Spectrum is (public) space. by Meta tron, mr. b, Charlie Fish, Shane McIan
December 31st, 2007 12:10 PM / Location: 51.530362,-0.124180Train of Thought.
The Idea
From the audience's point of view, they are tuning into the thoughts of random strangers around them on the tube, like some kind of amazing psychic radio.
For this task I commissioned several writers and small theatre companies to create sketches inspired by travelling on the tube. The catch was, the audio would be pre-recorded and the action almost entirely silent.
Just to make this even more ambitious - we performed this live on a real tube carriage in the midst of oblivious real commuters.
The writers were:
Shireen Mula
Katy and Laura Bateman
David Black
Matt Dye (of Tin Horse Theatre)
Charlie Fish
The performers were:
Parrot {in the} Tank
Mink
mr. b
Ben Thompson
Shireen Mula
Joyia Fitch
Matt Dye
The Science bit
The thoughts were pre-recorded in a recording studio at Shane's work.
and put into a playlist on an mp3 player. This was then hooked up to the type of mini radio transmitter normally used for playing ipods in cars which don't have mp3 players.
The audience were all given either the frequency (or a radio already tuned in) before decending to the Underground.
The Transmission
For six days over two weeks the play was transmitted to an audience of non-SF0 players. I would meet the audience outside King's Cross Tube Station - pretending to be reading a newspaper with Train of Thought written on the cover with a bag of radios at my feet!
(An audience member holding the newspaper whilst I radio up some of the other punters)
On The Train
The audience all sat and stood in one carriage with the actors all getting on at different stops to make it harder to guess who was 'in on it'. The audience had to guess whose thoughts they were listening to by observing all the people on the tube and seeing whose behaviour best fitted what they could hear. (As a red herring there two stories for which there were NO actors, tee hee hee)
What an ordinary commuter would hear
What a Train of Thought commuter would hear
The Fly by Parrot {in the} Tank performed by Sam Bailey
Disclaimer: Tragically my camera died just before we did this and so the little proof I have is from my camera phone. It's also quite tricky to take photos whilst acting, stage managing and sound engineering simultaneously. ;P
This is an example of what the stories sounded like. Each sketch was segued with a fake station announcement for a made up tube line called the Oracle line.
Make Up by David Black performed by David Black and Mink
Charlie & mr. b
What if someone always speaks their mind?
Charlie wrote a piece which was not pre-recorded. He wanted it to appear that the performance had been interrupted by a loud street preacher and that the audience would not straight away realise that he was part of the show. This worked brilliantly with not just the Train of Thought audience but the general commuters all determinedly ignoring then joyfully grinning at his words!
Faith: for sale by Charlie Fish performed by mr. b
My camera phone is sadly rubbish, but you get the idea.
I really wish I had this recorded properly but in lieu of a decent video here is the written script.
The Beggar's Tale
(Scruffy, dirty man enters carriage, and announces in the vowel-stretching rhetoric style of a TV preacher…)
Ladies and gentlemen, I apologize for interrupting, for intruding on your determined isolation, for crumbling your great walls of Jericho; I will not be offended if you choose to look straight down into your laps and pretend that I am speaking in tongues, I will not judge you if you wish to be priests and Levites today, no; but I ask you to try and overcome your discomfort at hearing me speak, I ask you to be bold and look at me, hear me, and listen; I am not offended by your stares, I will cause you no harm, I thank you for your time and I will not abuse your attention; for I wish to deliver a sermon from under the mount, a lesson you can learn from whether you accept it or not, a parable of our age, a tale that echoes deep into the lives of every one of us, a story of such subtle power that its embers will smoulder within you long after it’s told, burning its message into your very soul; like the bush of Mount Horeb the flames of truth will not consume you but sustain you, guide and protect you, deliver you and make you whole again.
(slower, steeping each word in hidden meaning)
From the book of Argos chapter eight verse nine, and I quote: There may be a time when you need to exchange or return something you've bought. Please make sure that you check your items carefully before they are used or installed. We also recommend that you keep your receipt or order number, which can be found on your order confirmation or on the delivery packaging, as you might need it as proof of purchase in the event of any after-sales queries.
From the book of Ikea chapter one verse six: Credit scoring takes into account information provided directly by a customer and any information we may hold about that customer. It also uses information obtained from Credit Reference Agencies. If the level of acceptable risk to us is exceeded, we will not accept the application. This does not necessarily mean that an applicant is a bad payer. It simply means that based on the information available to us, we are not prepared to take a risk of granting credit.
(TV preacher again)
Ladies and gentlemen, I apologize for commandeering your attention, I hope and pray that I have caused no offence by daring to intrude upon your ritual quiet time; I thank you for your open ears and open mind, I do not ask for any money, I only ask that you take care for the remainder of your journeys, geographical and spiritual, and that you reflect on what you have seen and heard today; I thank you.
(leaves carriage)
27 vote(s)
- Tøm
- GYØ Ben
- Lincøln
- teucer
- susy derkins
- JJason Recognition
- The Revolutionary
- Fonne Tayne
- High Countess Emily
- Lank
- Darkaardvark
- Blue
- help im a bear
- Sean Mahan
- Adam
- rongo rongo
- Loki
- Spidere
- Flitworth
- Optical Dave
- qwerty uiop
- Ben Whitehouse
- Møuse
- Squirmelia
- Haberley Mead
- gh◌st ᵰⱥ₥ing
- Ty Ødin
Favorite of:
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urbanart13 comment(s)
Argh, just as I had the top spot again you come out with this.
Skills.
Mr Fish, you deserve that top spot :)
Wow. Amazing. Just. Amazing.
Fish, you are my god.
To: The Tube Absolute Tasking Masters
Guys, the first praxis I ever read was your beautiful Sing, which got me hooked up forever to SFØ (liquid love, someone said).
This proof here is a complete turn of the crank in the same moving context: So, you don´t think it could be ever done better? Think again, punk!
Teary-eyed-and-smiling-"wondrousness can be done right here and now, dammit!!"
and the 'make up' sketch had me cracking up.
your true desires burst forth from your hearts into the real/unreal interface of the surrounding space: a drab, cloned, sparkless existence. spoonfeeding the unwitting, your will is more agile and powerful than the very trains upon which you ride. trajectories and conflict mean little in the face of such perfectly playful, eerie, thoughtful - and disruptive - creation.
do post the rest of the recordings if you can.
thanks, UKØ.
So good, Lank that I can't believe we didn't think of it.
my thanks to all for your comments and votes. and many thanks to mink for getting me involved in this excellent adventure. well done everyone.
good vibes y'all,
mr. b
Way to go, transforming the mundane.
It was very generous of Mink to add me as collaborator to this task - I just contributed the one sketch. I'd like to emphasize that she did a lot of work on this, and deserves all the credit.
I was blown away with the originality and potential of the idea, and I was lucky enough to attend one of the performances with a couple of friends, which was brilliant. It was hard to tell who were the audience members, who were actors, and who were poor innocent commuters. Watching the rest of the audience was just as entertaining as watching the confused looks on the faces of the commuters. We were talking about the performance in awe for days.
Mink is capable of amazing things. She has the unholy trinity of balls, drive and talent. Respect.
. . . and so very good.
A wonderful concept, and the samples we've been shown are brilliant. Nicely done!
(At some point I was going to suggest the task "act: stage a dramatic performance on the subway" or similar wording. Not sure if I ever even submitted it, but you've thoroughly schplanked it none the less.)
As you can see from the dates on the flyer this is a bit late to hit praxis.
I wanted to wait until Mr Fish had finished his run of Equivalenz tasks before I added him to a non-red task. and damn it, I've been busy x-masing! I tried to Derkins this task and I think I done ok.
This is my last task of the era folks - merry Glasnost and a happy new insatiability!