January 27, 2012 by katie
Bandstand Development Blog – Old photos and things I am thinking about… – by Katherine Maxwell-Cook
We are currently making two new Bandstand Audio Experiences for the bandstand in West Park, Wolverhampton. We are working with our commissioning partners Black Country Touring to develop and promote these new works.
I’m Katherine Maxwell-Cook, and I’ll be writing the story and the text for the experiences. One will be for a solo listener/participant/audience member, and one will be written for a pair to experience together.
by katie
Bandstand is a collection of digital audio performances for Bandstands from The Other Way Works.
The audio performances are located in the landscape, and can be discovered and experienced using your smartphone’s GPS in conjunction with our Bandstand App.
We are currently developing this platform, and will be creating three new pieces of site-specific content for Bandstands in the Black Country, West Midlands in collaboration with Black Country Touring. We will publish the App through the Apple and Android App Stores along with this new content in Summer 2013.
We are seeking further commissioning partnerships with Festivals, Venues and Promoters to extend and develop this digital platform in 2013-2015, through the commissioning of site-specific content for Bandstands around the UK and beyond.
WHAT
The Bandstand App represents a new way to experience Theatre.
With the App running on a smartphone (iPhone/Android), users will discover interactive content when they come within a short distance of real-world Bandstands in parks across the country. These well-loved historic features once centres of music and live performance are now often empty and deserted. This App reinvigorates these spaces, filling them with memories and images, in the form of new performances.
Bandstand is a location-based app that feeds off inbuilt maps and uses the built-in GPS sensor and compass in iPhone and Android smartphones. Bandstand locations will be logged in a database and integrated with Google maps.
WHY
It’s so sad to see these spaces empty and deserted, when once they were the hubs of entertainment, music and dancing.
They are also irresistible empty stages, in almost every park up and down the country, and beyond. Its exciting to start filling them with memories, images, and new performances.
THE EXPERIENCE
Immerse yourself in a site-specific theatre experience every time you visit a Bandstand in your local park. With a solo or two-person option, just plug in your headphones and get ready to experience a new way of seeing. Ideal to be experienced alone on a quiet Saturday, or with the buzz of other participants as part of a festival or event.
Solo version: The beautifully scored soundtrack will draw you into an imagined world filled with ghosts of the past and chance meetings yet to happen. Let your imagination be led by the meeting of the real location and the stories and sounds that you hear in your headphones. And if you’re feeling brave, accept the invitation to take to the stage and breathe new life into this forgotten performance site.
Two-person version: Make your own piece of theatre for each other on and around the Bandstand. Its a lyrical story of love and loss, with a few laughs thrown in, and a sprinkling of old-time dancing. You are cast as both actor and audience member. The soundtrack will prompt you to make small actions. In turn your partner will perform their own part, augmented by the soundtrack in your headphones which will make sense of their actions and create drama, tension and hilarity for the two of you.
ARTISTS INVOLVED
Katie Day – Will lead the project as concept designer and director
Katherine Maxwell-Cook – Writer and researcher
Mark Day – Composer and sound designer/engineer
App Developer – We are working with Bristol-based Calvium’s locative media design tools AppFurnace to develop the iPhone/Android Application, and as technical designers to publish the App through the Apple and Android App stores.
by katie
We have created a proto-type Bandstand App, which can be downloaded for iPhones below (iOS4 or above).
The App is designed to be used on location at the Bandstand in Cannon Hill Park in Birmingham (the story strongly references the actual location), but the audio can be experienced anywhere by pressing the ‘EXPERIENCE NOW’ button if you’d like to try it out.
How to get the Bandstand Non Geographic App on your iPhone
Get with QR Code (Barcode)
The easiest way to get your Test Version is with its QR code, below.
Step 1: Download & Install Calvium Player. It’s a free app.
Step 2: Load Calvium Player, and click the + icon.
Step 3: Click ‘Scan & Add’ and scan the QR code. Your Test Version will start downloading automatically.
Step 4: When it has downloaded, tap the entry in the list and press PLAY.
Get with URL
Step 1: Download & Install Calvium Player. It’s a free app.
Step 2: Load Calvium Player, and click the + icon.
Step 3: Type in the URL http://the.appfurnace.com/test/gG1BD/ and hit download.
Step 4: When it has downloaded, tap the entry in the list and press PLAY.
No iPhone?
If you don’t have an iPhone, you can listen to or download the mp3:
Download the audio
iPod users can download the podcast:
iTunes
by katie
Bandstand is a new project by The Other Way Works.
The Other Way Works is a Birmingham, UK based theatre company formed in 2001. We create highly interactive performance experiences, frequently for an audience of one at a time. Our theatre is playful and draws the audience into the very heart of the experience.
We create our work in a deeply collaborative style, and constantly push these collaborations in new ways. Our work often responds to ’site’, and we find it stimulating and rewarding to create and perform our work in non-traditional spaces.
Our previous productions include the acclaimed Black Tonic, a hotel-based interactive thriller that was performed in hotels in Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester and London; and I am waiting for the opportunity to save someone’s life, a performance and installation in the Mailbox Shopping Centre, Birmingham.
The Other Way Works is made up of a group of talented artists (performers, composer, film-maker, writer, scenographer) brought together under the artistic direction of Katie Day, who directs all of the company’s productions. The company was largely dormant throughout 2010 while Katie took up an invaluable Cultural Leadership Programme Peach Placement secondment to iShed/Watershed in Bristol, where she produced the pioneering Theatre Sandbox (http://theatresandbox.co.uk) scheme in collaboration with six national venues.
The Other Way Works returned to producing new work in Spring and Summer of 2011 with the successful creation and premiere of Avon Calling.
by katie
We are currently making two new Bandstand Audio Experiences for the bandstand in West Park, Wolverhampton. We are working with our commissioning partners Black Country Touring to develop and promote these new works.
I’m Katherine Maxwell-Cook, and I’ll be writing the story and the text for the experiences. One will be for a solo listener/participant/audience member, and one will be written for a pair to experience together.
I’ve been looking at old black and white photographs of the bandstand in West Park and trying to imagine what it was like to be there in a bygone era. The Black Country website (http://blackcountryhistory.org/) is an amazing resource of historical pictures, pamphlets and articles from the region. It looks like the actual layout of the park hasn’t changed much since it was originally landscaped in the 1880s.
But a photo of the bandstand from 1994 looks rather miserable and decrepit in comparison to the restored glory in which it now stands, with its red and white striped pillars like old Victorian sweets along with the refurbished roof and floor. How it looked and was used in 1948 when part of our story is set, still remains somewhat of a mystery.
Questions I am asking…
What was it like in the park after World War II when much of it had been turned into allotments for the war effort? Were bands playing on the bandstand during this time?
How will the male and female sides of the story differ?
What effect did the war have on the relationship between the man and the woman?
What is it about the bandstand that is so alluring, even today?
I enjoyed reading this description of the Black Country from the mid nineteenth century, ‘The appearance of the country around Wolverhampton and Bilston is strange in the extreme. For miles and miles the eye ranges over wide-spreading masses of black rubbish, hills on hills of shale, and mashed and muddled coal dust, extracted from beneath and masking, as it were, the whole face of nature.” (http://www.localhistory.scit.wlv.ac.uk/articles/Parks/Parks.htm)
It reminded me of the importance of public parks in the industrial heartlands; even in the last century they were weekend sanctuaries; an opportunity to stroll on the green grass, go boating or picnic under the sheltering trees. Somehow I’ll try to weave this sense of escape into the stories I’m writing.
Katherine Maxwell-Cook
November 28, 2011 by katie
The Other Way Works is currently recruiting Non-Executive (voluntary) Directors to join its Board of Directors.
This is a great opportunity for your skills and experience to make a real difference to the development of an energetic and distinctive not-for-profit arts organisation. We’re looking for people with a passion for theatre, the arts, and innovation, who will help steer, support and advocate for the company.
November 2, 2011 by katie
Katie will be popping up at a couple of different events in the next few weeks.
We’ve been selected to present our Bandstand project as part of the Ideas Summit at the ISAN Biennial Conference in Glasgow on 16th November. Its a chance to let national outdoor programmers know about our plans for the project, and opportunities for them to get involved in co-commissioning new content for the platform.
She’ll also be at the Hello Culture Conference in Birmingham on 17th November on the Mobile, Location and Games panel. The one day event will explore how the cultural sector can exploit digital technology.
September 30, 2011 by katie
We’re pleased to be part of Hatch:Fresh in Leicester, which has a great line up of companies performing over an evening.
We’ll be performing Complimentary, which takes place at the bar.
September 14, 2011 by katie
We’ve been selected to perform Complimentary at Hatch:Fresh in Leicester on Sunday 16th October 2011. Its a 15 minute piece for one audience member at a time that takes place standing at the bar. The Hatch:Fresh event looks to have a great line up, and tickets are free, so do come along if you’re in the area. For more info and ticket booking click here.
September 9, 2011 by katie
We’ve been lucky enough to be selected to appear at 2011’s First Bite event at mac. The event is produced by China Plate in collaboration with mac and WAC. Its on Saturday 24th September.
We’ll be sharing a tiny nibble of our new project ‘Bandstand’, a locative audio theatre experience.
For more info see the flyer below.
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