WF Workshop 31 7 99
The central event of the session was the launch of "Neutral Drums" by Robert
Sheppard & Patricia Farrell (Writers Forum ISBN 0 86162 967 1 £2 plus
postage). Robert Sheppard was there and read the bulk of the text of the
book and other poems. Damn fine reading.
Before that, Adrian Clarke read some superb new stuff, announcing / implying
that much of the superb new stuff he had presented earlier in the year had
disappointed him a little. This was *good, but good is a word that I would
apply to almost everything he has presented there this year. But Adrian's a
stickler.
Lawrence Upton, I'm trying to be objective, read three sections from "Human
Tissue" which he announced as his new project and another piece about trees
& he also showed the images for his birthday cards to Bob Cobbing and
Jennifer Pike
Harry Gilonis read from a small new publication of translations from Sappho.
I don't have a copy in front of me so I may get it wrong. There was an
English translation, an English OCR reading of the Greek, and a straight
transliteration where for instance s would be rendered sigma. Harry read
from this, uttering as best he could, mac "mistakes" and all
Elizabeth James and Bob Cobbing performed her RECOGNITION (WF ISBN 0 86162
969 2 £1.50 plus postage)which was available at her performance at SVP on
6th July but not performed.
In a way this book is a collaboration between Cobbing and James in that she
gave Bob / WF the typed texts, leaving Bob C to treat them which he has done
softly for want of a better word
- texts (e.g. silence/courtroom/teenagers/clock/rain/camera/hair/college
friend/death/murder) upside down read by Cobbing as unfamiliar familiar - he
takes the upside down letters as letters other than they are - that's not
clear - new letters the right way up which have some association with the
letters turned upside down to make them - this is my interpretation of what
he does - some get missed, some get stressed, sometimes the rules seemed to
change half way through; remarkable and enjoyable sub performance of its own
- texts (e.g.
ULIUI/uos/05.9T.UI/dt,[log in to unmask]@f?L,WI) read by
James - this (latter) kind of text opposite "knowing exactly what did
happen" and the word reality floating loose between them... some pages
heavily overexposed and halfway to darkness - already beyond grey
It being the Cobbing birthday season, Cobbing performed from his birthday
book ("Voices" by Bob Cobbing WF ISBN 0 86162 970 1 £2 plus postage) with
assistance from Jennifer Pike and Lawrence Upton - This consisted of a
fairly major experiment organised by Ms Pike who had rigged up a projection
screen, two white capes and slides of the book's images. She and Upton wore
the capes and performed in front of the screen so that the images were
projected on to the surface of the performers (except where they met my head
which I have been told has got to go) - there were only 2 capes so Bob
himself performed to one side... This all goes back both to the performance
by Cobbing and Upton at the 3rd SVP Colloquium, where both Ambient Buoys
became bipedal screens) as well as a workshop discussion / experiment on
what to do with the damn texts while youre performing which I documented
here... Mistakes were made, lessons were learned. I think it went quite well
though the best utterance went to the trains going to and from Euston with
whom I sought to duet.
Sean Bonney read from some new poems. Cobbing and Upton performed one of the
new DANs ("the unintentional offensive as turning point" by Bob Cobbing &
Lawrence Upton ISBN 0 86162 886 1 £1 plus postage) which is a text and
picture story about wild animals eating the man next door or someone
watching them eat him out of a window or someone falling from a great height
or a talking lion. Whatever it's about, they did it, uncharacteristically
quietly... & a newcomer Doreen King tried out some of her work including a 2
voicer on which she was joined by the author of this report who has already
had his name in it too much
The next workshop is Upstairs, Victoria, Mornington Place 3.30 PM Saturday 4
9 99
[& then it was on to Platform, but this one is going to bed. would someone
else like to report on Platform?)
L
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The Sub Voicive Poetry website:
http://www2.crosswinds.net/members/~subvoicivepoetry/
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Lawrence Upton's website:
http://members.spree.com/sip/lizard/index.htm
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