we decompose, we bristle with life

 20/06/2025
The Exchange (Birmingham)

we decompose, we bristle with life was an immersive live art walk-through experience that was sensory, poetic and emotional. It featured a series of task-based actions, texts, audio tracks and a video [see below]. Its main materials were paper and sandstone dust collected from the porch of George Cadbury Hall, the theatre venue in use by the University of Birmingham's Department of Drama and Theatre Arts since 2007.

The experience was created especially for an alumni event organised by the University of Birmingham's College of Arts and Law and the School of English, Drama and Creative Studies. Invited to the event were university alumni who work in the cultural and creative industries, as well as cultural organisations with links to the university. The main part of the event, which included speeches, networking and dinner, took place in the banking hall of The Exchange. 

The opening part of the experience took place in the basement, leading audiences through the spaces around the old bank vault, and into the vault itself. The closing part of the experience took the shape of a short climactic performance in the banking hall to mark the end of the event. The various live components were developed in collaboration with and performed by Sam Bailey, Jenny Escott, Haleemah Farooki, Patrick Kelly, Felix King, and Melissa Zoppini (alumni and students from the University of Birmingham's Department of Drama and Theatre Arts).

Featuring a number of overlapping and clustered metaphors, the experience was designed to evoke sometimes opposite notions, energies, and feelings. Aiming to retain its openness of potential meanings, rather than providing the usual programme note, the work was accompanied by a series of footnotes (see below).

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Photographic documentation by Victoria Beddoes.

Photographic documentation by Victoria Beddoes.

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Tracks edited by Pablo Pakula:

Track 3 (soundtrack to the video below)

Original and adapted texts: