Photo: Matthew Stone

Matthew Stone and friends interview Susanne Oberbeck.

Matthew Stone: How can we change the world and what is there to be done?

Susanne Oberbeck: People need to be made aware that trying to prove they are men or women destroys them and others.

Nicola Lane : What does success mean to you?

SO: Success is to be free from constraints, not be oppressed or abused by those in power, and be able to stick to your dreams and beliefs. Success is also if the thing you do leaves an impact on people, moves or inspires them, makes them fancy you, or changes the world, but that’s obvious.

Steph Raynor : Are we anywhere near where we need to be?

SO: I don’t like the use of the word ‘we’. Who is ‘we’? ‘We’ seems to have been used to justify all kinds of atrocities and banalities. Trying to answer your question anyway, I don’t think anybody needs to be anywhere. An ideal or fixed state would be boring.

MS: What should not be left unimagined?

SO: Matthew this question is too complicated! I have written two pages and feel like I’m sounding like an absolute twat. All I can suggest is Bin Laden and people like that should be banned from having an imagination, and people who don’t normally say anything should be able to tell us about their dreams.

I think the less you are a part of existing institutions and structures, the easier it probably is to imagine something that people are trying to tell you is impossible. Why take anything for granted? And what is really “real”?

It kind of comes back to your first question, which I think is mostly about power and conformity. Conforming in order to be powerful, or so they think. If people forgot about the need to prove that they are someone, or someone powerful, it might be possible for example for world leaders or even ordinary people to have an online discussion like this instead of fighting a war. And this is where we arrive at John Lennon’s “Imagine”.

Discuss!

Ebe Oke : What unique gifts do you have to offer to this world?

SO: A unique perspective. BIG Balls.
I like to think I have a unique musical and lyrical instinct. But maybe this is something only Ebe can really answer.

MS: What question should be added to this list?

Susanne Oberbeck: What is your vision for a future society, I mean in terms of political system, families, human relations, architecture, reproduction and so on?

Nicola Lane pictured with Jack Birkett (The Incredible Orlando).

Nicola Lane’s 2006 film SPLITSCREEN funded by Arts Council England will be showing throughout April 19th –20th at the Lighthouse, the Chubb Building, Wolverhampton, as part of the 2008 Wolverhampton Disability Film Festival.

www.artsunwrapped.com
www.kingsgateworkshops.com
www.adornequip.com

Matthew Stone and friends interview Nicola Lane.

• Matthew Stone : What is most important to you?

Nicola Lane: Love for my family and friends and making art.

• MS : How can we change the world and what is there to be done?

NL: The world is being changed all the time- change is the engine that drives the universe. What needs to be done is more thinking about change: can we co-exist with each other, other animals and environments?

• Norman Rosenthal : Why are we alive at all? It is after all a very strange state to find ourselves in.

NL: To me being alive means consciousness and I remember the moment when I was 4 years old and realized I was me and nobody else. It was very strange and wonderful. One theory is that consciousness is the firing between connections in the brain. Whatever it is, it is marvellous and I do not know why it exists.

• Steph Raynor : Are we anywhere near where we need to be?

NL: The planet is having a mid-life crisis.

• Boo Saville : What do you think happens when we die?

NL: I think that the moment of death (perhaps as long or as short as a dream) is a journey away from consciousness and that the journey is meaningful.

• Matthew Stone: What question should be added to this list?

NL: What does success mean to you?

Photo by Scottee

Matthew Stone and friends interview Kate Moross

•  Matthew Stone: What do you have faith in?

 Kate Moross: Space, time and complex carbohydrates. Right now they are the only three things I trust. I am not a spiritual person. Instead I indulge in science and theory to satisfy my curiosities and answers to life’s questions. Carbs, carbs are amazing, if they didn’t exist myself and the rest of the human population would have withered away.

• MS: How can we change the world and what is there to be done?

I have no interest in all this global-warming-save-the-planet bullshit. Its going to happen. Yes the world will end. I’m sure “destroy the earth” is written into our genetic code. We are the selfish race after all. So I say, lets go DIY, and start at home. Say please and thank you, be nice to the bus driver, care for our old, care for our young and our sick. Its simple really, the only effects we can really have day to day are through the little things, the beauty is in the details, right?

• Steph Raynor : Are we anywhere near where we need to be?

I’d say, Yes. If we substitute “we” for “human race” I think we are pretty awesome. Focus on the bad things, corruption, war,bla bla bla and you are likely to think that we are a complete mess. However look at what good is happening, it seems that as a race, collectively, we are reaching even higher levels of Maslow’s pyramid. I think there are a lot of amazing investigations and experiments ongoing in science and the arts, that make me proud to be a human. You only have to watch a handful of the TED talks to realise that it is genuinely really exciting to be alive.

• Todd Hart : What’s the best example of Art really changing the world for the better?

Art will never change the world. It may nudge it and morph it in places, but like matter it can never be created or destroyed. Art it is formed out of what is going on and is then eventually reabsorbed, in one way or another.

• Boo Saville : What do you think happens when we die?

 Sweet Fuck All. We die. We get eaten by worms, and then we make the grass greener. Dying is simple. Its the grieving thats the hard part.

• MS: What question should be added to this list?

Kate Moross: If you had the choice between either being able to manipulate space or time which one would you choose, and what would you do?

Matthew Stone and friends interview Todd Hart.

• Matthew Stone: How can we change the world and what is there to be done?

Todd Hart: I think the preliminary question is why should we change the world?

My parents were christian missionaries in Africa and they tried to change the world because they believed that everyone needed to believe in Jesus so they could go to a perfect paradise in the next life. I no longer believe that. And in some respects it seems as if with the ever-increasing population things could actually get worse. But fundamentally I am an optimist and am excited about new technologies and changes in medicine, genetic discoveries, ways of making my skin look younger :) So I guess I would say that fundamentally I want to change the world because it is the only thing that makes me feel better about myself and which makes me feel that we as people can some day achieve on our own the thing that centuries of people living in fear have sought in religion - a fairly trouble free world. But unfortunately this means that I believe in everyone learning as much as possible and becoming as aware as they can be about how life works and its incredible complexities so they can better contribute to improving things step by step. This begs the question of whether I would be happier making “art” or “music” which I might have difficulty showing a direct link to some concrete thing which I can see makes the world better (i.e., less carbon emissions, or water in rural Africa) or whether I would simply rather enjoy the years I have living in a bath of pleasure making things that create a community etc. And of course, this begs the question “What is really a better world?” and where does the “soul” that we have as humans fit into this world. Sometimes the future which is perfect seems cold? Also, a lot of people are disenchanted with “science” as a way of looking to a better future because it has been misused and because of the people who use it. This doesn’t change the fact that understanding all of the complexities of science and how our world works, including how the mind works, is the magic key to all.

And I also think it is important to fight for these beliefs because the more people that believe in something which is completely untrue, the harder it may become for me to make the world better in a way that I think is true. Things DO matter.

• MS: What do you have faith in?

TH: I have faith in the laws of nature. Though we might not understand them completely and we constantly get them wrong, I have faith that they work consistently and we can understand them if we try and it will explain most everything from the way we feel to the way our lifestyles form. And because of this, I know that certain things will always give me pleasure even if I do them over and over and other people think they are boring. Because I know that’s the way I work. And I think everyone should learn this about themselves and accept it.

• MS: Do you hope to be remembered and what for?

TH: I hope to be remembered as someone who had an idea that was really unique, any idea, and it made the world better. There’s nothing wrong with being a big chimp in a sea of chimps and enjoying life until I die, but I’d like to be remembered for more.

• MS: What is most important to you?

TH: Ideas and being happy. But sometimes people think that being happy is feeling some kind of ecstasy or laughing/smiling. Whereas in some ways I might be happiest in a state of some kind of angst because it is counterbalanced with the knowledge that I’m stretching myself and it’s a difficult but I believe I will do something new and fun and that will make me even happier. I also find these days that often I am very happy in a moment of some little nostalgia, such as walking by a spot and remembering someone or some feeling I had that made me excited or warm.

It is also a shame that I realized so late in life that when you have an idea and you think that it’s a great one you have to just do it even if the people you know will think it’s strange, or it will feel odd. Eventually people get used to everything and the strangest thing becomes common. When I finally got old enough to not care and started just doing things because I was bored with everything else, I finally started to feel that life was actually pretty great. There is WAY too much repetition and not nearly enough people saying “I’ve had enough. I’m going to try it a new way.” So many people are starting new bands or doing art and doing EXACTLY what everyone else is doing because they want success in a little way for here and now. But what’s most important is to do something that you really think is a genuinely good idea, not just different, but really good and throw it out there for the world to see. If you think you would come to me with your idea and I would say, “But this is obviously just [blank]” than maybe you should spend some time in the library or searching the Internet, or travelling. Anything to give you a really good new idea.

• Steph Raynor : Are we anywhere near where we need to be?

TH: No. This is obvious.

• MS: What question should be added to this list?

TH: “What’s the best example of Art really changing the world for the better?”