So... I’ve opened an art school
So... I’ve opened an art school, it consists of creative workshops and experiences held on a daily basis in various venues and public spaces.
It’s currently only operating in Sydney, Australia, but I take it with me wherever I go, which is easy enough as at the moment it’s just me facilitating the program;
A poet, philosopher, actor, improviser, game developer, performance artist, festival director, social disruptor, shaman clown, experience jockey… basically a human being exploring the Art/Life border and reporting back on my findings through my creations.
The thing I love about art is that it uses ‘Aesthetics’ to help people feel, it is the antidote to the anaesthetic of toxins, of restrictions, of fear, of punishment.
I believe that if participants can free themselves of the muting and numbing that comes about through social conditioning they’ll be more able to observe what is happening around them and more able to respond; whether that is through creative expression or direct action.
I love free-form art as it acknowledges the moment which the artist and audience share. It is the vivid Now we can occupy if we are not displaced by failures anchored in the past, discomfort of the present or expectations about the future, most of which are brought about by the ‘supposed to’s we are indoctrinated into holding as our values system.
I work to alleviate this burden by putting people into motion through play. I have experienced in myself that when I dance, or sing, or paint in a freestyle state of flow, the wavelengths of the aesthetics feel like they are dislodging the deadened rust which can build up along channels when they lie dormant for too long. Expression too can stretch and snap the tight belt of inhibitions which we restrict ourselves with. Once free, we are so much more able to reach and connect with our environment and each other. So it is my intention to establish safe spaces to create in - to explore one’s creative responses to the human condition.
I run Open World Theatre workshops, which are UNacting sessions, aiming to enable authenticity in performance and out in life too.
People Soup is all about exploring the amorphous nature of identity through characters; created through voice, physical performance, animation and costume.
The costume part is made through the BeauFrank, (Beautiful Frankenstein) maker workshops which encourage people to customise their human avatar through fashion and wearable art.
Superhero School attempts to turn that humanness into post-humanness through proactive evolution; we aspire to extend our senses through practical exercises in the improbable.
Creative Response sessions are aimed at designers and innovators who want to assemble with other inquiring minds to assess current social problems and envision progressive solutions.
PlayChi is a formless art, similar to TaiChi or QiGong. I encourage intuitive movement; observing the natural flow of the body as we play with energy and intention.
Television Is Dead is the part of my brand which geeks out on tech and futurism, I hold a ‘Games Beyond Screens’ MeetUp, which looks at extending the digital realm into the tangible world through analogue interfaces. The maker workshops, when not creating BeauFrank fashion, are directed towards this kind of hackery.
Perhaps my longest running art form is that of writer/performer, so I pass on techniques I’ve developed in my Writer’s sessions for authors, poets, lyricists, playwrights… and Orator’s sessions for lecturers, spoken word artists, MCs, or anyone who delivers words/voice in a live setting.
The Spontaneous Body Freak shoots are weekly film projects in which we create, record and edit art films, primarily focused on movement-based works.
Watermelon Fireworks is the facet of my brand which celebrates the senses through experiential dining events and the weekly sensory bathing and body awareness sessions. Here we learn to become more receptive to the stimulus as the universe plays our bodies like an instrument.
Beyond these ‘housed’ workshops, there are plenty of happenings and social experiments which I undertake in the wilderness of public spaces.
I aim to reactivate them as public playgrounds; spaces where we can engage with one another and build a clearer understanding of what a ‘human race’ is, through first hand experience. Too often our authentic, vulnerable engagement is limited to our domestic setting, with all else we undertake in the ‘big bad world’ being kept safe behind a mask of social habits and expected responses.
The macro-view of our oneness being delegated to the realm of esoteric pondering and poetry. Hopefully by playing games with one another, we’ll be brave and creative and soon realise that it’s not just art, but actual Life we are immersed in. From there you can do what you like with it. I simply aim to give you permission to inspect what you already hold. We are all creators. Many of whom have been deadened by the social ‘normalisation’. It’s time to disrupt the broken systems mid-stream and evolve symbiotic systems of exchange, expansion and learning, which align more harmoniously with our innate sense of balance. It’s time to call the mind freaks, the gentle giants, the art warriors, the spiritual healers, the raucous rebels and the conscious visionaries out to play.
This is fun. This is art. This is Life.
This is intelligent. This is responsible. This is proactive.
This is real. This is Now. This is Love.
We are at play. It’s our world to make!
