01 September 2012

Life and Times, Episode 2

The jury saw Life and Times, Episode 2 this past Thursday, a musical extravaganza created by Nature Theater of Oklahoma. The show directly excerpts text from a 36 hour phone conversation between the directors of the company, Pavol Liska and Kelly Cooper, and a female friend (one of the members of the company, we were later told) who told them her life story. Episode 2 is part of a larger series, set to music and dance, focusing on her memories of grades 3 to 9, a time period this all-girl jury has just, and is still, experiencing...

first though, the Duisberg girls had to climb the cute yellow bird.


they waited in anticipation for the promised Justin Bieber appearance


there he is! or is he.... ?


red carpet arrival at the PACT Zollverein, Essen




waiting for the show to begin




twins




two hours of song and dance later...








we had a post show talk with company directors Pavol Liska and Kelly Cooper



we (and the directors) were curious to see how the jury could relate to the show... is an adult perspective on youth understood by youth? did the youth feel they could relate to what the caller said? It could have been a language issue (the show was presented in English, with German subtitles), the references to growing up in the 80's that they couldn't relate to, or just the different perspective on growing up (being in it instead of looking back on it)... but interestingly, the jury didn't seem to feel that connected to the commentary on growing up as much as some of the adults did.



Pavol and Kelly 

31 August 2012

30 August 2012

Pulse Park

After a quick peak on Sunday night, we went back to the Jahrhunderthalle on Tuesday with the jury to check out Pulse Park, the interactive light installation by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer. We had our pulses played into the sky, danced to the lights, napped on the grass and even met the Biebs?! 




hearing how it works







nap-time



the local project coordinator for Pulse Park explained the project to the jury afterwards





they evaluated the work




met Mammalian's "Biebs"


got some autographs


and of course, went for another twirl on Our Century.  

29 August 2012

Denseland

On Monday night we saw Denseland, a sound art/improvisation trio from Berlin consisting of singer/percussion player David Moss, bassist Hannes Strobl and drummer Hanno Leichtmann. We started off the musical evening with some singing in the car from Duisberg...


Brian singing Adele again


Maurice using his portable speaker/microphone


Damla arriving at the Maschinenhaus in Essen


the Duisberg crew



we had some time to kill before the show and hung out in the grassy field






favourite pics of the interns, Meike (above) and Judith (below)




venue


the roten teppich walk



artist Q & A after with David Moss



some notes from the performance


I have a feeling this show will win some unusual awards...