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KARA CHIN
GENTLE STRANGER
FELIX ROSE KAWITZKY
PLASTIQUE FANTASTIQUE
MAGGIE ROBERTS
JOHN POWELL-JONES
FRANKIE ROBERTS
THOMSON & CRAIGHEAD

6 AUGUST - 15 DECEMBER 2020

CURATED BY
MARK ROHTMAA-JACKSON

Enter into the virtual world with This is a Not-Me, an online only exhibition of new video artwork made by a group of multimedia artists during the lockdown of 2020; streamed monthly via Instagram live, Twitch and on this site.

The exhibition was commissioned by IMT, curated by Mark Rohtmaa-Jackson and supported by the Arts Council England.

6 AUGUST 2020

In High School Musical 2 a group of high school friends get together to sing about the summer and of freedom and friendship. They announce to each other that “all the hard work […] is done!” This is 2007, the summer that the iPhone appears. The movie was released three months later, that September, when the summer they are singing about is over for everyone but them. But for them, the funeral is a banquet. They sing about “the time we get to share” and that this time of togetherness will last “forever”…
We are outside of time. Outside this eternal summer. We are a new kind of creature, built on Zoom. We are part bird, part human, part many other things: Kara Chin, Gentle Stranger, Felix Rose Kawitzky, Plastique Fantastique, John Powell-Jones, Frankie Roberts, Maggie Roberts and Thomson & Craighead. We sing through August into December. This is a Not-Me. There are many timelines and we don’t know yet when things are going to happen or what they are going to be. They will come out now and then over the next few months: performances, screenings, links to websites. Back in 2007, as the old friends sing, Facebook adjusts its status update to remove the word “is”. Here in 2020 we start to declare our individual updates over the top of one another as each appears in the story, different worlds, different timelines exisiting side-by-side, singing to the tune of Sumer is Icumen in: “Frustrate the content delivery system!” – “Dissolve the subject and cease to exist!” – “Fantasise memorials!” – “Become octopus!” – “Create characters; make enclaves; build worlds!” – “Haunt Google Maps!” – “Log unearthly transmissions!” – “Beam into devices!”

What do we do now? Come out, playmate! We need to get together.
Streaming:

00:00 – Mark Rohtmaa-Jackson, This is a Not-Me Ident
00:06 – Kara Chin, Embassy Gardens Promo
02:02 – Felix Rose Kawitzky, Otherwards
02:55 – Kara Chin, Transitional Parade Filler Animation
06:51 – Thomson & Craighead, Screaming
16:19 – John Powell-Jones, Quantum Loop – Episode 0
22:11 – Kara Chin, Transitional Parade Filler Animation
26:11 – Frankie Roberts, Always Accept Cookies
31:11 – Kara Chin, Transitional Parade Filler Animation
35:07 – Plastique Fantastique, Earth Year Zero
01:00:46 – Gentle Stranger, Live at PRAH, London
01:13:43 – Kara Chin, Transitional Parade Filler Animation
01:17:39 – Maggie Roberts, Becoming Octopus Meditation Promo
01:24:21 – Mark Rohtmaa-Jackson, This is a Not-Me Ident

KARA CHIN

Embassy Gardens Promo

3 SEPTEMBER 2020

This is a Not-Me is evolving. It has developed corruptions and cosmic mutations (are you still okay?). It is making goo-goo eyes. So, for this stream we will be releasing new videos: Episode 1 of ‘Quantum Loop’ by John Powell-Jones, a new performance of ‘Goodbye, it’s you’ by Frankie Roberts, and a sneak peek of Maggie Roberts’ ‘Becoming Octopus Meditations.

John Powell-Jones’ ‘Quantum Loop’ is a series of episodes depicting the first ‘successful’ quantum teleportation of a human subject. A glitch that separates the subject’s consciousness and body onto different plains of reality, one outside its understanding of time and space the other trapped in an eternal loop trying to achieve ‘ultimate progress’…
The work is an ongoing exploration of the toxic neoliberal idealogy that places the entanglement of the gains of a small human elite and technological progress above the health and wellbeing of the Earth and the rest of its inhabitants.

Frankie Roberts’ ‘Goodbye it’s you’ is a video performance that continues to explore her interest in language, and repurposing of narratives and text. Or, as in the case of her work ‘Always Accept Cookies’, “eulogising commonplace expressions and inflections; the different hats people wear to speak”.
Streaming:

00:00 – Mark Rohtmaa-Jackson, This is a Not-Me Ident
00:08 – Frankie Roberts, Goodbye it’s you
09:55 – John Powell-Jones, Quantum Loop – Episode 1
12:54 – Mark Rohtmaa-Jackson, This is a Not-Me Ident
13:51 – MaNa, Crystalline, Creature EP
17:29 – Maggie Roberts, Becoming Octopus Meditations Sneak Peek
21:15 – Mark Rohtmaa-Jackson, This is a Not-Me Ident

An earlier version of ‘Goodbye it’s you’ was performed on the 15th of February 2020 as part of
‘Reactor Halls E19: Tek-Animal-Life Rendezvous’ at Primary in Nottingham

FRANKIE ROBERTS

Goodbye, It's You

MAGGIE ROBERTS
BECOMING OCTOPUS
MEDITATIONS

THIS WAY ▸

1 OCTOBER 2020

This is a Not-Me is updating… its ritual distribution, with new videos arriving. Plastique Fantastique have a second Zoom meeting with songs and a riddle from Subkast Kofke – Thomson & Craighead write jingles to foreshadow 2021 – Episode 2 of ‘Quantum Loop’, the third in John Powell-Jones’ quantum entanglement saga – Gentle Stranger return with a Jennifer Walton remix and video by Frankie Roberts – and rejoin the queer, interdimensional world-building of Felix Rose Kawitzky’s ‘Otherwards’.

Plastique Fantastique: ‘Zoom Ritual to Tell Stories Two’ – the second Zoom meeting between Sunkast Kofke, termites, feveractal and AP Kingsford.

Thomson & Craighead: ‘See Through’ (extract) – a video extract from one of the elements comprising a new installation work called, ‘See Through’…
John Powell-Jones: ‘Quantum Loop’ – an ongoing exploration of the toxic neoliberal ideology that places the entanglement of the gains of a small human elite and technological progress above the health and wellbeing of the Earth and the rest of its inhabitants.

Gentle Stranger (Jennifer Walton remix): ‘Insects In The Water Timidly Rupture Our Favourite Gullets’ – A Gentle Stranger Jennifer Walton remix with video by Frankie Roberts.

Felix Rose Kawitzky’s Otherwards: is a queer, interdimensional world-building and storytelling community on Discord. Watch ‘Otherwards’ continue to take shape or to be involved join ‘Otherwards’ directly via Discord
Streaming:

00:00 – Mark Rohtmaa-Jackson, This is a Not-Me Ident
00:15 – John Powell-Jones, Quantum Loop – Episode 2
03:42 – Gentle Stranger (Jennifer Walton remix), Insects In The Sugar Water Timidly
Rupture our Favourite Gullets with video by Frankie Roberts
08:31 – Plastique Fantastique, Zoom Ritual to Tell Stories Two – Part 1
24:25 – Thomson & Craighead, See Through – Extract
29:54 – Plastique Fantastique, Zoom Ritual to Tell Stories Two – Part 2
44:55 – Felix Rose Kawitzky, Otherwards
48:16 – Mark Rohtmaa-Jackson, This is a Not-Me Ident

FELIX ROSE KAWITZKY

Otherwards on Discord

5 NOVEMBER 2020

And we have things for you, buddy. This is a Not-Me.

Try these vocal exercises: Summer. Summer. Summer. Summer. Summer. Summer. Summer. Summer. Summer. Summer. Summer. Summertime. Summertime. Loop it until you see afterimages on your computer screen spinning into a blizzard of bright and burning pinwheels. Watch them spiralling over the walls and into your desktop horizon. Watch everything through streaming platforms and seasons don’t change like they used to. It’s always thanksgiving. We are outside of time. Glitches coming in fast. Fireballs burning in water. Parliament burning on the banks of the Thames. This is fine.

Come out playmate, for:

MORE DEMONIC BUILDING from Kara Chin: New Blender 3D animation of The Shard haunting the London skyline.

MORE ZOOM from Plastique Fantastique: Plastique Fantastique Zoom Ritual to Tell Stories Three – the third meeting between Subkast Kofke, Termites, Feveractal and AP Kingsford. WARNING: THIS VIDEO CONTAINS STROBE EFFECTS…
MORE LOOP from John Powell-Jones: ‘Quantum Loop’ – an ongoing exploration of the toxic neoliberal ideology that places the entanglement of the gains of a small human elite and technological progress above the health and wellbeing of the Earth and the rest of its inhabitants. MORE LIKES from Thomson & Craighead: ‘See Through’ (extract) – a new extract from one of the elements comprising a new installation work called ‘See Through’.

MORE WORLD-BUILDING from Felix Rose Kawitzky: Watch ‘Otherwards’, a queer, interdimensional world-building and storytelling community continue to take shape.

MORE HAUNTINGS from Frankie Roberts: An animation to accompany a Human League choral rework Don’t You Haunt Me, baby.
Streaming:

00:00 – Mark Rohtmaa-Jackson, This is a Not-Me Ident
00:21 – Thomson & Craighead, See Through – Extract
05:56 – Kara Chin, The Shard
08:45 – John Powell-Jones, Quantum Loop – Episode 3
12:22 – Frankie Roberts, Don’t You Haunt Me, baby
13:38 – Plastique Fantastique, Zoom Ritual to Tell Stories Three
38:18 – Mark Rohtmaa-Jackson, This is a Not-Me Ident

PLASTIQUE FANTASTIQUE

Tarot Divination Husher Husher

3 DECEMBER 2020

“… and all the Not-Mes scurried and zipped from Instagram to Instagram and back again, running faster and faster until they churned into a stream…”

THIS –

is new video for your home theatre, clad in good value clothes: John Powell-Jones + Thomson & Craighead + Frankie Roberts + Plastique Fantastique + Gentle Stranger + Felix Rose Kawitzky

[insert clip of direct-to-home-theatre Disney movie – any direct-to-home-theatre Disney movie – loop forward and reverse]

IS –
the last ‘This is a Not-Me’ First Thursday broadcast from @imtgallery

This is a Not-Me is winding down just as High School Musical 2 draws towards the end of its running time …cursor hovers over the screen – doesn’t want to autohide grr – dodgy site

leave it to run automatically – make sure your device is fully charged

A –

story from 55 years ago to the day: the Beatles release ‘Rubber Soul’ and the title is a deliberate joke because they know they are not real souls like soul music is, and the band name is a deliberate joke because they know they are not real beetles – but The Beatles is now in your content feed so

#notinterestedinthebeatles
#notinterestedindisney

Not-Me
Streaming:

00:00 – Mark Rohtmaa-Jackson, This is a Not-Me Ident
00:11 – Thomson & Craighead, See Through – Extract
01:14 – Gentle Stranger, Transmission 00
06:25 – Thomson & Craighead, See Through – Extract
07:34 – Frankie Roberts, I’m A Dreamer – Trailer
10:09 – Thomson & Craighead, See Through – Extract
18:04 – John Powell-Jones, Quantum Loop – Episode 4
20:02 – Thomson & Craighead, See Through – Extract
23:03 – Plastique Fantastique, Zoom Ritual – Earth Year Zero Epilogue: The Great Reset
28:48 – Mark Rohtmaa-Jackson, This is a Not-Me Ident

JOHN POWELL-JONES

Quantum Loop Ep. 4

FINAL STREAM
15 DECEMBER 2020

GENTLE STRANGER

Falcon

Now what we did we do, playmate? All the hard work is undone! This is the Loop Era and we want to share once more with you on Tuesday 15th of December: Frankie Roberts, Gentle Stranger, Plastique Fantastique, John Powell-Jones, Felix Rose Kawitzky, a hashtag swarm reading from Maggie Roberts…

“…-un! Now that all the hard work, work is do-…”
“…-un! Now that all the hard work, work is do-…”
“…-un! Now that all the hard work, work is do-…”

It is the last song of ‘High School Musical 2’ and the characters are in the pool for a pool party. The song is ‘All for One’, an invocation to encircle their eternal summer in a romance myth of love, law, bloodshed, against the backdrop of an old regime. “It’s not about the future, it’s not about the past.,” they sing, “the summer has just begun!”

“…-un! Now all the hard work, work is do-…”
“…-un! Now all the hard work, work is do-…”
“…-un! Now all the hard work, work is do-…”
For a brief three seconds, Miley Cyrus appears in a yellow dress amongst the dancers. She has been summoned by Hannah Montana fans casting votes on the Disney Channel website. The viewers make the story. The spectator makes the picture. These three seconds are clipped from the movie and loop forever on YouTube:

“…-un! Now all the hard work, work is do-…”
“…-un! Now all the hard work, work is do-…”
“…-un! Now all the hard work, work is do-…”

Spinning, like a pinwheel. The beginning of this eternal, Zoom built summer, running bloopers over the end credits. Forever, like a pinwheel.

The pool is closed. Everyone in the pool for a pool party.
Streaming:

00:00 – Mark Rohtmaa-Jackson, This is a Not-Me Ident
00:09 – Gentle Stranger, Falcon
04:09 – Plastique Fantastique, Tarot Divination Husher Husher
15:24 – John Powell-Jones, Quantum Loop Playset Advert
16:52 – Frankie Roberts, I’m a Dreamer
24:54 – Maggie Roberts, Becoming Octopus Hashtag Conjurer
37:09 – Gentle Stranger, Great Desolation
39:19 – Felix Rose Kawitzky, the unfolding of Otherwards

THOMSON & CRAIGHEAD

Screaming (2020)

SUPPORTED BY:
The Arts Council England logo