Postscript

Back to Cairo and wondering about singularities, processes and space. I keep thinking of all the poignant statements everyone revealed at some point:

• "I work with restrictions"

• "My work is about negotiating the "I""

• "The easiest way to create connections is to ask people to do things for you"

• "The most exciting thing about creating/initiating a process is exploring its possibilities with the audience"

Then what someone told me about history. The burden of history that all of us (Egyptians?) have to carry. And I begin to think of how singular is personal history and whether the object, that is the history, can dissolve in the process of performance.
No it can't.
There is so much at risk of being silenced for the sake of conformity to Western history and aesthetics. Even if one does immerse his/herself in this history and aesthetics one is always an "out-sider", out and on the side of it by his/her own sense of what this history and these aesthetics mean or signify for its subject.
So we are back to subjectivities again. The subject, what constitutes a subject and how much does a subject transform from one context to another. How can a subject's history, personal narrative dissolve (transform?) in performance?
How can a subject identify with two or more contexts at the same time, maybe something like "multiple overlapping identifications", which I am sure there is a more meaningful word for it in German.
So how can one reconcile these multiple identification without falling into the absurd or annihilation of one them.
Or maybe falling into the absurd is the solution. It is the way to bring these different identifications together.

Day (11) - K (2) General Run-through/Open Lab

The last day in the lab, and its beginning to feel like a never ending process. A never ending process of negotiation.
Poor Eleonora is still sick. And she is sorely missed. And for some reason Nora could not show up either. The speculations remain why she did though.
Thomas and Shawn created an interesting little chamber in the middle from table boards. And the space where my corner was is now a very cozy pile of cushions in it.
Then Matthew came up with the brilliant idea that I should blog live, and I should use the white table boards as a space to write my text. And my text can move as Hooman moves the table boards. I instantly embarked on a search in quest of white board marker to try it out!
Lillibeth had to go pick her parents up, Tania was left without her partner so Matthew volunteered to take over and they both engaged in an interesting live duet.
Lillibeth arrived later then and she and Tania sat opposite each other at the table in the little chamber that was constructed by Shawn and Thomas.
Hooman came along and told Tania and Lillibeth that he is going to deconstruct the chamber.
Thomas then put his hood on along with a pair of sunglasses. A very compelling image.
Then the question was raised, what do you need to be a man? The answer came from Hooman as "A Third Testicle". To which Shawn suggested that should be the name of the performance.
With Hooman keep repeating that its all about "the third testicle".
Everyone then decided it was time for a run through. I volunteered to take place in Lillibeth's research and take over Tania, who had to leave for a meeting.
Hooman, Loan and Matthew started dismantling the space around us, and putting cushions everywhere.
While Shawn passed the mic over different surfaces creating a very unusual assortment of sounds.
Hooman then started arranging the cushions once more.
Matthew found an interesting use for the table boards, using them as tags, so there were three archetypes, Man, individual and the group.
Traditional Persian music was introduced at some point.
Thomas volunteered to be interviewed by Lillibeth. That was a sight to watch, because Thomas was quite critical about Lillibeth's position and strategy.
They swapped roles, then Thomas started interviewing Lillibeth. Role reversal was a destabilizing strategy.
Then Shawn was next. He defined himself as the technician. And that he supports arts.
Hooman meanwhile started arranging the deck chairs and the table outside, when he discovered that he could not take the white cushions outside creating very lively visual lines.
Thomas said he would then play a song for his friend Hooman, its called the third testicle.
Matthew compiled the cushions once more and started falling off the chair right on top of the pile.
It was at this point that everyone realized that the 20 minutes were over. A break was overdue and it was decided that everyone should sit around and discuss the final setting for the open lab.
Lillibeth and Tania were relegated to a corner after assuming center-stage. More discussion on the process and how it is connected, but rather in the end everyone agreed on more or less what was done so far.
The space was then cleared, all tables dismantled, all table boards placed on the glass facing the garden, and the K (2) felt incredibly spacious for the first time since we arrived there!
Then everyone tried to get into the mood of "performing". Matthew and Loan started engaging with the new space, Thomas improvised a little comedy routine and Hooman then walked in and played Om Kalthoum. I was a little surprised and moved. And his choice of song too was quite to the point. It was take me to the land of the beloved. Which made me instantly homesick.
The audience started coming in, and I realized how mobile my text will be. And how easily erasable it is.
I can not "re-write" what I wrote in the live blogging. That can be uploaded as imagery or photos or maybe even video. But I can try to write whatever it is that remained. In whichever state it remained.
Audience started coming in, Tania and Lillibeth started their research process by asking each other then they involved the audience, and they got a little more than what they bargained for. They got three very interesting interviewees who really stretched the gender spectrum, and represented an alternative range of "masculinities".
Thomas played a low key tune, that seemed to create a certain subtle layer, accompanied by sonic distortions made by Shawn. And I was looking forward to Hooman's traditional Persian music tracks. I kept anticipating the music as I wrote trying to remember how it sounded, and trying to fit this memory into what I am actually hearing and doing.
Loan and Hooman started to get very physical with the table boards and the chairs scaring the audience a little bit.
At some point Thomas stopped playing and started reading what I was writing. This visibility made me feel gazed at and upon.
And suddenly the alarm started ringing and the process seem to have came to a sudden end.
And my text was wiped out, and it only exist in audiovisual form. Maybe it should be uploaded on this blog as an alternative form of narrative to this one.
Everyone is invited to submit their own version of the process.

Day (10) - K (2)

My first experience with intense traffic, and delayed buses took place today. And I am unconsciously enjoying this little imperfect process that seems to take place beneath the perfection of the order of things here.
Eleonora got even more sick if that is possible, and she is sorely missed. Rike left. And Nora joined.
The discussion still ongoing on whether or not to produce something or present something in the open house.
What I understood that there is a general agreement somehow, that everyone will take the artistic choice to present what s/he wants and then join in jamming session of twenty minutes. The enduring feature will be the rearranging of the space. That seems to a performance strategy that appeals to everyone.
Shawn and Thomas starting jamming together, Thomas on electric guitar and Shawn working on the sonic environment as a whole.
An interesting development was when Lillibeth and Tania decided to join Shawn and Thomas. While Tania joined standing, Lillibeth preferred to lie down.
But then Tania and Lillibeth chose to work on their research (they are invited to elaborate on that here) as a way to engage with the space. And they kept asking for some "man" to volunteer. Repeating the statement "We need a man", gave a little gender twist for the process. When no one (man that is) volunteered, they decided to impersonate the role of male interviewee, with Lillibeth as the alleged "male interviewee". They assumed a corner and went on their interview.
More deconstruction of tables took place till they are just flat boards, then reconstructing them around an interesting arrangement of cushions. Nora then decided to be inserted in this collage of table boards and cushions making her look like an installation.
Hooman gave a new meaning to cushion arrangement when he started to arrange them outside the space altogether.
Nora then released herself from the chair-table installation and took over one mic and decided to experiment with swinging it over the floor. She then took things further by passing the mic over a cushion case over and over.
A series of collapses took place, with Hooman throwing chairs and table boards around, somehow driven by a certain build up of things.
Loan too seemed to be engaged on a very physical level with the chairs and table board. Trying to "figure" them out, in a literal sense. In kind of experiment where she is trying to define or understand her relationship with and to them.
Hooman's new cushion arrangement took the shape of a pathway of cushions all the way out to the garden. Nora was enticed to follow that path. Hooman later explained that he was inspired by Eleonora's mention of the image of "lines", how things and people come coming to her in the shape of lines.
Thomas was peacefully playing his guitar all the while.
Hooman then decided to lay down on one table board and start blowing into a mic, then to roll over across the table board, with an accompanying sound of an empty plastic water bottle being hit against a mic by Nora.
The question remains "what should we do now?"
And I was asked what do I think and said what I thought honestly, that there despite the intentional dissonance, everyone inevitably picked up on the energy of the other and started reacting to that.
There was, however, another problem which was how to place the audience?
Should the audience sit on the outside, the inside, outside and inside. The final decision was that the audiences will be seated inside the space.
Then the piece was timed to be half an hour, with an alarm clock being the signal for the termination of the piece. The idea of mobile phones that were used in the previous performance was dismissed as the process now is developed differently.
At this point Thomas brought up the question of content, a content that connects people together, a certain kind of common idea that people can relate to, grab on to in a way. To which Hooman replied that the need for an idea to connect would then alter the whole process of "improvised actions" that was taking place. Shawn very kindly mediated this debate, suggesting that its not a conceptual strategy or a concrete concept, its more like a connective practice, action that would ensure or make the individuals involved in the process more attuned in a way.
The suggestion then was that Lillibeth should assume that role or function, the interviewer, who could ask the artists or the audience, and in that connect the different processes and the people involved in it.

Day (9) - K (2)

As I crossed the multitude of bridges from Central Station to the House of World Cultures, it hit me again how this building was part of the German government. And how the entire space is structured in such a way to host the German government with all its main offices and institutions.
Raising in my mind more question about the nature of this inter/trans-cultural process taking place.
Then back to the lab, chronically late as I am, I realized that the space was even more transformed than the day before. Not only that, but also my own corner, the table I used to sit at and write (type) was dismantled as well. Giving me a strange sense of insecurity and displacement.
Throughout the entire lab today the most interesting statement I found was Tania when she said, I haven't collaborated with anyone since 20 years ago, with other concurring and revealing how the dynamics of collaboration is something new or somehow unusual to their process. Especially in such a condensed time frame.
Then again Tania had a very interesting revelation. "I only work within restrictions", she said.
And I found that particular statement fascinating.
Because its something I work with. I know.
But in this space, in the total absence of restrictions, with abundance of resources, and the existence of such varied artistic talents there seems to be some block somehow.
The day unfolded with everyone suggesting a particular proposition for the open house on Saturday, a performance strategy, a process, and those were many and quite diverse.
But not one made it to the finals!
Majority of the ideas suggested was somehow filtered through a rigid process of rejection. And since its a collective decision-making process, one single No-vote was enough to put an entire process on complete halt.
There were many interesting ideas proposed, I am going to mention some, but I invite everyone to discuss his/her own idea/proposal/proposition.
At some point Matthew suggested a process similar to speed dating where the audience can be divided into groups assigned to each artist, they will then talk with each other for a particular period of time (two minutes was the suggested period), then a swap will take place with different groups with a different artist and so on, till every group had a chance to talk with every artist, then each audience member will be given the chance to pick the artist he/she like.
A discussion then developed on how each artist should present his/her work, as a way to "lure" audience.
I thought this was an interesting proposition. But there seemed to be a lot of problematics regarding the organizational aspect of it.
Another suggestion by Eleonora was to rearrange the space once more, to engage with it, and see what kind of possibilities that can come out. But this time for fifty minutes.
And again a series of processes unfolded. With Loan citing a text by Sartre, Eleonora speaking in German and Porteguese simultaneously, Tania playing American commercials on her laptop, Hooman doing back vocals for Eleonora's improvisations and a number of other things.
And I was thinking, the less talking everyone does, and the more actions you do, the better it is! On a collaborative level that is!
But then I had to leave to work on my talk, and I don't know what happened next!
So everyone is again invited to add his/her own proposition, if not for reference, then for inspiration!

Day (8) - K (2)

The first lab get together after Erin and Brian left, and the general feeling was that there needs to be more structure, more form. The task of Erin and Braid was delegated to me and Eleonora. However, I think I don't want to be a catalyzer or facilitator. I would rather just write about the lab then assume this role. I think there is enough artistic expertise and potential without anyone having to assume the role of a catalyzer or facilitator.
I mean there might be a need for technical assistance, but I believe that could and should be provided by the staff of the HKW.
After a short meeting between me and Eleonora, we presented our ideas for the next few days, the we decided to step aside and let the collective decide.
And the first decision was to "erase" the memories of the previous week. To manipulate the space, reinvent it in a new way. And for almost 40 mins, the space was completely altered. New elements introduced (more black cushions, new white cushions, an electric guitar, plastic bags) and old elements displaced (tables dismantled, moved around, cables integrated with cushions, speakers dressed as plastic monsters).
After this 40 mins of creative chaos, the question remained what kind of content could come out of this chaos? This potential?
Does this potential pivot on a particular idea? Or does content have to be somehow introduced?
No satisfying answer was found, so the agreement was to play around some more with the space and the elements introduced and the ones manipulated and see where does this go.

At this point I had to go, what happened later on, is yet to be discovered.

Everyone is invited to share their own version of the story!

Day (7) - K (2) General Rehearsal/Open Lab

The place is now "opened" up. Obstructions removed, and a certain "center-stage" created. Hooman might not perform though. Matthew hurt his ankle in yesterday's show and there is a strong chance Hooman will take his place.
This remains to be seen.
Yet in spite of this little technical mishap, Hooman still managed to give Shawn his two ingenuous tracks of Traditional Persian music.
The run-through was as follows:
Thomas will initiate the process, there was one cycle of vocal improvisation, magnet intervention, pillow routine, interception of Persian music, Samba, noise then Bossa Nova, then mobile alarm and voila!
At some point Brian suggested that I take a mic and assure the present audience that this is not a performance. I had to be "unserious" about it. I couldn't.
Erin took over. And along the process she would be repeating statements about the nature of this process, and if it were a real performance, such and such might have happened, such and such might have been seen.
Everyone was still debating how exact the transitions should be, and the timing of the overlapping processes. I think that "lets do anything", concept behind this process, already created quite a complex process, where the various spatial and temporal elements were heavily dramaturgically manipulated. And the main concepts of each process Erin talked about was somehow brought in this very tight time frame.
I believe that it is enough of an evident (visible?) condition to call it a "collaboration".
In a sense that a collectivity of artists engaged at a certain level, presented their work, cross-examined this work, and finally set out to "do" something in a designated space, in a specific time frame.
Shawn had to go for his own rehearsals, another run-through took place.
Erin came up with the idea of writing a sign, "If this was a performance...." placed on the door outside, so people read it on their way in.
Again the notion of "filming" the process gave rise to debate, with Brian saying this makes it sound or look like a real performance, and everyone agreeing that is "staged" in a way. So it was agreed it will be filmed, starting by filming the signs on the door.
People started coming in and interfering with the "setting" of the place, it was really clearly defined and set, there was a "center-stage".

The process was broken down to:
1) Mobile Phone routine

2) Vocal Improvisation

3) Erin reading and Erin and Brian's magnet routine

4) Musical intervention

5) Thomas pillow-throwing

6) Erin sitting at the very end of the room, where the pillows are

7) Eleonora picking the pillows and placing them on top of Erin

8) Samba!

9) Throwing magnets/one clever sentence routine

10) Bossa Nova

11) Alarm sound off

Ten minutes passed, and I was anticipating the intervention of music. For some obscure reason, I was not "satisfied" with the monotony of one two layers of sound, I wanted more!
However, Eleonora was already adding a few textual twists to the improvisation, these unpredictable, quite subtle twists, were like nice surprises..
The pillow struggle was little too violent though. But then my favorite track was not played!
But it was a success!

Day (6) - K (2) or Workshop Space

Trying to be engaged at multiple levels with the space I ventured a quick peak at the Berlin Biennale, I already had a long conversation with Lillibeth, who already went there, and she told me it was very disappointing and filled with "reenactments"!
This sounded funny enough from the master of reenactments, but I understood what Lillibeth's point when I went there myself.
In the schizophrenic weather of Berlin, I rushed to the HKW, to find that plans were underway to pick a place to "perform". After little debate, it was decided it would be K (2).
In a seconds the space was transformed in a workshop with everyone "setting the stage" in a way.
The idea was, on Sunday, when the lab is opened for public, K (2) would be a "stage" where a certain kind of process will take place.
The process entailed simultaneous vocal improvisation along with moving clothes from Erin's piece. Erin describes it as the "chorus" for the vocal improvisation. Yet we were wondering, how will color translate into Shawn's system. Since Shawn does not deal with color, he deals with image in black or white scale.
However, the moment Erin took out her pieces, accessories and magnets, endless possibilities of interactions ("engagements") with the medium sprang up!
Eleonora constructed a magnet-studded mic, which she called "allergic mic". Thomas followed, and then a vocal warm-up took place.
Shawn's setting up his system took a while, meanwhile, everyone plugged their music in. There was Eleonora's Samba, and Hooman classic Persian music. While Thomas provided background sounds of magnet play.
Then Erin started scattering little rare earth magnets, sphere in shapes, Erin diligently started scattering them, then she started moving them with a metal rod, till all they gathered up, Brian then picked them up and started throwing them at Thomas who tired to catch them with his mic.
Hooman then suggested to choreograph a little routine of throwing cushions and "fornicating" with them.
And before anyone knew it, three actual processes were created. Each with its own rhythm and aesthetic content.
Yet Shawn found it too problematic to integrate Erin's pieces into his system, it would take too much time to start working with color on such a short notice. The decision was then set that Erin's pieces will have to be dismantled, as their existence at this point will only be decorative, which was not their intended function.
The "process" was timed at 30 mins, people would enter the space and set their mobile phones at 30 mins, put them in the center and once the alarm sounds off, the process ends!