Bomb!

by Alex Hetherington, 10 Apr 2008

Tuesday saw the project go from normality to farce in one easy step: we saw some cops outside of the building, followed by more and a half muffled voice that said “we have to evacuate the building; everyone must leave”. Followed my more cops outside and then, some time later, a head peering round our studio/office/closet door saying, “what are you doing here? (rhetorical question). You have to leave there’s a bomb scare.”

So these are the things that I never thought would happen at the residency: 1. Involvement in Terrorist Activity. 2. Plane crashes into building. 3. Naomi Campbell and John Galliano take a stroll through the park with their dog, while wearing shell suits. All three of them. 4. Bomb scare. Callendar House must be so off the radar for a bomber, it has no strategic significance. Or do they know something we don’t?

So we’ve been working under an unexploded bomb for two months; a bomb from the Second World War, that had no certificate to prove it had been decommissioned. Half an hour later more cops show up escorting the Bomb Disposal Unit and one of those contraptions on the huge wheels and remote control robot arm; they couldn’t use it. The bomb is upstairs. So the army goes in. And nothing. Of course we’re all outside freezing. More time passes and the army guys re-appear and take the thing away. More time passes and we eventually get let back in. Only to be confronted by a panicked irate caterer accompanied by a demanding, angry security guard saying we have no seats for our meetings; and sure enough entering what we thought was a large meeting space turns out to be another closet with two chairs and a table. (Where were these people when the fiasco was taking place?) We have to fit 12 seniors (who can only think right now of warm tea) in here, two computers and us. And no chairs. I drift by the Xerox machine contemplating suicide, as Janie tries to organize the group. Chairs arrive but it’s too late the noose has been affixed to the CCTV cameras…

I get to work with the actor Laura Cameron Lewis and today, Wednesday, we talked a great deal about the work and why I am using House/Lights. We talked about memory, failure, computers, The Wooster Group, lots of things and are working in a great black box space at Forth Valley College, their TV Studio, I find a poster that says “I sold my soul.” We also talked about Synesthesia. She’s fascinating and I am so glad we are working on this project; I feel I was able to articulate a great deal about the ideas I am having about memory, and witnessing its disruption, corruption, disappearance and in retrospect to last year’s experiences with my mother. Anyway more filming on Thursday, we act out the physical movements of House/Lights for the edit. I have to thank Cathy Snedden for organizing this for me at the College. I owe her a huge bunch of flowers.

The reel is shaping up nicely. More soon. And we started getting print back in. I am thinking about how you simulate gold. And how I simulate a vacation because I am exhausted.