Berlin: Symphony of a Great City

Every so often I have a look through the internet archive and find a treasure I either haven't known about nor seen before. The Internet archive is a fantastic resourse for public domain and out of copyright material, from books, feature films, cartoons, movie trailers and so on.

Last night I found a documentary, Berlin: Symphony of a Great City (1927) directed by Walter Ruttmann and co-written and partly shot (although uncredited) by the great lighting cameraman Karl Freund. What's fascinating about this film is that it shows a lost world, the height of the Weimar Republic, after the hyperinflation of 1923 and before the Nazis gained power in 1933. This is the era of George Grosz, the Bauhaus, expressionism and cabaret.




Karl Freund was the cinematographer for the German Expressionist films the Golem (1920), Murnau's The Last Laugh (1924) and Metropolis (1927). He then emigrated to the United States in 1929 where he was director of photography for Dracula (1931) The Good Earth (1937) and Key Largo (1948). He photographed over a 100 films and switched to directing for a short time.

But what films! - directing the Mummy (1931), a subtle film of the occult with Boris Karloff, Mad Love (1935) with Peter Lorre - an extraordinary film. He was an important link beween German Expressionism, the Universal Horror film and film noir.

Sounding the site - a modern odyssey iv

Welcome to Sounding the Site, an event devised by the Centre for Continuing Education, and created by members of the university in partnership with local artists and performers, including children from Carlton Hill Primary School in Brighton.

The unusual sights and sounds on campus today are based on the Odyssey, the epic tale recounting the adventures of Odysseus as he island-hops his way home to Ithaca after the Trojan War. This takes him years to accomplish. On the way, he loses his men and his ships, and more than once comes close to losing his life.

Sounding the Site can be experienced in full on the ‘Island Tours’ or in part by visiting individual ‘Islands’, some of which will be accessible throughout the day.We hope many of you will also enjoy novel experiences today as you pass the Islands or the Tours pass you on your way about campus.

The initial impulse for the project was to use parts of the University that are not normally used for arts events, or not used in this way. Corridors, bridges and walkways are reinvented both as resonating spaces and as backdrops to movement and image: site and sight participate in sound.


Each Island is the creation of a different group, and each presents the audience with an experience (lasting around five minutes) in which word, image and music/sound are creatively combined. The whole journey will take just over one hour to complete, and is accompanied by the chorus of children, providing a narrative thread to link the Islands together.

The narrative theme allows the audience to experience the programme as more than a string of installations, and as a kind of journey in itself. The hope is that the event will not only make sense as an artistic whole, but will also link together some of the ‘islands’ within our local communities, and make a stronger connection between the University and its neighbours in Brighton and beyond.

Julian Broughton March 2009



Welcome!

Begin your Island Tour outside the Gardner Centre at 10.30am 1pm , or 2.30pm (tours last a little over one hour) or see the Tour Guide overleaf for information about each of the Islands and when they can be visited.

Island Tour Guide

Labyrinth, devised by River Jones and Luska Mengham, designed with help from Adam Verden, and created by Alex Hart (estates design contractor) and his team, the grass labyrinth can be found on the meadow area at the front of campus, to the right when heading out of the subway towards campus. Children form Carlton Hill Primary School will sing a sea shanty (their own lyrics) as they lead visitors to the next island.
Labyrinth can be viewed and walked throughout the day.

Beach-Cave-Raft can be found in the moat and under the arches outside the Union Shop in Falmer House. This Island reflects Odysseus' sojourn in the cave of the goddess Calypso, and combines a sound piece by Roger Harmar with a sculpture of a raft/still life by Terry Howe.
Beach-Cave-Raft can be seen throughout the day, and heard at the following times: 10.45-11am, 12 -12.15pm, 1.15-1.30pm, 2.45-3pm, 3.45 - 4pm.

Sirens can be found in InQbate’s ‘Creativity Zone’ (Pevensey 3C7, entry via front of Pevensey 2). This multi-layered installation conceived by Anna Dumitriu and Tom Hamilton will feature live song by Kassia Zermon, video projections and performance by Petrusco, to give voice to a contemporary ‘siren’ – technology . With creative involvement of the faculty of the Department of Informatics.
Sirens can be experienced throughout the day with occasional live vocal performances.

Heading Down can be found in Essex House, in the corridor next to the ‘SI Café’. Three poems by Abi Curtis reflect magic and mishap on Circe’s island, and evoke the gateway to the Underworld. Julian Broughton’s music for solo viola frames and punctuates the poems, with a visual element specially created by artist Christopher McHugh.
Though the visual element will be in place throughout the day, performances can be experienced only as part of the Tours.

Bag of Winds A soundscape composed by Ric Graebner represents the story of Aeolus and the bag of winds, rashly opened by Odysseus’s men. All will be revealed in the tunnel under Arts Road, on the footpath heading for Bramber House.
Bag of Winds can be seen throughout the day, and heard at the following times: 10.25-10.40am, 11.25 -11.40am, 12.25 -12.40pm, 1.55 -2.10pm, 3.25- 3.40pm

Destination Point is concerned with journeys, and can be found in the grass area in front of Fulton Court, next to Arts A. Once you enter this structure, you will be offered a number of ‘channels’ to follow. But there is no direct route to anywhere, and no actual point of destination… Adam Verden is responsible for concept and design, Micheal McLinn, Alex Hart and others have helped to realize it, with additional work on the soundscape by Roger Harmar.
Destination Point can be seen and entered throughout the day, and heard at the following times: 10.40-10.55am, 11.40-11.55am, 12.40 -12.55pm, 2.20- 2.45pm, and 3.50- 4.05pm

Free entry (some of the events of the day will be filmed and put somewhere on the net tba)

Sounding the site iii

The poster for Sounding the site event on April 24 at the University of Sussex has just been released (above).

The event is free and you can go on a guided tour or visit some of the artwork during the day. Julian Broughton, one of the contributors and organisers, has written a programme for the event.

Sounding the Site

Friday 24th April 2009

Programme

Welcome! You are invited to visit six campus ‘islands’ in this modern odyssey. Follow the chorus of children, and start your tour outside the Gardner Centre at 10.30, 13.00, or 14.30.

If each tour runs to time, then approximate end-times are 11.50, 14.20, and 15.50. On average, it should take roughly 5 minutes to get from one island to the next, and roughly 8 minutes to experience each Island.

Island Travel Guide

Tours begin outside the Gardner Centre.

Labyrinth is the first of the Islands. Devised by River Jones and Luska Mengham, this will be found on the lawn at the front of campus, to the right when heading out of the subway towards campus. A large labyrinth has been mown in an area of long grass. The school group will sing a sea shanty before leading visitors to the next island.

Beach-Cave can be found in the moat and under the arches outside the Union Shop in Falmer House. This Island reflects Odysseus' sojourn in the cave of the goddess Calypso, and combines a sound piece by Roger Harmar with a sculpture of a raft/still life by Terry Howe.

Sirens can be found in InQbate’s ‘Creativity Zone’, in Pevensey 3, C7.

Heading Down can be found in Essex House, in the corridor next to the ‘SI Café’. Three poems by Abi Curtis reflect magic and mishap on Circe’s island, and evoke the gateway to the Underworld. Julian Broughton’s music for solo viola frames and punctuates the poems, with a visual element specially created by painter Christopher McHugh.

Bag of Winds A soundscape composed by Ric Graebner represents the story of Aeolus and the bag of winds, rashly opened by Odysseus’s men. All will be revealed in the tunnel under Arts Road, on the footpath heading for Bramber House.

Destination Point is concerned with journeys, and can be found in the grass area in front of Fulton Court, next to Arts A. Once you enter this structure, you will be offered a number of ‘channels’ to follow. But there is no direct route to anywhere, and no actual point of destination. . . For as long as you continue to seek, music by Michael Mclinn will continue to sound. Adam Verden is responsible for concept and design, and Alex Hart and Kevin Costello have helped to realize it.

Julian Broughton

Hope to see you there.

New review in Songlines magazine

We've just had a a new review published in Songlines Magazine. Thanks to Jill Turner for writing such a nice review of our CD Ninalik Ndawi

Lani Singers Ninalik Ndawi
Dancing Turtle Records DTR 013
Full Price

**** four stars

Stone-age songs of defiant resistance

Ninalik Ndawi is a collection of 15 original compositions, mainly in a string band style, but punctuated by three outstanding and haunting plain vocal harmonies, 'Waiyaowa', 'Umaiyek Dearowod' and 'Yieowi': These are sacred songs of nature, steeped in highland traditions and referred to affectionately by the band as their 'stone age' songs. They're evocative of a time before European colonialism and the current Indonesian occupation, when little had changed for the people of West Papua.

Benny and Maria Wenda - the Lani Singers - have been granted political asylum in England and are part of the West Papuan government in exile and run the Free West Papua campaign. Bonny, orphaned in an Indonesian bombing raid, became an influential leader of his people. Resisting the occupation, he survived two assassination attempts and escaped imprisonment on treason charges, for carrying the Bintang Kajora. The flag, a symbol of hope for a free West Papua is used as a striking backdrop on their album cover. Freedom fighters helped reunite Benny and Maria in 2003, in the refugee camps of Papua New Guinea, where Maria, also facing death threats, had fled with their new born baby. Maria composed all the songs here and 'Elenginro; written during Benny's imprisonment, is characteristic of the passionate raw roots music that ignites the spirits of resistance, hope and determination. Maria's gentle guitar strumming creates a rhythm over which she delivers her vocals, sometimes gently, sometimes with a sense of urgency as in 'Wologwe; singing her heart out whilst Bonny contributes vocal harmonies and picks out a melody on the ukulele.

In a climate of fear, uncertainty and repression, it is a testament to human resilience that their music is not only full of catchy melodies that beg us to sing along but also retains such an air of reassurance. Featuring fascinating documentary liner notes, this album is helping to build a cultural legacy and encourage the struggle for freedom in West Papua.

Jill Turner

the Lani Singers
Songlines Magazine

bought a fridge, got a monolith

Normally I wouldn't blog about domestic events like buying a fridge but our new fridge looks so much like the monolith in 2001: a space odyessy I couldn't resist making a short film about it.

One of the most vivid memories from my childhood is seeing 2001 and having one of those 'what was that' moments. I now think that the best explanation for its meaning is that it's all about having lunch. There are so many scenes in the film of people having lunch that the only character who doesn't is HAL who subsequently goes nuts. The moral of this story is, of course, to always eat your greens and it's also appropriate that my fridge is all about having lunch too.


Having lunch at the Dawn of Man


Dave Bowman having lunch


No lunch for HAL


2001: a space odyssey IMDB
Amazon.co.uk

with apologies to Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C Clarke and Gyorgy Ligeti

This Island Earth

One of my favourite science fiction films is a b-movie called This Island Earth made in 1955. What’s not to like? It’s filmed in 3-strip Technicolor, has a mail order catalogue made out of metallic paper from which you can order an IKEA, oops, Electronics Service, Unit no.16 home-assembly interociter, a large video phone device that shoots neutrino rays, a robotic Douglas DC3, aliens from the planet Metaluna with high foreheads and white hair (no-one seems to spot that, hey! they could be aliens), flying saucers, insectoid mut-ants, an interplanetary war that ends in nuclear armageddon and for film buffs, a lead actor called Rex Reason and love interest Faith Domergue who was Howard Hughes’ girlfriend.

I tried showing this to my kids over the last half-term break, they replied “God Dad! The effects are a bit rubbish”









This Island Earth IMDB
Amazon.co.uk

Sounding the site ii

Well we are only a few weeks away from the Sounding the site event at the University of Sussex and things are moving apace. The project is based upon incidents in Homer's Poem, the Odyssey, and I am collaborating on an island with sculptor Terry Howe as part of the project. (See previous post for a summary)

Terry's island will consist of a raft on a beach with Odysseus asleep under a pile of leaves with my island cave about 5 metres away. Terry has taken a photo of the spot on a typical winter's day here in darkest Sussex (below). I will be providing music/sound for the cave and for Terry's beach and raft. I will post a more general overview of the project, once more becomes clear and the site and music are developed.

Photo: Terry Howe

The View from the cave, the beach is on the left and the moat will be full of water, we hope :-)