Sex Tape - The Musical
Alaska Projects
Kings Cross Car Park level 5
12:00pm 21.08.12 - 12:00pm 22.08.12
The above performance shots are several of the documentation fragments from last week's twenty four hour Sex Tape performance. The intention for me with this performance was simple; to resolve some creative arguing i'd had with myself over what way to go in my slowly developing musical direction. The drama took place in a recently adopted storeroom in the Kings Cross Car Park by Alaska Projects. My one-man play involving three different characters, the long dispute involved one character (1) who played an ambitious young rock guitarist, another (3) who represented a more anti-establishment, artistic 'non-musician' and lastly another character (2) who acted as a the mutual friend/enemy between the two and often directed the discussions and frequent arguments. The change from one character to another was suggested by a subtle change of outfit between the characters and they generally had their set places in the room when acting.
Giving this inner discussion a dramatic public forum had the absurdest qualities l artistically enjoy and should that have become boring, the twenty four hour opportunity to play undisturbed with my music gear would make it worthwhile. The answers l was looking for were discovered early in, after about three hours having the assistance of the wall to document the discussions on (see photo 4) I decided that live music audiences today are more contemplative and needed to be treated that way, that l should be aiming for more of an ambient direction; lengthening out performances and trying to achieve my aims in more subtle ways. Like most current live music fans l would have really enjoyed to have lived and partied in a time before draconian OH&S measures and over zealous venue management, or maybe just when live shows were more volatile and extreme for reasons somehow lost these days, but given the current tamer attitude, l thought that was one of the most productive discussions l had with myself (technically) during this Sex Tape performance, something will be took on board with my next bedroom show in the coming week.
Until l'm too old to continue performing under the title Sex Tape with any dignity, it will always remain an imaginative creative outlet used again and again in performances like this. I tend to think Sex Tape has probably been used by some other group somewhere in the world with at least a few releases under their belt so it wouldn't fly for long with me adopting the name anyhow. Proper music releases as with all my output will simply go under Jim Shirlaw in future.
My very best wishes
Jim S
