The Return of Neptun

..the heat is rising, rising slowly..
..productionwise, weatherwise, premierwise.. ..all soaring towards a KNMP-brand guaranteed social hangover after tonight's farewell -- and its probable extensions at the Kamenice beach..
.. yes, tonight's the night, there's the big production show of KNMP at the town reading hall.. and the "Percussionists of the Sqare Table" are premiering their 22-minute threefold composition Stipe-Tomamimi-Ljubica. Must admit to be proud of the progress we have made as a group in the 7 days, and really happy about the positive feedback from Claire, Ivan, Dina and David. And their massive drumming dedication, despite of which all managed to do their individual projects as well. This definitely was new media, even if in a wider sense -- newly found good-old Komižan materials we percuss with, new perspectives on sound, rhythm, composition, performance, and above all -- group dynamics. Halfway we decided not to apply David's intended Kinect Processing motion capturing setup, in order to visualize the hands-only communication, which relaxed us into using the entire space of the room. Let me quote my solo immediately onto the keyboard:"kjhdfjklsadkjkjhdsjklsgfdjkvdmnvkjčsOUIWekjfioeulkhdfm_.bndvčieuodFGLJKFDL__OUIewouizEKJGD__RJKHS". Thus we remain analog, and holistic. //And have made a provisional CD-cover photo, you never know..// At the morning's rehearsal some worried Komižans came in, looking at our banging around in their (sacred?) reading room -- and just after we locked the room, police came by, looking carefully through the windows.. we'll definitely need to be careful about that thin line tonight. We'll be opening the event at 19h, clapping on our bodies in the middle of the riva to do the performARTketing for the show inside the reading room, then we go in and do our bangy thing..

..a propos performARTketing, I half-decided already to embellish my this year's "mentor's" work "The Return of Neptun", which is a video-loop installation //version without English subtitles//, with a little performance to bring a couple of more victims into the show space, where other films and videos will be showing, plus an animation and a sound installation. I'll put an empty (Eva) sardine can onto the fishing line, "fish" with the local kids, and keep carefully bringing seawater across the riva stream of people into the hall, gradually filling up 2 carafes placed next to the screen where my "Return.." video will be looping (sorry, no subtitling the Croatian interview bits in it today, tooooo hot - even my laptop seems to agree, it just switched on the highest fan speed.. ). This way also to keep the line with last year's "Catharsis of Neptun" that served (admittedly cleaner, it was from the Neptun beach) seawater to the passers by..

++ quite happy that both of the projects where I was involved via "mini-mentorships" look promising: Ika and Eni will supposedly get their animation done, even if the underwater footage we tested for will not be used; and Dina and Džildo will surely get a very nice audio installation over (nature vs. urban sounds of Komiža..), it took days and nights to record all the subtle stuff, so )'m very much hearing forward to that piece..

..well and glad to report that in between all the busy times, mentors even managed to get together for some concrete networking to secure the midterm future of Komižitis (very infectious thing, usually spreads within workshops and in other collaborations..) as it seems Komiža will be seeing 2 or even 3 workshops next year, but on different topics, at different times, but all gathered under an umbrella, perhaps we establish a local (or Split-based) NGO to more easily pitch for projects. And one of the workshops will be the ADRIART project pilot run of a Media Arts and Practices "Studio" module... This way Komiža will better profit from all these valuable streams of teaching, research and creation, if it is spread out through the year, we would need to equip the now empty gallery space 200m uphill from the cinema hall, so that the community can use it during the year, and we have a safe nest to return to... And it would definitely be intriguing to come back in mid-winter, really get closer with the local people, to see the empty version of the streets, and a rocky one of the sea..

..but before that, we will have to cope with another 24 hours of manifold heat, before catching the ferry back to mainland tomorrow noon :((
//btw, and that's the funky b&w poster for tonight, by DIna, and then animated with Ivan, good work: //

.. so I'll finish this under the scorching umbrella of Speed's neighbors (back home in Ljubljana reports mention long sleeves..) that are spraying cool fog over the table, but with no effect really.. //peter.M please help me out with some photos, my phone's melted..// And BTW, as I was multi-also-writing this, with Mary we arranged that I will pop by in Brighton for 3 days of Erasmus, and from there do my planned-already Visioneca festival at the Isle of Wight end of October. Cool combo! Dripping sweat, tripping wet. B back, u bet!