Experimental Seance I: Session 1 (pre-session) August 29th 2014

August 29th 2014

Present: DI, JM, NM, MR . Apologies: JH.

We met at 4pm in the Barbican, to talk about practicalities (where we are going to have the seances and when). The other main purpose was to invent a number of fictional characters to get in touch with in the seances. The method for this was more or less entirely based on a game-event I designed some years ago. This set out rules for generating fictional characters. When I invented this game-event the characters were people who attended a fictional art-school. I’ve adapted this so it’s to generate characters who have lived on earth, who no longer live on earth and who we can contact through a seance. The rules of the process are as follows:

Each person has a piece of paper and a pen
They invent 3 names of fictional characters
The paper is passed to the next person on left (or right) for each of the rounds. In the next round, the next person picks one of the names and that is the name of the character from then on . In each subsequent round, everyone adds a defined set of circumstances / characteristics to the fictional entity, in accordance with the rule for that round, and based upon what’s previously been written on the paper. The rounds are flexible, but might include:

A drawing of the person
Overt personality
Hidden personality
Cultural and social context
Dramatic situations
Other people the character has relationships with
Overarching theory particularly applicable to the person

The meeting went well. The fictional characters are shown below. They have something of a uniform tone (sad, lonely, complex inner lives). We started another round with more ‘historical’ characters, as this lot all died in the 70’s or 80’s.

The meeting place was ideal. Once we are established working as a group, it seems like a really good idea to take the seances back into the quiet but undoubtedly public space of the Barbican, and indeed other suitable spaces.

Results 1: Fictional Character Sheets as Text

There’s no particular order implied by the order the characters appear in.

Character 1: Barnaby Krupp (rejected: Holly Carmichael, Topaz Finch) (names NM, choice MR)

(DI) Overly helpful, if often a hindrance when help is unneeded. Cannot “take the hint” and always has a word to say on most subjects, but generally a good word to say about most people.

(JM)

Cross-dressing tendencies
In love with mother
Keeps a filing cabinet, locked, full of letters he’s never sent
Chronic indigestion

(MR) Liked prog rock but became embarrassed about it. Generally likes old things, buildings and books. Thinks it’s a shame when things aren’t reused. Proto-ecologist. Liberal politically.

(NM) Born 1942, was unemployed most of his life, living off a small allowance as a distantly-related member of the Krupp dynasty. A succession of temporary jobs in which he “didn’t fit”, occasionally earned some money from a market stall in Totnes, where he moved in the 80’s, before wandering onto Dartmoor in a drunken stupor and dying of exposure… in 1989.

(DI) A life of scrimping and love of the great outdoors was a repeating theme in his life, unsuprisingly ending in many a “scrape” usually involving food poisoning and/or animal bites

(JM)

Mary Billyo: neighbourhood bully. Loud mouthed
Old Mother Jane: kindly, semi-demented
Nerrys Knowle: highbrow, finds herself on hard times. His next door neighbour (much to his disgust)

Character 2: “Dry” Ron (rejected: Squatting Ferret, The Right Reverend Rock-Solid) (names DI, choice JM)

(NM) Self-satisfied, neat and particular, pragmatic, always wondering what the fuss is about, talkative, married.

(MR) He hates the modern and longs for the certainty of the past. Has a brother he never talks about and doesn’t know where he is. He would like to know but doesn’t want to investigate. He longs for someone to do it for him but will never let anyone get close enough to find out. He doesn’t realise he repels deep relationships and is lonely, but used to it. He has sublimated this loneliness into a bluff personality with society and a range of modest collections. These keep him happy.

(DI) ERA - LATE 80’S / D.I.Y ACCIDENT LATE 80’S / LOWER MIDDLE CLASS

(JM) Mirror - Lacan - Symbiotic - obsessive - twinning

(NM) At a family barbecue in the late 70’s his wife shows one of his middle-management workmates to look at his collection of Victorian bottles. He takes this as a betrayal and violation, but tries to treat it as an opportunity for a comedy-routine separate beds that night though…

… or scene showing the ‘break’ with his brother (Rob) who was trying to advise him about relationships… Ron told him he had ceased to exist for him…

(MR) His brother (obviously)

His wife

Jim Callaghan

Character 3: Uruk Ludic (rejected: Finale For, Jonathan Serey Huggins) (names MR, choice DI)

(JM)

Loves kiddies
School teacher
Dry, sardonic wit
Married to a woman w/ health problems
Short tempered

(NM)

Struggles with sexual curiousity about his pupils (hasn’t given in)
Sexually frustrated, compensates by being ‘funny’ but sometimes masking some cruelty
Quite a degree of self-hatred, thinking he has gone to seed and given up, is drawn to the potentiality and possibility of schoolchildren

(MR) Uruk was a weightlifter in the 1950’s who represented Bulgaria in the Olympics. He taught in schools after retirement (due to injury) and lived until 1987, where he died of complications arising from surgery on an old leg injury incurred while training. This was 1 month after his wife died. Thy lived in a 2 bedroom flat in a tower block on the outskirts of the provincial capital. His grave was paid for by the state as a hero as his wife could not afford the funeral costs.

(DI) Still yearns for old communist values while embracing Thatcherite values. Has no time for anything artistic, unless of a decorative nature, and particularly of the “Homeland”. A humble hand-to-mouth existence.

(JM)

Argues with headmaster about politics
Very defensive when people call him on his property portfolio and stock market hobby
Likes to organise children to do marches thru town centre carrying political banners and shouting slogans
Always trying to get one of his colleagues out on a date despite lack of interest

(NM)

Wife Ludmila Ludic

Sexy colleague Amua Bosanova

Headmaster Oleg Brankov

Character 4: Ratty ENnright (rejected: Eagle Eye Backcomb, Philipus Grove) (names JM, choice NM)

(MR) Won school sports sprinting then wet himself. Had 3 fights in 1 year when 16 and lost 2 but hospitalised the boy he beat and gave him permanent damage. Tried to crawl inside speaker at gig but fell out.

(MR)

Keen, happy go lucky
Scrawny but threatening
Unpredictable
Quick to friendship
Not very complicated
Suspicous of casual complexity
Always preoccupied

(DI) Over-compensates due to deep-seated desire to please, based on issues from childhood. Bullying due to lack of feet.

(JM) 1972. Working class / educated father / wasted time at school. Fell off a ladder trying to “surprise” his girlfriend.

(NM)

Status Quo fan.
Non-idealist - would agree with Berkeley in kicking the stone: “I refute it thus”
Cinema-goer - likes Michael Caine but thinks Terence Stamp is a bit of a pansy.
Although he has tried his girlfriend’s mascara “to see what it looks like”
Plays football on a Sunday

(DI) A recurring character is Rita Enright, his twin sister with whom “Ratty” would often play the “did-they / didn’t-they” incest card due to their often affectionate/fights at family functions.

Historical Characters (unfinished)

HC1 : Names DI, dates MR

Pat O’the Field. Flourished 1610, desolate 1640

Roger De Courcey. 1320-1380

Elsa Sangrine. 1889-1919

HC2 : Names JM, dates DI

Cuthbert Delorian. 1882-1931

Wabble Note. 200-182 BC

Francis Oate. 1601-1616

HC3 : Names NM, dates JM

Alice Smythe. 1494-1521

Mary Crick. 1701-1762