Date: Thursday 3 July, 7pm-1am
Venue: Rainbow Warehouse, Adderley Street, Digbeth, Birmingham, B9 4EE
Price: £4 on the door
“I said hello to the spirit of old 1956,
Lying patient in the bushes next to ’57”
- from ‘Roadrunner (Once)’ by Jonathan Richman
On one balmy summer evening under Digbeth arches, 7 Inch Cinema and associates will greet the spirit of Fluxus in a similarly jaunty fashion. Flummoxed includes silent raving, the first ever performance of a composition based on the number 11 bus route, limited edition flickbooks, bespoke film/music presentations by Film Ficciones and Nicholas Bullen and a three-turntable improvisation by audio-collagist Ergo Phizmiz using assorted vinyl and no headphones. (Bring your own junkshop records, and/or your own rave soundtrack.)
Presented as part of VIVID's Flux-Fest season.
Here’s a bit more detail on the various bits that make up Flummoxed...
The 144th Ensemble are a woodwind quartet, convened for the occasion to perform two pieces. The first is a musical raffle, with the score dictated by numbers drawn from a hat. The second, composed by Edward Lawes, is based on Birmingham’s number 11 outer circle bus route.
Ergo Phizmiz is a performer and audio-collagist. He will be presenting: "A three turntable improvisation using junkshop easy-listening and classical vinyl, with no headphones or any form of pre-monitoring. A form of DJing something like balancing plates on sticks. The audience are invited to bring along junkshop classics for inclusion in the mix."
Within the warehouse is a square white room where you can find Fluxium. This is a space given over to various manifestations of Fluxus, including film, ephemera and performance. There will be realisations of a number of scores from the Fluxus Workbook as well as commissioned pieces by the performers, who include Helena Gough, John Richards, Sharon Baker and Fluxium’s curator, Nicholas Bullen.
A late addition to the programme, performance artist Svetlana Lassatkova will be performing a durational piece specially conceived for Flummoxed in which she acts as a conduit for Cosmic Radiation.
In the main space a selection of works by Berlin-based artist Oliver Laric will be screened, including: (>'.')>=O____l_*__O=<('.'<) (emoticon animation); 50 50 (Fifty youtube covers of 50 Cent, spliced together); and Webchat with Andy (in which Laric converses with Andy Warhol on Skype via an Australian psychic).
Kisum musiK organise spontaneous interventions in and around Birmingham. They will be raving in silence. If you wish to join them, please bring your own portable music player and headphones.
Outside, under the arches of the disused Great Western viaduct, animator Trevor Woolery will be distributing limited edition flipbooks and pens. Those attending can make their own short animation and then see it projected. (Did you know that the flipbook was first patented in Birmingham, in 1868? More on the city's role in flipbook history can be found here.) Also under the arches Mr Ben will be playing a selection of records, one after the other.
And finally, Scott Johnston (Film Ficciones) and Matthew Eaton (Micronormous) will be performing American composer Jacob Isaacson’s final ‘Colortone Experiment’ . The piece, called Lucent Harmonic Color, fuses Isaacson’s experiments in sound (inspired by his own synaesthesia) with the cut-up cinema of Burroughs and Balch.
