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Words In Motion: A Big Chill Initiative
The Big Chill has ventured into publishing this year, with its forthcoming book 'Crossfade'. And for the first time, the festival had a separate literary focus, with the 'Words In Motion' series of readings and happenings. But what place does literature have at a music festival? Quite an important one, we discover..."In the beginning there was the word."
A pretty powerful statement from the Bible's Book of Revelations. And you don't have to get all religious about it either. Modern linguists like Noam Chomsky believe language is formed from an 'inner' grammar already existing inside us. Before we can talk we think. Language is instinctive. We don't learn it so much as we 'remember' it.
What has that got to do with The Big Chill you may think? Well, this year there was a whole 'new' element to the Festival: literature. The inverted commas around new are there for a reason. Because literature has been fundamental to the Festival right from the very start. Just because it didn't always feature at the events as a separate entity, doesn't mean Big Chillers weren't preoccupied with language, literature and writing from year dot. On the contrary.
Words In Motion Coordinator Vicki Howard explains, "There are two angles to it all, really, the spoken word and the written word. Both have always been something that've been on The Big Chill agenda and dipped into in the past. With the spoken word, for example, there was the Sadler's Wells Words In Motion event back in 1999 and there's long been a variety of spoken word features in the MediaMix Tent at the festival."
And Vicki continues, "With the written word, The Big Chill has generated an awful lot of material, from the groundbreaking ON magazine to the yearly programmes to the website features and reviews and forum. This year, having taken stock of the growing amount of literary interest amongst Big Chillers, we decided to amalgamate and fortify these two threads and combine them under the Words In Motion banner."
The Big Chill have long described themselves as 'evolutionary entertainment'. There is no standing still here. And there are no boundaries. It's not a 'music' event, it's a multimedia event. As Vicki jokes, "I could here also start on my metaphysical line about how closely linked music and literature are, right down to their shared neolithic roots in oracular poetry. But I'll spare you!"
There was another reason for the focus on literature this year. The Big Chill's first book. 'Crossfade', edited by Vicki and Pete Lawrence, is a selection of essays on music written by handpicked Big Chill contributors. "We were keen to let some of our Big Chill artists and writers share their passions and experiences and knowledge with the world," says Vicki.
And that knowledge, that passion, had few limits. As Pete says, "What surprised me was the common ground and the crossreferences between the diverse genres that the writers chose. But then, turning that preconception on its head, subverting the tried and tried and trusted, or however you choose to describe it, has always been at the centre of our ethos."
The book was turned around from concept to finished product, in a little over nine months, an extraordinary feat testament to the energy, commitment, enthusiasm and sheer hard work of the team involved. "There's something there about the human gestation period and the book being 'our baby' too, but it would be too easy a gag to crack," grins Vicki.
Words In Motion is not an exclusive arena. In fact, Big Chillers were invited to put on their creative writing hats and share their talents at the festival - including at the Campfire Chill Space. Big Chillers have a shared love of creative expression from music to visuals to art and sculpture to performance to literature. And as Vicki confirms, "The place literature has in the festival is the place that the Big Chillers have themselves created for it."
Crossfade is published by Serpent's Tail (RRP £12). It's due in the shops 22 September but you can buy it NOW from The Big Chill's online shop!
Buy it here!
Serpent's Tail
Written: 9th Aug, 04
Read: 2676 times
