The smell is worse here.
You're at the far end of the park now, and it seems a long time ago that you were marching briskly past the gaily-painted wagons and sturdy, familial homes-from home that greeted you on your arrival. Here, there is nothing but the odd abandoned motor or tumbledown hut; rotten wood and mouldy tyres lie gently decomposing in quiet, forgotten solitude. Nature is reclaiming this place, and it's not doing it ...in a terrifically sanitary fashion.
Damp hair clings to your face, and by now you've given up trying to swat the midges that suck hungrily at every exposed inch of your flesh. Surely you've gone too far? You'll have seen it by now? Time to give up. This was a fool's errand, in any case...
Oh. Hang on.
This must be the place, you just know it. The metal is rusted, the frame bent and the wheels long-purloined, but from what remains of the paintwork - wide brush strokes, bold colours and exotic swirls - you can tell that this broken husk of a structure must have meant something, to somebody. Once.
With a nails-on-blackboard scraping that makes your teeth vibrate, the door, soot blackened, slowly eases itself open, before falling off its hinges altogether and collapsing in a comedy pratfall.
One foot, then another, emerge from the gloom beyond. The socks, too, were colourful once, but the ravages of time and a 60 degree wash have faded them beyond all recognition. You see a big toe poking out of one, and immediately wish that you hadn't.
Edward Robert Millington spits on his palms, runs his hands through the knots of his greasy hair and beckons with one long, dirt-encrusted finger.
"Come," the old man croaks, the raspiness of his throat belying his solitude, "join me in my Second-Hand Caravan of Artistic Intent.
Damp hair clings to your face, and by now you've given up trying to swat the midges that suck hungrily at every exposed inch of your flesh. Surely you've gone too far? You'll have seen it by now? Time to give up. This was a fool's errand, in any case...
Oh. Hang on.
This must be the place, you just know it. The metal is rusted, the frame bent and the wheels long-purloined, but from what remains of the paintwork - wide brush strokes, bold colours and exotic swirls - you can tell that this broken husk of a structure must have meant something, to somebody. Once.
With a nails-on-blackboard scraping that makes your teeth vibrate, the door, soot blackened, slowly eases itself open, before falling off its hinges altogether and collapsing in a comedy pratfall.
One foot, then another, emerge from the gloom beyond. The socks, too, were colourful once, but the ravages of time and a 60 degree wash have faded them beyond all recognition. You see a big toe poking out of one, and immediately wish that you hadn't.
Edward Robert Millington spits on his palms, runs his hands through the knots of his greasy hair and beckons with one long, dirt-encrusted finger.
"Come," the old man croaks, the raspiness of his throat belying his solitude, "join me in my Second-Hand Caravan of Artistic Intent.
It will be.
Fun."
He disappears back into the fuggy blackness from whence he came.
Do you follow him?
If YES, turn to PAGE 34
If NO, turn to PAGE 117
...By which I mean, come down to Cardiff Arts next Friday (1 October) for an afternoon of fun-filled audio-visual artsy goodness! It's free, it's awesome, it's my final MMus recital, AND there's a bar - what more do you want?
1. "Assignment: Outer Space" - a 15 minute remix and reappropriation of the lost 1960 sci-fi classic, starring Rik Van Nutter from off of Thunderball. Three simultaneous videos offer a surreal take on 1960s space-travel kitsch.
2. "Did You Ever Eat a Bat?" - an acousmatic piece, diffused in 4 speakers. Featuring sounds, and evoking feelings.
3. "MonoPd" - the monome, built from the ground-up in PureData, and with a touch-screen interface. You're invited to come and play, setting off loops and creating music with a touch of your finger.
...as well as a video screen showing other work, both from myself and other members of RWCMD's Creative Music Technology department.
I'm getting marked on all this at 3pm, but all four installations should be up by 1ish, and will carry on playing throughout the afternoon and into the early evening... so come the hell on down!
As ever, please invite anybody you know, so long as they are physically attractive and intelligent enough to appreciate the subtle intricacies of "sonic wank" as an art-form.
2. "Did You Ever Eat a Bat?" - an acousmatic piece, diffused in 4 speakers. Featuring sounds, and evoking feelings.
3. "MonoPd" - the monome, built from the ground-up in PureData, and with a touch-screen interface. You're invited to come and play, setting off loops and creating music with a touch of your finger.
...as well as a video screen showing other work, both from myself and other members of RWCMD's Creative Music Technology department.
I'm getting marked on all this at 3pm, but all four installations should be up by 1ish, and will carry on playing throughout the afternoon and into the early evening... so come the hell on down!
As ever, please invite anybody you know, so long as they are physically attractive and intelligent enough to appreciate the subtle intricacies of "sonic wank" as an art-form.
Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=130182310363727
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