A lecture by PETE BROOKS -

Well known in his area, Pete Brooks is now additionally teaching at St Martins, in his quality of Scenographer. He quickly dedicated himself to a post modern dramatism, experimenting via films as well as performance and theatre. In order to bring that last one to a widest audience, he tried in his way to put the pieces of fragmented culture all together. The post-dramatic landscape of 1984 have been the starting point of his carrier. In-between minor's strikes and burning discussions around an hypothetic nuclear war.

At that time theatre remained more powerful than novel or cinema. But moving images had also that huge impact on audience. As he noticed, it was rather more difficult to convinced through dramatics. Often obscure, hard to understand. In an other hand, people where expecting pleasure when going to the cinema.

Pete Brooks defines himself as a story teller. He created cinematic frames and narrative using what he called as their "substance". As an example, Hamlet doesn't have any substance. It's an idea contained in a book.
He built himself a notoriety with his radical approach of filming and representing. His Hotel Methuselah has been applaud by professionals as well as amateurs.

Since constructivists broke, in the early 20th Century, the whole illusion of theatre, Brooks have been to give brilliantly a new angle to his camera. By mapping and renewing totally the scenographic structures of his emotional narratives.

A lecture by KEN HOLLINGS -

Ken Hollings started his lecture, as usual, by drowning us in a auditive and visual document. A way of introducing a correct atmosphere. The day lecture dealt with panic and crisis.

A theoretical lecture containing a wide range of references and knowledge, from ancian Greece to Western contemporaneity, from books to branding, from science to philosophy.

The framework of his discourse was the labyrinth, it projection and it interpretation.

Thus, when Ovide explored the great myth of transformation in his book the Metamorphosis, he obviously dedicated a chapter to Dedale and his son Icare, who escaped from their own labyrinth by turning themselves into flying machines. Or how the first ingenior ever run away from a death sentence by flying-over an intricate self-production.

"The labyrinth you don't even know you are in". Of course bring us back to Plato's cavern myth, where humans deliberately choose blindness instead of the experiment of lucidity.

And that similar labyrinth we will find later-one, in a world-renown Microsoft campaign : "Where do you want to go today ?" The magic carpet they offer you to get rid of your chains, and repeat the same shema than Dedale thousands year before. Our screen will bring us overseas. Except that this last emancipation remains virtual.

But when it comes to affect people mind, Stanley Loogan process is a brilliant example of our natural insanity in crisis situations. 50% will continue until the point of extermination. What motivated us ? What would we fear the most ? Will we remains stuck in our conformity ?

Welcome to the labyrinth, this is where we are going to be for a little bit of time.

A lecture by MISCHA HALLER -

Mischa Haller is a London-based Swiss photographer. As an extremely prolific artist, he choose to build his lecture in a narrative way, from his first impacting project to his last realisation. Haller has collaborate a while with the Independent magazine. Additionally he have been part of the brand new visual identities of some of the main UK's cities.

As a photographer he intentionally tended to work in pair with graphic designers, producing some official leaflets and advertising, and fine artists (His last creation is exposed on a wall in Bethnal Green Rd).

Although we must be nothing but impressed by the quantity of projects Haller have been involved in, I personally regret the lack of diversity of his main works. He obviously worked for clients whom rigidity and conformism required a certain adaptability. Thus I have been glad to notice how he managed to offer them an alternative display. Eg, when dealing with cold season and britain landscape, he highlighted as much as possible human presence, movement, colours.

A real sensibility which embodies the humanity in his work.

Haller, therefore, shouldn't be renown for his main production, a huge but non diverse panel of conformist photographies. Coming back to his first photo-book, we can see his ability to be a gorgeous rough story teller. A fine artists which have been corrupted by commercial works.