fisharepeopletoo

La Noche de los Muertos and igfest 09

I'd been waiting to write about igfest 09 till I'd photographed and uploaded the Book of Monsters, but seeings as it's nearly 2 months later and I still haven't had chance, here we go...

I played La Noche de los Muertos on the Friday evening. I'd never taken part in one of the city-wide chase games before, so there was some "always remember the first time" added awe from not knowing what to expect, but it was wonderful.

The Day of the Dead theme was the perfect clothing for the chase structure (which is to navigate from point to point across a city centre while being chased by baddies).

I wouldn't want to understate the pure joy of being chased around by zombies, but what really made it was the thoroughness and detail with which the Day of the Dead theme was carried through, and the care, wit and artistry that had been put into the little theatrical events at each checkpoint.

From the zombie Mariachi band to play us off, to the Zombie Marilyn in her grotto singing Happy Deathday Mr President to the red London bus ride to the cemetery at the end, the amount of effort that had gone into these was fantastic, and each checkpoint really did feel like a reward for getting so far.

At the final checkpoint we all made ourselves skeleton masks so that we could be ancestors of the dead, and this was a nice touch as well, involving our artistry in the making of the event, and making a keepsake, as well as "making" meaning to be there as an audience.

I took my god daughter Cherry along, and 14 was a great age to do something like this because she was happy to throw herself into screaming the loudest and running the fastest while keeping up just enough teenage coolness, and that made it even more unselfconsciously fun for me.

The final section was a walk through the very spooky and overgrown Arnos Vale cemetery at night, which was a great location, more of a damp, decaying wood with broken gravestones between the trees than an ordered graveyard, and one that I was glad to have seen just in itself.

Right in the middle of the walk through the cemetery me and Cherry managed a horror film moment so comic-dumb you couldn't have scripted it by slowing down because we thought we'd seen a zombie in the trees, then realising by the light of mobile phones that "it's only a statue" just as two real zombies jumped out from the other side of the track, which had us both screaming so loud (I changed mine into a  pretend  scream almost straight away of course) that it left everyone, living and undead, rolling around on the floor laughing.

The rest of the weekend I spent on Free All Monsters! The igfest base was in a great spot on a busy walkway next to the harbour, which made it very open to passers-by who just happened to be on an afternoon out and looking for something to do.  Most of these very warm pictures are from igfest and a good guide to the sunny feel of the whole weekend.




Big thank yous to the Simons and Helen for igfest and Clare Reddington for a space on La Noche de los Muertos at the last minute.

The problem isn't the excluded. It's the included.

If there are pockets of generation-to-generation "exclusion" and wasted human potential in the UK - and that means low birthweight babies, doing badly at school, tragically narrowed life chances, unemployment, ill health and early death - then it is because for a child born in those places the odds are stacked so heavily against them that only the most exceptional and determined could ever have any hope of overturning them.

And it's a lot to ask of a newborn baby to make up its mind to be so exceptional and determined by the time it is 3 years old.

The reason those odds are so stacked is because through a mixture of history, bad government and malice aforethought we've ended up with a political rule set designed so that the included, for example this retailer of bankers' culture, can shamelessly game the system to their own advantage through old school connections, lobbying, political party funding, corporate hospitality, corporate sponsorship, slack corporate regulation, internships for each other's children, board membership of private companies and public institutions and so on and so on and so on.

Welfare for the rich, taxes for the poor.

If you haven't noticed that over the last 18 months, you really haven't been paying attention.

And if you give any sort of a shit about human beings having the freedom to waste their lives on their own terms and not on anyone else's then you've really got to be asking about system-wide structural changes to the rule sets.

Because if you think that the inclusion problem is going to be solved by the included being nicer, then you'll very soon find yourself taking the piss .

[square brackets]
a report on the freedom to waste your life on your own terms

An email from a student signed with xxx

We collected some lovely, strange and sad things yesterday playing 100 Things at Sandpit at Battersea Arts Centre.

The messages reminded me of Lunch Poems by Frank O'Hara

And it is surprising how much concentration is needed to think of a thing that has happened, especially a visual one, even on the same day.

You have to find a starting point and replay your day, almost like rewinding a film, but then something will jump out. It seems an illuminating process though, judging by the loveliness of some of the things.

I worked with some clinical psychologists once, and they were very keen on the difference between concrete and abstract memories. People who are feeling unhappy tend to remember in abstract terms - "That was a horrible time." - rather than remembering the detail of things that happened.

So maybe playing 100 Things is a good brain training exercise.

Try it out. Here are the rules.

And here are some things that happened on the 19th October 2009:

An italian waiter repeatedly whistling the same christmas carol. His colleague shouts at him in angry italian but he carries on regardless

A 15 year old boy in an RE lesson. He is manipulating his genitals. The teacher tells him to stop. "but i've got a wedgy sir."

I saw a workman's trench with a man's face down in it. He was very still. I couldn't tell whether he was working or asleep.

Two men stand outside a balti house. The older man teaches the younger man. 'Good afternoon gents, can i interest you in some lunch?' he says.

A man shook out a rug in a Bristol back garden.

and this one, my favourite of all:

A girl on the tube going to work falls asleep on a man's shoulder. As soon as she realises she stands abruptly and gets off a stop early.

more things on Flickr

100 things are enough for any day.

at Sandpit, Battersea Arts Centre, tonight, 19th October, more info here

Don't comment. Don't judge. The rules of 100 things.

You are a reporter. You are not a historian.

You are a reporter.

Think of something you've seen today.

Like this: a mum takes her toddler down onto the narrow strip of shingle in front of the Royal Festival Hall at low tide to pee into the Thames

Start a text with BAC then a space.

Describe what you saw.
Remember the details that only
a witness would know.
Don't comment. Don't judge.
Write no more than 160 characters.

Like this: An old lady eating a fish. A fried fish on a white tray, no chips, in a doorway out of the rain, breaking bits off. Her pink bonnet like a 40s film star’s.

Send your text to Thumbprint
(it only costs the same as texting your friend's phone)

Each text that comes in will be written
on a blackboard in BAC.
It will only last until the next
message arrives.

What you write will be completely anonymous.
You can be as personal or intimate as you like.

If we reach 100 we will stop.
100 things is enough for any day. 

You are not a historian.

[at Sandpit at Battersea Arts Centre, Monday 19th October, from 7.00pm, more info here]

Free All Monsters!

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Free All Monsters! is a game for children, families and even grown ups.

You'll use a Magical Monstervision Machine to look for invisible monsters living in the streets around you, then answer questions about the monsters to show your monster spotting skills, and set free your own monsters for other players to find.

To play Free All Monsters! you'll need a Magical Monstervision Machine, a Monster Spotter's Guide for the place you want to look for monsters, and some felt tip pens and paper.

 

 

 

Follow the picture clues on your Monster Spotter's Guide, and they will lead you to monsters that live in the streets around you.

Photos of players at Hide and Seek, London, and igfest, Bristol by Liz Milner, Paul Coulton and Andrew Wilson.

 

 

 

When you get close to a monster's lair, use the Magical Monstervision Machine to look for the monster.

 

When you see the monster, look at it very carefully.

 

 

On your Spotter's Guide you will find some questions about the monster, to test your monsterology skills.

 

First you have to answer a question to show that you have watched the monster carefully, then you have to add scientific knowledge by coming up with a new theory to answer a question such as “ Where does this monster go on holiday and what does it do there?”

 

Even though some monsters look very fierce and scary, they are really very old creatures who look after the places where they live, so they should never be captured or harmed, just watched.

 

 

 

Every monster that you find was set free by somebody else, and when you have finished looking for monsters you can set free some monsters of your own.

 

 

All you need to set free monsters is your imagination and some felt tip pens, paper and anything else you want to use to make a monster.

 

 

When you have set free your monster it can be made part of the game for other people to find using the Magical Monstervision Machine.

 

 

Where Do Monsters Live?

Monsters live outside, in the streets, squares and parks of the places where you go everyday or go to visit sometimes. The monsters live there all the time, in the cold and wind and rain as well as on warm sunny days.

 

The places where monsters live are the places where everyone should be able to go, not just real places, but places in their imaginations as well, and the job of the monsters is to guard those places, and make sure they are always open, free and welcoming for anyone who wants to go there.

 

Wherever you find a monster, it means that somebody cares about that place, and has set free a monster to live there and guard it.

 

 

Where Do Monsters Come From?

“No Gods, just Monsters!”

There haven't always been towns and cities, full of people hurrying to and fro to school or work.

Where now stand shops, factories and offices were once streams, woods and hillsides.

And every one of those places, even the loneliest tree standing by itself on the moors, had a monster to guard it.

The place belonged to the monster, and the monster belonged to the place.

So when towns and cities were built, the monsters had to stay, trapped under the tall buildings made of brick and stone and concrete.

And there they remained, for 200 years.

Until now.

Because the monsters have got very grumpy.

They are fed up of people walking on top of them, and they are really fed up of people squashing them under big, heavy cars.

They want to live on the streets in the places that belong to them, the places where they used to live, a long time ago.

Every time you play Free All Monsters!, whether you are using the Magical Monstervision Machine or setting free your own monsters for other people to find, you are helping to make a world that has monsters living in it again.

And that is a much better place for people to live in as well!

 

Children, families and grown ups have been setting free monsters in Manchester, in London at Sandpit and Hide and Seek, in Bristol at igfest, in Austin, and in Leeds at Pavilion gallery.