 6.30pm

http://www.arnolfini.org.uk/whatson/live/details/1066

Search Party vs Launceston

2011-08-11T15:16:00.002+01:00

Save Me

2011-07-20T09:42:00.002+01:00

Perched on top of a 1.5m high platform on Pero's bridge I can be seen from many places. Squinting across St Augustine's reach, Jodie can see me as she waves her flags from atop a similar platform on the fountain steps. I can be seen from the water that separates us, from the boats in their moorings, from the cobbled pathways, from beneath the trees and from windows of buildings on either side of Bristol's floating harbour.

The people on the boats wave as they pass under the bridge; they can see me. The saxophone player plays and the Big Issue seller sells; they can see me. The drinkers in the bars, the cyclists, the tourists, the walkers, the strollers, the parents with their pushchairs and their children; they can all see me. They haven't come here to see me, not in the first instance. They've not read the programme or browsed the website or scrolled down the mail out. They see me because they were coming here anyway, they were always going to be here, they don't just happen to stroll past – it is me and Jodie and our flags that are the happenstance, not them. We are on their patch, their turf, this is their bridge, their fountains, on their route; this is their territory.

But the over 11 days of the performance something changes. In the eyes of everyone who can see me, my flag waving on Pero's bridge, at first an oddity becomes familiar. It is this process of familiarisation; from being outsider in another's territory to becoming a part of the landscape that excites me.

It's a simple thing we're doing – talking with flags. But we're here everyday, same time, same place and perhaps it is in the repeated dipping in and out of the project that makes it seem like something bigger – a part of the furniture. And of course this is an illusion, two hours a day for 11 consecutive days is no shallow undertaking, but next to the enduring permanence of this stretch of water it is a drop in the ocean. An illusion, but a convincing one because when so suddenly we are gone there is a gap, something has changed – like when the trees lining St Augustine's Reach have been too severely pollarded, providing more light and less shade, this place feels different. Or when thousands of amateur runners are plodding round St Augustine's parade, inspired or irritated by Heart FM's cheerful pop classics, this place feels different. Like the pruned trees and the sweaty runners, us flag wavers reshape this place, in a way that is perhaps best measured by the moment of our absence.

Wunderbar 2009

2011-07-12T18:52:00.004+01:00

It's 10am on a Sunday in December 2009 and we're in Eldon Square shopping centre, Newcastle Upon Tyne courtesy of Wunderbar festival. We've been here since Friday morning, accepting challenges and rematches from anybody who'd like to play a game of table tennis against us and in so doing become part of the team representing this city. The scoreboard bears witness to the games that have gone before, our tired eyes, our tired limbs, our fading will, testament to the hours we have spent in this spot being window shopped, encouraged, admired and derided by a steady stream of consumers.

But today is different. Thanks mainly to the footprint left by the dominant Christian ideology that has sculpted the 24 hours between the end of Saturday and the start of Monday. The shutters are down, and not just at the windows of spoil-sport Chocolatiers, Thorntons – who have made their passive resentment of our table tennis project abundantly clear. And like the empty football stadium, the empty shopping centre has a distinctly different feel, a palpable Sunday-ness. Something is missing, the people. And it is in this absence that we recognise the generative quality of the moving body in space. Without the people there is a physical transformation of the shopping centre as well as a shift in the imaginative, affective, sonic and social qualities of the space (McCormack 2008).

The stillness is disturbed by two middle aged men, tottering in a post stag-do haze past the barred windows of Claire's Accessories.

The first man says:

"What'sallthisthenI'llgiveyouagameoftabletennis I'mquitegoodme meandyoucomethen letshaveyoucomeonthen"

Or words to that effect. His mate giggles under his breath. The two men are Welsh. I can tell from their accents. The question; "where are you from?" confirms their nationhood. Our chit-chat leads us onto the question of singing, a field in which the Welsh have somewhat of a reputation.

The first man says:

"If I win, I'll sing you a song. I'll sing you a Welsh song, I'll sing Land of Our Fathers. So come on then… Let's be 'aving you."

And so it happens that a proud, half-cut, Welshman and his giggling mate take up our challenge. They represent the city of Newcastle in a first to 11 game of table tennis against a Live Art duo from Bristol – and I can't help but speculate that this wasn't originally on the agenda for the aforementioned stag-do. But here we are, and it is starting to get serious. Giggly mate is now chewing his fingers and occasionally piping up with textbook 'coach in the corner' phrases like:

"Come on, don't let you head go down"

And…

"Pull yourself together"

And…

"What they bloody hell are you playing at, hit the bloody thing."

It's starting to mean something. Hitting this ball back and forth across a net halfway along a table, in the middle of a shopping centre means something. And maybe it only means something because we/they know how it feels for something like this to mean something. They've seen this before on the pub's big screen, or in their living rooms, huddled close on the bar stool or sofa, with glass or can in hand. But still he plays. He plays his best and is frustrated by his ineptitude. Maybe because he wanted it to be glorious, or he wanted to show off in front of his mate or perhaps because he wanted to claim something, something here, now – to carve out his own slice of history in this place.

He loses. It's not even close. Maybe it's the booze or maybe it was always going to end this way. No-longer-giggling mate is already sauntering past HM Samuels the jewellers, head down, hands in pockets when our gallant loser approaches the microphone…

Takes a moment…

Clears his throat…

And sings…

He sings 'Land of Our Father's', in Welsh (of course), at the top of his pitch perfect baritone voice into the Microphone, his song echoing around the empty passageways of Eldon Square shopping centre. And for those few minutes this place becomes his. His voice, his song, his pride and that place start to submerge into each other. We are in the Welsh mountains on a clear crisp morning, or at the opening of the Welsh Assembly, or in a packed Millennium stadium on match-day. He is the home team; this is his turf, his patch. Eldon Square shopping centre, Newcastle upon Tyne has, for the briefest of moments, become another territory. His territory.

Save Me pics from Mayfest 2011

2011-06-28T15:00:00.003+01:00

Some lovely pics from Save Me by Gemma Paintin.
More pics on flicker: http://bit.ly/lRtXf8

More Growing Old With You pictures

2011-06-28T14:05:00.001+01:00

http://bit.ly/krKBrM

Growing Old With You Pics

2011-06-24T12:24:00.001+01:00

Tags from Save Me

2011-06-23T10:07:00.002+01:00

Just going through some of the tags from Save Me. Some really beautiful messages.

Save Me Book

2011-06-22T21:11:00.003+01:00

After 11 days waving flags across Bristol's Harbourside for this years Mayfest, the soreness in our arms has gone, our eyes no longer squint, and we're starting to forget the shape of our w's. Over the duration of this years Mayfest 187 messages written on yellow tags were tied to our platforms. We've decided that the event, the messages, the conversations ought to be recorded. So we're making a book. We've not made a book before but this seems a good place to start. We're planning a book launch - more details to follow - and we're hoping to think of something charming to help the champagne flow and the books fly off the shelves.

Megaproject

2011-06-22T15:27:00.001+01:00

Work is underway on our pipe dream of a show, made collaboratively with Action Hero.

Growing Old With You at Greenroom

2011-03-17T16:32:00.001Z

Really looking forward to performing at Greenroom in Manchester. Hope some of you can make it? Fri 25th March 2011, 8pm. www.greenroomarts.org/archive/events/growing-old-with-you/

2011 Performance Dates

2011-02-15T15:11:00.002Z

We are currently confirming lots of 2011 performance dates for Growing Old With You, Search Party vs... and Save Me. All dates will be up on our diary page very soon!

Growing Old With You work-in-progress reviewed in The Guradian

2010-04-08T09:42:00.002+01:00

Check out Lyn Gardener's review of the Forest Fringe Microfestival at BAC, which includes a mention of our work-in-progress. Next outing for this work will be at Forest Fringe in Bristol at Mayfest on Sat 8th and Sun 9th of May.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2010/apr/05/forest-fringe-microfestival-review

Growing Old With You

2010-03-24T10:45:00.002Z

We are currently working on a new performance project titled Growing Old With You.

Project Description

"Age, to those who have not quite reached it yet, is another country” Sue Hubbard

Growing Old With You is a life long performance project which attempts to document lived experience in real time. Starting in 2010 and for every 5 (or so) years for the rest of their lives Search Party will create a performance exploring ideas of age, duality and accumulation. The project uses the lives and experiences of a range of participants of all ages to create each performance. Search Party will repeat the process with the same participants every 5 (or so) years, creating a new performance each time. Over the course of a life time we hope to create a series of works in which we, the work, the participants and the audience all grow old together.

Search Party are interested in the emotive act of exposing the intimate aspects of their own aging process and its irrevocable link with the audiences’. The 21st century has been dubbed the Century of Ageing. By 2050 more than 1 in 5 of us will be over 60. For the first time in human history there will be more over 60s than children under 15. Search Party are interested in the process of aging not simply as a march towards death but as a celebration of a life fully lived. The body becoming a map, a terrain charting its lived history. Working with participants who will provide a landscape of age and experience and with a growing awareness of the demographic change taking place, Search Party will provoke the audience into confronting the inevitability of their own aging process, asking questions about the limitations of this temporal existence.

The project is in its early stages and is currently the focus of an ACE funded period of R&D. During the R&D we are hoping to interview a number of people of different ages with the view to them becoming participants in the project as it moves forward. Check out our diary for any any upcoming work in progress showings.

Search Party vs St Pancras on You Tube

2010-03-10T21:28:00.002Z

Check out Search Party vs St Pancras on You Tube.
Recorded on Thursday 4th March 2010.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDxVPSqE7Qs

Search Party in Real Time Arts Magazine

2010-02-20T22:23:00.000Z

http://www.realtimearts.net/article/issue95/9743

The Pigs of Today

2010-01-19T19:36:00.001Z

Looking forward to the 'The Pigs of Today are the Hams of Tomorrow' symposium this weekend in Plymouth.

http://www.plymouthartscentre.org/art/thepigsoftodayar.html