Institute of Contemporary Arts

Charade

Inspired the Ray Bradbury novel Fahrenheit 451, in which reading is considered a criminal offence and all books are destroyed, Charade imagines a future where our most treasured items from the media are under threat of destruction. In a world where data recorded on peer to peer networks is under threat from hacks, crashes, viruses and legal constraint, we must become our favourite media assets in order to save them. Which most treasured documented artefact would you choose to be?

When forced to rely on our own memories and bodies for storage and retrieval, how would our relationship to these artefacts change? What new forms of ownership and distribution might emerge?

Artist Simon Pope invites you to choose their favourite cultural artefact and commit it to memory. Volunteers attempt to memorize a chosen piece of music, film, tv programme, news report, speech, play or book, through a process of walking, memorizing, remembering and reciting, they each attempt to 'become' their favourite media asset. Over a period of one month they will met at ad hoc gatherings at locations in central London and be given tips on how to learn their work and how to perform it, as well as gain support from other volunteers.

On Sunday 24 June, from 2.30 - 6pm the volunteers will congregate in Trafalgar Square to recite their chosen piece while wandering together, en masse - a re-creation of the final scenes of Truffaut's film of Fahrenheit 451.

What do you need to do? it's easy:
1. choose a book, film, play, song, advert, poem...
2. start to commit it to memory -- learn some lines, remember the camera angles...
3. come to Trafalgar Sq. between 3pm and 5pm, 24th June 07 4. tell us what you've chosen, recite a few lines, meet others doing the same...
5. BE THE NETWORK!

Want to be part of Charade? The Call for Volunteers is still open.

Originally commissioned as part of the BBC and Arts Council England's Private View in 2006, Charade is supported in London by the ICA. You can register and find out more about the project at www.charade.org.uk.

Free