The
Spectacularization of Everyone
The Cumberland
Arms, Byker
29th June 2006
"The
world of consumption is in reality the worl of mutual, spectaculization of
everyone, the world of everyone's separation, estrangement and non participation"
- Guy Debord, Situationist International
The
Spectacularization of Everyone is an event curated by normalife©
projects designed to explore alternative approaches
to the somewhat static 'gig' format.
Hopefully
attracting discerning creative types from both sonic and visual spheres, these
performaces attempt to navigate the current wilderness bordering the live
art and music of Newcastle's underground.
The intensification of music and art: If only to initiate a dialogue or ideally, imbue each discipline's performative element with something of the other: either way is fine. Not enough visual art has the intensity and dynamism of performance art. Not enough performance art has the visceral, beatific tangibility afforded by the audience/performer interplay of a band's 'gig'
Who better to provide musical chiaroscuro on this voyage of discovery than the band Paper Cut Out. The event features many other actions, and performers, the likes of which have n'er been seen in this context since the halcyon days of Buster Keaton and vaudeville.
Look out! Here's the science - Let us now look more closely at the percieved distinction between sonic and visual languages.
On performace, or Sonic versus Visual: a question of format and reception.
Our test subject (name withheld) responded thus:
"You knoiw that feeling you may experience, on occasion, when you are so excited- it feels like your tongue swells up, trapping any laughter or intelligible expression of cosmic totality like a cork in an agitated bottle of cava? Yeah? No? And then you scream? Well that's what I crave and sometimes get from a good performance, everything! It's usually only possible to reach such heights in real time. You have to have been there. Or you can relieve it on TV the next day, nursing your bleeding ears, safe in the knowledge that you control the volume."
Performace art translates pretty well to film as does musical performance. But film has an equalising quality that sometimes mutes raw energy. It is far more thrilling if there is a real prospect of injury to the audience. And what of the audience? Are we to remain passive in our reception of live stuff? Would we be as appreciative/sympathetic if it were recorded in a studio or indeed - if we were sober? Also, is performance art which incorporates music just art rock lacking the mastery of instruments?
"In my humble opinion - for a band it's important to consider all the angles of their performance including image. But not image as a mere simulation of something witnessed on MTV2 or in NME. Image as an equally powerful way of delivering an experience, of blowing minds, of referencing and payong homage to influences through fashion. Above all else, what a band sounds like is paramount, and some folks do usually dress for the occasion, (going to Morrisons) while others gesticulate in an overtly sexual way. There are many factors that go to make up a band. Its just, how many of these come across in the (live) delivery. Watching a good band communicate using telepathy is usually more than enough for anyone's brain to process." - Brian Eno
AM