A day later...

I attended a rehearsal last night with Alexis' duo 'Mankind' and they were preparing to record for their album. It is extremely interesting to watch purely for the element of watching them warp technology manually. I told Alexis that that was one of the main reasons I was interested in her work; her use of analog technology and the irreproducibility of her work. She, however, emphasised that this was not an important part of the live experience, but being live is.

Then I went to dinner with Alexis. It was a chance to observe her with her friends and get more info. I asked her about the leap to full-time artistic work, and she told me that there comes a point where you do have to take the plunge and see if you can live full time as an artist. This has always been the last barrier to break for me because of the constant financial instability. Alexis also expressed concerns over being egotistical as an artist, but I have always thought that artists will always be perceived to be this way because they are not conservative, but instead like to show people what they can do. 

Later it became apparent that the arts community in Montreal is very small. They have community celebrities and conventions that they all know of and talk about frequently, and it is not at all like the UK where the scenes and interests vary from city to city. I guess this is also a result of Canada's sparse population density. All the creatives seem to know each other; I spent last night sitting next to one of the actors from the film 'C.R.A.Z.Y.' (one of my favourite films made in Canada).

Today were the tech rehearsals for the performance of 'The Blender' tomorrow. I mainly observed the technical run through and took some photos. It strikes me that there is an element of delicacy in discussing people's work. Some of the work I really felt was too cluttered or too obvious, but I also feel because of this background where 'inter-arts' is such an exclusive arena, that they feel they are truly doing something innovative; they don't know where to draw the line or remove things as there is no scene dictating the framework. It would probably serve them well to class themselves as live or performance artists and then progress on a linear idea.

It was very interesting to see the work coming out as many of these people are professionals in other areas such as dance, and what their interpretation of performance or live art might be. I would have loved to have worked with them directorally, but at this stage I said nothing for fear of being patronising or discrediting their work.

Tomorrow will be a long day with rehearsals in the morning, then a performance in the afternoon...