Elemental

Roger Hartley was one of the inspiring speakers at the London Vision event which hosted the London ‘elemental’ event at Arts Council England, London Office.

Roger Hartley is the Director of Bureau Of Silly ideas

About Roger:

Roger Hartley started out behind the stage as a techie, but one day ventured onstage and decided he quite liked it. Now he combines technical know how and imagination with an innate desire to engage people with the built and being built environment.

He was born in Calgary, Canada in 1966, and then his parents moved back to Wales. He got into photography, then managing grunge bands, then radio, then any kind of film, video or appliance he could get his hands on to create something new.

Since the early 90’s he has worked predominantly in theatre on the street, founding the Bureau Of Silly ideas in 2002 with Claire Horan, and starting work on ‘the burst pipe dream’ a large, long term project using theatrical devices and elements of circus, embedding them into real construction projects changing everyday machinery and situations into exciting possibilities. He is most well known for Sid N’ Nancy the radio controlled wheelie bins, and the amazing Robot Horses.

He is also amazing at losing keys, but only in the process of thinking up some new, fun, theatrical intervention, so it all pans out in the long run.

The presentation:

Roger talked dynamically and comically about the work of the Bureau Of Silly ideas, extremely engaging and funny to summarise here are a couple of bulletpoints about his presentation:

Of course, his full presentation is available to download by clicking here.

Were you at the London event? Have you seen BOSi in action?

Please use this page or any related pages to make comments generally or about the event, speakers and themes that emerged…make it a place for discussion!

Thursday 23rd April saw the London ‘elemental’ event take place as part of Arts Council London Office, Vision session. Vision sessions are internal training events that focus on different themes. They took the opportunity of elemental to look at street and circus arts.

The London office hosted Arts Council staff, some Local Authority staff, along with key companies for the region. Prior to the event we were delighted to announce Lyn Gardner as the Keynote Speaker. She was supported by four artistic companies and producers:

Ajay Chhabra – Director of Nutkhut
Roger Hartley – Director of Bureau Of Silly ideas
Ali King – Director of Turtle Key Arts
Rachel Clare – Producer and Artistic Director of Crying Out Loud

Each speaker provided some inspiring examples of their work and some arresting video and images, giving us a sense of the excitement and skill involved. They gave an overview of past work, present work and plans for the future. They also touched on the challenges in the sector, in terms of development, space, place, support and, of course, funding.

Lyn Gardner followed with an inspirational and informed speech about the sector and the impact it has on audience and society. She provided a real rally cry for the sector, artists and stakeholders alike and gave her view on the cuts announced in Alistair Darlings budget!

Following her inspiring and thought provoking speech the floor opened up for Q&A, this was long awaited if the nods of agreement during her speech were anything to go by.

We will be posting more details of each speaker soon so watch this space.

Were you at the event? What did you enjoy most? What was said that you are still thinking about now? Let us know.