I've been gathering together some of
the feedback which I've been sent privately re. various Nearly workshops and
events I've organised over the past few years as part of the process of
composing my transmedia novel, What Didn't Quite and the PhD in Practice-based
Digital Writing at Bath Spa.
There's information on lots of these
activities at www.nearlyology.net but this blog seems a more suitable
place to put these comments.
NIGHT OF
NEARLY AT THE EARLY HAIG 2014
I
performed with Carol Laidler and the Ifso Band at the Earl Haig pub in Crouch
End. In the audience was artist Bee Peak. Here are her comments in an
email 11/07/2014:
Dear Chris
I have been
nearly going to email you on a couple of occasions
We enjoyed
the Night of Nearly. I was intrigued by the characters & by the end
of the evening was left interested in the characters &
looking forward to following their story. Yes I suppose the show did feel
like work in progress but I’m all for that. I really liked your ukulele songs
they had an immediate quality –good & amusing lyrics & thought
the style of them melded well with the readings.
I suppose
what would intrigue me would be to see how it develops and leading to some kind
of conclusion.Possibility of a parallel story when all the nearly events
happened (like woman looking out of 1st floor window &
seing old friend & him coming in to their lives again & how
this might change the course of events) Don’t know how you could do this.
I loved a
Carol Shields novel (sorry can’t remember which one) where to read the
alternative version you turned the book upside down and it was printed on every
other page. I suppose you could have two different typefaces & RHs the
Novel & LHs back of page the NearlyReally version.
Interesting
about people vocalizing their Nearlies during a show. The fact of having a
small stage necessarily makes the division between performers &
audience. Even as an ex-thesp I find I am mostly resistant to audience
participation.You has a very gentle, relaxed approach with no pressure to
participate but because of the stage it gave the audience a more formal
showcase for their words. I liked it being on the small platform. However it
might be interesting to see if different participation would be forthcoming if
you arranged chairs round in a circle with the three of you distributed among
the first row of the circle.
It might be
an idea to put in the publicity for another evening the question –what nearly
happened to you & that it would contribute to your ongoing work
–maybe you did do that in your email about the event. Can’t quite
remember.
Thing
is it does need a bit of ruminating on – I found a) first off I couldn’t think
of a single thing
b) then
dredging around found the incident of nearly meeting Paul at the squat party as
my only example which I actually thought might be pushing the Nearliness
c) then only
on the way home did I remember how I nearly stole a policemens helmet..over
forty years ago ! I will write it up or tell you but not now.
Friday
You may well
have read Wanderlust by Rebecca Solnit. Recommended to me by Jack. I was
reading it this morning & in a chapter dealing with mazes &
labyrinths was struck by a passage which you might like:
‘ To write is
to carve a new path through the terrain of the imagination with the author as
guide –a guide one may not always agree with or trust but at least be counted
on to take one somewhere. ‘
Look forward
to the continuing journey.
All the best
Bee
**
Extraordinarily
I had already used exactly this quote from Solnit in an essay for the
PhD.
PHILIP JONES, EDITOR OF THE
BOOKSELLER. 2016
I asked Philip Jones, the
editor of The Bookseller, for his opinion on the current state of digital
publishing. Here's his email of 4/11/2016 in full:
Publishers look to print and paper first, last,
and always, particularly as many of their experiments in transmedia, enhanced
e-books or interactive fiction have largely failed – at least on the terms by
which they measure things, sales. Where they are still looking for more
interesting digital versions, it is generally seen as a way of selling more
print books – for example the Julian Fellowes serialised fiction website
Belgravia, which has now become a fantastic vehicle for selling the hardback.
The market will shift again, but perhaps only when an author-led experiment
meets with commercial success, and the big trade publishers once again look to
redefine what a book can be. For now, they rather like the fact that a book
still looks like a book.
NEARLYACTING NEARLY BEING 2015
LILY MCLEISH ran
the Nearly Acting Nearly Being workshop
for me at the Intimate Space, Hornsey, in 2015. Afterwards I asked for comments
from participants.
I received these
thoughts on the Nearly Workshop from Lily McLeish in an email on 28/01/2016:
“Thoughts on Nearly Workshop:
“In
theatre during the scene analysis we often talk about events - moments when all
the intentions of all the characters in the scene change. They are physical
shifts that we read onstage. Very much like in life. We are constantly changing
our intentions to what happens around us. Fo me what was incredibly interesting
was to start to see how the events that nearly happen are just as important as
the events that do happen. Someone almost saying or doing something may not
immediately have an impact on another person in the room but the nearly event
for that person who almost dared to say or do the thing will stay with that
person and shape the person’s further actions. I found this most interesting in
our exercises on nearly touch and the painting improvisations of something
nearly happening but then reversing the event.
The
writing of our nearly biographies and seeing our lives as a set of choices. I
found that the routes a person almost took say as much about us as the routes
they did take. We often consider the things we have done. Our CVs are full of
them. But to look at all the things we almost did and be proud of those,
understand those, gives us a greater understanding and in a way is almost more
insightful in understanding a person’s life. I like the idea of thinking about
the person we are and then imagining all the versions around us who we nearly
are. This data exists around us all the time. In some areas probably greater
than in others. Some nearly selves might be as high as 60% or 80% depending on
how near we were to doing. But some might be at 5% and we don’t even think
about them until we start looking at our nearly selves. Some things are active
choices, other things dependent on outside events.
Exploring
the emotions that surround nearlyness. Regret, desire, the possibility of
something, hope, a dream, the loss of something, sadness of not experiencing
something. It was interesting to explore these emotions through movement and
improvisation. We improvised the idea of having a second self. Imagining taking
a different route from our nearly biographies and exploring that self. Are we
really that different? Or would we be the same person just with a different
title? Would we really talk, move and think differently? It felt like a very
rich subject to explore in improvisation and also a great starting point for
narrative.”
Here's what actor
actor Nicholas Gerard Martin sent in an email 13/02/2016
Hi Chris,
Great to hear
from you! Hope you're well and happy! I hope this isn't too late, but I thought
the workshop was great and a totally new and original world for me. It felt
that the possibility for exploration of ones psyche was almost limitless.
Cathartic, investigative, and curious. I particularly liked the improv as the
nearly detectives. Exploring the sorts of characters and their objectives or
private needs that could lie behind a 'nearlyological' narrative was quite a
beguiling experience. Thank you for the it, and hope all is well!
NEARLY
INTERVIEWS
Researching
ideas on how to compose and present transmedia work, I conducted interviews
with Adrian Hon, CEO of Six To Start,
Annette
Mees, then co-Director of Coney, an immersive theatre company,
Therese
Steele, artist and performer.
Here is the link to edited extracts from the full interviews:
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