"Hello, my name is Dr. B Tutti. I’m using this space to invite you to events highlighting the importance of happiness and working towards the goal of making happiness available for everyone. "
I cordially invite you to join me blowing bubbles at 6PM on the last Saturday of every month. Make a little space in your life for bubbles and happiness.
Hello there, my name is Dr. B Tutti. I’m using this space to invite you to be a "Blow"-er and to attend "Blow"'s.
To be a "Blow"-er all you need to do is blow bubbles for 13 minutes at 6pm every Saturday and spread a little happiness to all those around you. (If you would like to share pictures and stories about your "Blow" experiences please send them to me at dr_tutti@hotmail.co.uk or comment them to this site).
I run regular "Blow" events on the last Saturday of the month on the Millennium Bridge Newcastle/Gateshead (see info below). Please feel free to organize your own "Blow" events where you live/work. "Blow" events highlight the importance of happiness and work towards the goal of making happiness available for everyone.
"Blow" is one in a series of free community performance events arranged by myself. These events encourage people to be happy and bring happiness to others. They aim to give everyone an opportunity to be involved in creating a joyful and aesthetically beautiful occasion. The “Blow” community now includes more than 1,500 people all over the world. Blow events happen regularly on the last Saturday of the month, between 6pm – 6.13 PM, on the Millennium Bridge between Newcastle and Gateshead. One off and satellite “Blow”’s have appeared at Download Festival, Glastonbury Festival, Leeds Festival, Art In The Park (Crook Hall Durham), Kitch-en Gallery, MIMA Garden’s Middleborough, Frosterly Wear Valley, World Aids Day, and The London Millennium Bridge.
The next two Blow events are as follows:
Title: “Blow” Newcastle/Gateshead
What: Wait at either the Newcastle or Gateshead side of river near the Millennium Bridge until 6 (Starting to gather from about 5.45). At 6 walk to the centre of the bridge blowing bubbles, once you get to the centre of the bridge remain there blowing bubbles until 13 minutes past (please set alarms on watches/mobiles etc.) at which time you should walk away from the centre of the bridge.
Where: The Millennium Bridge, Newcastle/ Gateshead
Dates: Saturday 29th Dec, 2007 and Saturday 27th Jan, 2008
Time: 6pm-6.13pm
More Info: dr_tutti@hotmail.co.uk, www.myspace.com/dr_tutti or www.pseudonymgallery.co.uk
More Blow Info:
The project is an exploration of the notions of community and ownership within art.
The event is an expression of and sharing in joy and the ephemeral beauty of life.
When: 6pm-6:13pm the last Saturday of every month (30th June 2007 etc.)
Where:
The Millennium (eyelash) pedestrian bridge (near “Baltic”),
Newcastle/Gateshead, UK, or where ever you happen to find yourself at 6PM on the last Saturday of the month.
What to bring:
1) A way of making bubbles (any size, colour, shape) etc.
2) Something that smells of lavender
3) A torch (for darker months)
4) Spare bubbles to share with people new to the event
What to do:
1) Wait at either the Newcastle or Gateshead side of river near the bridge
until 6 (Starting to gather from about 5.45).
2) At 6 walk to the centre of the bridge blowing bubbles, once you get to the centre of the bridge remain there blowing bubbles until 13 minutes past (please set alarms on watches/mobiles etc.) at which time you should walk away from the centre of the bridge.
3) Please refrain from using bad language. There are some very small children at the event and it would be a great shame if they/ their parents felt unable to return to the event due to this issue.
What “Blow” is:
“Blow” events are essentially 13 minutes of bubble blowing, in beautiful settings.
The "Blow" events are multi sensory, free and accessible to everyone, whether you want to be a performer (bubble-er) or an audience. This event is dependent on you being there and having fun and helping others to have fun. The aim of this project is to spread bubbly happiness to as many people as possible and the best way of doing that is to share this information. If you don't wish to participate, but would like to come and watch the event that would also be wonderful.
What blow is not:
It is not about showing off, or demonstrating, being rowdy or obnoxious. If you want to be loud or objectionable, this event is not for you.
"Blow” is not associated with any particular philosophical, political or religious ideology. The concept is the work of one person.
Dr Tutti has not received any funding to put on or advertise this event.
This event is not, in any way a commercial enterprise; it's just about happiness and bubbles.
Why: Because people forget to make time to be happy.
Who is invited: Everyone.
Who will be there: You, hopefully, and some other people.
Dr Tutti will be present at the events, but only as a participant. No one will instruct or lead you during the event. Just follow the above instructions and enjoy.
Safety and appropriate behaviour:
1) As a safety precaution please stay on the side of the bridge facing up the river towards the centre of Newcastle (the Sage, the Railway Bridge, etc.) so that people wishing to cross are not inconvenienced in any way.
2) Please don’t leave any rubbish on or around the event area.
3) Please be thoughtful and considerate to other people around the area.
4) If you are asked to move or disband the event please do so- we are not there to make anyone's life difficult or uncomfortable.
5) If there is any media interest/ people with questions or complaints, please refer them to this address.
Advertising the event:
The “Blow” events do not have sponsorship or funding from any organisations or individuals. For the event to be really successful it needs to attract a large number of participants. Please invite everyone you know and everyone you don't. Recently some people have been advertising the event in their own unique and beautiful ways including putting invites into balloons and giving them to strangers, leaving hand written invites in books and magazines in libraries/book shops or just handing out print-outs of this info.
If you have any questions or do not wish to be sent any more info, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Thank you for giving your time to read this information. Look forward to seeing you at one of the “Blow” events soon.
Kindest regards,
Dr. Tutti
Transcript of short talk given by Dr. Tutti at the "Joy Convention", Callboro University, USA, 17/03/'07
"Emm, hello. I'm Dr Tutti and I'd like to thank you all, particularly Professor Margolis, for inviting me to speak today. James has requested that I talk a little about the work I've been creating over the last few months and, emm, also the journey I took from being an academic to becoming an artist, which is…. slightly unorthodox. I think firstly, I feel duty bound to tell you that Dr. Tutti is not my real name! Tutti, obviously, comes from the Italian tutti a term familiar with those involved in orchestral music, meaning roughly "everyone all together", which can be seen as a reflection of the methodology behind much of my work. And Dr.? …. Well, I could tell you that it's because I wanted to sound like a cultural healer of some sort, but in actuality, I worked long and hard for my doctorate and, emm, it's a case of vanity; pseudonym -ized didn't want to loose the title! I use a pseudonym because I don't want my work as an artist to be confused with my research and therapeutic work. Well so, as for my history, I was born in Des Moines, Iowa. I started my professional life as a lecturer in Anthropology, took a sabbatical to Kenya to write a paper on the anthropology of happiness, and realized I was, in fact, not terribly happy myself. So I returned to the States, handed in my resignation and moved to Edinburgh to train as an art therapist. Emm, since graduating I have worked as an artist and art therapist; my experimentation in the former subsidized by my career in the latter. All my work is about the pursuit of happiness, the universality of that pursuit and ultimately the universality of the methods which we employ in order to achieve it.
(Pause)
People don't bother to put aside time to be happy, so I try to do that for them.
(Pause)
The specific work I'm going to talk bout today is called "Blow".
(Pause)
Blow is a performance art work. Also, as it grows, it will become an anthropological research project. I want to find out if it is as universally joy-making as my studies so far have suggested it might be.
(Pause)
Well, so, this is how Blow works it is:
A community performance event.
It's held once monthly (last Saturday of every month).
Venues currently national (In UK), but the first non British "Blow" will be held in Rome in August 2007.
The events are advertised through a "MySpace", through an email mail-out and through the more traditional, although environmentally less friendly, distribution of posters and flyers.
It is a completely inclusive event; it's enjoyed by both participants, or "blowers", as I like to refer to them, and viewers. The decision of whether to be a "blower" or a viewer is completely the decision of the individual, emm, there are no pre determined roles or rehearsals.
The event lasts exactly thirteen minutes.
For those minutes participants will congregate in a pre determined setting (which will have been indicated in the publicity-usually a bridge) and (pause) blow bubbles.
For gallery settings, I document this work with a single bubble in a glass presentation case. This is intended to be a symbol for the conceptual and experiential elements one would encounter, where one to attend a "Blow". One suggestion, obviously, being that the event is only truly understood by those who attend it. Just as happiness is only truly understood by those who experience it. I, emm, recently was trying to explain to a colleague, how important it was that she attend a "Blow" event as opposed to just asking me about it and, emm, used the slightly naughty analogy of: a virgin attempting to make love to a marble by Michelangelo, emm, assuming in her innocence that this might replicate the true experience of a lover. (Pause, laugh) My colleague was slightly scandalized, but, ladies and gentlemen, I have to tell you that she has been to a "Blow" every month since then. (Pause) For me, the bubble in the gallery setting is, as is all documentation, as (it can be argued) is all art, case of extreme semiotics. It communicates the ideals of the events: Ephemeral, beautiful, materially insignificant, yet emotionally, (Pause) symbolically (Pause) potent. As a metaphor for life, and the emotions we experience during that life; I think the bubble is unsurpassed… what action can more eloquently describe life than using the breath from ones own body to temporarily animate a translucent skin? It's just perfect. (Pause) And as a moment of pleasure, in life, there are few things more satisfying than blowing a bubble. It is something so beautiful, lively and engaging but also, guiltless, (Pause) unobtrusive- it won't inconvenience passers by. As a species we have an obsession with creation and destruction, which is why, of course, artistic endeavor is such a constant throughout the ages.
Back in my academic days I studied a great number of ancient texts, hoping to shed light on the constants in human desire for, and acquisition of, happiness. It was during this time that I studied the Yi Jing (I Ching- a Chinese divination book dating from the twelfth-century BC) which sites three major activities from which happiness can be derived: engagement in creative acts, engagement in co-operative community pursuits, and involvement in activities that "stimulate the controlled ex and inhalation of breath." So, 3,200 years later we see, through "Blow", that not only our desire to pursue happiness, but the means through which we can derive it, have changed little. Physically the human animal has barely changed in those centuries so; it can be assumed that our physical responses are likewise unchanged. Culturally and emotionally we are a little different, but I think really "Blow" highlights the universality, both globally and historically, of the joy experience. The realisation that, though culturally, we may be appear different, may value cultural endeavors very differently; strip us down and our basic functions are all the same. I think its good to know that despite X-Boxes and MP3 players, Viagra and video calling, we can still derive such deep and life affirming joy from; making a little something, sharing a little moment and breathing, maybe, a little more deeply than usual.
Who I'd like to meet: People who are interested in bubbles and happiness.
People who think and say lovely things like this:
“…simplicity, beauty and uncomplicated, thanks for thinkin it up.” Dialect, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 08/11/’06
And this:
"i very much enjoyed the rain and bubbles last night although my feet did get disturbingly soggy!
thank you very much for the lovelines that is blow :0"
Happy Birthday from everyone at In Arcadia the home of TUK Shoes and Dragonfly Shirts.
Have a wild week and call in for a free Birthday drink in Darlington’s only Latino café serving the best coffee in town. Voodoo Cafe 84 Skinnergate, Darlington, DL3 7LX, UK.
And don’t forget that the Voodoo Cafe now runs the Voodoo Cafe Burlesque Show last Friday of every month at The Blue Rooms Darlington. Tickets available from In Arcadia £6 in advance or £7 on the door.
COMING SOON !!! -------------------------------------- B/W SESSION > exposition du 9 au 26 avril 2008 300 dessins en noir et blanc par les résidents du Grand Hôtel Orbis -------------------------------------- > vernissage le mardi 8 avril 2008 de 16h à 21h > espace beaurepaire - 28 rue beaurepaire 75010 paris > métro : république > tous les jours 12h30 / 19h30 > infoline : effi + laurent > 06 22 85 35 86 > artsfactory. net --------------------------------------
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B/W SESSION feat. : Yvan Alagbé - Baldo - Martes Bathori - Blex Bolex - Sophie Brunellière - Charles Burns - Stéphane Calais - Anne Careil - Rémi Chambon - Frédéric Coché - Daisuke Ichiba - Ludovic Debeurme - Guillaume Dégé - Déjean & Lapierre - Damien Deroubaix - Julien Drochon - Sophie Dutertre - Paul Faassen - Farage - Quentin Faucompré - Sylvain Gérand - Thierry Guitard - Anne Hemstege - Medi Holtrop - Daniel Johnston - Killoffer - Jean-Philippe Lhonneur - Thomas Maury - Joëlle Merizen - Jérôme Meyer-Bisch - Muzo - Bruno Peinado - Pierre La Police - Vincent Puente - Julie Redon - Sandrine Romet-Lemonne - Danny Steve - Tom de Pékin - Two Tom - Willem …
une exposition proposée à l’occasion de la sortie du volume 2 de l’anthologie graphique Grand Hôtel Orbis / près de 400 pages de dessin aux éditions orbis pictus club !
