Deleuzeian Diversion 1

 

Central Derby, July 2021

"Production is not recorded in the same way it is produced.  Or rather, it is not reproduced within the apparent objective movement in the same way in which it is produced within the process of constitution.

"In fact, we have passed imperceptibly into a domain of the production of recording, whose law is not the same as that of the production of production.

"The law governing the latter was connective synthesis or coupling.  But when the productive connections pass from machines to the body without organs (as from labour to capital), it would seem that they then come under another law that expresses a distribution in relation to the nonproductive element as a 'natural or divine presupposition' (the disjunctions of capital).

"Machines attach themselves to the body without organs as so many points of disjunction, between which an entire network of new syntheses is now woven, marking the surface off into co-ordinates, like a grid." [1.]

[1.]:  Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, 'Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia', (Trans. Robert Hurley, Mark Seem & Helen R. Lane), London/NY/Dublin, Bloomsbury, 2013 (Originally Published 1972).

Vacant Spaces; Multi-Stories

Returning to the car, after hours, we enter a split-level lacuna of chilly calm at the heart of the city.  Outside, bass bins pound and weekenders stagger and shriek across a windswept plain, but all is dormant here.  The last few silent vehicles await the return of dirty stop-outs or the next-day casualties in hung-over daylight; stacked; compartmentalised within ruled lines.

This place is an archetype of Modernism.  An edifice of a specific kind, unlike any other.  A machine for machines to dwell in.  A monument to an unsustainable automotive future; prime real estate given over to vacancy and abandonment.  Despite it’s supreme blankness, buildings just like this haunt the imagination of T.V. and the movies.  The dodgy deal and furtive rendezvous.  Echoing gun-play and tight-cornered pursuit.  Dangerous strangers lurking in shadows.

To wander these decks and ramps is to become lost in an eternal Escher-space of near-identical levels, each serving as a mezzanine to the last.  Functional geometry and something vaguely nautical in white walls and a prevailing horizontality.  Red and green industrial floor coatings shimmering under diseased fluorescent light.  Sans serif signage.  Direction arrows and linear demarcation.  Everything labeled, as though the architect’s plans were translated, verbatim, down to the final legend.  A ceiling of hollow modules like 1970s T.V. spaceship décor; the occasional one becoming a basin of light.  Steel barriers and the electronic eyes of 24 hour security.  Replicated, regulated space and costed time.  Hourly rental of so many cubic metres of dead air.

The outside leaks slowly into this strangest variety of interior space.  Weather dies and becomes meaningless in here.  Nothing goes on happening.  No one comes.  The quivering of fluorescent tubes is felt rather than seen.  Impassive, subtly humming ticket machines await payment in return for release.  A distant squeal of tyres signals the surreptitious escape of an unseen vehicle below.  We start the car and begin our own angular, spiraling descent to the automatic barrier.

All Photos:  Assembly Rooms Car Park, Derby, November 2013

'The Outer Edges' At Derby Quad

A few months ago, I wrote a post extolling the pleasures of Karl Hyde’s album, ‘Edgeland’ [1.] and ‘The Outer Edges’ [2.], a film he made in collaboration with Kieran Evans.  I won’t trawl over old ground here, as my favourable opinion of both pieces remains largely unchanged.  I’ve played the album repeatedly over the intervening period but only watched the film a couple of the times, (as is in the nature of the two media, I guess).  Therefore, I was more than happy to zoom over to Derby Quad one evening the other week to watch the film again on a big screen with a live score performed by Hyde himself, Leo Abrahams and Peter Chilvers [3.].

Karl Hyde,  (Photo: Perou/The Artist)

The beauty of living in the Midlands is that anyone in search of cultural stimulus, (or indeed, other pleasures), can shuttle quite easily between several neighbouring towns and cities, each of which offers a different combination of possibilities.  Of these, Derby is a city I visit less often, and it’s easy to categorise it as a relatively mundane place whose heart has been exchanged for an immense shopping complex.  However, the pre-existing town centre does feature some interesting aspects and a perfectly usable culture and media facility in the form of Quad.  Also, as I've repeatedly come to realise, it's in exactly these kind of places that I've increasingly found inspiration for my own work.  As Quad seems to be struggling financially, I was happy to hand over my money for ‘The Outer Edges’ and in reality, our tickets were good value considering the inclusion of the live musical element.

Derby Quad

View Towards Market Square, Derby, November 2013

Based in Hyde's own Essex homeland, the film was as enjoyable and approachable piece of Psychogeographical cinema as I had remembered, full of poignancy and the resonance of place.  The musicians produced an atmospheric, well judged, instrumental score with guitar, bass and laptop electronics, concluding their semi-improvised performance with just one song that emphasised what an affecting voice Hyde has.  Any hoped-for Q&A session failed to materialise but, on reflection, maybe it's wise to resist the impulse to over-explain a piece that is, I think, sufficiently well resolved to be its own explanation.  I was surprised to discover that my own vivid memory of a silhouetted BMX cyclist in one scene, (corresponding to the song ‘Shadow Boy’), was actually a motorcycle; proving just how inaccurate visual recall can be.  I also now wonder if some of the interviewees that provide the film’s human heart could be labeled too easily as Essex ‘types’.  However, Hyde belongs to this estuarine landscape and is therefore perfectly qualified to recognise that these people do inhabit it for real.

T'is The Season To Spend Lolly...

…Tra La La La La, La La La La.

On exiting Quad, my friend Dave and I mixed with raucous weekend revellers and the aftermath of a celebrity Christmas lights inauguration.  We spent a few minutes photographing the conjunction of cheesy illuminations and slightly bleak architecture in Derby’s Market Square, but discovered our most powerful subject matter in the now almost deserted multi-story car park where we’d left the car.  It provided a wonderful environment of utilitarian geometry, sickly fluorescent lighting and information graphics.  We lingered on in there, expecting a challenge from security guards that never came.

Assembly Rooms Car Park, Derby, November 2013

[1.];  Karl Hyde, 'Edgeland', Universal, 2013.

[2.];  Keiran Evans (Dir.) & Karl Hyde, 'The Outer Edges', Universal, 2013.

[3.]:  'The Outer Edges', Film Screening With Live Score By Karl Hyde, Leo Abrahams & Peter Chilvers, Saturday 16 November 2013, Derby Quad, Derby, UK.