Whew, another busy week. Hence the lack of blog updates. This week I have been continuing to develop the comb puppet and roughing out some set pieces.
Yesterday I had my weekly evening of puppetry with Bee Daws of Effigy Theatre. We roughed out a set and did some practising with the puppet. Here is an edit of some of our test shoots:

Its been great to see everything pulling together and begin to get a feel for what is assembling itself with this project. Each new piece of progress is very exciting and spurs me on to continue to work hard on developing the piece.

Having the opportunity to work alongside an experienced puppeteer is something that I have hoped for for a number of years, it seems the catalyst for the development of my work in the field has arrived and I am now able to take things to a new level. I have virtually no experience at preforming puppetry to a professional level. Because of this I absorb a lot of new stuff with each attempt and these sessions will contribute immeasurably to developing my ability.

Filming little 'sketches' like this is also really helpful for communicating the development of the project to other potential members of the team (including other members of Effigy) who have not yet made the move to Bristol. Already I have received a  wealth of valuable feedback which helps me to further develop the project and ensure a robust growth of the concept.

Speaking of concept, I have some more ground to cover here on the blog. A few days ago I started thinking about set design for the show and these appeared in my sketchbook:

The idea would be to create simple architectural shapes and cover them in abstract patterns. It occurred to to me that this may be an ideal way to begin to explore the connections between the modern first-world metropolitan that we in the west experience, and the more imaginative, spiritual and ritual focussed communities that still exist elsewhere and were once the mainstay of our existence.

A jumble of geometric shapes, decorated with repeating motifs that evoke brickwork, doors, windows, solar panels, satellite dishes. The idea would be to pay homage to the sensibilities of, say, formline art (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formline_art) or pursian rugs like this one: http://www.jozan.net/distrikter/bakshaish.asp
These aesthetics are crowded with symbols which, while apparently chaotic to the uninitiated, are in fact loaded with symbolic meaning that references their mother culture and tribal knowledge. My hope would be that these jumbled structures would still 'read' as an urban landscape due to our deep familiarity with the aesthetics of large buildings, floodlit streets and industrial structures.

The comb faced puppet extends this concept by more blatantly blending an 'exotic' cultural artefact (a decorative comb) with architecture to generate a character who is an extension of his environment.

This leap opened the floodgates to an array of little ideas involving turning buildings within a modern city into actors playing out little fables about life, death, humanity. There are so many questions that could be put forward with this palette. How do the things we build convey information about who we are and who we are not, who we want to be or be seen to be and how this changes with time. New buildings replace old buildings, new priorities and aesthetics usurping the old ways on a grand scale.

Here are some rough set pieces I made for the puppet testing. I really must start making a habit of photographing things against plainer fabrics.

 Here are some snaps I took of the arm mechanism. I've painted the arm to look similar to the aesthetic of the set sketches. The fabrics used to flesh out the puppet further enhance the blend between set and character. Although at present there is some concern as to the extent to which this makes the character read clearly, so I may need to downplay this aspect.


So this is where I am. In the next week or so I hope to get a few of the following things done:

• Reinforce wrist mechanism (the cords broke a few times during the tests, I need a new thread, some pads on the palms to protect the mechanism and perhaps some shrink wrap on the cord that runs through the copper tube).
• Some bigger set pieces. The vulnerability of the character seems to be a key aspect, a small outdated building among modern giants begins to create a narrative all by itself. There has also been a call for having the puppet cover a greater distance and move around more in further tests, so some larger set pieces will help.
• Get back my lighting rig (with faders ect) to start looking at lighting more.
• Find a way to make the hand movements read better, perhaps white heat shrink tubing over the fingers. 'Think Michael Jacksons glove' says Ben Jones.
• Have a think about sound and maybe make some soundscapes with foley sound (rubbing bricks together, pourning pebbles on things, recording city sounds/traffic ect)

Another busy week ahead, next practice session is Tuesday.