This article is a short rallying call of the power peaceful protest can make in a world now in the hands of divisive mannequins paraded as d

The Confusing Voices Of Free Thought Thoughts inspired by the ideas and words of Mr R Banks, Metadesigners and Platform-7 Image: Courtacy of Metadesigners.org We’re going to build a machine To represent society With wires as Individuals Who refuse to conform to the rules. They will not behave according To expectation And will not respond well To repression. But if we leave them alone They will more than Self regulate They will achieve beyond established Limits. The work is th

Stage two of the Waste.Agency explores the notions of the word broken. To know if something is broken often requires at least the minimal understanding of how something works. Broken Ukulele Image, popestatesPhotography Stage one of the Waste.Agency (Oct-Dec 2014) was to ascertain whether there is an appetite in The City, the UK capital’s financial heart, to engage in a conversation considering the economic system built on consumption and wastefulness. The abstract art on

While researching folk music for the Dead Rat Orchestra's The Cut tour across canals of England, Daniel Merrill discovered that corporate songs were written to celebrate the feat of construction. Corporate Songs was an evening discussion that followed on from this initial research describing how corporate songs have evolved and developed since the early days of the canals. City insurance worker sing IBM Auld Lang Syne outside The Lamb pub, December 2014 IBM Corporate Songbook

Mikey Kirkpatrick, aka Bird Radio, is an originator of storytelling though song and music. Since the inception of the Waste.Agency, Bird Radio instigated the Orchestra of Broken Instruments. Beginning with 2 people the orchestra grew in size reaching 25 people by week 5. Listen to some of the music create by the orchestra so far on Soundcloud by clicking here Every Monday Evening from 5.30pm – 7.30pm – Free Entry - arrive anytime – No musical experience necessary. Photos fr

This blog post asks whether plastics in water could potentially damage power plant cooling systems and if there were a risk identified would it lead to an insurance claim? If the answer is yes, then we want to explore how such a claim could be mitigated and whether it is in the insurance industry’s interest to take a lead role in reducing plastic entering the seas and rivers. Photo: Martin Nikolaj Bech under creative commons _______________ Kloe Wu is on a work placement at

John McKiernan is this week's Londonist Out Loud Podcast guest discussing The Tights Ball and other Platform-7 abstract performance art interventions with N Quentin Woolf on London Bridge train station's platform seven Click to Listen Londonist Out Loud is presented and produced by N Quentin Woolf. This week’s show focuses one man and his tights. John McKiernan of Platform 7 has collected thousands of pairs of used tights and rolled them into a ball. The pair talk at London B

RE-IMAGINING LADIES TIGHTS CATFORD AND ACROSS LONDON BOROUGH OF LEWISHAM GATHERINGS: age UK, Lewisham & Southwark, 10 Catford Broadway, Catford, SE6 4SP Collecting old tights and stockings, public washing, creating yarn while storytelling, a promenade photoshoot before producing something new, this project will re-imagine how women perceive these easily discarded garments. When women wear tights or stockings, how do they view themselves? How does it make them feel and how ar

Was it worth it? : no man’s land 2012 Remembrance The live performance event ‘no man’s land’ on Remembrance Sunday 2012 set out to try and mirror some of the emotions, thoughts, processes and results of people within a society heading into war. Deliberately obfuscous for audience and participants, the intention was to distribute confused messages and misunderstanding in the way protagonists preparing for conflict often mediate their intentions. This essay discusses a questi

Almost a century on, how do people today interact with the Remembrance 2-minute silence? What does it mean to them? Television news bulletins show the UK coming to a halt, people taking a moment to consider the atrocities of war, yet is this true reflection of what takes place? In 2012, Platform-7’s created the ‘no man’s land’ Remembrance event across 10 London Underground tube stations and the disused Eurostar at Waterloo on Remembrance Sunday. Before the event began, all t

THE RITUAL OF 2-MINUTES SILENCE 7 Dec 2012 Creator of “no man’s land”, John McKiernan ruminates on life as a series of interconnected contrived rituals 2-minute silence at Embankment, videographer Patrick Hoelscher* Play disrupts ritual. Whether internalised or on a field, play develops ways of understanding that cannot always be structured in the everyday. Play allows thoughts, methods and processes to be conducted through the relative safety of game or make-believe. Whe

John McKiernan, the creator of the “no man’s land” discusses his personal concerns and thoughts one week before the live performance across 10 London Underground tube stations. When setting out to create an abstract event like ‘no man’s land’, one hopes that it will ascend what it set out to achieve without it turning into game play or dalliance, and something original emerges. The intention of the event was to, in some way, mimic the experiences of those creating plans and

FRIDAY 20th from 9pm Riot Act 2012 Night: Sculpture Presents An incautious amalgam of mutant electronic forms, mechanical and digital animation techniques, computer sequencing and analogue tape edits, the avant-garde and looney tunes. Dan Hayhurst plays digital media devices, reel to reel tape recorder, sampler, effectron and walkman. Reuben Sutherland plays video zoetrope record deck. Psychophonotropic picture discs printed with intricate visual patterns animate when videoe

A beautiful mosaic artwork, in the form of a giant mobile, that for many captured the communities of modern day Margate and Cliftonville. Artists: Maureen (Mo) Black and Jane Black Concept: Maureen Black and John McKiernan Cliftonville and Margate are two separate areas on the Kent coast interweaved in a physical sense yet, as the Moonbow Margate art intervention found, distant in the sense of harmonic living. Moonbow Margate was situated on the very border between the two ar

RAMSGATE ARTS Hi , Just wanted to say how much we enjoyed Remembrance on Thursday night. Great to see something like this locally. We're working on our festival for next year, the third Summer Squall which will be in August. Is there anything we could maybe link up on or include of yours in the event? It's meant partly to be showcasing the best of the area. It would be interesting to have a chat. Yours METROPOLITAN POLICE Subject: RE: Up The Line 2011 Cemetery Per

SUNDAY 25TH SEPTEMBER 2011, LIDO COMPLEX, CLIFTONVILLE AND MARGATE, KENT, ENGLAND Choreographer and dancer Melanie Simpson presented ‘'On the Horizon'’, a site-specific collection of living sculptures. View here A continuation of previous work 'Juncture' in collaboration with scenographer Chan Vi. 'On the Horizon' saw seven solo figures dotted about the local landscape - living sculptures allowing people to see their surroundings in a new light. The performance moved around

UNIQUE LIVE PERFORMANCE EVENT TO TAKE PLACE IN MARGATE CEMETERY AS PART OF REMEMBRANCE New and traditional art forms meet in an exploration of conflict, war and human tolerance This November 10th, the eve of remembrance day, a unique multi-disciplinary performance event will take place in the atmospheric setting of Margate’s St John’s Cemetery. The free event, called ‘Up the Line’, will bring together new media and traditional art forms in an exploration of attitudes toward

Saturday 24th September 2011, The Lido, 2pm Amusing anecdotes from Gordon Clarkson’s formative years working at the Lido to putting on the last summer season. www.gordonclarksonproductions.co.uk Local celebrity, Gordon Clarkson, discussed the history of the Lido and his years as a worker and performer to an audience of more than 70 people. This event led to many emotions surfacing about the Lido in Cliftonville and greater Thanet in general. Committees were formed and new

Free Lunch is a trio of local Thanet musicians who, although they played together almost 30 years ago, have only recently reunited to perform again. The group is comprised of Steve Cope (vocals and guitar) Bob Haines (guitar and vocals) and Peter Barnett (drums). All three have been involved in a wide range of different musical projects across the UK and abroad over the last three decades. The band’s material is original and tends to present a wry, social commentary on every

Soundscape by Claire Hazelton and Dean Wood To Listen Click Here Centred around the 1976 record, 'Tony Savage and Dominic Play the Organ' (recorded live at the Lido), Claire Hazelton and Dean Wood create a theatrical soundscape incorporating classical music, laptop, radio and culinary equipment (for a La Monte Young inspired interlude). Looking back to the Savage's lively Cliftonville, the piece fluctuates between the melancholy of the lost Cliftonville of now and the energy