Photos: Matthew Stone

Matthew Stone and friends interview Scottee.

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

Scottee: I would like to say art could change the world - although I’m not sure art will solely. I’d also like to say it can’t be done through religion, but possibly through faith, but in reality i know religions change the world, its followers and their opinion greater than any political party in existence. 

I have socialistic values, equality is important.  

I’d like to live in a world where all the major powers signed The Childs Right (Unicef Artical 46) entitling children of their country the right to shelter, protection and clean water - the U.S.A refused to sign this bill. I’d like to live in a world where people were not HIV prejudice - Where people with HIV were allowed into the U.S and government initiatives were in place to empower them back into work and their community. I’d also like to see Gay men who were tested clear of the HIV virus able to donate blood - these are real basic things that could improve the world we live in immensely. 

What is there to be done? There is alot to be done, certainly within my own community - the recent increase of homophobic attacks resulting in murders has increased in the city I call home, the solution to this I’m unsure of - I spent my early career educating teachers & politicians around homophobia & its effects on young people but quickly became tired of feeling as though I spent my life campaigning, and for something my community didn’t care much for. Did i really want to end up like Peter Thatchell with 24 hr police security and bullet proof doors?

Change needs to happen and at a grass roots level - our education system is failing the next generation. Education is knowledge, knowledge is empowerment and empowerment provokes change

Rafael Rosendahl : What is the best place on earth?

S: My council flat. I fought long and hard for it and its a space I feel comfortable in. Its dead small but I have everything I need here and its my own, which i think is a real working class trait - as long as you have a roof over your head you’ll be ok! I have my herb garden to keep myself amused, If look out of my window and can see the whole city, from the Gherkin to BT tower. My next door neighbour is Sue Tilley - shes a dab hand at baking, playing Mum and lending me dresses, what more could you need?!

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?

S: Politically - I’m not ashamed to admit I’m a Royalist. I would love to see Liz dissolve parliament and have a stab at it herself, she’s defiantly has more experience than any politician in cabinet to date - ideal for getting us out of this mess we find ourself in. She’s also oddly seen as an international symbol of peace, something which we dont really recognize here but in Canada, Australia & alot of European countries she is widely respected for her work.

Human Relations, reproduction & families wise I’m not sure we will really last that long to develop these, I mean as a species were quite lucky to have lasted this long - our eyesight is isnt very good, we walk on our hind legs, we’re prone to constant infection and rely on medicine for our survival - surely we are due for extinction? 

Nicola Lane : What does success mean to you?

S: Contentment, so I’m keen not to be successful, I never want to feel content with what i do. 

Matthew Stone:  What is most important to you?

S: Progression - not one for usually being quoted on his philosophical lyrics, Mike Skinner (The Streets) puts it well ‘Lets push things forward’. I may never find the answer, the cure or the key but I’ll die progressing, trying, pushing, kicking and screaming. That shall be my greatest achievement.

Matthew Stone and friends interview Catherine Borra.

Matthew Stone: What is most important to you?

I don’t know, it depends on what level you are asking! I think there is no one single thing but big groups (or symbols) of values/objects/behaviours and people reflecting into each other that I put together and love. Among these, I think the most important for me is blood.

MS: What do you have faith in?

I believe that people will always go forwards, and even if sometimes it seems that all energy has gone and that this is “the endpoint of mankind’s ideological evolution” (Francis Fukuyama), I have faith in cycles and I know that it is going to change again.

One kind (I don’t know if it’s the BEST example) of art that I think can change the world is Jiri Kovanda’s series of slight and persevering actions, aimed to reach that space in between invisibility, memory and oddness - or everyday surrealism, and Yoko Ono’s Grapefruit book as well as other of her works. This is because it’s important to me to revive faith, even just for the sake of it, and creativity as a consequence of it; because faith is an extremely important factor of life although currently tends to be discarded.

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

I’ve just finished reading a book by J.G. Ballard, one of his catastrophe series about a drowned world (The Drowned World, so to reference it). Time and space after it, seem to be an even more relative set of dimensions to rely upon, because being alive involves an immediacy between past and future that can just not be grasped (by me, at least). In his book, he depicts these human beings that are undergoing the process of rotating their memory so that, because of the environment they are living in, their immediate recollections - or their most recent past, is the revival of their biological memory from millions of years ago, leading to face regression as a prospective and almost as an acknowledged aim. This crashes the present time of subjectivity to something totally irrelevant in the face of the universe and of the infinity of misperception - I highly doubt that we can state with precision that we are alive at all!

Iphgenia Baal : What is the one thing about you that undermines all the opinions you have made above?

They aren’t opinions, it’s true! All, apart from the question regarding the best example of Art really changing the world for the better, and the one about being alive (that is a confusing subject anyway).

MS: What question should be added to this list?

Matthew Stone and friends interview Terence Koh.

• Matthew Stone : What is most important to you?

Terence Koh: THAT IS AN INCREDIBLY DIFFICULT ANSWER TO ANSWER. IT SAT IN MY BRAIN FOR A FEW DAYS LIKE AN ALMOST DEAD CAT TRYING TO FIND TUNA. ULTIMATELY THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IS TO FIND SOMEBODY THAT LOVES YOU AND THAT LOVES YOU BACK. AND TO HAVE IT FOR ETERNITY. LOVE FOR ETERNITY.

• MS: If you could say one sentence to future generations, what would it be?

TK: TO GRASP THE CONCEPT OF THE ETERNAL.

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

TK: THAT’S AN INDIVIDUAL THING REALLY. ART CAN BE ANYTHING. BUT I CONCLUDED THAT MY OWN ART I WANT TO AFFECT PEOPLE SO THAT THEY ARE HAPPIER. NOTHING COMPLICATED ABOUT THAT, TO DO SOMETHING THAT MAKES THEM FEEL GOOD. ACTUALLY TO MAKE THEM FEEL LOVE. AND YOU KNOW WHAT LOVE IS, ITS JUST THAT THING YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHEN YOU FEEL IT. ITS ALMOST AN IMPOSSIBLE AIM.

• Nicola Lane : What does success mean to you?

TK: THE OPPOSITE WHAT YOU SUPPOSE IT SHOULD FEEL. I ALWAYS THE MORE SUCCESSFUL YOU GET, THE MORE YOU SHOULD BE TORTURED.

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

TK: NORMAN YOU KNOW WE CAN’T, I CAN’T ANSWER THAT. CAUSE WE ASK OURSELVES THAT VERY QUESTION EVERY SECOND. AND OBVIOUSLY THAT’S SOMETHING WE CAN’T ANSWER. AND YES OF COURSE ITS COMPLETELY STRANGE. WHY ELSE WOULD WE SOLDIER ON IF WE DIDN’T FEEL WEIRD, IF WE FELT STRANGE, IF WE FELT QUEASY. ITS A FEELING THAT EXISTED SINCE WE KNEW WHAT THE CONCEPT OF, I, WAS. WE ARE ALIVE BECAUSE YOU KNOW AS AN, I, YOU ARE THE ONLY REASON FOR BEING. BEING COMPLETELY A SELFISH CUNT.

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

TK: NOTHING MORE NEED BEE SAID?

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?

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?”