Projects Summary
Here is a short summary of the projects we are talking about. The italian title of each project is in [Brackets].
The most recent projects could miss. We are working to update this summary.
Please, feel free to discuss each project leaving a comment on its page (click on the project name to go) and to propose new projects adding comments to the main page.
If you don’t speak italian, write down your comments in english.
ATTRACTING ATTENTION (ATTIRARE L’ATTENZIONE)
How does one attract the attention of the Veronese?
[David]
Since I took part in the workshop last year I can say that we don’t necessarily need to do the same thing for the installations. The important thing is to have strong ideas. I think that the most important question has already been raised: WHAT IS GOING TO STRIKE THE VERONESE??? Well, you should know, I’m from Brescia!
[stefano tononi]
By creating not only a sound installation, but also something visual. I think we need:
-advertising on the internet on sites such as livepoint, veronavip, ecc..
-leaving flyers and leaflets in bars, shops, schools and other places..
-word of mouth
The only cost would be photocopying and time
[Abes]
Perhaps we should organize meetings in various places (university, clubs, etc.) to let people know what is happening
[Erri]
All ideas about how to make attention are really important: to use the web, mail and websites, to spread posters, flyers and to talk with people.
The ideas to make concert for animals is really fantastic, fun and crazy at the same time. Let´s!!
At last, it´s really important that you all now take contacts with friends, people at your school, to spread the idea of the Verona Sounds/Risuona, tell them about the blog and so on! We will have a new meeting in week 12, where we will try to start organizing the ideas until now. Good work until now and go on, think wild – free your mind and the rest will follow !
Best
Staffan
BROADCASTING (DIFFUSIONE)
We could broadcast everything that is performed on skype or msn… to as many contacts as possible asking them to broadcast everything in turn etc, etc. so that we block the internet with what we are doing in Verona.
[stefano tononi]
GENERAL
Lemi’s question – when do we meet? – is a good one. Getting everyone together in the same room is impossible, but I have booked the auditorium of the Conservatory for late afternoon on 19 March (that’s the day Staffan Mopssenmark returns to Verona). I’m suggesting that we organize a series of ‘thematic’ meetings that week on the individual projects, on documents, publicity, organizing the final party, etc.
[Hugh]
PLACES (LUOGHI)
Here are a few places suggested (apart from Piazza Bra, of course):
- the courtyard of the Tribunale vecchio (near Piazza Dante)
- the widening of Via Mazzia at the BNL Bank
- the cloister of the Conservatory (you get to it along an impressive corridor that could be used as a “cycle route”)
[Hugh]
- for the motorbike event, one suggestion is doing it by the waterside at Lake Garda (that would make it a bit different…)
[Raffaele]
- the Arsenale complex
- the courtyard of Castel S. Pietro
- in museums
[Mauro]
- at Mauro’s flat (heh heh)
- on the bridges
[Pier]
The courtyard of the old slaughter house in Via Filippini.
A nice place. With a view of the river and places for exhibitions and events.
[Mauro Graziani]
The cloister of the University: it can been from the street. The old slaughter house has seen too much ‘blood’. Things go wrong there: shops close down and nobody goes to the exhibitions… Apart from that it is also a bit distant from the main routes, but perhaps one could find a way of getting people there. For example a long time ago I went to a concert in a small town in the mountains. Just before the event there was nobody there. So we went into the main square and began to play and fool around. Like the Pied Piper of Hamelin we got them following us into the theatre.
[Erri]
PROJECTS
AFRICA
I would like to organize a long line of Africans in Via Mazzini, from Piazza Bra to Piazza Erbe. Since they are not welcome in the city, particularly in Via Mazzini, this could be a demonstration of their right to be in public places. I think the African don’t feel welcome in Verona. It would be a great spectacle and impossible not to see.
[David]
Great idea, but it should be a party in which they play, sing, dance, cook and above all teach us all these things. But would they agree? Perhaps yes, if we offer help, equipment, and if we invite them to take part, but we should take the responsibility of the organization. A simple demonstration (if that’s what you wanted) seems too much like a polemic “against” (our intolerance, their problems, our ignorance), but I think we should see it as an exchange, as a willingness to receive. Perhaps they should also get something from us, because if there is no mixing and one goes there just to look at the party, we just increase the distance between us.
[daniela gaidano]
I totally agree. It mustn’t be a demonstration, which could create a distance but also conflict. People should see the spectacle a san invitation.
[David]
First of all we should contact the ‘cultural mediators’ and discover the availability of the various ethnic communities. Many (those it would be interesting to involve) don’t get involved; they create their own private ghettos and don’t want to mix with ‘us’. That’s a fact. If the need doesn’t come from them (that’s why you need a mediator) it will be seen as a form of racism and paternalism. These are delicate matters.
[Erri]
I think the idea of mixing cultures is great and very important. We must do it. I’m happy to meet them and convince them. Excellent.
[Xavier]
I think we should develop the idea in a different way. I’ve gone to events where every culture shows itself and makes itself known, also getting the audience involved. So I think we should organize the meeting of cultures in a way that is completely different and unusual (I’m think about it…)
[Abes]
Does anyone know Ernesto? He has a great group of African dance and percussion, together with Europeans. Here in Verona. They could play at the end, perhaps. The line of Africans in silence could be great and surreal, with music at the end. It makes you think and also very visual, celebrating differences.
[Diane Peters]
To show how African and European music have the same roots and equal dignity we could have the Africans played in front of a conductor in evening dress, while European instrumentalists playing in front the African equivalent who beats time. Even more interesting would be to invert the pieces played: classical for the Africans, African for the Europeans.
[Lollos]
Another thing: some African instruments are not ‘musical instruments’ as we understand them. They are first tuned to the voice of the person who plays them (and not the other way round, as with us). So each person has a personal instrument. These instruments ARE (not ‘represent’) the spirit of one’s dead ancestors and the sound of the instrument is the ‘voice’ of that spirit. This could be shown in performance. Dress up one of us as a spirit who emits sounds until an African actually ‘plays’ him. Or get someone to play a harp or violin according to their methods of tuning.
[Lollos]
I met someone from Nigeria called Peter and I have contacted Ernesto. Peter says that all Africans have costumes at home. There could be a costume competition, as an incentive. But we need to be PRACTICAL, and get them involved from the beginning in Phase 2 of the project. We need to spread the word, maybe through handouts [“I have a handout in English, but it needs to be adapted/rewritten” [Hugh]]
[Diane]
It sounds a nice idea, but I agree with Daniela, It´s important to make communication, understanding, and to describe what is the purpose: a manifestation for peoples rights to be in every public spaces?
[Mossenmark]
I think that the documentary “L’Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio” is a must-to-see for who will work on this project. It’ s a kind of orchestra born in Rome, composed by 21 people from different countries.
The best way to realize this thing is mixing foreign musicians with our known musicians in Verona, without any kind of “academic” approach to the music that will surely be a limit with the interaction with these people (I suppose they have no formal training to the music). The social message will come out between the lines, I’d avoid discussing political or social matters, since the music and the enjoyment would already be the best message.
[Paolo Ingraito]
CARS (AUTOMOBILI)
… a concert for slamming car doors.
[Pier]
BALCONIES
It could be noisy and interesting to play the railings of a balcony with pieces of wood or metal. What do you think?
[Anna Zerlotto]
Great. It could also be done on a bridge, perhaps one made of bricks like that of Castelvecchio.
[Pier]
BAR
A concert in a bar using bags of sugar as maracas (is that how it’s spelled?), spoons and cups as percussion and sucking straws in empty glasses… the ultimate in irritating noises..
[Pier]
BICYCLES
we don’t have 100 Harleys, but we could have a lot of bicycles, which make interesting sounds if you put a piece of cardboard or plastic between the spokes, as we did when we were young to imitate motorbikes,
The bicycles can be ridden but also put on the ground, upside down to make the wheels turn and make noises
[by veronarisuona]
In Verona there should still be the Outlaws, unless they disbanded, and also another group of bikers: the 59 (I think).
[Abes]
Perhaps we could organize routes that MAKE the bikes sound. I mean: if for example we put down a series of wooden poles separated by a few centimetres you make a noise like a drum roll.
we could put various materials like gravel, water, bottle tops, empty cans, paper for recycling, etc. or make pools of water through which the bikes have to go.
[stefano tononi]
I think something that was done in Gothenburg in a previous Mossenmark project: bikes going over poles, etc. At least I saw pictures on his website: www.mossenmark.com. (click on ‘workshop’, then ‘lyud’). That doesn’t mean we can’t do it: but do it different… and better! Perhaps we could contact the guys in Gothenburg and see if they want to join.
[Hugh]
I like the idea of the bikes. We could disguise them as horses and then dress up as knights and have a battle between knights on bicycles. Or we could dress up some bikes as cows and show a scene of a ‘herd’ of bicycles being herded through the city by a cowboy (or cowgirl) with the right noises being made by those on the bikes. Perhaps to the accompaniment of suitable musical instruments (but I wouldn’t know that: I’m an ‘art’ student)
[Pier]
There are two societies in Verona that do things like medieval sword-fighting. One is called “Lame scaligere”. They do really nice things, mixing fighting and theatre.
[Abes]
Here is a suggestion, using the bicycle as a means of transportation and sound gathering. A group of cyclists meet in Piazza Bra. Some are sporting cyclists, some recreational. Each brings a bicycle, a microphone and tape recorder. At a signal, they begin recording and depart along radiating roads out of the city, until they reach a place which they recognize as ‘country’. The definition of ‘country’ is theirs. They bicycle around, collecting country sounds, until the tape is finished. Then they turn the tape over, press ‘Record’ again, and cycle back to Piazza Bra. Back in the square, they play back their tapes for passers-by to hear, and answer questions about their journeys. At the end of the recital, their tapes are archived as raw material for a repeat performance, broadcasting, or recomposition.
[Medlar]
The idea to make a mobile concert with bicycles with different sounds is great and it is easy to make it happen, so if the bicycle orchestra has 20-25 members or more it will be nice sounds around the city. Stefanos idea to make a lot of sounds at the same place will be nice, and I think it will be fun to look at too, at the same time.
[Mossenmark]
GARBAGE CONTAINERS (BIDONI)
Have crashes between garbage containers hat contain different. So they’ll make different noises also according to how they come together.
[Pier – of course!]
FOOD (CIBO)
To start with I can? say that I make a good tuna paté. And good bread too.
I would set up a gazebo in Piazza Caliari, which is right opposite Macdonalds. Under it I would put bread and paté (quantities to be decided). This is distributed until all the food runs out. After tasting each visitor gives a grade or mark from 1 to 9 on a keyboard connected to a laptop which gives a sound (different for each grade) and memorizes the grade. Throughout the installation the air will resound with an elaboration (by Mauro Graziani) of the words “tuna paté”. Those giving out the paté will be dressed up as tunas (difficult) or at least wearing aprons or something with a tuna logo (to be designed).
[Nicola]
Do it under the “umbrella” of the “5 senses”? To make food performance/concert in public places (Mac Donalds?) microphones/amplified salads, zucchini, carrots and so on. After that, the food is for free to the audience. This will be fun and a nice comment to all commercial business in town.
[Mossenmark]
FIVE SENSES (CINQUE SENSI)
Hey, what splendid ideas have already come out in such a short time! We would need a month to perform all the ideas that come out from now to April !
I’m just an ordinary guy but I think we should think of the “strings” we want to touch: we have talked of energy saving, immigration and “pure” sound events …very interesting. And if we are doing things in different location we really need a “unifying factor”… above all for the spectators to make them want to go everywhere.
Here’s my idea. And as old as the world, but always relevant: THE FIVE SENSES . Such as: Music (perhaps in the dark, as someone else suggested) and VISUAL ARTS in front of the conservatory and academy to show the Veronese where they are and that they are not rare beasts but places that are alive and can be visited by all; FOOD in front of MacDonald to show how awful it is….and perhaps even a mix of food-music, touch-sound somewhere half-way between the two places.
[Lollo]
The title made me think rather of a musical description of the 5 senses. I have nothing in mind, but it would be nice to create a musical moment for taste, one for sight, etc. For example, for ‘touch’ a group of people could rub pieces of cloth and create a rhythm.
[Assez vif]
ENERGY
We talk a lot about energy and how to use it. It’s one of the big subjects.
SO LET’S TURN EVERYTHING OFF!
The only energy we use is our own. The concert could start by turning off all those energy guzzlers (microphones, stereos, motors, machines). A sudden silence should plunge us into the void in which the protagonists are ourselves and our bodies. With our bodies we could produce a noise even bigger that what was before.
This needs thinking about, but perhaps it could lead to something…
[Ciliuz]
I like this idea of turning everything off. Perhaps we could turn off all the lights in a street and then at one end start to produce sound with our bodies and then introduce more and more sounds (always with our bodies and voices). And as we approach the lights start going on (like in an ad where a guy walks along a street and the lights light up behind him). Or perhaps the opposite: they go out bit by bit.
[Pier]
GYMNASTICS
Thinking of the noises around us that we think irritate us, it would be interesting to give them a new ‘aura’. For example, I train in a boxing gym and we warm up by skipping on a rope. When there are 3 or 4 people doing it, it is irritating. But if there 20 or 30, it could become a concert.
[Romina]
The sounds of gymnastics and boxing: the rhythmic use of bags and punch-balls?
[Verona risuona]
Why don’t we associate noises made in one way with movements and actions that are completely different? The first example that comes to mind: a white sheet, with people walking in front of it (perhaps some kind of choreography…) and behind it a lot of people skipping on ropes… something like that.
[Abes]
METAL PLATES (LASTRE METALLICHE)
spraying super jets of water onto metal plates to the rhythms of shouts, cries, whistling…
[Pier]
MOTORBIKES (MOTO)
We have made contact with the Harley-Davidson club of Verona. They seem interested.
[Hugh]
There used to be a group called the Outlaws. And also another group called the ‘59’ I think.
[David]
Can they also come from other cities?
[David Hatfield Lunde]
Why not?
[Verona risuona]
I have spoken to Fabrizio of the Harley-Davidson Club of Verona. And they are interested in playing Mossenmark’s piece. Perhaps there won’t be 100 bikes, but a good number. And it is probable that the concert will take place on another day (i.e. no the 28 April), because they are quite busy, but perhaps the 25th, 26th or 27th. I think that’s OK, because it could act as a ‘launch event’. We will let you know of developments.
[Hugh]
MUSIC IN STRANGE PLACES (MUSIC IN LUOGHI INSOLITI)
Following the philosophy of taking music places where you do not expect to find it I propose organizing miniconcerts in the strangest places: the toilets of bars, the balconies of private houses, public parks, bus stops, cross roads, etc.
Advantages: every group takes the responsibility of taking instruments, equipments and getting permission, etc.
Disadvantages: I don’t know how you get round copyright laws (one big permit for the whole event?) and public order (perhaps best to do small things at a low volume).
[ale30]
Also down the manholes in the roads?
[Pier]
The manholes could be a bit difficult, but it could be done in the underground carparks: a great echo there! Come on, let’s have some other ideas! By the way when I said toilets, I meant the “ladies” of course.
[ale30]
Sounds great! I think, like the idea with the bicycles, this is easy to make, but of course, we need 20-50 persons with trolleys to get lot of sounds. Nice performance idea! //
[Mossenmark]
RESTITUTION OF ENTERTAINMENT (RESTITUZIONE DI INTRATTENIMENTO)
My idea is that one mustn’t insist too much on the planning something that has human beings as an audience.
For example it would be good to make all the animals that pass through Piazza Bra or Piazza Erbe listen to music or mp3s with walkmans . Or to make proper concerts for animals. Everything up in the trees: who said that they do not hear? Or we could make photos of ourselves and give them to monuments of Verona, hanging them on the Arena or poor old Cangrande della Scala! It is the least we can do, since he is to be found on the hard disks of millions of Japanese!
Joking aside, what I understood from Mossenmark was that these installations must give something to those involved. For example more than the noisy concert for Harleys, I like the concert for body-builders. That was more than the noise of iron on asphalt. It was giving visibility to people who are intrinsically exhibitionist, and that’s why it worked: they got their 15 minutes of celebrity.
So I propose a restitution of entertainment to those who have to smile and stay still while we take photos and who have to stay at home when we go away.
Obviously the photos could be taken before the actual date of the event.
[stefano tononi ]
Is there any way we could use the Japanese tourists? After all they owe the city something. And I find that they are generally always happy to get involved.
[stefano tononi ]
Tononi’s idea of not playing (and/or performing) only and exclusively for human beings, but also for animals, plants, monuments, zucchini, paving stones, sausages and anything else is extraordinary!! And in a city like Verona (Tononi is from Brescia, right?) there are places where plants and monuments go particularly well together: I think of the Ginkobiloba and the Scala palaces in Piazza delle Poste, the trees in Piazza Bra with the Arena and all the rest, the gardens designed by Scarpa behind Castelvecchio, and the bridge over the Adige at Castelvecchio…I was also forgetting Castel San Pietro with the view of all Verona and the Roman theatre below.
The idea of uniting a performance for nature and monuments is a fine idea and also possible…. Perhaps it could be combined with my idea of the FIVE SENSES…
[Lollo]
Performing for monuments: I see that the Torre dei Lamberti has been packaged for restoration or cleaning. And the packaging has been done really well so as to seem a work of art. Why not stress this point by giving tourists postcards of the packaged tower. And perhaps play the bells so that you get the message that it still functions as a tower.
[Lollo]
The idea to connect or collect the ideas in ”the five senses” is interesting, and maybe some of the ideas can be under this ”umbrella”. To make food performance/concert in public places (Mac Donalds?) microphones/amplified salads, zucchini, carrots and so on. After that, the food is for free to the audience. This will be fun and a nice comment to all commercial buisiness in town.
[Mossenmark]
SKIING (SCI)
going down a flight of steps on skiis makes quite a noise
[Pier]
DARK ROOM (STANZA BUIA)
I thought it would be good to create a room with live music but completely in the dark. I have tried it and you hear …twice as much. It is a great sensation. I know that anyone can do it at their own home but few people do it, especially with live music.
[Lemi]
The idea of the dark room is good, but I would combine it with movement: find a way of making the listener perceive the sound moving around him, give him a spatial dimension to listening, or even find a way of allowing the spectator to move “freely” and try different “positions” with respect to the source of sound.
[Erri]
I’m imagining a situation. Do you know the dynamic cinema at Gardaland (theme park near Verona)? … Well my idea is derived from a memory of that. Mine is an example: dark room, music, spectators. An enormous sheet that passes over our heads. Or drops of water (not bottles of water!) that come from God knows where. “Make the music concrete”.
[Abes]
I suggest using some improvisers: there’s an improvisation class at the Conservatory that is taking part in the project. We could use them.
[Hugh]
I’m think of playing with light in another way. The dark room could be a “shadow room”, either before or after in the same place… or even in the open in Verona if there is a good wall. Light technicians could put the lights in such a way as to create shadows against which musicians could improvise. You could also have a video recording projected onto the wall and recording of pieces of music, replayed and re-interpreted…
It could be done with just one instrument and a candle! Or lots of both!
[harpist diana]
The idea to work with a dark room is good and interesting, It´s true that all sounds grow much bigger in a place where you can´t see where the sound comes from and what kind of instrument/object makes the sound. If it´s possible to find a galleria or central place (maybe a tent?) where it´s easy for the public to find and go to this darkroom, it will work good.
[Mossenmark]
PCS (SUONARE PC)
Seeing that there is a community of Veronese bloggers we could perhaps “play” several pcs together.
Either everyone with a specific piece, but not necessarily played in synchrony or with the typical sounds of keyboards: for example amplifying the sounds of the keys with microphones while the bloggers are writing the latest news…
[Lemi]
TROLLEYS
100 shopping trolleys on the cobble stones in Piazza Bra would make a good noise.
[Pier]
Various comments:
lemi: fantastic
isotta: the trolley is a winner …
ale30: the trolley idea is nice: anyone who spends a lot of time at railway stations, as I do, knows what the noise is like. And one understands (with a little imagination!) a lot about the personality of the people driving them. To do the thing properly the 100 trolley drivers should be dressed as commuters going to work, nurses, teachers, supermarket cashiers, businessmen, etc. – a kind of cross-section of our society seen through the noises of this new fetish of modern society!
Sounds great! I think, like the idea with the bicycles, this is
easy to make, but of cource, we need 20-50 persons with trolleys to get lot of sounds. Nice performance idea! //
[Mossenmark]
SHOUTING (URLO!)
I like the idea of a continuous shout… created by having several people giving out a shout of 2 or 3 seconds. Imagine someone shouting outside the Gran Guardia [big building in Piazza Bra]. Five meters to the left another one does the same and so on, until it goes all the way round Piazza Bra! I don’t know what the effect would be like. But it’d be fun to do!
[isotta]
A chain of shouts. Great!
[Pier]
GLASS (VETRO)
Lift up 4 or 5 glass-recycling containers and have them crash together… more than 5 if possible.
[Pier]
NEW SUGGESTIONS (STATO DELLE COSE)
There are a lot of things written here but I will SUMMARIZE them – it would take me all day to translate!
Mmmhhh…
I wonder why nobody has made a suggestion about cell phones. I don’t want to force anyone, but it seems strange that nobody has mentioned it since this is an object we carry around with us all day.
[Mauro Graziani]
Perhaps because it has already been done … Perhaps we could collect hundreds of discarded phones from the Eco-Centres. You can loads of them because they are classified as dangerous (because of the batteries) and then we hurl them against aginst things (not my car please!) or we could have a game of baseball using cell-phones instead of a ball, using the whole square, with the spectators that use ring tones instead of shouting?
[Pier]
A bit of Nordic skiing in the centre of Verona? If you use artificial carpets you can do wonders, but even without is OK.
Using catapults that to launch into the air coloured stuff that then falls to the round and creates strange paterns and makes strange sounds (ploc plic plac)?
Create some low doors (I suggest 1 metre 20 centimetres) in the main streets (Via Mazzini) so that people have pass under it and do a kind of “limbo dance” (with perhaps an amplifier to amplify the sound if they fall over)?
Put some tape recorder in the churches and play recordings of Musilim rites and do the same (put Christian singing) in a mosque (is there one in Verona?) and then compare the reactions?
[Pier]
Finally after sleepless nights I know how to use the Japanese tourists! I thought about a concert for “prepared Japanese tourists”. As for John Cage’s prepared piano production I thought about customizing the feet and the shoes of the Japanese tourists in Verona so that they’ll make different noises all around the city center. We could use plastic shopping bags, aluminium (for wrapping food), plastic paper baskets etc… or we could build customized shoes with small stones inside, or water, or shells, plastic toys, etc…
[Stefano]
Stefano’s last message provoked a (friendly!) discussion between Stefano and Mauro. The main issue raise by Mauro was: What is the point of proposing things that are either 1) impossible or 2) expensive and require too much technology? (e.g. amplifying the sound of the water of the river Adige using lots of microphones; tuning the car horns of Verona to emit a particular note; getting everybody’s burglar alarms to sound at the same time; “bugging” the shops and restaurants so that the noises made inside are broadcast outside; etc.
Mauro also said that Stefano’s shoes would 1) be a mess after a few minutes and 2) probable wouldn’t make much noise. Why not use flamenco shoes, high heels or those shoes which make the air whistle (a type made in Taiwan some time ago).
Stefano protested that his idea (“prepared Japanese tourists”) was possible – he reckons that you can persuade the tourist parties that go to Juliet’s balcony – and that it also has the merit of costing absolutely nothing. Paolo also likes the idea of the “prepared Japanese” and promises to help Stefano. For the “well-tempered Japanese” he suggests that the best way of making their feet sound is to tie bells to their shoes (or perhaps Coke cans: poor but effective)… Maybe we could get them sing something too (if some musicians accompany them).
Hugh suggested that perhaps the two ideas could be separated: 1) do something with/for the Japanese tourists at Juliet’s Balcony; and 2) do something else for ‘prepared feet’. He suggested using football boots and perhaps either involving either 1) real football teams (young players) to run up and down the main streets or 2) people who want ‘advertise’ something (a company could hire groups of people to put on special boots and run around the city advertising something: a variation of the ‘sandwich men’)
[Hugh, summarizing Mauro, Stefano, Pier and Hugh]
The ‘Veronese face’: all you need is a box and a kind of ‘box’ where people can sit on a stool and have their photo taken via webcam; it’s important that all the faces are taken frontally and at the same distance and height. Then there is a software that accumulates the images and creates the ‘average face’. (one for each sex). After about a thousand faces we can publish the average face of the people in Verona.
[Mauro]
Paolo’s ideas:
1) A very simple idea. Get a dozen people (passers-by) in a circle and a “conductor” who can direct an improvised version of a musical canon that everybody knows and make it to go faster and faster until the sounds are thrown back and forth. You need a good conductor to do this (one who is good at improvising choir games).
2) All those free newspapers that are distributed every morning? Enough to drive you mad. We could get 30 or more people to dress up as paper boys/girls and go around annoying people in a ridiculous way.
3) Get hundreds balloons or more. One balloon each (they cost nothing) and at a fixed time we explode them in some funny way. Perhaps we could get into the Guinness Book of Records.
4) A huge game of “musical chairs” like we did when we were young, only much bigger. With live music and LOTS MORE CHAIRS. Maybe it’s not so brilliant but it could give someone else an idea.
[Paolo Ingraito]
I think we need some other ideas for choirs: there are a lot of people who sing in Verona… and not only opera. Why not have a series of “marching choirs” that go around the streets of the centre surprising people? I’m thinking of the marching choirs of the American Marines that you see in films, but there are lots of other ways of doing it. You can walk, trot, run and move in other ways, make gestures with your hands, etc. There is also the “silly walk” of Groucho Marx and Monty Python.
I suggest the choirs form teams (say, 12-15 people) and they go around the town making sounds in a perfectly synchronized way. Singing, sounds, noises, anything. There could also be ‘silent choirs’ that only move and make gestures.
Even the way you dress could be important: evening dress, leather jackets, plastic clothes, etc. It would be good to get the military involved as well, but I don’t know how they would react (has anyone got a friend or relation who is a soldier?).
[Hugh]
