As part of the very wonderful City As Material series of workshops & booklets organised and funded by Proboscis, I have contributed a short work in progress - or rather a 'walk' in progress - called The Second Book of Urizen. This continues my developing obsession with 'blakewalking', and it's designed as something you can take out for a walk, starting at Waterloo. The QR codes on each page should allow you to listen to Blake's epic poem on your phone whilst wandering around the area where the poem was composed.
I've only done the first few sections in this booklet, and all the audio was recorded using Audioboo as I walked along the designated path. So this is very much a first stab at developing a format.
In my head I'm imagining a larger, richer work which will take the reader along the south London stretch of a longer L-shaped walk (see http://goo.gl/VQeYe), with a full ‘broadcast quality’ geolocated rendition of the Blake’s Book of Urizen as accompaniment – peppered with the imagined sounds of Lambeth in 1794 with music provided by Haydn, who was composing & performing in London at the time.
(*Looks sternly at radio producers out there who'd like to commission this*)
Going one step further, I'd really like to provide the means for people to contribute their own images, texts and audio as they walk round: fresh material that could be incorporated in a 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th...etc. Book of Urizen.
If enough people wanted to walk together at an appointed time, we might even be able to add a theatrical element at certain points of the walk and somehow 're-enact' or at least 're-pose' some of the figures in Blake's original work.
(*Looks sternly at theatre people who might want to help develop this bit*)
The ultimate aim is to conjure up a sense of Blake striding around his home patch, composing and declaiming – perhaps even singing – one of his great ‘prophetic’ works. Meanwhile the reader/listener/walker gets an idea of what it might be like to walk around London alone with one’s thoughts and ideas; to be considered different, or perhaps even mad.
I also want to explore a pet theory of mine that birth, miscarriage, childlessness and the pain of children growing up and apart from their parents were all things on William’s mind at that time – if even he didn’t quite know it.
By focussing on this theme it may also be possible to develop the voice of Blake’s wife, Catherine, who never had children, but instead dedicated herself to Blake, working ceaselessly as his creative partner to help produce great works such as The Book of Urizen.
What was life like for her? And what discussions took place between William and Catherine about the prospect of never having a family?
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