Wednesday
Feb182009
Scott Thurston Reading at Openned, July 23rd 2008
Wednesday 18 February, 2009 in Scott Thurston
[wpvideo G4epnWJR]
At this reading the poets Scott Thurston, Alex Davies, Sascha Aktar, John Wilkinson, Sean Bonney and Frances Kruk all read. In the second half, Sean's performance featured Frances Kruk making small eery sounds on a loop peddle, her sounds working to sink Bonney's Commons poems into a wash of colour-murmur // haunted-fracture (Sean also took some snuff during the reading). As per usual I think I forgot to turn the camera on for the second half, but the video above features Scott Thurston as he was the first poet to read at the night. I always get the first poet.
The layout of the room was different this time. Alex and I try to re-imagine the space in some small way for each reading. This time the poets read against the long wall on the left hand side of the Foundry instead of using the back wall as the backdrop. I think the shadows formed a good and physical context for the readers. We also covered over a bulb with an orange crate which seemed to provide an interesting glow.
This spatial arrangement also meant that the poets reading had the option of stepping onto the rotating metalic plate that sits in the middle of the Foundry's vault. Originally we intended this space for the poet Ulli Freer, we thought he would really be able to work with the circular space that stretched out before the readers. Unfortunately he could not make it.. or we could not find him... one of the two.
However, Sean made good use of the space, pulling the wooden plinth that some of the poets chose to read from (the plinth first appeared for the Jerome Rothenberg reading back in 2007) into the centre of the space banging his right leg onto the floor to the rhythm of the words (its strange that this is the predominant thing I remember from the reading). Anyway more documentation for this night to follow.
At this reading the poets Scott Thurston, Alex Davies, Sascha Aktar, John Wilkinson, Sean Bonney and Frances Kruk all read. In the second half, Sean's performance featured Frances Kruk making small eery sounds on a loop peddle, her sounds working to sink Bonney's Commons poems into a wash of colour-murmur // haunted-fracture (Sean also took some snuff during the reading). As per usual I think I forgot to turn the camera on for the second half, but the video above features Scott Thurston as he was the first poet to read at the night. I always get the first poet.
The layout of the room was different this time. Alex and I try to re-imagine the space in some small way for each reading. This time the poets read against the long wall on the left hand side of the Foundry instead of using the back wall as the backdrop. I think the shadows formed a good and physical context for the readers. We also covered over a bulb with an orange crate which seemed to provide an interesting glow.
This spatial arrangement also meant that the poets reading had the option of stepping onto the rotating metalic plate that sits in the middle of the Foundry's vault. Originally we intended this space for the poet Ulli Freer, we thought he would really be able to work with the circular space that stretched out before the readers. Unfortunately he could not make it.. or we could not find him... one of the two.
However, Sean made good use of the space, pulling the wooden plinth that some of the poets chose to read from (the plinth first appeared for the Jerome Rothenberg reading back in 2007) into the centre of the space banging his right leg onto the floor to the rhythm of the words (its strange that this is the predominant thing I remember from the reading). Anyway more documentation for this night to follow.
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