tamlyn 11 ends
tamlyn 11 - a brief overview
Yes I know it's a long post but it represents a fraction of the material generated for tamlyn 11 and documented on the blog.
tamlyn 11 was a project for Manchester Art Crawl. It lasted for the duration of the festival and was a durational performative text in multiple media. I would have added 'improvised' into that description if I'd thought of it.
What this meant was that I used the period to create a piece of work across several media both in the real world and online.
So in the real world I chalked short texts on walls and in other locations, I gathered materials - both natural and junk - to create sculptural objects which were then left close to where they were created, and I performed songs that were recorded as either audio or video.
I also sent tweets, took photos and shot videos that were later uploaded.
Online - as well as documentation of some of this activity I wrote short, inconclusive essays, and other short texts including on brief bit of fiction.
In the last four days I did start to get tired toward the end of the day. Partly because I was 'on' all the time - concentrating on what might be incorporated into the project - and partly because I began to increase my level of activity.
Initially tamlyn was just a name - changed to tamlyn 11 when the original turned out to be already taken on tumblr.
Like my stamp poem ) TH GOOD /OLD W~AY it was intended to be a purely improvised text with no over-arching scheme. That changed before I began when I decided that to make my life a little easier I'd broadly track the narrative of the ballad (Tam Lyn).
That way I could explore the ballad through life in contemporary Manchester and explore contemporary life through the ballad.
Before I began it was intended that the major components of the work would be the chalked texts, the creation of objects, and perhaps performances in different locations. In the event tweets, photos, and videos formed the bulk of the material.
What follow are selected bits from the online documentation.
objects
The first object was this bird-like mask created from wood, part of a pair of industrial ear-defenders, and newspaper. Like most of the objects it was held together by copper wire bought for the purpose. The newspaper was a material I provided rather than something found. It was left on rocks just above the level of the Irwell. It was gone within a day - probably taken by the water.
I got insect bitten creating the second object - my arms swelled up for a couple of days even with antihistamine cream. This was in some ways the simplest object - a grid of nine points. Each point a group of three sticks pushed into the ground under trees.
The third object is one of my favourites. Out on Pomona Strand I found a car wheel, a card carton that looked like it might have held two baked potatoes or something similar, a can, and a bit of branch slightly shredded at the thicker end. They were easily fixed together to make an effective totem. It was still in place a week on - you can see it looking slightly battered at the end of the video in which I sing the third section of Tam Lyn.
I'm not really convinced that the fourth object actually works. It was kind of forced. It makes use of various bits I'd gathered across the first week, and a couple of feathers picked up for the purpose. I feel it should have been more abstract.
No matter. I'm happier with the fifth object. A rubber half-sphere with points on with a plant emerging from it. A simple idea and simple to make
I'm happier still with the sixth and seventh objects created yesterday. To my mind they have more of that slightly creepy mystery that I value about them. The sixth object started as a barrow made of brick fragments. I then decided it would be better covered with branches.
The seventh and final object was a construction of seven dried bits of plants - mostly seed heads - and one set of berries suspended from a stick. I have no photos of the final assemblage but feel in any case that video captures it better.
chalked texts & tweets
There's not really a lot to say about these. I rather like the tweets from the final two days copied below because they're so quotidian. The chalked text is slightly unrepresentative since most were quotes from songs - but I like both the text and the photo.
There was an intention - as with everything - to illuminate some part of the narrative. Or to contribute to my recreating and interrogation of the narrative. But the terms of my project were drawn so broadly that almost anything could be claimed as belonging to the narrative.
@soundpoetMatt Dalby
Pigeon walking round a stone #tamlyn11
essays & other writing
Essays and other writings ranged from tiny fragments that might have been tweets - Got bit disturbing a ants nest - to unfinished sketches for an essay like this piece on crossdressing in song, and longer essays like this discussion of whether Tam Lyn rapes Lady Margaret, and ways in which the narrative can be changed. There was also this short fiction about life after the narrative.
audio - field recordings & song
The audio is a 50/50 split between field recordings and sung pieces. I've chosen my version of Dylan's Lay Down Your Weary Tune because it was deliberately recorded close to the Mersey where the water makes a lot of noise - so you get a bit of both.
I've also put all the audio into a playlist so you can listen to the rest of the recordings if you're of a sufficiently masochistic bent.
I should say here - in case it's not already evident - that I love and practice a rough, unfinished, uncompromising aesthetic. I think it originates from discovering people like Derek Jarman and The Fall during my teens - as well as exposure to blues, folksong, folk art, mythology, and creepy images in the Voices anthologies among others when I was a child.
This means that I enjoy rough, noisy, messy recordings - videos and photos that show the circumstances of their making - and other work that doesn't attempt to smooth its surfaces. But I'm also aware that it can be a bit gruelling in bulk.
photos
Some of the photos are simple documentation of the making of objects. Others are really very composed like the first image below. Some are less controlled - like the second image below - while a few others are just bad.
videos
Finally there are the videos. I've already embedded one and linked to another here - as well as embedding the entire playlist in an earlier post.
The video range from pieces like Ride along the river (top, below) that concentrate on movement, through pieces like Rain reflection (middle, below) that are static, to documentation of songs and objects, and to other pieces like Roses (bottom, below).
Roses is another example of that rough aesthetic at work. I knew it would be noisy from the wind that moved the roses - which smelled beautiful. In the event the contrast between the visual charm of the roses and the noise created by the wind is even harsher and more effective than I'd hoped.
Finally - although I'm happy with it - tamlyn 11 has been roundly ignored on the whole. At the time of writing the blog has had 56 hits.
Even if I combine that with the 217 hits received this month by santiago's dead wasp, the total 89 views of the videos on YouTube, the likely audience on the links I've added to facebook, and the readers of the short fiction linked on my friend Adam's blog Either/Or/Bored it's unlikely to total more than a thousand views of any part of the project.
There are of course the texts and what remain of some of the objects but I suspect these are mainly unseen and ignored - and where they are seen their existence as part of the larger project will mostly be unknown.
This isn't a complaint and it doesn't worry me. But I think it's worth being honest about the actual (negligible) size of the audience and significance of the work.
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