Give Me Something To Listen To (Hackney) Part I and II
Last week I planned a small, in-house version of Give Me Something To Listen To at ]performance space[ to try out a brand new, red booth i'm rocking at the Hackney Wick festival this weekend.
As I climbed into the booth at the entrance of the space, i spied a gate in the canal wall that surrounds the industrial estate and fantasised about doing a version there. It was a perfect spot and would have passing traffic as people walked and rode along the canal.
As I thought about it, one of the performance space studio artists - Marco Beradi - suggested we take the booth down there. Yes!
So we installed the new shiny red booth, balancing on a ledge, facing the canal path and a whole new performance took off.
It was fabulous!
"Hello!" I said about a thousand times.
Loads of people smiled or laughed.
Sometimes I scared a few peeps, or had to say a bit of an Alice In Wonderland-style "up here!" as people looked confoundedly around to an empty canal (because i was up slightly higher than regular eye height). They were happily relieved that it was just a slightly odd woman in a bright red booth.
And then there were the 20-odd people who stopped and did give me something to listen to. A really great mix of music - nothing shit and always an interesting, or enlightening conversation afterwards.
I'll post the playlist on site in the next few days, but here's a pic of the notes i made on the inside of the booth.
I'm taking the booth into a festival environment this weekend - the Hackney Wicked Weekend at Shoreditch.
If you're in the hood, come on down!
As I climbed into the booth at the entrance of the space, i spied a gate in the canal wall that surrounds the industrial estate and fantasised about doing a version there. It was a perfect spot and would have passing traffic as people walked and rode along the canal.
As I thought about it, one of the performance space studio artists - Marco Beradi - suggested we take the booth down there. Yes!
So we installed the new shiny red booth, balancing on a ledge, facing the canal path and a whole new performance took off.
It was fabulous!
"Hello!" I said about a thousand times.
Loads of people smiled or laughed.
Sometimes I scared a few peeps, or had to say a bit of an Alice In Wonderland-style "up here!" as people looked confoundedly around to an empty canal (because i was up slightly higher than regular eye height). They were happily relieved that it was just a slightly odd woman in a bright red booth.
It was a bit like fishing - casting out my headphone cable, hoping to grab a listening device on the way past. Perhaps I just thought of that analogy because I was overlooking the waterway.
There was so much smiling, so much good will. I could count on just one hand the grumpy, grouchy, hunchy types. Everyone else was a bit in love with the idea.
Even when people didn't stop and give me something to listen to, they wanted to: "oh, I'm sorry, but i would if i did", and some great chats about what I was doing and why.
And then there were the 20-odd people who stopped and did give me something to listen to. A really great mix of music - nothing shit and always an interesting, or enlightening conversation afterwards.
I'll post the playlist on site in the next few days, but here's a pic of the notes i made on the inside of the booth.
I'm taking the booth into a festival environment this weekend - the Hackney Wicked Weekend at Shoreditch.
If you're in the hood, come on down!
1 comment:
What fun! I love your enthusiasm, courage and generosity of spirit. I love that you put your passion and projects out there to not only stimulate thought and discussion but to learn and utilize the responses from miriad and random human intellect. Bravo!
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