I’m pretty excited about my latest project. I’ve been toying with the idea for a few years in different formats. I call it “Live Sweded Films”, where I collaborate with various performers to have fun on a stage reenacting a film while it plays behind us.

The idea is that we are the performance enhanced by what we are reenacting, in real time as it plays out, becomes a live performance that points out the absurdity of it all.

I’ve been involved in many projects, and the ones that had the majority of issues were the ones where the structure of the organizations had inverted. Usually things went very well in the beginning, people worked at creating some of the most saturated and involved art.

The organizations would form around these initiatives, and support the art, and the artists. Inevitably the people who felt they could handle the light bureaucratic duties and responsibilities, would take on the initial responsibilities.

In most cases this went extremely well, creating artist run initiatives, and inspiring all of us to put a great deal of time and effort into our projects.

Sometimes, the artists craved the creative process rather then the administrative tasks. They would soon find people who specialize in administrative responsibilities, but aren’t necessarily ”creative people”. This is where the problems would begin.

Inevitably the administration would form a bureaucracy to facilitate the organizations, and inevitably at some point the organization would invert. It would transform from an Arts initiative supported by the bureaucracy, to a bureaucracy supported by the Art.

This is when procedural fetishism takes over, and common sense falls to the wayside. Things get too complicated for most artists and they walk away. Eventually the organization erodes to emulate it’s former initiates, and what’s left lacks luster and vibrancy.

Now, I’m feeling a little delight. It comes out of unfortunate circumstances for the Rio Theatre, but it’s become an inspiration for me to create a performance art project that mocks the absurdity of the creative process when it’s forced to navigate this inverted structure.

We’ll have to see what results of this particular experiment, but ultimately I feel inspired to keep doing it long after this local issue fades.

http://livesweded.com

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