Documentation of the R&D process for The Common Line project March-September 2018. A partnership project between Blind Ditch, Controlled Frenzy, and Geography at University of Exeter with support from Rural Recreation. Funded by AHRC-EPSRC this R&D was kindly supported by University of Cumbria.

The Common Line - AHRC-EPSRC R&D

The Common Line

The Common Line R&D process

A participatory arts project developed from crowd-sourced creative writings by bus passengers about their journies on the D bus in Exeter. Commissioned by University of Exeter, Arts and Culture 2018 in partnership with Stagecoach.

D-tour: thoughts looking sidewards

D-Tour: thoughts looking sidewards

D-Tour: thoughts looking sidewards – single channel video

ICOD_Icographic_05_full

Colourful interactive map of Buckland estate in Newton Abbot

HappeningHere!Map

Happening Here!

An interactive map of Buckland

Culture & Review On Phonic Fm: August 2015: Culture Hour – O-B-A-F-G Special

O-B-A-F-G

Collaborative audio work and radio documentary

A short edit of This City's Centre, 3. Here Now, a performance incorporating live video streaming, staged between a third-floor office space in Princesshay, Exeter and the streets and homes of the city. This City's Centre was a digital triptych for Exeter. Developed by Blind Ditch in 2013 in partnership with Exeter Phoenix, RAMM, Exeter College and funded by Arts Council England, Exeter City Council and Arts and Culture at University of Exeter.

Performers in order of appearance: Phil Smith, Katy Villa, Jonny Rowden, Students from Exeter College, Jane Mason, Lizzy Humber. Music is from Consort of Fower Parts composed by Matthew Locke in Exeter 1660 ca. played by Cat Radford on accordian outside Exeter Cathedral. Camera by Philibert Patricot. Edit Volkhardt Müller.

This City's Centre 3. Here,Now

This City’s Centre

This City’s Centre 3. Here, Now – video trailer

Volkhardt Müller (Blind Ditch) and John Wylie (Cultural Geography, University of Exeter) discuss This City's Centre 1. Window

Private Views and Public Art

A long journey through the city centre shopping centre livens up the morning (August, 2008).

Global Player - the long play

Global Player

Global Player – the long play

A 24 minute documentary on the process and impact of the project including interviews with partners and collaborators. Filmed in 2007 in PAL!

VANLAND Documentary

VANLAND

VANLAND documentary about our working process 2004-07

Short video work using 'home movie' footage created to be used in the performance and installation 'Who Wants to be a Hero Now' in 2006. Edit Volkhardt Mueller, sound John Levack Drever, words Natalie Mcgrath performed by Cat Radford. Child Lena Mueller.

Divine

Who Wants to be a Hero Now?

Divine – video used in the 2006 installation

Young graffiti artist Spike gives our caravan a face-lift. Too many people on country fairs have been suspecting we're selling caravans. No more of that from now on!

VANLAND Trailer 2006

VANLAND trailer 2006

A collection of documents and media produced over the course of 20+ years.

A post-data, participatory cabaret event (in development).

Live Art

Social practice

Hans Kellett in Show Us Your Selfie work-in-progress sharing. Photography by Rhodri Cooper.

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Show Us Your Selfie is a deliberately strange participatory show about the horror and the beauty of contemporary consumerism, and its fierce grip on our social realities. Drawing on and re-mixing youtube hits, memes and DIY internet culture of the last 10 years, it walks a a line between the entertaining addiction of watching our fears and failures being performed through the lives of others, and the repulsion of that participation.

BlindDitch-11

The work was supported in inception by Acker Stadt Palast in Berlin, where the seeds were sown to devise new work that shifts audiences between immersive, instruction based performance modes, and cabaret style engagement. Through an R&amp; D period in Exeter, UK we wanted to contrast entertaining, high octane performance modes, with intimate and nuanced exchanges to explore how groups form, question, and rebel against coerced modes of participation in a social media enabled society. Our ambitions are to surf a rollercoaster of emotional engagement from high entertainment to political provocation, that will help us to understand more deeply the role digital technology plays in our collective social lives.

Show Us Your Selfie is a collaboration between devisor/director Paula Crutchlow from Blind Ditch and devisor/performer Berlin based artist <a href="https://www.princessinhans.de/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hans Kellett</a>.
With the support of choreographer <a href="https://www.jane-mason.co.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jane Mason</a>, composer Joerg Hochapfel and creative technologist Tim Dollimore<span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:1,&quot;335551620&quot;:1,&quot;335559685&quot;:0,&quot;335559731&quot;:0,&quot;335559737&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240,&quot;469777462&quot;:[720,1440,2160,2880,3600,4320,5040,5760,6480,7200,7920,8640,9360],&quot;469777927&quot;:[0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0],&quot;469777928&quot;:[1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1]}"> from <a href="https://themediaworkshop.co.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Media Workshop</a>. Exeter R&amp;D producer Charlie Parker and production assistant Kerrie Seymour. 
Funded by Arts Council England Lottery Fund.