Ok, so here it goes...

Ok, so finally I have decided to do it. Here is the whole project. I know it's quite a read... I hope you don't get bored too quickly. Please do comment, it is changing a lot, but this is truly how it all started...

Nervous!

Riot art final copy

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Broken Promises

Ok. True, I did say more info during the Summer, and it is almost November now and not a little piece of news from me. Most sincere apologies, but let me update this sad looking little blog.

First of all, Riot Art is in London, sleeping, but in London. It has been tough, it is not an easy city to get used to. Ah, London. The capital of the UK, Conservatism and... bohemian dreams? broken dreams? Ok. It has all been obstacle after obstacle, in all manners you can possibly imagine. But as they say: when lost, one has only got to connect with those things one loves best in order to find oneself again. Slowly it is happening.

Being in one of the most important art institutions of the whole country -and possibly Europe- does help, but in a sense it is like being in a rehab clinic. Let me explain this:

Riot Art -being born as part of a University project- was a product, a brand and a concept; but inside if it there was a lot more. You may want to call it the soul of the artist or any other soapy thing you may want to call it, the important thing is that it was full of life and ready to get going in a new scenario. When you feel at this stage, full of creativity, inspiration and generally empowered, anything and everything makes sense from all different perspectives. It is that state of "grace" that the Japanese Noh performers talk about, it is "the zone" that so many actors will talk about after a show, or like getting in touch with "el duende" that the great flamenco singers carry inside and with them. However, the process that I have undergone for the past few months has turned out to be quite different to what that empowered artist envisioned for herself. It has now been almost half a year since I finished my studies at University and I still feel like I have not recovered from the full blow I received in the Institution. Yes, Sir Ken Robinson, you are so right. Schools Kill Creativity, even the highest of the highest schools: University, the place for developing critical thinking -oh! and in a Creative Industry faculty- has managed to take me out of the zone and has massacred "el duende".

Why does this happen? What have I learnt from it? First of all that no one should ever make you doubt yourself. Never change things just because others do not understand them, just adapt them so that they can learn from it. Do not betray yourself, your ideas, your values, they are the reason why you are where you are in the first place and you should be thankful for them. And please, try not to take the teacher/marker/audience/critic too seriously. And if you are one of those sensitive artists that care too much about what others think/feel about you (like me) then forget about Education and start MAKING! They only want to educate you, not help you in the process of learning.

Ok, so now that the rage is out, I think I'll resume this post with a big thank you to the incredible work that the Central School of Speech and Drama (my Rehab Clinic for Arts Poisoning)  is doing for me. The School might not be aware of it, but it is making me believe again. Thanks to its effectiveness, its projects, its members of staff, its locations, its spaces, its mentors and its students I am slowly getting back to myself. So Riot Art may be sleeping, but I am fully awake and funnily enough we are both dreaming.

London hasn't treated us as bad after all.

Riot Art's first project

Riot Art was born as a project, but it all seemed too exciting to leave it at that! This is why currently it is evolving as an idea for a future company which will develop many other projects. However, Riot Art was once a very precise project with a very clear objective: to get people inspired for educational change. At the time the student protests began in London in November 2010, I was safe and comfortably wrapped in Scottish education, with my reasonable tuition fees being paid by the wonderful Student Awards Agency of Scotland. In fact, it was such my level of comfort that I left weekly assignments for the last minute, for example, the journey from home to University on assignment day. And perhaps, had I not picked up a copy of the METRO that day, Riot Art would not be under construction, and I would possibly be doing things very differently today. However, I found myself reading about the changes that are soon to take place in the educational system I am a part of, and most importantly about the incredible injustice and discontent that students in England were (and are) undergoing. Eureka! There it was, the idea for my Community Theatre assessment! I had to create a workshop plan to develop in relation to a specific community and since I am a firm believer on basing your work on things you know, what better than education and in particular unhappy student life. As soon as I arrived to University I exposed the idea of Riot Art: Getting inspired for Educational Change and created the following brief: 

Riot Art is a new inspirational project aiming to create original theatre pieces. These are motivated by the current atmosphere of change that the British Higher Education system is undergoing. Its objective is to unite the Educational community through the development and devising of one or more artistic “riots”. This will be performed in public venues across the country, from University campuses to local libraries and even the City’s streets. These Art Riots will enable participants to get their voices across in a pacific and creative manner, engaging with diverse public members through the aesthetics of theatre. This will allow them to exercise a new style of protest in the form of artistic communication. 

The project develops workshops over a series of four weeks and allows any person that is connected to the University sector to be involved. These workshops will encourage an atmosphere of debate in which its participants will exercise their creativity collectively. This will be achieved through contrasting ideas and collaborating with peers. It will construct a new alternative to communication. Its only requisite is that members to be are open and willing to create.

The process will be divided in three separate stages: 

1) Through the first two weeks the participants will be arranged and assigned to different workshops. This will be depending on their background and their role in the educational system, i.e. Students, Union Members and Staff.  The workshops will be designed according to the specific group taking part. 2) The second stage will consist on the exchange of products and the collaboration between the members of different groups, over the last two weeks.  3) Finally, the third stage will consist on the exhibition of the outcome as well as the completion of other forms of communication, such as videos and photographs to be displayed in social networks, i.e. YouTube, Facebook, Twitter...

Along with this I developed my beloved series of workshops, which I had the opportunity to put into practice with my fellow students. It was a success, and once one tastes success one wants a little bit more. Getting Inspired for Educational Change was the first step. Let's see what the staircase is like...

Getting started... always fun and exciting

Welcome to Riot Art!

How exciting it always is to get something started! However new this may seem to you, the rioting started almost a year ago, in a lovely Edinburgh attic with views to the magnificent Castle. But you must be wondering what has led you here, to this sad looking blog with no entries yet? Well, don't worry, all in good time! It'll all get explained rather soon, I dare say somewhere around July 2011.

For now, let me explain that Riot Art is an idea, a little seed of creativity that is getting ready to emerge and shape into something beautiful and rather exciting. You guessed right, it has something to do with Art - and a lot with Rioting - but most importantly it has much, much to do with you and everyone surrounding you. With your wishes, your dreams, you laughter, your voice...

Let's leave it at that for now, but will give you a clue of what is yet to come through the words of the great Augusto Boal...

"Theatre can help us build our future rather than just waiting for it"

Excited?