News

First Spark radio festival on Soundart

On Saturday February 1st, St. Brigid’s Day, as part of the Imbolc celebrations at Soundart Radio, I will present a selection of new works by sound, word, and music artists. First Spark is Soundart’s annual festival of radio in all its possibilities, scheduled at the Celtic festival of Imbolc, to welcome the first signs of Spring. Works will include a collage composition by People Like Us, a recording of a work from The Story of O project by Emmanuelle Waeckerle, a new recording featuring text by Mark Greenwood, a recording of a live improvisation by Olchar Lindsann, works for radio by Sue Coulson, and a new text I have written for the occasion. The broadcast can be listened to live on 102.5fm in the Totnes and Dartington area; you can also listen online at soundartradio.org.uk.

A recording of the show is on Soundcloud at https://soundcloud.com/markleahy/first_spark_radio_stbrigidsday_2020

continuous stationary workshop day at The Met Office Innovation Lab

On Wednesday January 15th I spent the day with a number of artists and scientists looking at potential ways of working together with ‘big data’. The event was hosted by Impact Lab at the Met Office Innovation Centre in Exeter Science Park. The day was one of two organised by Milly Brown, of Plymouth College of Art, to bring artists in the region into contact and communication with scientists and researchers in partner oganisations. There were representatives from Impact Lab, from The Met Office, and from Plymouth Marine Laboratory. The day generated some very interesting conversations, and there feels to be the potential for collaborations and joint projects in the future.

The project has an instagram account @continuous_stationary and there are plans to produce a publication / report by the end of 2020.

Wax Paper Hour(s) – Gesture

On November 29th I was a guest presenter on Marcy Saude’s Wax Paper Hours radio show on Soundart Radio. http://soundartradio.org.uk/. Each episode of Marcy’s show has a different theme, A Grand Gesture mixed music (vinyl and digital) and readings that engage with gesture across cultures, media and genres. The show has been uploaded to MixCloud here: https://www.mixcloud.com/marcy-saude/late-november-2019-gesture-with-mark-leahy/

list of readings for Wax Paper Hour – Gestures

1. Sabel Gavaldón and Manuel Segade, from exhibition guide to Elements of Vogue: A Case Study in Radical Performance (2018)

2. Mark Leahy, from ‘What did he do with his hat?’ in The Graveside Orations of Carl Einstein (2019)

3. Hayley Newman, ‘Frottage in the City’ from Common (2013)

4. Anne Boyer, from ‘No’ in A Handbook of Disappointed Fate (2018)

5. Essex Hemphill, from ‘To Be Real’ in Ceremonies: Prose and Poetry (1992)

6. Trajal Harrell, from an interview in Hoochie Koochie (2017)

7. wittyy name, from The Marks We Make, a Voltron Legacy Defender fanfic on Archive of Our Own (2016)

8. Renee Gladman, two sections from Calamities (2016)

9. Mark Leahy, from Subject to Gesture (2017)    

10. Lisa Robertson, from ‘How to Colour’ in Occasional Work and Seven Walks from the Office for Soft Architecture (2003)

11. Tina Darragh, from ‘Adv. Fans – The 1968 Series’ (1993)

12. Tom Jenks, from ‘strikes’ in A Long Hard Night Troubled by Visions (2018)

review of new publication by Patrick Dubost

I have a review up on Stride Magazine blog, of Patrick Dubost’s new publication Manifesto for a Modern Theatre In 49 Interchangeable And Optional Articles. Published by Knives, Forks and Spoons Press, the work is translated from the French by Eleanor Margolies, and includes photocollage illustrations by Sylvie Villaume.

In much of Dubost’s wider practice he performs with musicians, where his vocal improvisation operates among and with other instruments in live sound events. These events are a mode of theatre, at work with language, sound, and meaning, with what can be heard, and what might be understood. The 49 articles in this Manifesto might be read as a guide or annotation for those performances. And as a prompt to performances by other readers.

You can read the review HERE.