Extraordinary Sounds from Ordinary Things

A workshop and performance for you, created by you.

Saturday 13 July 2013

11.30am to 4pm at Usurp Art Gallery

Public performance at 3pm

Usurp is taking part in the Our Big Gig Festival this year with a free workshop and a special performance event on 13th July 2013.

Be part of a specially devised workshop to make a collective, playful soundscape for recording and performance using everyday objects and toys. No previous experience required. Together we will develop an improvisational musical language and soundscape based on the sounds that you create.

We will make a recording that will be used as a backing track for a live performance where you are the artist improvisers. Your final performance will be open to the public at 3pm so you can invite all your friends and family. You just need to bring objects and /or toys that you can use to make a sound with. They may be squeaky, wind up or just make sounds if you clatter them about.

Your artist facilitators for the day will be Poulomi Desai and Simon Underwood who perform under the name of “The Conspirators of Pleasure” http://www.poulomidesai.tumblr.com

N.B. Please don’t bring anything that needs mains electricity or anything sharp – safety first! We will be documenting the workshop and performance.
“What is music for? What meaning does music carry? What’s the role of the ego in it?” he says. “I realised most of the popular culture around me, particularly music, seemed to be obsessed with personal narrative, self-expression, self-catharsis, and social commentary. Surely there must be more to it; there must be more to be discussed than these songs that start with the word ‘I’. I never dreamed when I started modifying the toys that the answer I was looking for would be in them.” Brian Duffy – Modified Toy Orchestra. Quote from The Guardian interview “Play That Funky Barbie Doll”