We do the best with what we have.
Convey, and capture to convey.
History in photo, video, audio, a method in the madness.
Above at The Arts Factory 2007 in Byron Bay, part of my evolution as a performer, specifically as a performance poet. The people, atmosphere, missions and madness. Much video performance from this age stands.
And earlier in 2005 when hosting the Monday Night Jam Sessions as part of The Field Creative. Much audio and video is buried in archives.. :O
And earlier..
A school performance- before I could grow a beard 😛
Womb, the piece below is I guess the beginning of the gesticulating performances. I had performed in various modes but not consciously gesticulated my works, until this. It was back when was tutoring Ethics and sustainability @ SCU, before I became a street poet. I was waiting to carpool home and wrote a poem on the computer. Then recorded the reading. Then for kicks, as had still much of time to wait, took some pix with the laptop of various gestures to support sentences and made the vid.. The rest is now history!
I had hundreds of works created, had performed plenty, so when I ran out of cash again while trying to setup the nonprofit my friend Delta Jim- who had been helping me on nonprofit projects, recommended i try busking, which he was doing. I did not want to support businesses and the destruction of the planet, and though yeah- poetry is nondestructive and is a way to get my ideals out there. Below is a shot performing with DJ.
I found some dumped wood in a field and built a stand out of the recycled bed slats.. (One day this idem will be in my museum, much as been stored in the archive.) Printed out a chunk of fav poems I had written. A carried them, riding my bike into town from the industrial estate, put a frisbee or hat down for donations and..
As a street performer, you rely on others to take pix, unless are armed with a tripod. This one below is near the start of my busking era, can see still am using the homemade stand to put works on to read from, so around 2010.
Jamming with others freshens it up, here with Kristupas! C:
Eventually a gang of fav works that were memorized came to be, and could offer people a menu, so they could choose based on the title which gesticulated piece they would like to have performed..
The gesticulated performance does deliberately look pretty crazy so alot of people take vid and pix when passing in cars. Suspect once it all takes off- there will be a heap of rad old stuff that rolls in.. c;
Here above, is a bit of tripod action blend. Recorded while busking in Sydney and at Earth Frequency Festival.
But for historians, rest assured there is HEAPS, like a mind-blowing amount of unreleased content from all stages of the process, audio, video, and pix..
3 groups of works of experimental audio from back in 2006 and earlier are relevant to the performance. The foundational need to convey and share perspectives, like breadcrumbs on a journey into the unknown. And to advocate the ultimate need to preserve nature. Without something to share, there is nothing to share.
In Melbourne 2017 hosted a series of events called What Washes Up. Inviting unknown musos to jam with my works at two different galleries. Ive jammed with plenty of different kinds of musicians in Byron over the years, but wanted to embrace the potential chaos and magic of the moment. And it was super!! C:
As a busker for years I realized the beauty but also futility of the live performance. It is exposed and is done, like a sand castle. You make enough hopefully to eat by donations, but the need to have a product to follow up became important. A youtube for vids, a website and fb for sharing photos of poems, some photocopies of poems to give out with the website on, postcards, posters, some cds.. Many times came where I wanted to step back from performing and create books!
Below was my first book in print Jumping Goat Fish, 2014.
And the book launch at Mary Ryan’s books store, with special guests Tommy, Riddhi and Rusty.
Sill without dollars and focused more on creating I have released my now 7 books as freEbooks. The idea is a bit like busking- put the works out digitally on FB and my website for free and if people like them they may donate.. So far there have only been two donors C; but one funded the website hosting for about a year! And the over 1000 works across the books have all been prepared to a presentation standard I am pleased with, and can be made into books, wallpaper, posters, cards or whatever.
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So the performance poetry has led back to digital works and the potential for physical works. And when performance gains momentum again, the work has been done in the background to possibly make it sustainable and then- to fund the nonprofit vision!
There is too much to say about the performing evolution. One day it will make an interesting book. What I hope to do next with the poetry is forge a band. Embrace the wild and wonderful, create it, share it, tour with it. And for it to help expose my visions for the future. To setup a nonprofit creative agency and save the world.
There are heaps of other “performing pix” in the page onsite.