WEEK 1:
So there’s a lot in the story so far. Will be working with different artists, specifics
LET’S TRY & DO A BIBLIOGRAPHY:
ALBUMS & SONGS:
- The Wall – Pink Floyd
- Diamond Dogs – David
- Ziggy Stardust & The Spiders From Mars
- 1. Outside
- Strawberry Lipstick – Yungblud
- Teil dieser Band – Kraftklub
MUSIC DOCUMENTARIES:
- Cracked Actor
- Mirror Noir
- Depeche Mode – Devotional
- In Bed With Madonna
- Warp Chic
FICTION FILMS:
- PEOPLE:
EXPERIMENTAL FILMS
OTHER SHORT DOCS & YOUTUBE VIDEOS:
BOOKS:
- Nineteen Eighty-Four
- Brave New World
- Fahrenheit 451
COLLABORATORS:
- Niamh (and maybe Emma)
- My Band
- Maybe Owen
- Maybe Aisha (one session)
- Maybe have a talk with Rio
TUTORIAL WITH MIRANDA
I want to change, and I don’t wanna change.
I wanted to spew out all my anxieties, frustrations, angers and fears, cause something happened on Sunday night, that made me angry, sad and hopeless.
I’m going to perform it here on audio, and it’s gonna be brutal.
CONSIDER MYSELF BLACKLISTED
When people shout at me, I shout at myself back in bile and vile, and in the end before I lash out in real life, I lash out in my art, in the worlds I create, in my characters – even though I also hate all that sometimes.
Inspired be everyone who was nasty to me, shouted at me, rejected me, all the insecurities, and the shouters in this music video of Yungblud:
This vile, venomous insecurity, they shout at Kelsey, they are Kelsey. I’m Kelsey. The shouting and anger leads to crying
INTERVIEWING NIAMH
Had her playing the ukelele, that’s very much her instrument.
Turn that into one of the songs
WHAT IF KELSEY ISN’T SUCH A NICE PERSON (ALWAYS):
- It cut off, but yeah if people keep pushing you and are mean to you, and the pressure goes, ask her on that again
THE BAND:
My Iron Lung, practising that. Yeah I had an idea for the song to feature in the performance, explain that more.
OH YEAH, THERE’S A THEME
Everyday. Here we are again. Gone full circle. I remember that theme, we had three artists, it was so tangible.
How does the Everyday relate to this project? Well, it kinda doesn’t. Wish it was Time instead, or Future. Or Torment.
But yeah, I mean, I’ve been looking and want to look at documentaries on musicians (real shame about the Review being gone, gonna miss that! I was really gonna stick into those this year), that looks at their everyday in one way, but actually not really always, can be more abstract.
In the semester where Nature was the theme
CLASSES
Try and see everything through the Eyes of Kelsey? Will be interesting. Play the character of Kelsey? Come to the class as Kelsey. Make it more aware. Or one as Effy, and the other as The Boy, if I’m allowed to play all three characters?
BOWIE ON BOWIE:
pp.40-41:
WHEN ARTISTS EXPECT THINGS OF THEIR FANS:
Early Kelsey was this figure of hope that the fans just blindly follow, the Hitler that Bowie said the West would create.
But vice versa, the artist makes the audience better./? But also putting pressure on them. Standing like some sort of dictator. God this is cynical. There is a critique these days of celebrities speaking out. But in the end you can’t win.
*Insert screenshot of Bring Me The Horizon Article”
The idea of writing a scenography. Writing a scenography? Not what I wanted to say/write.
“Would you say that the song has taken on a new meaning since you wrote it?
“I don’t want to focus too much on what the song is about, because it feels so insignificant now. It’s not something that I’ve really been thinking about. Basically, Forest is the protagonist and a lot of people are counting on him to be able to recall these memories and process them. The spectrum of his emotions is impacting on all of these different experiments. I wanted it to have a message for what’s going on in the world right now.“A lot of people are refusing to accept what’s happening, because they’ll have to take action and make some physical changes to their lives.”
“It’s a mirror to how we don’t want to face up to things. A lot of people are refusing to accept what’s happening, because they know that in accepting it, they’ll have to take action and make some physical changes to their lives. It’s about something bigger than my emotions and my breakup, this is about what’s happening on the planet right now.”
Do you feel that change is really possible for wider society?
“We’ve done so much over the last five years in terms of equality, but the amount of discrimination and dogmatism that’s still going on has involved a lot of looking at our past. Now we’ve got to start looking at the future and how we can change it. It’s just the way you think and what you say. It takes action. My biggest fear is that no one will get on board with that. To accept that there’s a problem, you have to do something about it. At the same time, the younger generation are showing that they do care. It’s incredible to see the amount of young people demanding something better. My generation and older generations seem to find that annoying.”
“It’s incredible to see the amount of young people demanding something better”
Are you encouraged by the amount of young people taking part in Extinction Rebellion?
“Yeah, I find it incredible because for so long they were underrated and underestimated. People just saw them as kids on their phones. Now they’re proving who they really are. It’s made me really look inside myself. I’ve been a vegan and a vegetarian for 15 years and I’ve always just quietly kept and values and my beliefs to myself. I didn’t want to preach or be outspoken about all these things. I felt like it was pointless because no one really cared and people only thought about how things would impact their lives directly.”
Whereas you feel now is the time to be vocal about these things?
“To be honest, it’s blown my mind to see this. It’s so exciting because I’ve been waiting for this. Equality for people is great and we should never stop fighting for that, but I’ve always thought, ‘What about the actual planet? Where’s the justice there?’ Now that we’re actually talking about it, my mind is just racing every day. How can I help? What can I do? How can we all make a difference? I’ve been to quiet about it, and it’s become a responsibility.”
Do you feel more responsible as a touring musician?
“Especially because I’m in a band. We tour the world and my carbon footprint is massive. I feel like it’s my responsibility to do something – not just to offset it but to help make a difference.
“Equality for people is great and we should never stop fighting for that, but I’ve always thought, ‘What about the actual planet? Where’s the justice there?’”
Did you see that letter that Thom Yorke and loads of musicians signed last week, admitting to being “hypocrites” but calling for an end to that being used as an argument in the fight against climate change?
“Yes, exactly. People have got to stop trying to poke holes in that argument. No one is saying that the world needs to turn into a miserable place. No one is saying you should give up your art and the things that you love. Bands aren’t going to stop touring. Art is the last thing that’s left to live for and that doesn’t have to stop.”
So you’d call on more artists to use their platform for good?
“We can get rid of all the plastic bags and plastic straws in the world – and we need to – but nothing is going to get better until we can make the people at the top see that there are changes to be made. The changes that can be done but aren’t being done are purely down to greed, ignorance and an absolute lack of care. Artists can be the most powerful people in the world because they can use their voice for good. Politicians should be the most powerful people in the world but they aren’t going to do anything. That’s scary, because our lives depend on these politicians, these summits that they have and whoever the next US President is going to be. If there aren’t people fighting the good fight then we’re fucked anyway. Stop trying to poke holes in hypocrisy and make some changes yourself.”
“Artists can be the most powerful people in the world because they can use their voice for good. Politicians should be the most powerful people in the world but they aren’t going to do anything”
So it’s about education, rather than preaching to people?
“I’m not telling people to stop eating meat, but just look at where it comes from. No one is asking you to move mountains at first, it starts with simple shit and having a little bit of respect at first. I’m looking at the world and I’m like, ‘Do I want to bring kids into this world?’ I overhear parents who have just brought kids into this world – ridiculing people for caring. They’re not connecting the dots, that in 20 years time their kids will be living in this hellhole if we don’t do something about it. How are you going to look your kid in the eye and say, ‘Oh I thought it was all a bit stupid back then. I regret not doing something’. I find it all so incredibly ugly. It’s unreal.”
It’s ironic that complacency can be such a destructive thing…
“Our obsession with comfort and ease is the problem. Think of how much we could change from just stopping that. Stop making plastic bags. Stop allowing coffee shops from having paper cups. It’s so simple. Once this gets into your head it becomes like a phobia you can’t ignore.”
- Some would say we shouldn’t be punishing ourselves for the simple things though. It’s the rich like you we need to punish and hunt down – sorry i mean make sure they do their bit to cut down emissions.
“I was talking about Brexit and stuff and I just said, ‘Why do you care? You’re going to be dead before anything changes’”
Do you think that real change will become more likely when a new generation takes over?
“Yeah, it sounds kind of harsh but I was saying that to my dad the other day. We were sat around talking about Brexit and stuff with such passion, and I just said, ‘Why do you care? You’re going to be dead before anything changes’. When has any change within the government ever led to the betterment of the people? It never has. So I was like ‘A – why do you care?’ and ‘B – why do you think it’s going to do anything for you in any significant way?’”
So you’re not a fan of politicians?
“It’s all smoke and mirrors. It’s all just crap. It’s not important. I just find it mad that these people could just turn around and start doing something for the world and they’d be fucking heroes. Instead they just talk about crap. We’re all just suckers for it as well because it just goes round in circles. It doesn’t mean anything, while all of these terrible things are happening behind the scenes – but no one is talking about it. We have to be the change.”
THE CHAPTERS:
ANXIETY AUDIO
Have the actual recordings
Then have them whispered by other performers or the same people?
- My Consider Myself Blacklisted
- Jack’s
ANXIETY LEADING TO ANGER, TO FEAR TO MENTAL HEALTH:
Consider Myself Blacklisted, turn that into full Vile and anger, and then the sadness, where does that abuse come from, passed through generations? This is going more and more away from Kelsey in a way, but she/they are a manifestation of me???
MY IRON LUNG:
The moment that Kelsey feels like they have something that the public wants, but it really overwhelms them. Because they feel they’re selling themselves out artistically? Or the manager using them as a song making machine.
It’s when they sign a record label deal? Their
WHO CONTROLS THE ACT?:
Groundhog Day, wrote a sort of script already. I actually feel it’s a cool beginning, a nice icebreaker, not too dark.
THE ARTIST’S MIND
Is maybe a twin/cousin of Anxiety Audio piece.
Side shot of Kelsey, project all the music going into her mind. Like a stream of consciousness.
And then all my notes, it reflects and connects with how I feel all so overwhelmed with all these ideas.
Little audio snippets go
THE MOUTH/THE ARTIST AS HITLER, CONTROLLING THE CROWD, PHYSICAL SCENE:
1. THE MOUTH LIKE THE NOT I SPEECH
2. THE CROWD, THE PERFORMERS, THE FOLLOWERS
If we could just film that with a bunch of performers in one go, in 3 or 4 hours. Have my band there too? (who? Would love to have Kuba and Martyna there, yeah the performers, could even be part of our showcase. Just get it all done in one session and havefilmed)
HAVE ALL THIS EDITED TOGETHER TO CREATE A MAD FRANTIC VIDEO (Listen to Radiohead’s Jigsaw Falling Into Place) YEAH I THINK THAT COULD A REALLY SICK VIDEO, BUT ALL THREE SHOULD ALSO EXITS
NIAMH’S UKULELE SONG:
COLLANORIZE ME???!!
The soundtrack done by Owen, inspired by Experiment On Me. Some crazy lighting design would be cool. But it’s like one of those scenes where Sweeney Todd offs one of his victims.
A SPACE TO CREATE EFFY:
Be honest and say my original idea was very cliched and maybe even transphobic. Want to create a character playing around with gender and have them walk in.
- INTERREFLECTION?????!!!!
WHERE THE FUCK IS THE HAPPINESS AND REBELLIOUSNESS ABOUT DOING ROCK ‘N ROLL RICHARD?????!!! WELL IN THE MOONAGE DAYDREAM BIT IT SHOULD BE THERE.