tim wright: digital writer

Blake in Lambeth: an audio drama on BBC Radio 4

What a treat to get to write an audio drama about William Blake, have it directed and co-developed  by the vastly experienced Jeremy Mortimer, and performed by a top, top cast including Toby Jones and Kirsty Oswald. If you’re reading this before April 21 2016, it should still be online here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0742mq5

Kirsty Oswald and Tom Hanson, cast members, at the gravestone of William & Catherine Blake in Bunhill Fields.

I have been thinking and writing about William Blake for some years now. It started when Chris Meade of http://www.ifbook.co.uk/ invited me to contribute to the ‘Songs of Imagination and Digitisation’ project. This led to a number of walks across London inspired by Blake, in the company of both friends, and strangers who became friends. See http://timwright.typepad.com/L_O_S/

In the radio play, I used my walking experiences to try and locate Blake directly in modern-day Lambeth. I wanted him to engage with a young person from the present day, and see what the two of them might make each other.

I also wanted to experiment with the idea that Blake might me using this ‘vision’ of the future to fuel his production of the 1794 works ‘The First Book of Urizen’ and ‘Songs of Experience’. The play starts with the first lines of ‘Urizen’ and ends with the last lines. A number of images from the book inspired various scenes - a figure flying in the clouds, a figure with a head of flame, Utha emerging from the water etc. Blake himself undergoes four scenes - or trials - by water, air, fire and earth.

Above all, though, I wanted to depict one night where two people, both a little bit lost, both in danger of very seriously going off the rails, both from Lambeth but from different eras, could perhaps help each other to look after themselves, respect and value themselves in order to survive in the energetic environment of South London.

I think this genuinely is the first thing I’ve written in over 20 years that does not have any kind of interactive or participative element - it’s a straight, linear drama. I hope you enjoy it. You can read a series of posts related to my ongoing obsession with Blake here: http://timwright.typepad.com/main/blake/

Walking for inspiration

I've written an article for The Literary Platform about walking as interdisciplinary R & D:

“One of the great things about a rea lly great hike is it pushes you into the present; it’s so beautiful and so splendid, it’s so easy to get lost, that you’re brought entirely into the moment, like a really good game of tennis or chess.”

Ian McEwan

Writers and poets generally like walking – wandering lonely as a cloud, walking out one evening down Bristol Street, taking the path less travelled by, travelling with a donkey or a dog or a fridge. Admittedly it’s mainly the past time of male writers of a certain age (think Robert Macfarlane up to Ian McEwan by way of Will Self). But for the rest of you (I’m a man of a certain age too) walking could also be a useful and productive exercise – even in a world full of such dangerously sedentary delights as Youtube, HDTV and Xboxes...

Now read on... http://www.theliteraryplatform.com/2013/01/walking-for-inspiration/

 

BlakeWalking and the Makerbot

One of the main things that made me want to join Fiddian Warman’s Makerbot group is the address where the group gathers on Lower Marsh in Lambeth. It’s just a stone’s throw away from where William Blake and his wife started their own peculiar printing revolution in Hercules Road. What better place to think about how to add a 3D printed element to my own work?

Here’s the first disastrous output from my first session with Fiddian and others on Monday. It’s meant to be a letter A:

Here, though, is the second attempt (not really mine, btw, but created by Fiddian based on my 'holding forth'):

This looks much more exciting. Imagine if I could produce a full alphabet of letters. I could end up printing a physical alpahabet that could be used for... printing!

Imagine if I could produce a set of letters and blocks in Blake’s original handwriting. We could create a set of 3D models that would allow anyone to block print their own hokey versions of Blake’s illuminated texts. We could all become makers of our own Blake books!

Now I’ve been somewhat obsessed with Blake for some time now and, in particular, in a time in his life (specifically 1794) when he was living and walking around North Lambeth dreaming up & making The [First] Book of Urizen and also Songs of Experience.

These are both extraordinary things to be making at any time, but what was going on in Blake’s life (and in his mind) to want to produce them right there and then?

I’m *still* researching & developing a geolocated audiowalk that guides people around this area whilst telling an imagined story about Blake and his wife attempting to make a living from ‘illuminated print’ - and also unlocking a new recitation of the Song of Urizen accompanied by (and inspired by?) sounds of both then and now.

Fairly regularly I like to walk the route of my Blakewalk and capture sounds that might be useful for the final production. For example, here’s the sounds of trains going overhead in the tunnel on Carlisle Lane:

Carlisle Lane by moongolfer

I’m imagining mixing these sounds with imagined sounds from 1794 as well as with music from that time such as this:

Marc Minkowski – Symphony drumroll in E flat major, hob. I:103 - Adagio - Allegro con spirito

Or this:

Frances Kelly – Musical Relicks of the Welsh Bards

It feels right too, though, to think that by walking this route, channelling Blake’s work and almost divining a story out of the ground upon which those feet must have walked (in ancient time etc), it might also be possible to make or print a little something. And Fiddian’s Makerbot is in just the right place to do that. Perhaps each person who takes the walk and listens to the audio is also triggering the Makerbot to pop out one extra letter or printing block, so that over time, the more people who walk, the more blocks there are from which to print new Blakean works on paper.

Ok, so I’ve got a long way to go and a lot to learn (downloading autocad 1-2-3D as we speak). But huzzah for Fiddian and his forward thinking idea of sharing a Makerbot and building up a community of Makers. I’m already looking forward to the next session.

P.S. check out the Makers Guild site and, in particular, forthcoming events at the V&A.

The Second Book of Urizen

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?

 

LET’S MAKE STUFF TOGETHER AT PROBOSCIS ‘PITCH IN & PUBLISH’ ON 15th OCTOBER 2010.

I’m really looking forward to being a guest at the Proboscis ‘Pitch In & Publish’ event on Friday 15th October 2010. It’ll be a chance to get to grips with bookleteer once again and think about how this kind of personal printing might fit into some of the crossplatform ideas I’m currently working on. Join us if you can!

Details of how to book a place can be found here: http://cityasmaterial.eventbrite.com/. Just £10 to hang out and make interesting stuff together feels like a bargain to me.

What is bookleteer?

If you don’t know what bookleteer is, this is a great opportunity to find out and spend a day designing personal booklets (or ‘zines’) for the rest of the world to download, print and use.

I say ‘use’ rather than ‘read’ because the great thing about this kind of low-cost personalised publishing is that you don’t have to use it exclusively for getting other people to read your pearls of wisdom.

Bookleteer is just as effective as a way of publishing maps and local guides - or for distributing notebooks, sketchbooks or doodlepads that other people then fill in, annotate or generally deface (in an artistic way presumably).

*And* bookleteer is a very interesting way to capture and adapt digital assets such as Flickr pics, texts or tweets and quickly incorporate them into a printed work. It means you really can think seriously about mixing online and ‘offline’ experiences together in terms of photos, texts, sudden thoughs, map references, web links etc.

I’ve used bookleteer a couple of times as part of my ongoing BlakeWalks project where I walk prescribed routes around London with whoever cares to join me and we talk generally about issues and feelings that Blake’s life & work arouse in us.

So far I’ve been keen to arm fellow BlakeWalkers with booklets that they can use as notebooks or sketchpads, so we can add to the record of the walk something that isn’t just external pics and words and sounds but may be internal thoughts and more spontaneous artistic outpourings. Here's a booklet for S:BlakeWalk3.

Frankly, I haven’t come up with a form for this that I’m entirely happy with, so I’ll be keen to spend the Pitch In & Publish day thinking more deeply about how bookleteer could be used to create a more effective printed thing for BlakeWalkers to carry through the city on their appointed round.

I should add, though, that there is a set theme for this event - ‘The City As Material’ – and there is an intention to produce at least one collaborative work focussing on ‘Streetscape - the street level of the city, its routes and human interaction whilst travelling through them’.

I’m hoping my BlakeWalking experience (and to some extend my moongolfhole work) will be useful in this regard since both projects focus on walking though chiefly urban landscapes whilst mapping the route, recording what happens on the walk, and teasing out themes and impressions that arise out of impromptu gatherings and generally taking to the streets.

What is Grand is necessarily Obscure to Weak Men

Thank you to Paul Driver for initiating a hugely Enjoyable and Productive (or rather Processive?) group BlakeWalk of the ‘S’ recently:

View 'S': BlakeWalk3 in a larger map

There were Five of Us. Each with our own Reasons for wanting to spend a bright, crisp autumn afternoon drifting across London, talking as we did about Romantic Poetry, Careers, Easily Overlooked Architecture, Pies, Scopic Regimes – oh, and William Blake. Of course!

I have Mapped all of the Media I generated during this BlakeWalk (see map above) – and left the map open to Collaboration should others wish to pin their Materials to it. All of this Media is also freely available to you to take on a BlakeWalk of your own, including this record of our Conversations for you to play on your phone or mp3 player:

http://timwright.typepad.com/L_O_S/blakewalk3Audio.mp3

Already I know that Joe has posted a range of photographs. So too has Paul.

I also armed each Walker with a Basic BlakeBooklet (now available to all budding BlakeWalkers via bookleteer.com) but have yet to see what Notes, Drawings and Doodles were made during the Journey.

My own Observations culminated in a Short Film:

The movie says a lot to me about the power of Walking & Talking - and about how the Blakean spirit is so often about seeking out an alternative (deliberately obtuse and 'unprofessional'?) view, engaging with process rather than product, feeling trapped, being disruptive, not sitting down and paying attention to the teacher, seeking answers beyond what you can actually see. Oh and so much more!

More of this kind of craziness on http://www.timwright.typepad.com/L_O_S.

And if you fancy a BlakeWalk yourself, get in touch.

3 Blake Walks

The other SID project I have become involved with arose out of a conversation with the actor Toby Jones about Wiliam Blake’s many many references in his work to ‘feet’ and walking and being anchored to the earth, as well as Blake’s capacity to see angels and other ‘visions’ as he walked about town.

View Larger Map

I liked very much the idea of helping Toby to recreate or replay this idea of walking around town and unlocking ‘visions’ as he walked along a particular path. So I've already mapped out 3 Blake Walks for him, and started generating rather abstract media to put in his way.

Using geotags and smart mobile devices it should be possible to put *a lot* of media in Toby’s way as he walks – movies, sounds, images and texts; and it doesn't have to be media made within in the landscape, but could be 'alien' media that has then been attached to a specific location on one of the three online maps.

In this way we could all supply Toby with ‘visions’ as he walks – things to see and hear and read that I make sure Toby encounters at exactly the right time and place by playing or displaying them to him on an iphone or a 3G enabled mini notebook; or perhaps we can also leave some kind of paper/poster trail for him to pick up...

It’ll be Toby's task then to respond creatively to what happens to him on each of the 3 Blakewalks. Initially we think he will respond in writing, producing some form of text or book of his own. But since we will also be filming with Flip cameras and recording the walks in as many ways as possible, I sense that a rather beautiful psychogeographic multimedia performance piece could be another possible output.

For now, I am still plotting out the 3 Walks and generating my own media as I walk the paths just to find out how this feels and discover what it is possible logistically in terms of filming, snapping, writing, mapping and posting in real time out in the field.

It’s an incredibly stimulating experience that I am enjoying immensely. Already I've spewed out a couple of strange little muvees (using the Flip software) that have some interesting qualities. Here's the one from the first walk:

And here's the one from the second:

If you’re interested in coming on one of the walks, or more simply contributing a piece of media for Toby to encounter, just follow @L_O_S on Twitter for news or keep an eye on the blog at http://www.timwright.typepad.com/L_O_S.

Save the Tyger

As part of the rather lovely Songs of Imagination and Digitisation project, XPT is working with John Morgan to produce a website where we preserve an electronic version of Blake’s famous poem 'The Tyger'.

When I first got involved with the SID project, I was asked if I had a story to tell about my personal relationship with William Blake. I was instantly taken back to a very early school memory of having to write out 'The Tyger' neatly in my exercise book and draw a picture to go with it.

I still think of copying and drawing as a fundamental part writing thanks to that poem. Indeed, it’s Blake's production process that always draws me in: the engraving of his texts and drawing *backwards* on to soft metal plates, and then the associated danger of seeing his plates blunt and smudge and break, perhaps after as little as 50 impressions.

It makes the remaining original prints and pages that still exist in the world feel very personal, fragile, delicate and *endangered*. And it made me wonder what if we could make a digital version of 'The Tyger' that felt the same way? Each time we conjured it up on the screen we were in some way helping to wear it out?

At savethetyger.org we’re developing this concept. Each time you look at the poem it will degrade and die a little bit. The more people look at it, the more it will fade and distort until it entirely disappears.

 There will be, though, ways of saving the Tyger too. We’ll be making a direct plea to the public to copy and draw or ‘redesign’ key elements of the poem that we can use to refresh the work and combat the degrading process.

We’ll be looking, therefore, for Designers to contribute a new Title section, Writers to submit refreshed Text and Artists to draw us a new Tyger. Each time one of these three elements looks like it's about to disappear into nothingness, we’ll replace it with something you send in. In this way, the Tyger will live on, albeit that it will morph and ‘evolve’ over time based on your contributions.

We’re aleady taking submissions of Titles, Texts and Tygers, so feel free to send us something. Full details of how to join in are in the videos.