Written and performed by Andy Ingamells and Seán Clancy
The photographer Antonio Guillem is responsible for creating a stock image that went on to be used in ‘the distracted boyfriend meme’, appearing on the Internet in 2017. The meme became a springboard for this piece, provoking a fragmented text improvised by Seán Clancy and I on Twitter over the course of 28 days. Our collected text (as seen on the right-hand side of the video) became a score of choreographed actions for paper marionettes, a child’s set of maracas, musical typing, copying and pasting, a synthesiser, and performed speech. However, at some point, we too got distracted.
On 19 June 2020 at 19h30 (BST), Seán and I performed Antonio Guillem on the last night of Royal Birmingham Conservatoire’s online Coda Festival. This festival (and performance) replaced an IRL Coda Festival (and performance), cancelled due to Covid-19 lockdown, meaning Seán and I had to devise a new live performance that was physically distanced and rendered online. I performed from my home in Cork, Seán performed from his home in Dublin, and the event was broadcast via Zoom to an audience in several different countries.
This video is a recreation of that performance, and is the third piece we have created as a duo.
Performance
19 June 2020, Online (Zoom)
Andy Ingamells 