Thingamajigs Performance Group presents
w i n d o w
A 13 HOUR MULTI-DISCIPLINARY PERFORMANCE
INSIDE THE EXPLORATORIUM’S KANBAR FORUM
STAY TUNED FOR AN UPCOMING LIVE STREAM
Thingamajigs Performance Group along with special guests are taking over the Kanbar Forum in San Francisco’s Exploratorium for a special collaborative recording of a day long durational work. W i n d o w is the sixth in a multi-year work created in a collaborative effort by Thingamajigs Performance Group and poet Stephen Ratcliffe. This marathon 13-hour work stems from 1,000 poems written in 1,000 consecutive days and combines spoken word, projected images, movable objects and live sound to create various levels of multimedia textures.
Thingamajigs will install w i n d o w and transform a space into what we are calling a "living exhibit". The "living" refers to the performance aspect: Stephen Ratcliffe at his desk, who will be reading each of his 1,000 poems, and the Thingamajigs Performance Group, whose members will be moving within the space and creating a sonic score. The "exhibit" refers to the images (whether visual or other) that are produced from these actions, and the extended duration of time it takes for all these actions to unfold.
W i n d o w narrates the process by which what we observe, and what we make of such observations, enter a relationship by way of language and sound. It is the relation between things seen/observed in the world and how such things might be made (transcribed/transformed).
Thingamajigs Performance Group is interested in testing the perceptions and labels of musical ‘composition’ and ‘performance’. We are interested in spending years developing and creating work in a collaborative manner, and we are interested in pushing the limits of what we think of as human nature. Our extended works are the outcome of these investigations, and the public event/exchange is our motivation to reach these lengths.
Musicians and Performers:
Stephen Ratcliffe: poet, speaker
Wayne Grim: Double Bass, electronics
Edward Schocker: glass, Hichiriki, Sho
Dylan Bolles: Bamboo instruments
Keith Evans: Live projections
Kevin Corcoran: percussion
Rae Diamond: voice
Adria Otte: Viola, electronics
Cheryl Leonard: made and found objects
Jubilith Moore: Noh performer (movement and voice)
Paige Sorvillo: movement artist
ABOUT STEPHEN RATCLIFFE
Stephen Ratcliffe is a poet, who was born in Boston and grew up in the Bay Area of California. He briefly attended Reed College and went on to earn his BA and PhD from the University of California-Berkeley. He lives in Bolinas, CA and is the publisher of Avenue B Press. He was the director of the Creative Writing program at Mills College in Oakland, CA where he has been an instructor for more than 25 years, and continues to teach Creative Writing (poetry) and Literature (poetry, Shakespeare) courses there.