Monthly Archives: October 2011

Our friend Kuba from the Lunchmeat crew arranged for us to have a performance in this newly renovated quayside venue in the centre of Prague.  It is a very nice, completely empty space and, although low ceilinged, the walls are totally plain and either white or natural stone colour – ideal for Tagtooling! Dima’s first task was to get everything set up for the band. Then Jan, Max and David were able to try out the setting while he put up the Tagtool and projectors.I lit the candle in my Halloween pumpkin to add to the atmosphere and then did some spooky drawings of dancing skeletons to test our Tagtool setup. Dima took this photo with his big camera – the ones below (mine) are as usual, not so good! I didn’t take any photos of the drawings I did when the band was playing but here is a photo from the abstract sequence that I did at the beginning of the evening.And some more photos from Dima…As it was the first really cold night of the season there was only a small audience, which was a pity, but the people who braved the chilly autumn weather were rewarded with a great performance from Supra+ – and also were able to enjoy hot wine from the bar!The two photos below showing my Tagtool drawing for Supra+’s set are by Dita Havránková.

Our next gig was on Tuesday in Prague, in the cellar lounge club Wakata, where we were invited by DJ Miki (the artist Mikuláš) to provide visuals for the evening.In this tiny low-ceilinged bar with paintings on the walls and large ornamental lamps hanging above the tables our projections covered most of the space – this was a very different drawing experience from the big auditorium and large flat projection area at the a.live Festival!We brought with us three projectors and two Tagtools. I drew first with one, then the other Tagtool, and in between the drawing sessions I took some photos. Dima was taking photos as well (as usual his are much better than mine!) – so here is a selection.There was a good atmosphere in the bar but it was a very long drawing session for me – the club didn’t close till 3 am!

From Leipzig we drove to Bratislava where we met up with Maki and Iink for a Tagtool performance at the the Design Factory for the a.live Festival. It was great to have this opportunity to draw with Maki and Iink again! Max and Jan played and, as usual, produced a most inspiring and exciting accompaniment for our drawing. Unfortunately I don’t have any photos to show the setting or Max and Jan playing but Dima made these videos of the whole of our drawing performance.

In the past couple of weeks we have been travelling in Germany, Slovakia and the Czech Republic – so there has been no time for me to write up the blog till now!
On 26 September we took all our Tagtool equipment to Leipzig where we had been invited by our friend Katrin Rothe for a five day Tagtoolworkshop for school students to be held at naTo.
For all of the students this was the first time they had seen the Tagtoool – and needless to say it was an immediate hit with all the group! After they had had some time to play with the colours and learn how to animate their drawings, they began to work in groups on the topic of their set project – ‘Saxony and the Saxonians’.
Everyone worked really hard, and on the last day of the workshop the students put on a performance which included live music, narrative and Tagtool animation – in front of an audience of their parents and teachers.Introducing drawing and animation using the Tagtool to these 17 year old students was a new and most enjoyable experience for us. Also, I learned a lot about Saxony and the Saxonians – and the Tagtool certainly found some new friends in Leipzig!

Here is the video that Dima made of our performance in the cellar of this former brewery in Kladno.

On Friday 23 September we were invited to do a Tagtool performance in the cellar of this former brewery in Kladno, not far from Prague, as part of the conference, ‘6. bienále Industriální stopy v Kladně’.

As these two photos show, this is a really great place to create some mysterious and dramatic effects.

 Both Dima and Helena Rosman took photos while I was drawing so I have a lot of visual material for this posting.