Rehearsal room

PS² receives many proposals and ideas for projects during a year and only very few can be realized. In 2009, PS² offered the ‘9-5 residency’ for artists to use the space for the duration of one day to develop and display new work. Similar and again selected through an open call, 'Rehearsal room' gives artists, cultural producers and groups the opportunity, to us the small, 23 m² space to create a site specific project, action, performance...,lasting between 4hours and 5 days.
Rehearsal Room seeks to open up the space, both in terms of more- but short- projects to work and be exposed in an art space and through the inclusion of groups or artists working with participants to prepare work, later displayed or performed at different/ outside locations. The project has two parts to increase the input and variety of contributions.

Rehearsal room- part 1: 30 October - 24 November 2013

Wednesday 30 October - Saturday 02 November 2013
1] John Robinson: ‘Artificial atmospheres’
J. Robinson's recent experimental work has involved the use of materials and devices that mimic natural phenomenon such as; pools of water, controlled lighting and projected imagery...

Monday 04 - Thursady 07 November
2] Shelby Hanna:‘Two day dust’
Two-day dust storm will be composed of a variety of domestic powders, e.g. baby powder and flour. ..The entire gallery space is filled with dust and the the movement of the air is visible from the outside.

Friday 08 - Monday 11 November
3] 2N: ‘Minecraft Drawing Office’.
Project with young people 2N will play and use the 'minecraft' computer game to recreat the whole of Donegall Street. The sessions are projected to the wall and screen shots will be printed out in large format.

Wednesday  13 - Friday 15 November
4] Miriam Witts: ‘Public Lie-ability’
M. Witts will address the simultaneous proliferation and stigmatisation of the telling of ‘lies’ in our day to day goings-on. She invites audience members to come and experience a One to One performance that provokes thought on their relationship to lies, falsehoods and fiction.

Monday 18 - Friday 22 November
5] Robin Price, Sharon Kelly: ‘Process Lab’
Multidisciplinary project, bringing together digital art and art grounded in the practice of drawing. R.Price and S.Kelly will set up drawing material, projection and recording equipment and spend 4 days in a reactive, collaborative process, entailing real drawings, filmed drawing activity and interwoven sequences of animated data and drawing process.

Saturday 23 - Sunday 24 November
6] Iain GriIffin: Translations
In 2010, I. Griffin produced a new work in which he recited an Irish language poem, a language he does not speak, to an audience. The piece explored notions of alienation and cultural identity within Northern Ireland particularly relating to language. He will use PS² to develop and experiment with this concept further.

Rehearsal room- part 2: 06 January - 01 February 2014

Monday 06 - Friday 11 January
7] Brendan Jamison: ‘Intelligence Gathering’
As part of his long term research project into American spy activities during the Cold War in West Berlin, Brendan Jamison will transform PS² into a research hub featuring drawing, collage, sculpture and photography. The 'Intelligence Gathering' project will cross-pollinate aesthetics with history, politics, geography, architecture, linguistics and the world of espionage. www.brendanjamison.com

Sunday 12 - Monday 13 January

8] Cilla Wagner/Sharon Kelly: ‘Process-shop’

Process-shop' an experimental drawing / making workshop with Cilla Wagner & Sharon Kelly.
Free for all between 12-5pm (break from 2- 3pm). PLEASE BOOK: Email treehouse4@virginmedia.com or contact Cilla & Sharon on facebook.
Theme: Using word / materials as starting points to explore the notion that the ‘process is more important than the outcome’. Further info: all Materials provided. This workshop is FREE, EXPERIMENTAL, NO PREVIOUS 'ART' EXPERIENCE NECESSARY! We will begin at 12noon and take a break at 2pm. Participants should leave the space for an hour and return for the second part of the workshop at 3pm. The end of the workshop is 5pm. The outcome will be left in the space for one day only on Monday for the public to see. Opening hours Monday 1-5pm.

Tuesday 14 - Wednesday 15 January
9] Sinéad Breathnach- Cashell: ‘A players guide’

Active workshop for ideas and explorations towards a map, indicating how the city center can be used as a series of self-organized playgrounds.

Thursday 16 - Saturday 19 January
10] Brian J Morrisson: ‘Measure Twice, Cut Once’

Construction of a site-specific hanging mechanism for tow personal photographic images together with the father of the artist.  'One of my aims is to encourage my father to examine contemporary sculpture and architecture beyond its functional capabilities, in an attempt to develop his understanding of my artistic practice.'
Open Saturday, 11am-3pm.

Monday 20 - Wednesday 22 January
11] Chatterbox production: ‘Ideas workshop’

Chatterbox will develop and kick start a piece of new writing by Seamus Collins, based on the life and works of Victorian poet and artist Edward Lear.
Day 1: working with actors and writer responding to Lear’s poetry and work.
Day 2: production meetings with relevant parties.
Day 3: give space over to writer to get his initial ideas down. Afterwards group session to reflect on the work so far and the plans for the project.
For more info see

Thursday 23 - Saturday 25 January
12] Azahara Cerezo & Mario Santamaria: ‘Actions in between the rescue’

“Actions in between the rescue” is a group of interventions that explore the armband as an element of identification in conflict contexts. In this occasion, we will produce a limited edition of an armband in relation with the macroeconomic operations that some countries from the European Union are going through. During the three days at PS², the space will be open and accessible to the public. This project is part of the work as international artists in residence at Flax Art Studios from January to March 2014.

Monday 27 January - Saturday 01 February
13] John D’Arcy, Clara Kane: ‘rehearsal’

The glass-fronted space is an ideal venue in which to explore the artists’ recurring themes of intimacy, privacy and publicity in their performative collaboration. ' Each day we will write and rehearse a new performance. You're invited to come and see the results at the end of each day .'
Monday - Friday: daily performance at 5.30pm.
Opening hours: 11am-6pm 28.01.

P r o j e c t   d e t a i l s

(13) John D’Arcy, Clara Kane: rehearsal

One year on from their audio-visual installation Marnabrae at Household, artists John D'Arcy and Clara Kane collaborate once again. This time the duo presents a week-long series of performances for the Rehearsal room project. Following on from their previous collaboratons, the new work plays with the inconsistencies of fact and fiction in the public and private worlds of personal relationships. During the week, the artists will compose and rehearse new performances inside the gallery. The public is invited to the daily performances taking place in PS² at 5.30pm.
The space is also open to the public during the daytime while the artists rehearse.
Monday - Friday: daily performance at 5.30pm. Opening hours: Mon-Fri 11am-6pm
 

(12) Azahara Cerezo & Mario Santamaria: Actions in between the rescue 

'Actions in between the rescue' is a group of interventions that explore the armband as an element of identification in conflict contexts. In this occasion, we will produce a limited edition of an armband in relation with the macroeconomic operations that some countries from the European Union are going through. During the three days at PS², the space will be open and accessible to the public. This project is part of the work as international artists in residence at Flax Art Studios from January to March 2014.
For more info about Azahara Cerezo see  and Mario Santamaria see
 

(11) Chatterbox production: Ideas workshop

Chatterbox will develop and kick start a piece of new writing by Seamus Collins, based on the life and works of Victorian poet and artist Edward Lear.
Day 1: working with actors and writer responding to Lear’s poetry and work.
Day 2: production meetings with relevant parties.
Day 3: give space over to writer to get his initial ideas down. Afterwards group session to reflect on the work so far and the plans for the project.
For more info see
twitter@chatterboxni

(10) Brian Morrison: Measure Twice, Cut Once

In this three day rehearsal room projet, Brian Morrison together with his father, constructst a site-specific desplay installation for two personal photographic images. One of my aims is to encourage my father to examine contemporary sculpture and architecture beyond its functional capabilities, in an attempt to develop his understanding of my artistic practice.'
Open Saturday, 11am-3pm.

(9) Sinéad Breathnach- Cashell: A players guide

Active workshop for ideas and explorations towards a map, indicating how the city center can be used as a series of self-organized playgrounds.

(8) Cilla Wagner & Sharon Kelly: Process-shop

Process-shop is an experimental drawing / making workshop an no previous 'art' experience is necessary.
Theme: Using word / materials as starting points to explore the notion that the ‘process is more important than the outcome’. Free for all on Sunday 12 January between 12-5pm (break from 2- 3pm).
PLEASE BOOK: Email treehouse4@virginmedia.com or contact Cilla & Sharon on facebook.
All Materials provided. The outcome will be left in the space for one day only on Monday for the public to see.
Opening hours Monday, 11 January, 1-5pm.

 Part 1 Participants began with a warm up scribble action using charcoal sticks - mimicking the movements and feel of script / handwriting, but with larger arm action. The surface was then 'knocked back', smudged, brushed over with the hand to blur the previuos marks and lines. They also used an eraser to eke out new marks and lines as well as working again in charcoal. They proceeded by using a combination of two words from the washing line of words, as triggers for further exploration. For example using DENSE and EDGE together...... Some wonderful comments were offered.. for example... " Scary blank page - No more scary when I work and add layers and layers of drawing (history)".
Part 2 After an hour break, participants returned to the space where the words on the washing line had been changed. The new words related to subtle transformation or radical change, for example..... OBLITERATE, CUT, BREAK, RE-CREATE, RECYCLE, JOIN, DISTILL, YIELD, ERASE, SPLIT, FRAGMENT etc. Participants were invited to take someone else's work as a starting point taking a new word to provide the trigger for the process...... They were told that there did not need to adhere to edges of the paper / sheets and could extend beyond the boundaries onto wall, floor and window... Before I had finished the sentence, they were flying! They repeated this activity with a new person's work several times. After the process had come to a natural close, we stood and sat in discussion which was an integral part of this workshop.
For images see. For a review see

(7) Brendan Jamison: ‘Intelligence Gathering’

Belfast and Berlin are often linked by their histories of violence, wall divisions and the respective use of surveillance and espionage techniques. Belfast-born artist Brendan Jamison has just completed the first 18 months of research into a 3 year project on Teufelsberg Field Station Berlin, an American Cold War spy station that was built in 1963 on an artificial hill in the Grunewald forest. 
Adopting a multi-disciplinary approach, PS² has been transformed into a research hub and documentation centre, with walls covered in drawings, collages, sculptures and photographs. The core of the research features 'intelligence reports' created through detailed analysis of the spy station, regular field trips to the site and extensive interviews with former intelligence operatives. 30 reports have been completed so far and an estimated 60 more are to be produced.
The 'Intelligence Gathering' project cross-pollinates aesthetics with history, politics, geography, architecture, linguistics and the world of espionage.

In September 2013, the first phase of this research was presented in Berlin to 50 former spies who worked at the listening station. They flew in from America to celebrate a 50th anniversary reunion. This remarkable opportunity to interview the veterans first hand has opened up many more strands to Jamison’s ever-expanding jigsaw of events surrounding spying activities in Berlin from the 1950s to the 1980s. The spies also helped explain the mechanics of Cold War technology that was forever evolving throughout the decades. The global consequences of Field Station Berlin interceptions actually changed the course of history and unsurprisingly it became the most famous listening station in the world.

Despite the Cold War having ended in 1991, the stories recounted by the intelligence officers have never been revealed in the public domain and Jamison is using his 5 days at PS² to collate the new data and archive photographs they have shared. 'Rehearsal Room' enables Jamison to act as artist, researcher and ‘intelligence operative’, engaging in dialogue with visitors to the gallery on the subject of historical espionage and the role spying plays in today's world. The argument that espionage activities can prevent political catastrophies by gathering intelligence before events occur is forever challenged in the mass-media. However, this research project offers an in-depth analysis of the effectiveness of listening stations and suggests a much broader scope to comprehend the dynamics of intelligence gathering. ~
The project features many new artworks by Jamison which are displayed alongside works by invited artists and collaborations with Peter Richards, Ciaran Magill, David Turner, Mark Revels and T.H.E. Hill (the covername for a spy who worked at Field Station Berlin from 1974-1977).
For further information on the project please visit

(6) Iain Griffin: Translations

Iain Griffin directed the rehearsals of the Irish language play 'An Triail' despite the fact that neither he nor the actors speak the language. The director and actors therefore had to use clues in the text such as punctuation, textual emphasis and occasional words that read similar to English words in order to translate the plot, actions, relationships between characters and the tone, purpose & content of each line. The outcome consisted of a new complex story arc and character relationship structure which presumably bare little resemblance to the original text from which it is based.

(5) Robin Price, Sharon Kelly: Process Lab

This multidisciplinary project brings together digital art and the practice of drawing. Robin Price and Sharon Kelly will set up drawing material, projection and recording equipment and spend 4 days in a reactive, collaborative process, entailing real drawings, filmed drawing activity and interwoven sequences of animated data and drawing process.
To read a review by Slavka Sverakova and see more images click here.
In her review, Slavka Sverakova asked Robin Price to describe the technical / programming side if the collaboration:
'You asked me to write to you with some technical information about the process. After meeting Sharon and discussing her interest in doing something linked to her running I suggested she use accelerometers to record her movement. I gave her a game console controller equipped with accelerometers to carry in her hand while she ran and a laptop that would log the data. After Sharon returned the laptop to me I wrote a program to visualise and animate that data in an aesthetic that was inspired by her works in charcoal and pencil and the idea of the cyclical motion of her hands while running. The program was very simple, it maps her hand’s acceleration to points in 3D space and then draws curves through these points. As it advances through the log of data it draws out the new points and deletes the older ones, creating a trail like effect.'

Friday, 22.11.2013, Robin Price, Sharon Kelly: Process Lab. Images- Robin Price. Sharon Kelly describes her part in the project in Slavka's review: 'The collaboration with Robin Price came about as a chance encounter while I was creating the work for “Liminal Space of the Runner” (2012 / 13). I was making a body of work about the experience of running and exploring the parallels with drawing experience. I had recorded a run by attaching a small camera to my arm and this had caught sound and motion-scape while on a run. However I spoke to Robin about the possibility of ‘mapping’ the run in a different way – the actual movement of my body as I ran. Robin fitted me up with an accelerometer (wii-mote), with which I ran, like a baton in the hand. I carried a netbook in a small rucksack on my back that collected the data from the running movement / wii-mote. Robin then took the data and attempted to animate the data in a style that complemented my drawing.'
For more information see the project blog

(4) Miriam Witts: Public Lie-ability

In her short rehearsal project, Miriam Witts addresses the simultaneous proliferation and stigmatisation of the telling of ‘lies’ in our day to day goings-on. She invites audience members to come and experience a One to One performance that provokes thought on their relationship to lies, falsehoods and fiction.
Having just completed an MA in Theatre and Performance, her work is placed between a staged performance and improvisation. Her practice based research focused on the enigmatic form of ‘One to One’ performance, based on a relationship between ‘one’ and an ‘other’. It is a unique performance mode that addresses the development or destabilisation of a relationship between the performer and one audience member at a time. ‘I am offering a chance for members of the public to experience a One to One performance that is in itself a ‘finished product’, but remains an indefinite article without their contributions, it marks an exciting development in the role of the audience in theatre. The premise of this project is that it is open to everyone and anyone whether they’ve a significant interest in performance or are simply walking past and wanting to see ‘what it’s all about’. ‘

(3) 2N: Minecraft Drawing Office

2N- second form classmates from a secondary school in Belfast, will play and use the 'minecraft' computer game to recreate the whole of Donegall Street. The sessions are projected onto the wall and screen shots will be printed out in large format every now and then.
Minecraft is a computer game designed by Swedish programmer Markus Persson and developed and published by Mojang in 2009. It is in some way ‘Lego on computer’, either played by one player or virtually online with others (sitting at different locations).
‘Minecraft is a game about breaking and placing blocks. At first, people built structures to protect against nocturnal monsters, but as the game grew players worked together to create wonderful, imaginative things. It can also be about adventuring with friends or watching the sun rise over a blocky ocean. It’s pretty. Brave players battle terrible things in The Nether, which is more scary than pretty. You can also visit a land of mushrooms if it sounds more like your cup of tea.'
Quote minecraft website 

It is debated in forums and schools, if minecraft is one of the better computer games and the many hours youngsters play every day are not wasted.
For PS², the proposal sent in by some 12 year olds sounded convincing, fresh and possibly full of mines.
Outcome: The 12 to 13year olds met for three 4 hour sessions in PS², some others joined online from home. One computer was linked to a data projector and the screen view projected onto the wall for everyone to see, especially for passers-by. With some visitors coming in, it was interesting to see how the children were quickly drawn into the game and design possibilities. The parents meanwhile formed a small minecraft addiction-support-and control support club. There will be some open sessions during the project:
Friday, 08 November 6-9pm Saturday/Sunday 09/10 November, 1-5pm. Monday 11 November opening hours 1-6pm.

(2) Shelby Hanna: Two days dust

“For eight years dust blew on the southern plains. It came in a yellowish-brown haze from the South and in rolling walls of black from the North. Children wore dust masks to and from school, women hung wet sheets over windows in a futile attempt to stop the dirt, farmers watched helplessly as their crops blew away." 1
"During the drought of the 1930s, the unanchored soil turned to dust that the prevailing winds blew away in clouds that sometimes blackened the sky. These choking billows of dust – named "black blizzards" or "black rollers" – reached such East Coast cities as New York City and Washington, D.C. and often reduced visibility to a meter or less.
On November 11, 1933, a dust storm stripped topsoil from desiccated South Dakota farmlands in just one of a series of bad dust storms that year. Then, beginning on May 9, 1934, a two-day dust storm removed massive amounts of Great Plains topsoil in one of the worst such storms of the Dust Bowl. The dust clouds blew all the way to Chicago, where they deposited 12 million pounds of dust. The Dust Bowl forced tens of thousands of families to abandon their farms. Many of these families, who were often known as "Okies" because so many of them came from Oklahoma, migrated to California and other states to find that the Great Depression had rendered economic conditions there little better than those they had left.” 2

Shelby Hanna’s work focuses on the life inherent in inanimate objects and the origins of consciousness. Her sculptures and installations highlight the magical in natural phenomena. Her practice often involves the production of small, intimate and familiar objects enlivened and given narrative through titling. Common to her work are elements such as glass, fur, water, resin, powder, and antique furniture. She explores elements of her own local history interest in the “fly-over states” and how the middle of America is metaphorically an ocean meant for crossing. Shelby Hanna (b. Tulsa, 1987) works in Dublin. She has recently completed a Master of Fine Art with distinction from the University of Ulster. She earned a Bachelor’s degree at the University of Oklahoma in 2009.

(1) John Robinson: Artificial atmospheres

John Robinson's recent experimental work has involved the use of materials and devices that mimic natural phenomenon such as; pools of water, controlled lighting and projected imagery. For this project he constructed a tent, collected branches and worked with light and fog machine.
To read a review by Slavka Sverakova and see more images click here.

Open call (Now Closed)

Rehearsal room @ PS² - call for proposals
PS², Belfast, offers artists, performers, architects and creative practitioners its space for a series of short residencies, lasting between 4 hours and 5 days. The 23 m² shopwindow room can be used for performance, research, office work, hide out, workshops, studio, cinema, museum, living room, shop, showroom...
The residencies will run in two parts: Part 1. 21 October - 23 November 2013
Part 2. 06 - 31 January 2014.
PS² will provide
-its space
-equipment: projector/ tv’s-dvd players/ internet/ tool box/ coffee machine…
-practical assistance and invigilation
-web presence
-small fee

Please send a short proposal + few images until 19 October 2013 to: pssquared@btconnect.com.
We encourage all creative practitioners, professionals and amateurs, part-time and full time dreamers, hobby and master visionaries, individuals, groups or organisations to submit a proposal. The short projects do not have to be a finished product or have a fixed outcome. In the contrary, they might only be a first step for further projects, a test run and experiment of a process, performance, initiative, display and forms of distribution.
For PS² this is a great opportunity as well: to see a wide variety of cultural expressions, to make new contacts and to open up the (art)space for more diverse activities.