Music Concrete Workshop
“Wherever we are what we hear is mostly noise. When we ignore it, it disturbs us. When we listen to it, we find it fascinating”. John Cage The workshop examines the sound and peripheral noise of everyday life and our surroundings when we take the time to stop, listen and hear sound in a different […]
***^TAPE~BAKERY^***
Zam Zam Rec and Bumtapes return following their FAG Radio live-streaming recording project at Supernormal 2013, this time bringing their converted Art B Tape Tent – an inter-space laboratory, dub zone, bakery, studio-sound-editing + copy place. Roving around the festival recording music & sounds ((fragments of live sets, wind, trees, words and fire they will […]
Animal Magic Tricks
In the spirit of communal improvisation and flipping off the performer/artist-audience divide, these workshops will find out what happens when sampling and remixing are applied collaboratively, by the audience, to the live shows they’ve been listening to. Frances Donnelly (Animal Magic Tricks), Ed Shipsey and Chris Torry (Office of Aurora) will be leading festival-goers through […]
Apple Swan Carving Workshop
From a single apple festival goers will learn how to carve their own swan using nothing more than a sharp knife. The workshop will take participants through a step by step process of how to create their very own swan which will become part of a show table reminiscent of a country show. The public […]
Baby Bolide Session
An early morning open jam session for kids or indeed anyone whose brain is soft enough. Warm up the Church of Chaos for the day. Lots of instruments will be on hand, kazoos all round. Show the old bastards how to do it properly. fully amplified if they’ll let us. Fully CRBd social care types […]
Chutney 7 – The Magnificent Seven
‘Chutney 7 – The Magnificent Seven’ is a multifaceted, interactive live art event, which draws on the spirit of celebratory public assembly dating back to prehistory. Appearing in the guise of a fete, country fair or rarey sideshow, it is an ‘organic’ public art work, presenting the public with a humorous and thought provoking display […]
Composition
Composition: a simple sculpture made of panels accessible to adults and kids alike. Each panel consists of an acrylic piece, with contact mics attached to the back, hooked up to effects pedals. Ink is rolled onto the acrylic and a piece of paper on top. Drawing onto the paper, each mark will produce a sound; […]
Crazy Comic Club
Join best-selling cartoonist James Parsons for an eye-popping workshop of comic art craziness. Learn secret cartooning tips, design and build your own pair of genuine working X-Ray Spex, draw secret code comics, and explore some of the basic techniques of pop-up comics. This workshop will be suitable for children aged 6+ and grown-ups too, all […]
Crochet a Letter
A guided craft activity utilising various crochet bits, coloured wools and banners. Participants are invited to learn the simple art of crochet to make letters spelling out words or phrases by the end of the session and over the weekend, and to contribute to making a group Supernormal banner. Crochet is the new knitting don’t […]
Cyanotype Workshop
Using this historic photographic process from the 19th century you will be able to create beautiful blue prints using the natural environment of the Braziers site. Come along any age and create your own supernormal blueprint.
Direct Action Filmmaking
The ‘instant’, readily available bright pictures of today’s cinema rely on hi tech gadgets and sometimes lack the mystery and aura that the ‘hand drawn’ possesses. This workshop, run by film-maker Vicky Smith, invites participants to mark film using the full physical body. This method joins the human pulse to the beat of the film […]
Drone Yoga
On Saturday and Sunday morning festival goers are welcome to attend a morning yoga session soundtracked by the Church’s less intrusive musicians.
Fancy Dress Life Drawing
With play and interaction as a key part of this activity, you are invited to have a rummage through the fancy dress box to create a character or alter-ego for family, friends or even for yourself. These drop-in drawing sessions explore scale, proportion, tone, shading, mark making and materials in a relaxed and fun environment […]
Ghost F**k Zine
With the very nature of zines as a creative outlet existing away from the mainstream, these sessions will begin with an ‘unlesson’ in breaking all the usual publishing rules. This will be followed by practical sessions where participants have the opportunity to explore different styles, content, mediums and methods to create your very own zine. […]
Hanging My Heart (The Dream Factory)
This weekend long activity looks at the relationship between body parts and sites of feeling to find new ways to express and work through pains, feelings and worries in a shared, collective and creative way. ‘Votives’ are derived from ancient Rome and modern Mexico exploring the age-old practice of embodying the material world around us […]
Holistic Massage
A group workshop providing an outline and information on the benefits of holistic massage. Participants will be shown basic massage techniques and get to practice massage on each other with space for feedback at the end.
Hydroponic Theatre
The Hydroponic Theatre is a pop up theatre that twists above, below, inside, outside and beyond performance through traditional theatre, experimentation, story telling and performance asking ‘what makes a story?’ Using a variety of costumes, props and materials, The Hydroponic Theatre inspires and encourages children’s creativity, allowing imaginations go wild, creating tall tales and small […]
Kids musical workshop
Armed with an assortment of acoustic instruments (percussion, whistles, recorders, and so on), Stewart Keith, Snoozie Hexagon and Olly Tyler will present a musical workshop for kids. The workshop will start with a series of easy-to-learn rhythms, teaching children the basics of music. The session will conclude with everyone getting involved in a free-form improvised […]
Life Drawing
Morning life drawing sessions will take place on Sat & Sun mornings in the beautiful sun-lit barn. Led by nude portrait artist Ben Dickson, these informal sessions are open to all ages and abilities. Materials provided. Anyone who was there last year will recall the calm serenity of 30 people drawing away. Call-out for participants […]
Make and Move
Make and Move comes to Supernormal with their hula-hoops in tow for all ages and sexes. Utilising recycled clothing and material participants will learn how to fashion their own make-shift skirts, headdresses and accessories to create dancing outfits in preparation to learn some basic belly dancing and hula-hooping moves to get physical and move your […]
Marriages
For those who feel the stars align above them, cider and gin unleashing a manic gush of eternal romance, a licensed cleric will be onsite to bond them in what we expect to be a quite surreal exchange of vows. Love is love – it still counts if you’re upside down in knee high military […]
Melt Yourself
This workshop will share and explore techniques in releasing muscular tension with a few thought experiments and reality experiments/adventures thrown in for good measure. Tools and experiments with which you may meet your reality anew.
Mikey Georgeson: The Backwerdz Causality Songwriting Workshop
The workshop uses simple exercises to access the “mind at large” and then apply conviction to the discoveries made. A songwriter is always on the cusp of failure and participants are encouraged to dive in and accept all offers. In the workshop we value the power of collaborative practice and repetition to promote a deeper […]
Morning Yoga
Join Yoga Guru Moses of Chelsea in a bit of light morning stretching, downward dogging and saluting the sun that’s going to be shining all weekend to get you in shape for the days festivities.
Morning Yoga
Yoga guru Moses of Chelsea returns via California to get you high by stretching. So let’s get high together.
Moving Materials
Moving Materials’: experimenting with strange materials, noises and technology Both adults and children can experiment with a variety of materials with unusual properties; making them, playing with them and seeing how they respond to music stimulus. Using variable materials like cornflour, ferrofluid and waterbeads placed on a speaker you can observe the unexpected effects of […]
Open Access Painting Studio
A participatory and collaborative painting workshop with Andy Harper and Abigail Reynolds, to produce a large work that everyone can add to over the course of the weekend.
Phil Minton’s Feral Choir
Avant-garde legend Phil Minton’s Feral Choir, as he has it, consists of “a three day workshop and performance, not only for singers but for anyone who takes a delight in the freedom to experiment. I encourage participants to take a vocal leap and explore all vocal possibilities through exercises and improvisations, over the workshop period, […]
REBECCA E DAVIES – ‘THE UN-SOUNDING PRESENT’
Sound Artist Rebecca E Davies will lead an afternoon listening workshop in the Braziers Park grounds. The sonic imagination will be stretched to perceive the sound of un-sounding objects and spaces belonging to the external and conceptual worlds of the encounterer.
Record Player Orchestra
Initiated by artist, Roger Clarke, the Record Player Orchestra was originally conceived of as an installation of more than 100 record players with which participants could interact by going round these record players and placing their stylus on different tracks on a provided vinyl record. Whether individually or in groups, these participants would be able […]
Roving Camera Obscura
The Roving Camera Obscura subverts covert monitoring technology used more and more on the internet and in society by de-volving the digital/hi-tech approach using ‘play’ to reveal how networks and interaction are more beneficial than one-way streams. This portable system projects an analogue image of the outside landscape within its walls and houses an enclosed […]
Secret Sounds Workshop
SSW is an interactive listening exercise introducing the audience to the secret world of sounds through homemade contact microphones. The mics will be taken out onto the festival site to discover objects that reveal unheard and unknown secret sounds. Upon returning you will use bows, beaters and plectrums to create a piece of music using […]
Sunday Coffee morning with Charismatic Megafauna
Charismatic Megafauna will be hosting a Sunday coffee morning on site (consult The Village Green notice board on Sunday morning for exact location). This discussion led event forms part of Charismatic Megafauna’s wider programme for Supernormal 2014, also including a gig and a screening of recent documentary The Punk Singer as part of People’s Palace cinema programme.
Supernormal Discussion: Temporary Autonomous Zones (T.A.Z.)
“Are we who live in the present doomed never to experience autonomy, never to stand for one moment on a bit of land ruled only by freedom?” Hakim Bey Both Braziers Park Community (our hosts) and Supernormal Festival could arguably be described as temporary autonomous zones. Coined in 1990 by poet, anarcho-immediatist and Sufi scholar Hakim […]
Supernormal Faces
Get creative all over your face and make Supernormal ears and moustaches for the weekend festivities.
Supernormal Zines – The Live Brief
At the start of the festival participants are given a blank zine with a brief to ‘go fill it’ and return for a follow up session at the end of the weekend. By this time you will have created your own ‘limited edition of 1’ Supernormal Zine documenting your weekend experience. The live process will […]
SuperWilderNormalMann
“For a few nights you can behave like a goat, drink a lot and forget about being civilized. You can be a wild animal for three days and then you go back to controlling your wildness.” Charles Freger Inspired by Freger’s Wilder Mann series of images of still practiced pagan rituals and creations from Whittlesey straw […]
Swing Etching Harmonograph
Produce your very own etching by taking a swing on Will Cruickshanks ingenious mechanical harmonograph
Talkaoke
Talkaoke presented by The People Speak. Come and join the UFO of chat with Talkaoke – a spontaneous, pop-up talk-show set around the unique ‘Talkaoke Table’. You set the agenda for discussion so here’s your chance to set the debate!
The Dream Machine All-Stars Present: The Supernormal Orchestra
Supernormal’s tagline is ‘Blurring the boundaries between art and music, performer and audience…’ and here we’re testing our own mettle. For this special, never-to-be-repeated performance we’ll be getting our own Dream Machine allstars to put together a band over the course of the weekend, having a couple of rehearsals and taking the whole thing to […]
The Exquisite Corpse Lives
The “exquisite corpse” is a collaborative drawing game devised by the surrealists in the early 20th Century. You may not know the name, but you have probably played it yourself: on a sheet of paper a player draws part a body, folds it to conceal the bulk of the image, and then passes it to […]
The Gathering
Maggie Nicols presents The Gathering – a space, place and time where we can build up confidence in our creativity; where we can sit in silence, sing, play an instrument, draw, be poetic; prophetic; we could talk in tongues, talk to each other, to ourselves, talk to voices. We can listen, make sounds; melodies and […]
The Pink Milkfloat
The Pink Milkfloat (which is as the name suggests an old milkfloat… that is pink), which houses a self-contained printing press, complete with a vast range of wooden type and blocks which are made up into posters and printed by hand. Activities include printing a pre-made up themed poster, or people can make up their […]
THEE BALD KNOBBERS (ENCOURAGE) BEATING THE BOUNDS
Participants are invited to take a jaunt around the fringes of their territory armed with whatever noise making item(s) they can find. Based upon an ancient Anglo-Saxon custom, this will portray a territorial process somewhat removed from the more serious intentions linked with its origins, though in structure will posses the same ritual of simultaneous […]
TOY ARKESTRA
The Conspirators of Pleasure (Poulomi Desai & Simon Underwood) will fill a room with recycled and discarded noise making toys, and introduce participants to the idea of toys as instruments for experimentation and shared musical improvisation. Have fun and create a “Toy Arkestra” – weather permitting we might even go for a toy parade! This […]
Tribal Tree
Tribal Tree grows fruits of the brain. Graffiti blog tree… Post what you want. In its branches everyone can display slogans, pics, feedback… organic space to exchange objects and thoughts…. Leave it hangin. Street art of the open woods. “Fruits”, “leaves”, banners, paint…are provided (or bring your papers & treasures). Workshops will explore themes & […]
Vocal Expression Workshop
Wholly inclusive voice noise games where participants are encouraged to make sounds with their mouths. Making vocal sound is a primal form of expression, yet due to changes in how we consume music and the rapid decline in community singing, many people (musicians and non-musicians alike) do not feel comfortable doing this. This workshop explores […]
Wall of Karaoke
A ridiculous audience participatory proposition of Graham and Kev sees some poor, once graceful and beautiful karaoke machines sit trembling as the generally deranged public is let loose on them, screaming, bellowing and spitting whatever dark nonsense they wish into their crumbling little microphones. In the last installment of this at a Splitting The Atom […]
We are We
Inspired by the African Yoruba faith with its plentiful coloured Orishas, deities totems, shrines and charms this workshop invites an audience of all ages to manifest themselves as the invented god of anything they want. Find out how to scare off enemies with a feather, get more courage through masks or organize your life though […]
Wildflower Seedbomb Workshop
Come and get your hands dirty using natural clay and organic compost to mix, roll, cut, shape, stamp and wrap your own seed bomb using responsibly sourced, native U.K seed species, print blocks and art materials. These can then be distributed on the festival site or taken away to inject some colour onto city wasteland, […]
Woman’s Hour (and a half)
An open forum to invoke discussion and celebrate the creative and vital practices of women working within creative and cultural fields. Join women from the programme to discuss their significant contributions to the visual and sound arts and consider points such as: – Gender equality and the representation of women within the arts and music […]
ZamBumZam Radio Tent
Curated by Bum Tapes and Zam Zam Records In the Tent visitors of the festival will find an exposition of tapes, fanzines, screen printings, magic objects and a radio corner. In the Radio Corner will be a psychedelic carpet, a computer, an amp and a DJ mixer with tape player, one turntable + microphones. On […]
‘Expanded’ Collage Workshop
Multidisciplinary artist Charlotte CHW hosts a workshop on collage beyond the boundaries of papier collé. Working to a Supernormal soundtrack using found objects, paint, sand, drawing etc participants will build toward working on a collaborative billboard piece to be displayed onsite for the reminder of the weekend. Bring along something found onsite or anything from home you’d like to incorporate. […]