On Saturday 4th September we are working with Tristan Bates Theatre to present ‘as if it were the last time’ for one final time in London.

There will be one more performance in Bristol later this year and then we won’t be showing it in the UK again. ( don’t worry, we’re not running away, we just want to start touring our new subtlemob piece).

So this really will be the last time . .

If you’re not sure what this is all about, read on . . then sign up at the bottom of the page.

A subtlemob is a bit like being in a film that happens on the streets around you.

try to remain invisible.

Here’s a video of people who’ve taken part before . . .

What happens after I sign up?
On Wednesday we’ll email you a link to the MP3 (to give you time to download it, check it works on your mp3 player or sort out any sync issues if you use an iPod) and then on Friday morning we’ll publish the location via email, facebook and twitter. (It will be in central London).
Then you just turn up and press play at 8pm remember you’ll need to come with a partner (e.g. a friend, a lover, or just someone you want to get to know better) and you both need your own MP3 players.

Click here to sign up using the Facebook event

or sign up by email:

[ and we promise you'll only receive info about subtlemobs, no spam! although you may want to add subtlemob@gmail.com to your contacts so messages from us don't end up in your spam folder ]

Don’t forget to ‘like us’ on Facebook and the info will also be posted to members there a few days before the event – http://facebook.com/subtlemob

- TRY TO REMAIN INVISIBLE -

REMEMBER YOU NEED TO SIGN UP FOR YOUR LOCATION
SO WE CAN SEND YOU THE MP3 FILE AND MAP BEFORE THE EVENT

‘as if it were the last time’ current tour. .

London – 4th September – 8PM – presented by Tristan Bates Theatre
Click here to sign up for London. . .

Ghent (as part of Almost Cinema) – 21st October
- click here to sign up for Ghent –

Sydney – Fri 27th August – 6PM

Auckland (as part of Semi-Permanent) – 20th August
- MP3 and map now online -

Milton Keynes International Festival on the 17th,18th, 22nd + 24th July Thanks to everyone who came.

Edinburgh (as part of Forest Fringe) – 13th August Thanks to everyone who came and thanks to Forest Fringe
- -

click here to find out more about ‘as if it were the last time’

or watch this video to see what previous audiences thought…

-try to remain invisible-

Imagine walking through a film, but it’s happening on the streets you live in

Subtlemobs usually happen in public spaces

This is music composed for those spaces

This is about trying to make films without cameras

It’s about integrating with a social or physical space, not taking it over

The audience listen on headphones, a mix of music, story and instructions

Sometimes they just watch, sometimes they perform scenes for each other

A subtlemob is not a flashmob

try to remain invisible . . .

want to see what audiences thought about it? have a look at this video . . .

To avoid info ending up in your spam folder we recommend adding subtlemob [@ ] gmail.com to your contacts.

. . . you can also follow us on twitter @subtlemob

or if you don’t like to use your email address then . . .

OUR BROKEN VOICE [ a subtlemob by Duncan Speakman + Sarah Anderson ]

We’re currently working on this new subtlemob.

We plan to premiere it in spring autumn 2010, with an international tour to follow. [ sorry - it's dragging, but we want to make sure it's amazing, so we're not rushing it ]

. . . . .a cinematic experience in a public space, exploring suspicion, collusion and tipping points in contemporary social environments.
a single event explodes into many fragments and strands . . you step into one of those strands and piece it together with strangers who are following other routes through the story . .
Something bad has happened . . . hearing fleeting glimpses of the aftermath, you make your way through broken shards of the preceding moments, trying to work out how the people around you fit into the story, trying to work out your own role, and looking for somewhere to point the finger.

• Join the subtlemob mailing list to get updates and let us know your nearest city.
• If you are a promoter interested in booking this show please contact us at subtlemob [@] gmail.com ]

[ CLICK HERE TO SEE UPCOMING TOUR DATES ]

[ AVAILABLE FOR TOURING : please contact subtlemob [ @ ] gmail.com ]

‘as if it were the last time’ by Duncan Speakman

Audiences were invited to download an MP3 and turn up at a secret location to listen to the track at a specified time.
On the soundtrack the audience would hear the composed soundtrack along with narration and instructions.

Two MP3 files were made available, so the audience were divided in half. While one group was instructed to perform a simple scene the other group heard this described as if it were a film scene, but they could actually see it happening around them.

Throughout the piece these roles of watcher/performer alternated between the groups, ever increasing in pace until by the end they are all performing/watching simultaneously.

The work was a snapshot image of contemporary Britain, allowing the audience to watch it, reflect on it, and live it. It explored ideas of how mobile technology can create social disconnection in shared public spaces. It also looked for ways to use those same technologies to create connections between strangers and friends, to savour the moment and the temporary space that was created during the performance.

From the project description…
“When you put on the headphones you’ll find yourself immersed in the cinema of everyday life. As the soundtrack swells people in the crowd around you will begin to re-enact the England of today.
Sometimes you’ll just be drifting and watching, but sometimes you’ll be following instructions or creating the scenes yourself. Don’t worry, there will be nothing illegal or embarrassing, sometimes you might be re-enacting moments you’ve seen in films, sometimes you’ll just be playing yourself.
This is no requiem, this a celebratory slow dance, a chance to savour the world you live in, and to see it with fresh eyes.”

‘as if it were the last time’ is dedicated to Paul Walker ( 1979 – 2009 )

• [ soundtrack ] Sadie Anderson, Duncan Speakman,
• [ voices ] Steve Owen, Jess Marlowe, Jess Hoffman, Emma Fellows
• [ additional musicians ] Leo Smee , Laura Groves ,
• [ developed with ] Gemma Paintin, James Stenhouse, Uninvited Guests, Ed Rapley, Lucy Cassidy, Alex Bradley, Sita Calvert Ennals, Becky Hall, Tom Wainwright
• [ developed at ] Pervasive Media Studio, Bristol
• [ production assistants ] Helen Bentley, Keira Blakley, Steve Owen,
• [ web design ] Thought Den
• [ documentation ] http://www.wideeyed.co.uk
• [ additional thanks to ] Marta Bogna, Ellen Harrison, Ian Danby, Nina Steiger, Dominic Grant, Clare Reddington, Simon Games
• ‘as if it was the last time’ was originally comissioned as part of the Vauxhall Collective 2009. For more information please visit: www.vauxhallcollective.co.uk

[ IMAGES : MAKING "AS IF IT WERE THE LAST TIME" ]

“..the show made me notice the beauty and cinematic elegance of everyday life itself” – SuitYourself Magazine

The first subtlemob was created as part of this piece.

Originally commissioned by Mayfest Theatre Festival.

What happens when everyone in the city is listening to the same song?

Wearing headphones, you begin to travel across the city, the soundtrack in your ears turning the world around into your personal cinema. Suddenly a stranger stops you and puts a hand on your shoulder. Their lips don’t move but in your ears you can somehow hear their voice. It feels like telepathy as they begin to speak the words to the song that’s playing in their head…
You continue to move across the city, sometimes guided, sometimes alone; as events unfold in front of you it becomes harder to tell which are staged and which are real.

Built using ‘mscape’, the audience were given handheld computers with headphones. The music score they heard was controlled by satellite positioning and changed to reflect the physical location of the audience. Some performers carried battery powered wifi beacons in their pockets. When they were near an audience member the device carried by the audience would play a recording of that performers voice, the effect was like being able to hear a persons thoughts. Another group of performers were a ‘subtlemob’, who roamed the streets following instructions given to them on an MP3 player, they performed everyday actions around the audience, creating a sense of deja-vu as you saw similar events occuring all around you.

• it was always going to be about making something that would be invisible.

• at first i imagined i was trying to create cinema without using cameras or screens, in the end i think i might have made an opera without a stage or libretto.

• a soundtrack controlled by satellite positioning, a mixture of trained and untrained performers, wireless transmitters held together with tape, the british weather . . . it was always going to be a risky project.

• this simple restaging of the world took a lot more work than i imagined, but i’ve had the luxury of working with a group of incredible artists.

• i hope they don’t mind that in the end we have something that’s almost impossible to see . . .

SOUNDTRACK BY DUNCAN SPEAKMAN SARAH ANDERSON SAM HALMARAK

DEVISED AND PERFORMED WITH TOM WAINRIGHT MARTHA KING SYLVIA RIMAT ALEX BRADLEY EMMA BUSH SITA CALVERT-ENNALS

COMMISSIONED BY MAYFEST AND ARNOLFINI LIVE

SUPPORTED BY PERVASIVE MEDIA STUDIO BUILT WITH MSCAPE

VIDEO DOCUMENTATION DEB HEARNE

GRATITUDE TO (AND INSPIRATION FROM) CLARE REDDINGTON HELEN COLE TOM MELAMED BEN CLAYTON KATE YEDIGAROFF MATTHEW AUSTIN JO CUTHBERT SIMON GAMES EMILIE GRENIER GENEVIEVE BROWN CARO WINTER JOLYON GREENAWAY VANESSA BELLAAR SPRUIJT BETTINA SCHEIBE PAUL CLARKE ROD DICKINSON PHOEBE DAVIES ROTOZAZA WIM WENDERS ALL THE SUBTLE MOBS

FOR JANICE

[ IMAGES : MAKING "MY WORLD IS EMPTY WITHOUT YOU" ]

“..deliberate slap in the face to the flashmob phenomena . . . it reshapes the cultural landscape.” Paul Currion

@honestsarah just back from #subtlemob – beautiful, touching, filmic experience of Covent Garden. a few bemused passersby…

@marshallstaxx SubtleMob was amazing. Emotional, joyous, intense and melancholy, but above all truly beautiful.

@nickarm Participated in a subtlemob tonight! Celebrating the cinema of everyday life! Uplifting!

@hannahkaty serioulsy kids, if you ever get to go to a subtlemob, do it. Such an intense, exposing and uplifting experience.

hannah nicklin – “Those thirty minutes were the most vivid, most high contrast of my week . . . I want to take my friends and loved ones back there with me.”

Àngels Trias – “. . . an entrancing, beautiful and serene experience, one where the boundaries between performer and performance, evocation, suspension of time, re-definition of public space get blurred one with another.”

@Ferders Moving, intimate, lovely experience. HIGHLY recommend if another happens.

• ‘Boundary Songs’ – a series of micro soundwalks in the Redfern area of Sydney
• ‘What we have done’ – a soundwalk for two people in the Soho area of London

headphone based performances created by . . .

Antenna Theatre – Rimini Protokoll – Rotozaza – SlungLow – Back to Back – non zero one – 1929 – PVI collective

we love experiencing work made by . . .

Tim Crouch – Melanie Wilson – Ontroerend Goed – Uninvited Guests – Coney – PlanBPerformance – Action Hero – Ed Rapley – Michael Hanneke – Roy Anderson – Ben Marcus – Emilie Grenier – Simon games

while composing we love listening to . . .

Taylor Deupree – Sawako – Tim Hecker – Fennesz – Maria Callas – Fever Ray – Tool – Chrome Hoof – Blue Roses – Radian – Refused – Coil – Ali Farke Toure . . . and many more

and we’re able to make this kind of work because we get support and advice from

Pervasive Media Studio – Soho Theatre – Arnolfini – InBetweenTime – Mayfest

and thanks to Sonic Acts, TPAM, British Council and SXSW for helping to make them happen.

try to remain invisible . . .