More notes from LOCO Film Festival – Artists in Comedy, last Sunday.
Humour and art rupturing expectations
Comedy as a rupturing tool
Self-referential
In art situation, throw the comedy spanner in
Why do people have to laugh
Putting stuff into different contexts
Robot telling jokes
What’s funny
How does humour work?
This week I got to hang out a little with Phil Whelans and Thom Tuck and we were talking about the snobbery surrounding comedy. Also, surprisingly, how TT’s group was excluded from something as it was deemed “theatre” and not a “comedy sketch”, or someone else not clcassified as an artists because he was funny.
On a very plus side, I have been accepted to perform at the rather exciting, body based, performance art festival, TEMPTING FAILURE, in Bristol, 6 – 7 th April. It relates to my thoughts on happy and funny artists. See brief notes from my application below, answering application form questions to do with the proposed piece and my relationship to body investigations and phenomenology. THATS’S RIGHT! PHENOMENOLOGY. I haven’t used this word since uni, but I found the idea of artist as practical philosopher quite useful.
Have a look too at the Tempting Failure Manifesto. It’s pretty hardcore and rather amazing:
- Works must either respond to failure or be forced to potentially fail.
- Artists must include evidence of having been rejected, i.e. by another festival, arts fund, platform or even esoterically. (The work proposed may or may not have already been rejected).
- Works should challenge the artist and take them out of their comfort zone.
- Works should challenge audiences.
- Works may engage with extreme practices. ‘Extreme’ is a term open to evolving reinterpretation.
- Sacrifice for the live artist is a vital metaphor. Sacrifice in this sense acknowledges that works must be raw, lived in the moment and never can be repeated in the same way twice. Works are never over-rehearsed or fixed. All aktions are therefore given up/offered/’sacrificed’ in the moment, being lived live & singularly.
- Failure must be seen to be alive.
- Tempting Failure is primarily a body based live art platform. ‘Body’ is a term that should be sought to be constantly reinterpreted by artists in any justifiable manner.
- No single type of work will have preference over another but those artists that engage with work from a phenomenological stand point will have their applications considered in detail in order to enhance this under-represented field of performance.
- Submissions that can evidence acts of censorship towards them will be openly welcomed to apply. Tempting Failure will not censor any act and all forms of body based live art are encouraged to apply.
- All work must seek Truth.
- Failure is not an excuse for poor artistry or workmanship.
- Performance actions that obstruct their own acts are vital.
And here are some notes from my application:
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As a solo performance artist, I have been greatly influenced by Charles Adrian, Philippe Gaulier, Andrew Morrish, Aitor Basauri, Krystian Godlewski, Barry Grantham, and Stacy Makishi.
Chok Notes to Self 