Oscillations Festival
Ryan Darragh of the Oscillations Festival in Belfast invited
me for a presentation, but had also an additional request if it was possible to
do something like a building workshop. He had done himself at the 2008 edition.
This excellent idea of him caused a brain storm in my head
and I had fantasies of building a rough DIY version of the Moodswinger. After a month of thinking I
succeeded in building a pre-drilled version only within 2 hours myself. So I
mailed the result and said we could do this probably within 4 hours with a
group.
I had severe problems with transporting all the wood and
parts to Northern Ireland, everytime exceeding the weight and it costed about
200 euroÕs extra, only because of these problems and the narrow time left for
the transport, but the important thing was we managed it.
At Wednesday I flew to Belfast with a bag which was again 9
kilo too heavy and I had to pay 130 euro on top of my flight price. The
workshop was on Thursday and Wednesday night the bands Gnod, Slomatics and Boys
of Summer played of which some of them were keen on doing a future workshop at
their own cities Manchester and Dublin if I remember well. So perhaps 2010 will
give people the opportunity to participate on my workshop at one of those
places.
I slept at a hostel that night with my clothes on, because
the blanket I was lying under smelled like a wet dog, but I had drunk so no
problem with such an occational situation. For Thursday an appartment was
rented and that was arranged +++.
Thursday morning I woke up rather early and walked through
Belfast, which is a very comfortable city with a clear infra-structure. Within
5 minutes you know where Royal Street is and you see the Belfast City Hall, the
Belfast Wheel, the pedestrian tunnel of the Ultster University and the Black
Mountain next to the city as easy to follow landmarks. Belfast and its people
are very alike Holland. Different from the south of Europe we donÕt kiss or hug
and shake only hands when we meet. And a quite remarkable aspect is the
pedestrians all are ignoring the red traffic light and just look if there is no
car driving at your direction when you cross the street. In Holland only in
Amsterdam this same habit is common.
The workshop started at 13.00 and all participants except
one arrived and some of them mentioned there name, but English speaking people
all have the same names like, David, Alex, Aaron, Jason, so I always forget
immediatelly everybodyÕs names.
The workshop ended at 17.15. Only 15 minutes later than I we
had programmed and we had finished with hardly any problems all 15 instruments.
I did the soldering and all other assemblage was done by the participants. I
felt relieved there were no drop-outs. Some were a bit afraid when starting,
but after a while and when most difficult aspects were solved the confidence
grew in the group and they became more enthousiastic theyÕd soon have there own
weird sounding instrument.
In the afternoon I gave the regular presentation for the
crowd and afterwards there was an improvisation night for people who wanted to
play a piece of music. I did a few try-outs and at the end we did a short
version of the Perpignan symphony, but less rocking and more like a sound
scape.
Ryan brought me to the appartment and we had fun with some
drinks. At one moment he mentioned the name David Holmes, who had participated
the workshop. I wasnÕt aware of that during the building time. He was the nice
guy sitting right next to me. Always good not to know who you have in front of
you. It makes the meeting kind of more informal and more natural.
About the Oscillations Festival
Oscillations is a yearly multi-media arts festival in
Belfast, Ireland, presented by Ordinary Days/Bop Yestrum and The Black Box. The
festival aims to showcase the leading edge of independent music, film,
contemporary art, graphic design, and technology on a local and international
level. The programme will consist of live music performances, film screenings,
exhibitions and creative workshops.
External links
Oscillations Festival
on Facebook
MySpace pages of the acts mentioned
in the text above:
http://www.myspace.com/davidholmesofficial
http://www.myspace.com/gnodgnod
http://www.myspace.com/slomatics
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