Saturday 29 March 2008

Noble and Silver- stand up-multi-media-theatre



ok so two completely unconnected people have now mentioned these guys when i have talked about my storytelling photography work and my forthcoming stand up evening class.both coming form fine art backgrounds, kim noble works on the photography, video and performance and stuart silver on text and performance. guardian review describes it as a 'fluid multi-media happening.' they also undertook a residency at the beaconsfield gallery

i am particularly interested in how they work with irony, projections (sometimes arguing with projections of themselves, and also what else) and audiences- unfortunately i can't find any film documentation of their shows to see what i'm missing out on- so need to look at if they have any gigs coming up.

this interests me;(from above link to beaconsfield gallery website)
"
the performance looped around itself, spliced with video images that were seldom quite as they seemed and meticulously timed conversations between Noble and Silver and their recorded selves. "Its about putting something funny next to something that deconstructs itself, next to something quite tragic."

in my nunnery performance, the sense of loss of the over developed image dying, set against the many amusing exchanges of funny stories was a striking contrast which i could push further.i'm also keen on the review on the beaconsfield website which says, 'video images that were seldom quite what they seemed.' How do you make an image not quite what it seemed? How can an image be changed- changing content/context, use of different technology. was it the visuals and/or the sound/words that changed? why did they use this? how did this work with the live action? how does live self work with mediated self and why?
i think the question i should investigate with their work is from the Digital Arts conference post I made earlier today;

"
How does the increasing digitalisation of media affect the experience of seeing?"

laura and i will be exploring live and mediated self alongside writing workshops shortly to support one another. i think noble and silver's work could be a useful contextual reference.

4 comments:

Laura Bean said...

Haha! Have been looking at some of their work on You Tube and can see what you mean about the juxtaposition of imagery, the 'You Are a Mental Patient' was a great example of it!

I suppose any image changes from what 'it seems' once its context is changed. There are loads of things which could achieve this, but thinking in your context I think the story telling is paramount. Your match box wasn't what it seemed because you changed its context, usage, and the story of its history. When this is unexpected humour follows... even when you're not supposed to laugh.

harriet said...

yeah the scarce youtube stuff has good ideas -not sure about the visual qualities (!)- but how this translates into a live experience I don't know.need to see them!

context is great to play with- agree re matchbox being framed as holding a memory rather than its usual functionality- raises its status into something else.

like the cat wreath looking unintentionally absurd at my relatives funeral i told you about- the not quite any of cat/dog/tiger/bagpuss meant as it was put into the hearse we could not but help inappropriately laugh at its ridiculous nature. i hope my relative would have laughed with us!

x

Laura Bean said...

Haha! I'm dam sure they would!

harriet said...

haha..yes...i think inappropriate, subversive behaviour to norm is interesting to me...hey...as i'm subverting the conventions of photography maybe this could be matched alongside telling stories of mine/others subversive to everyday behaviours....breaking conventions, rules and regs...not breaking the law but just inappropriate actions

maybe what i'm tring to COMMUNICATE is SUBVERSION!!!!!!!

[sigh]

x