Paul Farmer artist writer filmmaker

doceras. or possibly 'songumentaries'.

these are sort of documentary-type films (ish) but the narration is sung. or they might be poetry films, except they have songs instead of poems. I don't know what they are. I've not seen anything like them anywhere else.

the pipe

this was filmed at trevaunance cove, st agnes, cornwall in january 2011. I'm sure the pipe featured is quite clean and innocent but that's not the point - I don't know about you but I am now  immediately suspicious of any water that emerges from any pipe anywhere.
hence the text here, which I wrote and then asked the great singer sue farmer to improvise a tune for. I think this was take two.
the closing lines of this are heartfelt: eco-mindedness is worse than useless without a wider political awareness. if you live in an economy (and hence a society) based on profit then there is no innate mechanism for valuing anything that cannot be monetarised. you can't bolt on such values. you need to change the economic system.

this one is about nature

I liked the pipe and thought there was more to be explored in the form. later in january 2011, during a performance exercise that formed part of my MA in fine art: contemporary practice at (then) university college falmouth, I had to engage my colleagues while my fellow performers positioned themselves outside the old art college building in arwenack avenue. so I filmed them, and here they are. and in all sincerity I don't think I could have had better colleagues, so it's very fulfilling to remember some of them here. (and the building - it was that building that made me want to do the MA in the first place). the text I improvised for the next part of the performance. again the tune was improvised by sue farmer, who also led the original workshop.