ALL TOMORROW'S TOMORROWS was due to be presented at the Forum for Global Challenges on 3rd and 4th May 2022 , at ICI (Birmingham, UK). Though COVID-19 stopped me from performing, you can access the academic poster that accompanied the piece here.
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ALL TOMORROW'S TOMORROWS is a highly interactive performance-installation where everything is built, shaped, destroyed, explained, rebuilt and resolved by human hands, the audience's hands. The piece invites participants to actively imagine worlds, probe at cataclysms, and rehearse futures; giving them agency to the point of being truly collaborative, as each individual to co-authors their own experience and takes the reins of their own narrative(s). Using a ritual logic, the experience follows a simple three-part structure: |
ALL TOMORROW'S TOMORROWS is soundtracked by three loop-tracks with distinct musical and emotional textures, one for each of the different parts that make up the experience. These tracks have been edited by Pablo Pakula using, looping, and overlaying fragments of a number of existing compositions: Wagner's prelude to Das Rheingold, Hanan Townshend's 'Opening Credits', 'Believing no.1 and no.2' and 'The Child' for the film The Book of Vision, Ligeti's Requiem and Lux Aeterna, and finally the Velvet Underground and Nico's 'All Tomorrow's Parties' in an instrumental version by the band and another by Vitamin String Quartet. The tracks, with their repetitive and obsessive nature, operate like a sort of mantra, hoping to induce a reflective state in the audience and opening up a meditative space where they can dwell on the big questions raised by the work. The tracks are an outcome of the ongoing Practice Research project 'Radio Loop', which explores looping techniques as a means to investigate the affective power of repetition. |
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Sandplay therapy is often used with those who have suffered some form of trauma, neglect, grief, or abuse. Although it is usually associated with child psychology, it is also suited for working with adults. One of its key features is that it can bypass the verbal/linguistic plane and go beyond words or conventional reasoning patterns. Therefore, it is especially effective when there are difficulties to express certain emotions or inner conflicts, as well as to access subconscious or dissociated material.
In sandplay therapy, the client/patient chooses from a collection of toys and builds a small world in a sand tray, reflecting what is going on in their lives. The therapist observes their choices and arrangements without interruption, allowing the person to find answers within themselves. After this initial world-building, patient and therapist analyse and discuss the creations and its symbolic or metaphoric meanings. After this, the patient can choose to make changes to the world they have created in the sand. [Find out more about sandplay and its history, as well as access a bibliography from the International Society for Sandplay Therapy.] |