TEN PHRASES
TIM ETCHELLS
KANAL’s first contribution is 10 PHRASES, a score by Tim Etchells. Tim Etchells is an artist and a writer based in the UK. He has worked in a wide variety of contexts, notably as leader of the world-renowned performance group Forced Entertainment and in collaboration with a range of visual artists, choreographers, and photographers. His work spans performance, video, photography, text projects, installation and fiction. He is currently Professor of Performance & Writing at Lancaster University.
SCORE
On a blank sheet of paper write down a series of ten short phrases or sentences gathered from some of the following sources:
- books, newspaper or magazines
- things people said to you, or you said to them
- things you overheard or read in other contexts
A phrase can be as short as two words, or any length. Make sure you have ten phrases or sentences. Can be more. Sentences and phrases can be in any language. This first part of the instruction can take anything from 10 minutes to several days -you can write these texts down in one go or you can spend a longer time gathering the materials. Once you have the paper ready there are three tasks, each of them 3 minutes long.
One
Set the timer on your phone to three minutes and then start reading one of the sentences or phrases aloud.
As you read join the end and beginning of the single phrase you have chosen – so your speech is continuous and so that (in a sense) there is no beginning or end anymore.
Explore reading/repeating faster and slower as well as reading with more or less force.
Be aware of micro-breaks appearing in the phrase or sentence when you have to take a breath. How might these new breaks (dividing the change the sense of what you’re speaking?
Continue until the timer goes off.
Two
Set the timer on your phone to three minutes.
Repeat a single phrase or sentence aloud for a while as in the first task.
Then introduce a second phrase or sentence, repeating that one.
To finish move back and forth between the two phrases or sentences, speaking them singly or as blocks of repetition, creating a kind of dialogue.
Continue until the timer goes off.
Three
Set the timer on your phone to three minutes.
Read aloud between any number of the phrases, repeating them as you like and continuing reading/repeating faster and slower as well as reading with more or less force.
For the second minute push your voice to go louder and louder.
For the final minute take your voice down to a whisper.
Score written by Tim Etchells
Part of 1000 SCORES
- a project by Helgard Haug, David Helbich & Cornelius Puschke
- produced by Rimini Apparat
- Coproduced by KANAL – Centre Pompidou, PACT Zollverein and Goethe Institut/Federal Foreign Office of Germany
1000 SCORES: https://1000scores.com
