Can you beat them? Ja! Si! Da! Oui! YES YES YES!

Photographed by Phillippa Thomas for Global PlayerAs a lead up to the Beijing Summer Olympics 2008, three uniformed table tennis players will pull a custom built table tennis table around the streets and public spaces of five British cities.

Strengthened for purpose and fitted with a towbar for ease of pulling, the table is a specially designed art object constructed by sculptor John Packer (www.johnpacker.com) out of recycled bicycle parts. On the table’s surface is an abstracted global map transforming both its journey through the city and each match played into a community performance event.

This is the launch tour of the Global Player project which is primed to reach all corners of the globe in the next 4 years.

Visit www.blindditch.org/globalplayer for details of stats and video highlights. 

Eudaimonia (from the Aristotelian concept) is a self-contained system in which the technology appears part of an extended nervous system, both contradicting and supporting the human effort at its centre.

Cause and effect can no longer be identified as every action changes the environment and every change in the environment affects the actions within. More than being just a metaphor on humankind’s struggle within their material surroundings, Eudaimonia involves the audience into a breathtaking process of achievement and failure, driven by a sustained physical effort.

"it has the freshness of a question mark so fitting to the subject and of its treatment by this innovative multi media company."
Simon Persighetti, tEXt Festivals

An ongoing investigation into the defining moments that make us long to be more.

This work has so far been manifested in two parts. The initial performance of this work in studio theatre environment presented the audience with a kind of engine room of ideas as if the material of the performance was being excavated from an archive of ephemera. The performance space: part reference library, part kinetic sculpture, part techno science lab, became an ever-changing arena for an exposition on Heroism.

“Brilliant. An excellent chance to see views of the world through the eyes of young people. More Please.”
Catherine, VANLAND audience member 2004

“Fantastic concept – Fascinating visuals – Brilliant van. Can I rent it?”
Audience member, Exeter 2005

“It was a very enjoyable experience. I hope to do it again and the skills I have learned will be very useful for me for the future.”
Felek Werpachowski Workshop Participant 2006

“There is an elusive, eliding quality about the whole performance which skillfully collides nostalgic tourism, contemporary rural like and personal history. It is an atmospheric, touching and thought provoking piece, a quiet moment of reflection and intimacy.

The audience is left with fragments of lives and landscapes; past holidays and future fears. Blind Ditch have a light touch and something to say. A rare and valuable combination."

Barbara Bridger, Bloodaxe Writer of the Year, May 2003

“What a wonderful experience, thumbing through a beautiful book, listening to some interesting people. Well done everyone who was involved.”
Ishbel Ramsey, (Former) Arts Officer for South Hams District Council

The Travelling Guest Book Selected views of the South Hams in late summer A document of opinions offered between 14th August 2002 and this very moment as you are adding yours…

‘A promising enterprise...charming anecdotes, beautiful images and engaging texts.'
Frankfurter Rundschau, 12th Dec 2001

Commissioned by Theatre at Dartington College of Arts and developed for the Plateaux Festival 2001 during a residency at Kunstlerhaus Mousonturm, Frankfurt.

Small Possessions Daily is a series of choreographed dialogues influenced by the English Baroque suite Consort in Fower Parts by Exeter Composer Matthew Locke. Experimenting with use of Locke’s ‘bundles of movements’ and his strong use of Rubato, the piece mixes themes of psychoanalysis and hysteria with images reminiscent of surrealist film.