The fact that the last time I posted here was in August last year (almost seven months ago) tells you that I have been failing miserably in the art of procrastination. I have been dutifully meeting deadlines, planning and organising events, and a (very little) bit of creating. It’s only now, when I’m struggling with a difficult article on digital mobility (how can this be difficult? my entire life is digitally mobile!) that I am flexing my procrastination muscles again by deciding it’s absolutely essential that I write a blog post.
So what has been keeping me from this procrastination? Here’s a brief summary of what I’ve been up to in those last seven months:
I came back from New Zealand mid-September and a few weeks later went to the Magdalena festival Tradition-Transmission-Transgression in the beautiful village Allyón in northern Spain; this was the first physical Magdalena festival since the beginning of the pandemic so it was quite an emotional reunion for many there, and there was a very strong connection between the town and the festival which was inspiring.
The Mobilise/Demobilise festival in October launched the rebuilt UpStage platform and presented three new cyberformances; there’s a showreel from the festival here. The project continues until February 2023 and so there will be more opportunities to join cyberformances and learn about UpStage.- Eva Ursprung and Sara Larsdotter Hallqvist, partners in Mobilise/Demobilise, and artists-in-residence at the Villa Waldberta, Feldafing, at the invitation of Magdalena München as part of our event series Next Moves. We’re continuing our work on Mobilise/Demobilise, developing a new cyberformance, and holding events in Munich on the theme “next moves”.
In January, Eva, Sara and I presented at the Stuttgarter Filmwinter, then I was a panelist on the Digitalität: die aktuelle Praxis und Zukunftsvisionen panel discussion (the latter in German! A bit nerve-wracking but apparently I was understandable – I am bravely sharing the video recording below, so that you can be the judge of my Deutschesprache ability …). I’ve also given a masterclass at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh (online), where they are starting an MA in digital performance that will offer UpStage as a platform for students to work in, and at the end of February I’m speaking (online) at the Tajrabeh Theater Festival in Tehran.- Meta Theater, near Munich, is hosting virtual residencies and exploring digital and hybrid performance, using UpStage as an online space of experimentation; I’m part of the team providing support and training in using UpStage.
- Magdalena München is preparing to host Zoe Gudović, Bridge Markland and Ruby Tuesday in a weekend festival Performing Gender in March.
And there’s more, but you get the picture: just because I haven’t posted on this blog doesn’t mean I’ve been idle! And I’ve started to clean the balcony and prepare to sow tomato and other seeds for the summer balcony garden – not everything has been at the keyboard.