You, are running the only race that is important – the race of life. The rules for the race are found in God’s Word, the Bible. Every race has a starting point. This is yours. Begin now the race that will take you to Heaven. [Extract from: http://www.lifesrace.com/becomingaChristian.php given out free to around Stratford Station, east London during the summer of the London Olympic and Paralympic Games 2012]
An oddball inventor startles Londoners with images of the city’s future.This witty short proffers futuristic visions of London landmarks by way of a ‘magic’ camera. But while its gleeful inventor turns out to be an escapee from the local asylum, French director Gaston Quiribet may not have been entirely barking up the wrong tree with one of his trick shots - which imagines Trafalgar Square flooded by rising sea levels. Could this be a prophetic glimpse of our great capital’s fate?
unopoo: “A long piece of rope represents a series of waves floating in space, as well as producing sounds from the physical action of their movement: the rope which creates the volume also creates the sound by cutting through the air.” Waves | Daniel Palacios
London was built around the River Thames and initially prospered due to its excellent trading links. These days it makes most of its money through its financial businesses, many of which are located in the Docklands and Canary Wharf, towards the east of London. The problem with these areas is that, as well as being located within the floodplain on low-lying ground, they are quite literally surrounded by water, as the words ‘wharf’ and ‘docklands’ may indicate. You might think that this would have sounded alarm bells with city planners and architects – after all, you wouldn’t go building some of the country’s most financially lucrative businesses in places that contain words such as ‘pond’, ‘swamp’ and ‘marsh’ – but apparently not. http://www.floodlondon.com/east-london/
CLUSTER BOMB [collective], established in 2009 at Dartington College of Arts, are a contemporary performance company whom accept everyone and anyone into their intensive collaborative process towards making performances. As of autumn 2011 the [collective] have embarked up a year-long process towards developing our latest work - entitled Run! City! Run! - From our explorations into “Running as an artistic practice”.  While “Walking as an artistic practice” has reached an established level from artists like Richard Long and Hamish Fulton, the [collective] are attempting to develop the movement, motion and process several steps further, and faster, by using the process of running to develop new kinds of performance and theatre. Since establishing our new headquarters on the doorstep of the monstrous construction site of the Olympic Park in Hackney Wick, our performances have become increasingly influenced by our surroundings of mass-construction, surveillance and control. Many of our associate artists at ]performance s p a c e [ have been the subject of stop-and-search criminal investigations from the Counter-Terrorism units located within and around the Olympic Park. How can live artists express critically their concerns, questions and statements about freedom in their work in relation to the assumed freedom of running? How free is running? Our latest final performance - currently in development production - will critically explore the internal and external contradictions of the physical freedom of running, jogging and sprinting in relation to space and place where local residents are allowed to run around the Olympic Boroughs We are on schedule to start presenting our performance Run! City! Run!  at ]performance s p a c e [, Hackney Wick and other Olympic Boroughs in the late Autumn of 2012. Check our website for further information and dates of our performance www.clusterbombcollective.com or email us on clusterbmb@gmail.com
youknowyourebritishwhen: The Opening Ceremony for the Olympics has been revealed The Olympic Stadium will be transformed into the “British countryside” for the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Games on 27 July. My favourite bit of this is the representation of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland through the use of Maypoles topped with a Rose, a Thistle, a Leek, and Flax. There is even going to be fake clouds which will produce rain, unless it actually rains on the night. You can read the full story on the BBC website here
currioddity: This is definitely me. “Another motive for gloom is grandtsanding, for the bearer of bad news is less likely to get shot than to acquire a certain authority that those bringing better or more complicated news won’t. Fire, brimstone and impending apocalypse have always had great success in the pulpit, and the apocalypse is always easier to imagine than the strange circuitous routes to what actually comes next…” Solnit, R. (2010) Hope in the Dark. London: Canon Gate Books.
conceptlore: I still have no idea why Iris and the London 2012 board thought these are a great idea for Olympic mascots.  Wenlock & Mandeville, two blobs of steel used to make the girders for the olympic stadium. Wenlock is named after a town called Much Wenlock, the place that inspired Baron Pierre de Coubertin to found the modern Olympics. Mandeville is named after the town Stoke Mandeville, the birthplace of the Paralympics.  They’re ridiculous Now I have recovered from the shock of seeing such blatant symbolism used in the design of the 2012 London Olympic mascots, Wenlock and Mandeville I have dug a little further, being sure this would not be the only esoteric symbolism connected to these two characters . It did not take long as I viewed the official video introducing Wenlock and Mandeville . Please view the video below and then compare the symbols I describe and rewatch if necessary . The most obvious symbol is the All Seeing Eye, used here with the cyclops eye . This is pre-eminent in Freemasonry and other Mystery school traditions. http://merovee.wordpress.com/2010/05/21/over-the-rainbow-with-wenlock-and-mandeville/
Dearest Shrapnel, The [collective] wish you a belated Happy New Year!  What a year was last, huh?  Well, the work hasn’t stopped as we’re exploding all over the place again, afresh, into 2012! Here’s what’s coming up this Spring, and how YOU can be involved: FEBRUARY 16th -> LUPA (Lock-Up Performance Space) in Bethnal Green, East London - The other night the [collective] ventured into the fabled depths of the East End to seek out the underground of the underground, the bottom of the bottom of the barrel of performance spaces: which just so happens to be a garage behind a council estate, but by god, is it one of the most exciting up&coming venues - to our eyes anyway. The [collective] are planning to perform at the next showcase on 16/02/2012 (a Thursday for those without your diaries) and we’re looking for intrigued collaborators to get involved and cause a raucous, a stir and a damn fine sight of a spectacle!  MARCH 10th -> THE SUPPER CLUB @ THE BASEMENT, BRIGHTON: We’ve just submitted our application to both their Artist & Musician platforms and are eagerly awaiting to hear back as to which they want us to perform at. If you’d like to be part of either- just state reply stating: a.) your preference to which you’d rather be in/feel more comfortable with and b.) if you play any instruments, of any size, shape or level of skill, let us know! We’ll let those interested know as to the success of either application in due course. + the application hasn’t deadlined yet so feel free to enter yourselves! MARCH 12th - 24th -> BRICKBOX @ TOOTING MARKET, SOUTH LONDON. In collaboration over a fortnight with some very good friends of ours, the [collective] will occupy a site right in the centre of the market owned by the immense BrickBox arts organization. We’ve been brewing up a whole host of ideas for this one, but none of them can be realized without your support and involvement! We’re rather excited by this one as we’ll have two whole days to devise and develop an immersive performance installation in a thriving market, mixing with the locals and bringing a little explosive intervention into the heart of a community eager for more!  MARCH 29th -> PILOT @ THE MAC, BIRMINGHAM CANNON HILL PARK: We’ve applied to perform as part of the FIERCE! festival 2012 showcase of emerging artists and companies, as part of their PILOT night event. We’ve applied to develop a piece of site-specific immersive and interactive performance either inside the arts centre or in the park itself. The [collective] are venturing there this weekend to look around the grounds and dream up more harebrained and madcap ideas to show the old dog Birmingham we’ve still got it, as if we’d never left..! This one’s a good one for any Northeners & Midlanders wanting to get in involved but without having to trek down to the Capital, so get in touch! APRIL 19th -> JOURNEYS ACROSS MEDIA:  Time Tells: Temporal Excavations in Film, Theatre and Television:  We’re just putting the finishing touches to our application to present a performance lecture on lengths of time in sport and art as part of this annual interdisciplinary conference. So if you can spare some time, then spend it working with us on this!  MAY 31st - JUNE 3rd -> ACCIDENTAL FESTIVAL @ CAMDEN ROUNDHOUSE, NORTH LONDON: We’ve been in conversation with the Festival organizers and we’re confident that they’ll accept our application to perform as part of one of the biggest showcases of contemporary performance in London this summer, so don’t delay and say you’ll be part of it too!(and for a sneaky peek at one of the ground plans for our scene - check out the blog post here: more coming soon!) Well- that’s plenty to get your teeth into for now,  REMEMBER: if you want to express limited commitment but maximum interest but just-don’t-quite-where-to-start,  then reply with e.g. 1 = Y. 2 = N. 3 = Y. 4 = Y etc. As ever with our projects we offer free accommodation, food and contributions to travel expenses to help us realize our projects. Please feel to enquire as to what’s on offer for each opportunity. We look forward to hearing from you all,  Simul Cadamus -> Solum Ferire! [Together We Fall -> Alone We Strike!]
Having chanced upon hearing about an open-air theatre called ‘The Scoop’ right on the south side of the river Thames, right next to Tower Bridge, I took a derivé and discovered a new kind of amphitheatre.  To my pleasurable surprise, I found a personal trainer pep-talking and pushing a middle aged City worker to lift an oversized shot-put weight around the circuit of the space, his breathing echoing eerily in time, cut off by the sharp erudite commands of his trainer urging him to work harder…The performance of intimate intensive exercise held within the public site of an area, turned arena, becoming theatre… …a theatre for public spectacle surrounded by the theatre of private investment capitalism… I heard they have a summer programme of fringe theatre, music and live events: Wouldn’t this be the perfect location for a performance of Run! City! Run! (?) Right by rapid waters of the river that could one day destroy the city in a near, yet disputed, future… Joggers and athletes frequently cross along the embankment of the river allowing for the opportunity for ‘invisible’ theatre with spect-actors… The amphitheatre itself is ‘circuit’ shaped, allowing for runner to run around and out again… Right in the heart of Central London, the place couldn’t be more perfect to bring the expectant and unwitting audience together in the public context… Given its postmodern architectural spin on the ancient site and space of the amphitheatre, the acoustic potential for the space would be superb for all kinds of ‘surround sound’. Now- who do I contact to get us the gig?!
runningalexandria: borrowing this from the Lululemon Facebook page, because those signs are awesome. love lulu <3  https://www.facebook.com/lululemon  “The marathon has been subjected to cultural analysis, being seen as a symbol of late modernity. Jean Baudrillard, doyen of postmodernists, saw the New York Marathon as ‘suffering freely entered into as we might speak of a state of servitude freely entered into’. Others have called it ‘flagellationist-delusion’. Reminding us of the first Marathon man, 2,000 years ago, Baudrillard seems, for him, that the overwhelming majority of the runners do seek a victory; they run ‘simply in order to feel alive’. This is in spite of the fact that they become increasingly decrepit by the hour - ‘from the competitive athletic types who arrive first to the wrecks who are literally carried to the finish line by their friends’ . ‘Do we have to prove ourselves to exist?’ queries Baudrillard. However, while he seems happy with the ‘Promethean ecstacy of competition, effort and success’, this may be how the decrepit wrecks (perversely) see themselves performing, ‘fetishitic’ tough it may be.” (Bale, J. 2004. Racing Cultures: Racing in Time and Space. London: Routledge)
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