Live at The Event

Tracks from the Samekhmem performance at The Event are available for preview on their last.fm page:

Live at The Event

Full quality versions will be available to buy soon.

Timewave Zero Decelerator

A decelerator ritual is designed to slow down advancement from one state or phase to another. Language and other structures of thought make our minds work along existing pathways. By slowing time down, new pathways can become more apparent. If time is not slowed down, these particular avenues can be easily overlooked. Chanting simple words such as ‘La’, ‘Leh’ or ‘Lo’ can act as a disruption to language and, when used in conjunction with other tools and principles, enable us to examine alternate possibilities.

     Protocols:

a) Hold an image of a diamond forming in your head

b) Produce a continuous drone

c) Beat out a rhythm on a drum

d) Chant in the same rhythm to create a collective noise

e) Decrease in speed

f) Once time has slowed down sit quietly and relax

Reflection on Ort Clearing

This was really the first time that the shamanic practices that had been developed during The Nagual (2009-10) projects had been incorporated into a Samekhmem project. As in Nagual projects, a set of protocols was developed in order to perform a specific function in relation to either a context or location. (Scroll down for video of closing performance)

The sacred object was identified as the Café’s hot milk thermometer and was purified with a salty sage solution. I’m not entirely sure why this was the sacred object, when I had previously assumed that it was going to be the column, but the group decision was for the thermometer, so there it is.

The four cardinal points of the compass were purified with colour, sound, symbols and sage. The colours of the bells, and the symbols drawn on the walls using the sage solution were traditional alchemical symbols for the compass points to symbolise bringing balance and harmony to the venue… sage it traditionally used in purifying rituals and the use of water relates to the Hindu practice of washing a statue of Ganesh to bring good fortune to a new home (something that was also done on the same night by Ridhi as part of a separate ritual).

The central supporting column was purified with sage water… I’m no longer sure why this was done, since it was no longer considered to be the sacred object. I thought that, in terms of what audience there was present at this early point of the evening, this worked much better as a visual index of the performance than purifying the thermometer, not that visibility is necessarily at issue in this case.

… and ringed with salt.

The sage candle was lit. Actually a candle with sage in the well of melted wax at the top. Later in the evening, Ana had to rescue this from starting a fire as excessive sage flamed so hot that the sides of the candle collapsed and spilled out. I think we should consider either sourcing some sage candles from somewhere or making our own.

The middle portion of the evening was not documented, but involved offering ‘green milk’ to audience members at the launch as a means of selecting people to ‘join’ the group as drummers during the subsequent performance. Those who drank the green milk also had their forehead marked with the ‘third eye’ ʘ, which is also the alchemical symbol for gold and the astrological symbol for the sun (a sideways reference to drone metal band Sunn o))) ). Green milk is a mixture of goats milk, honey and spirulina powder. The spirulina is a reference to shamanic diets that are high in triptophan in the period preceding rituals in order to promote trance, while the milk and honey is a reference to ‘the land of milk and honey’… I think.

During the performance, I think we all had a fairly negative response to the situation and some of the events, but having viewed the video back I am satisfied that it was an ok performance. Not great, just ok. I think that after the performance at The Event festival we all had high expectations.

To begin, we hadn’t sound-checked properly or rehearsed for more than five minutes because we had been focused on the earlier stages of the ritual in our preparations. We had decided to lay out the drums at the edge of the ‘stage’ ready for calling forth the drummers… unfortunately, we hadn’t accounted for how drunk people would be at this time of night and how poorly the selected drummers would follow instruction. In the event, two people picked up drums at too early a point in the performance, and one of them hadn’t even been invited to do so… they also chanted unexpectedly, which I thought was quite good actually. The mixing desk changed hands half-way through the performance for some reason, so the singing bell got mixed out for a bit because the new guy mistook it for feedback! In the end most of us managed to get into a reasonable trance, even if it did result in Ana going a little feral with the vocals, which I personally thought worked really well in the context of the overall event.

- Stuart

Clearing Ritual for Ort

Detail of photo by Dave Remes

Event opens 7pm
Ort
500-506 Moseley Road (opposite Moseley swimming baths)
Balsall Heath, Birmingham. B12 9AL
(The 50 bus can be caught from Moor Street)

Clearing Ritual Score

• Identify the sacred object
• Surround with a ring of salt
• Purify the object
• Light a candle and burn sage
• Identify the toxins
• Transform the toxins
• Produce a continuous drone

Line-up for the evening

Samekhmem are part of the AAS universe

Live Streaming Samekhmem

Samekhmem’s performance live at The Event Festival and for Supersonic (21st October, 5-10pm at Unit 11 Minerva Works, Fazeley Street, Birmingham) will be streamed live by contemporary art magazine thisistomorrow.info

Should show up here during the performance times AND as an archive after the event.
http://static.bambuser.com/r/player.swf?username=thisistomorrow

REACTOR join AAS

We’d thought it would be good for AAS and Reactor to meet during Congress of Collectives and make something together. Groups from The Congress had been invited by Chad Stayrook from Bronx River Arts Centre to use the custom built round table made by J&J for discussions, meetings and conferences, so this seemed a good place to meet up and talk about making a video together.

The table was a bit large for 6 people, so we took out the YES slice and used that to sit around, and chatted about some places and points of significance that had come up over the last few days in New York.

We decided to go somewhere that we all wanted to go and to do something we all wanted to do: this might sound obvious but it’s an important part of making a collaboration fruitful.

The plan was made to go to Coney Island and make a short film in one take that required no editing, partly for practical reasons, but also because it seemed a good way of making something that had a lot of energy and wasn’t overthought.

When we got to Coney Island, it was off season so the amusements were closed, and it was gorgeously bleak. We acclimatised by eating at Coney Islands finest culinary delight ’Nathan’s Famous’, home of the annual hot dog eating competition.

Walking down the boardwalk we looked for inspiration to develop some of the ideas we would include in the film. We saw a man with cardboard signs who told us we had an appointment with God, a T-shirt with a label that said ‘Next Level’ and an action figure of Carl Jung. The more we walked the more amazing things we saw.

On the main high street we discovered a flower shop with two figures of Roman soldiers and a clown girl.

To find out if any of these made it onto the film, watch it here:

Can I get some moles?

Today we carried out a dérive in Manhattan, starting at the New School for Social research. Tom Peyton from DoTank accompanied us for the first hour, but had to leave for an appointment… he looked a little confused at times, especially in the pharmacy.

Later, at FluxFactory, we were joined by Chuck and Justin while we attempted to gather messages from the future that were buried deep within the video we had recorded.

Transcript:
Open up please. Go green. Can you come to the front, please? Health form. I need someone to go and get me.
And sign me. I don’t know where you’re going. He’s here.
Reverse.
I don’t need a bag. Drinking water here. Our evil purpose.
No, no, he was just…
Didn’t buy any. Yeah, it was, like, five kittens.

Want a sailor. I was like, John, you… he wasn’t into me.
I wish you could film that in the subway. I had the eye dropper. That was so funny.

All I got. Is this the real me?

Hey guys. You going that way?
Capture Mark.
Did he get a hernia? Hang out this way.

NORMAN! Hey, yeah, damn. Screaming to the top of my lungs “Norman! We need the car keys!”

You’re stepping on it. A La la lamb.

Stand up Sue. I fight, like, two cats.

Grey stone! That’s a nice present. That sneeze. OK, sure, OK. I know that one’s… yeah. That’s a chicken butt.
I’m not kidding. Are we all clear? Muscle crap.

Thank you. Enjoy.

A virgin put a hole in a little stumble.

Muscle damage. Sure.

Start it from there. Bango bango hot sandwich. Burger. Get that.

Are you ready to order? Are you guys? Uhm… Hot mustard, yeah. Go along. I think an out.

Not very smart. One time castle. Anybody?… Pulaski.

What? Hahahaha

Right, it snowed. What? I kneeled never to come home… See you on third.

A hat? Can I get some moles?

These whole… someone facing me. Get someone’s hair. No, no, rat.

Gotta go down on me. Hey that’s down. Ah… my teeth. That’s all. Order.

Hi, can I get a cottage? Tell all my buddies. He’s all ready. I want some sprag.

I’m impressed by that Catholic sauce. Do you want owls? Three Turk and them…

I got change
horseradish got the time
You don’t want a falafel baby?
Guy’s right there. Man, yeah, basically.
Mhm, alright.
Ahem, yeah. Do you have a follow much?
get over. Dark glasses, head shaven to the side, looking everywhere… ha!
Ozzy loves that shit. Yeah. Oswald…

…and such. CDs sail right through to…
yo, where that at? what part? what street was that thing going?
I think it was miller street.

Bitchy dog

Dreams. I got Thursday off. I work Friday.
grey sky at night. Alice!
Oh my god.
You dropped watcher on the floor, we’re gonna make you eat it.
Dabbo!
Let me get that. It’s a real trail blazer
yeah, little bit
want those burgers to go?
It’s actually like uh. How much are they? Paper!
I want that Flava!
What flavour you want? Uh…. Pistachio.
That’s like they’re all gober metals
The other day
I think some body should feed it
California
It’s Boston, there’s an alligator
we’re gonna burn $30,000
Is there a little burnt sausage down there?
ok fine
On your marks, set, go!
Push through, push through Tara, you can do it
take him over, you can do it you can do it you can do it
hahahahaha
She may be like butter smoosh, but you know…

I need to eat, I’m a human being, goodbye

No, I want to, but I’m too much prepared for lunch I’ll probably go Hey Hey
OK, see you on the bridge, we also gave one to dad
Hi hey, sorry I would
what’s this
X1
thank you put a dot. I like fur yeah, I got a baby person i don’t breaky man i used to watch that i need a signature from you… that terrible idiot woman… i nee you to fill out these forms… oh my god… can i get you both to sign. the bald headed guy…

Ass
Uh, reload, that’s it that’s the one

yeah, time to operate. It’s mom’s appointment.
awesome, we are like quality emporium
yeah, exactly
marketing, yeah. sidewalk, yo
hey cheese
hot, right on the corner here
it’s like a museum, going there right now
working. you not working no more?
I’m fired!
That’s good, take the day off…

they’re building something here, like a bazaar, on the left

hey, talk to my dog angelo, tell him it’s a hot summer

let’s see you hold her
looks like buffy, so army…
right, so what’s going on over there?

yeah, we and hundreds of people, seems pretty boring. Ass…
Roger?

Congress Brunch Meat

On Sunday we met the Congress book editorial group in person for the first time to discuss more about how the publication for The Congress of Collectives will come together. We ate fresh eggs fried over wood, which were good.

and talked about what we had all learned or how the congress may or may not have changed us so far. We came to the conclusion that part of the problems with generating content for the book were to do with the fact that many of the groups had not had the chance to really talk to each other and that a conscious effort needed to be made in order to get groups together in a dialogue. We decided that the best way to do this was by force! We paired groups together by picking their names from Stuarts hat, each group would have to meet the other group they were paired with and produce some kind of proof of that meeting.

AAS was paired with DoTank. We cyberstalked them for a while, before deciding we should just email them and ask when they wanted to meet.

We are interested to see how many of these meetings happen and what kind of content they will generate for the book.

AAS comes to your house

After a late start AAS discussed how we would give our presentation on how our collaborative structure is formed. After a sandwich and some bagels we observed other panels of discussion…
There is a good picture of us here, with a chair blocking most of our faces and Ana is blurred out.

At the end of the evening AAS attempted to merge Parliament and Sunn O))) and other opposing music on the social music website Last FM.

Overall the evening of panels was informative but we were a bit disappointed that the Uber-collective did not manifest in the way we had imagined it would. Perhaps it our DJ/VJ-ing was too much for the other collectives, but many seemed to disperse or leave the room after the discussion panels were over or in some cases before they were over.

Jackson Score

The afternoon was spent walking up and down the same road, inserting a credit card into a metro card machine or ATM and taking it out again. This was repeated with intent to repeat again, here is the score, feel free to interpret it for your own situation. Map here.

1. Begin with a false start, as if you think you know where you are going, then realise you don’t, then return to start.
2. Set off again with knowledge of where to go. Approach the target venue, but fail to gain access.
3. Attempt to buy a map, but fail.
4. Approach a second target venue and gain access through negotiation.
5. Enter a subway station and attempt to buy a ticket, but fail.
6. Try several bank cards in an ATM. Fail to draw out any money.
7. Enter another subway station and attempt to buy a ticket, but fail.
8. Walk to another ATM, try various different cards, before finally managing to draw out some cash.
9. Enter a subway station and attempt to buy a ticket, succeed and depart.