The things that made us: Kidnap

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We kidnapped two people in 1998. Here is how and why. For about 15 years afterwards, the main way people found their way to our web page on the project was by googling “tips for putting people under surveillance”. So, yes, sometimes I have learned unexpected skills on Blast Theory projects. For two weeks Jamie… Read more »

Blast Theory at 30: How we started

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When you’re young you occasionally take unwise risks and we were no exception. Nick is the new kid in Blast Theory (he joined in 1994) and so wasn’t around when we decided to invite a member of the audience to shoot Ju Row Farr and Bruce Gilchrist with a paintball gun. In the style of… Read more »

Blast Theory turns 30

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Gunmen Kill Three

So, Blast Theory is 30 years old. Those freewheeling years of our twenties – all parties, waking up in unexpected places, fraught future plans – are over and it’s time to get serious. Those little shudders when I met people who weren’t born when we started has given way to ones when I’m working with… Read more »

A Serious Game

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Operation Black Antler by Blast Theory

Operation Black Antler is an immersive theatre piece in which the audience are tasked with infiltrating a protest group. In collaboration with Hydrocracker, we are bringing the work to the Southbank Centre in April. I want to explain why I believe this is an important time to tackle issues of undercover policing and why Operation… Read more »

Going undercover: what is Operation Black Antler?

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Operation Black Antler Safehouse

  With our collaborators Hydrocracker, we have just launched Operation Black Antler – an immersive theatre work in which members of the public are invited to go undercover at a protest meeting on the fringes of British society. Like many of the projects we’ve made, it is a risky work that puts the audience in… Read more »

Why we are making Operation Black Antler

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We have just launched our next project, Operation Black Antler – an immersive theatre work in which members of the public are invited to go undercover at a protest meeting. Like many of the projects we’ve made, it is a risky work that puts the audience in a situation they would not normally be in…. Read more »

Operation Black Antler: collaborative project in development

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Blast Theory and Hydrocracker planning in a top secret location

  In 2012 we began collaborating with fellow Brighton based company Hydrocracker. Led by Jem Wall and Richard Hahlo, Hydrocracker have produced a number of compelling site specific theatre pieces. New World Order was a fantastic production in Brighton Town Hall and Shoreditch Town Hall that mixed several Harold Pinter plays; the audience began above… Read more »

Krautrock R&D

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Last week we spent five days doing research and development on a new project. I worked with John Hunter, with Ju, Sarah and Liat from Blast Theory to explore the possibility of a new documentary work about the intersection between the Krautrock school of German music and the radical left wing opposition in West Germany from the… Read more »

Assuming you’re not delusional. . .

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One of our source's of inspiration.

We’ve just had Nina Reynolds and Kelly Page here for two days. Nina is a Professor of Marketing at the University of Southampton and Kelly is an Assistant Professor in Arts Entertainment and Media Management at Columbia College Chicago. We’re collaborating together on a commission for the National Theatre of Wales. We’ve been working on… Read more »

Cash money

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This is an open letter in response to blogs by Bryony Kimmings and Andy Field about money. Dear Andy (who I know) and Bryony (who I don’t), Thanks a lot for your posts. It’s great to talk more about money. Most artists shy away from it and it doesn’t do us any good at all…. Read more »

Reality film

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Film still form Alan Clarke's film Elephant

Today I’ve been watching some of Alan Clarke’s amazing films about Northern Ireland. Elephant (1989) is a classic. So much so, that Gus Van Sant lifted the title and some aspects of the cinematography for his 2003 film about a high school massacre. Alan Clarke’s original is a very different, more challenging film. I can’t think of… Read more »

Disaster utopia

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Daisuke Oono

The next day I did an interview with Daisuke Oono, a journalist with NHK who is from the Sendai area. He was on the scene immediately after the tsunami struck. He spoke honestly and movingly about the tension between being a journalist and a human being in that situation. Most strikingly, he described the immediate… Read more »

Trip to Sendai

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A freighter pushed inland by the tsunami

Some days make me realise all over again what a privilege it is to be an artist. I’ve spent the day being shown around the tsunami impact zone just outside Sendai. We are researching a new project for the Aichi Triennale in 2013 and I’ve come to the area to learn more about the wider… Read more »

Thinking about behavioural profiling

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Today, I’m working on a new project for National Theatre Wales. It doesn’t even have a stable title yet but we’re looking at questionnaires and personality profiling. As so often is the way I found my way back to Adam Curtis. Marx may have provided the best analysis for economic and political realities in the… Read more »