CHArt Twenty-First Annual Conference

David Furnham , Middlesex University.
Les Cyclistes.

Les Cyclistes is an innovative touring arts event which creates lively amusing and insights into French and UK culture and attitudes to cycling - past and present. To this end, live performance mixes with archive film and artefacts and contemporary video in intimate settings so the visitor enters a virtual world, which is entertaining, knowledgeable and fun - a popular experience for all. The tour will be launched in Brighton in 2006 and further publicised at York Cycle Rally, before proceeding to locations in France, and the UK.

Les Cyclistes the event…

is an entertaining and humorous portrayal of the passions of cycling. The design and realisation of the project echoes the ethos of cycling. This is achieved through the use of an historic Citroen van and accompanying Marquee to present a short original silent film with live bonimenteur/sound effects and a mixed media performance installation respectively. The event also records cyclists’ stories onto video as its own archive.

Les Cyclistes the film…

is an original, gently comic silent film with recorded piano accompaniment by Stephen Horne (resident pianist at the National Film Theatre, London). The film is presented in an historic Citroen van. The professional actors have been cast for their wide experience of comic performance, physical theatre and mask work. The film will be made during 1-20 July 2005.

Les Cyclistes the installation...

Is the portrayal of the hyperreal world of the complete cycling enthusiast - an absurd world where archive and contemporary footage, memories and live performance, mix and collide. The object of desire - the bicycle, gives the opportunity to explore time and space and social moments about age and gender in a humorous way. The set (based in the cyclist's kitchen) is an upturned bicycle on the kitchen table with a video screen in the cycle mirror. The room has a buffet littered with old magazines and cycling memorabilia. There is a workshop table, a map of France on the wall onto which there is a video projection, and a birdcage with no birds but with a mirror which reflects projected images onto a nearby window and acts as a screen. In the foreground is a practice cycle with an original interactive device, which creates rear view images in two cycle mirrors according to the speed of the bicycle. My colleague, Magnus Moar, from the Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts, Middlesex University, is developing this piece. In the background and 'outside' is a small set comprising a typical cyclist competition podium with an original cut-out figure of the winner and the commentator, complete with desk and video monitor (LCD screen). The videotapes play continuously enabling the visitor to explore freely but at times the cycling enthusiast (the actor) appears and invites the visitor to sit down in 'his kitchen' and then performs, moving about the set as if in conversation with his guests.

The actor's monologue refers to what is happening on the screen without looking at it so creating a 'magical' relationship with the material. The innovative use of surround sound enables the placement of sound in relation to both the screens and the actor. The actor involves the audience through song, story, video, archive artefacts, and the interactive cycle.

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