Taylor: And then for me that’s linked to the fact that in everyday life it’s typically the head first then the body, we’d obviously aim to create a space where there’s the opposite of that. Jimmy: In theatre there’s a lot of “oh what does the body understand” and that’s just shaky ground. I think we should be more rigorous with how we talk about these things, we’re fairly sure that the brain processes everything first, but it’s what part of the brain, it’s what part of the brain we’re engaging which can give the illusion of the body being activated. Tay: That there’s a feeling part of the brain perhaps. Jimmy: But of course we’re very interested in that in ideas, in intellectual ideas, there is emotion, that I don’t think of something in a vacuum and feel later, which kind of goes against what we just said, but its somehow that, thinking and feeling are not just reciprocal Liam: …I think it’s that they’re not mutually exclusive. It’s important to note that it’s not that there isn’t an intellectual content in our work, it’s that we always want that to come second, and again taking it back to the noise art element, its part of the appeal of that, that noise art is so attractive because we punch straight in, It’s one thing that we can guarantee, these sound waves will hit the body and they will have an impact. I think both always exists, I think to treat the two as mutually exclusive would be dangerous. We have an interest in immersing the senses. I suppose the materials we choose have an aspect of that, when we flood the stage with soil we’re not just creating a visual effect we’re creating a smell and a world and an atmosphere that people will walk into.
Before leaving this conversation we would like to pose a question about the nature of the relationship of your art with your audience. Does Between Teeth consider the issue of audience reception as being a crucial component of your decision-making process, in terms of what type of language is used in a particular context?
Jimmy: As a director I’m always the first audience member. And if it moves me, and continues to move me, even when I’m tempting to out manoeuvre myself, then that’s what I trust to be on stage. Taylor: It’s hard for me as a performer because I know sometimes I can be going through the wildest trip of my life, crying my eyes out, and somebody will look at it and say “That’s fucking shit”. And alternatively, I can be going through something and be like “I am totally not in this” and people will be in tears and be like, that was beautiful. So it’s difficult. Jimmy: Also, nobody has seen our work yet… Taylor: The students that have seen it, I don’t really mind if they like it or not because it moves us and therefore we trust that, for the people it will move, it will be meaningful for them. It will move them and that’s all that matters.
Liam: Obviously we’re always making it for someone, we’re not creating our art in a vacuum, otherwise why would we bother putting it on in The Bunker in the first place, we want people to see this, it’s always being made for people to observe, for people to experience.
Jimmy: We don’t second guess what the reception is going to be, that’s developing as they see it. We trust that the collision of us in the space will be something that they can come and be moved by. Tay: And what we’ve entrusted in Jimmy is the fact that he is our first audience member and if it works on him, then we have to put our faith in that, because that’s all we have to go on.
Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts Between Teeth. Finally, would you like to tell our readers something about your future projects? How do you see your work evolving?
Jimmy: There’s a lot more we’ve only just started to scratch the surface of: What sound can do, there’s a lot more work to do with the sound. For example in Perpetual, there’s certain attempts to animate sound in the space it being an energetic phenomenon, but there’s a lot more you can do with understanding the expressions of that sound, for example can you assemble those energetic expressions into a kind of entity itself, to give the illusion that it is an expressive being, not simply an energetic presence. Can sound be a performer? But really have a certain life to it, have its own expressions? And if so, where are those expressions, what can they relate to, what can sound do to the performer? Taylor: We’re always evolving with the work and I don’t know how I evolve I just keep following things that intuitively feel right and keep mining myself to eradicate any kind of shit that’s going to get in the way. And I hope that what I glean from that will be reflected in the work in a positive way, in a way that progresses it, evolves it. Liam: I feel reluctant to answer that question, I think the only thing we can do is to remain, as I think we have been doing, completely open to any direction. If you told me last year that Perpetual was going to be an Opera I wouldn’t have the first clue as to how, why, or to what end that would happen. I honestly think that the only thing we can do is remain open and keep digging deeper into what we’re doing and the answers will reveal themselves Jimmy: All I know is that time is going to run out for us before the ideas do. Between Teeth’s debut performance ‘Perpetual: A Sonic Opera’ will be playing at The Bunker from the 22nd of June until the 1st of July. It’s an original Opera, composed by a Noise-Artist called James Shearman, is set in the Tomb of Lazarus and explores the human survival instinct and our relationship to the phenomena of time.
Check: www.between-teeth.com for more info, follow us on Between_teeth_ and like us on facebook.com/betweenteeth to keep up to date with the latest.
Tickets: www.bunkertheatre.com
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