In 24 hours, you could comfortably fit in a trans-Atlantic flight, an intense but short-lived summer fling and a psychiatric evaluation from The Priory. Sadly, we won’t be doing those things, but this week’s Pick ‘n’ Mix is constantly looking at its watch and muttering, because we’re looking into 24-hour-ideas…
Mark Watson
Mark Watson, he of Footlights extraction and comedic fame, proved himself to be a glutton for punishment when he undertook his first long show at Edinburgh, ingeniously titled, ‘Mark Watson’s Overambitious 24-Hour Show’. The format proved so exhaustingly successful, his following trips to the Fringe followed the same idea.
Pendurance Challenge
The 24-Hour Pendurance Challenge entails illustrating 50 London locations in under 24 hours. The plan is to create a hand-drawn, psycho-geographic map of an alternative London – the assumption being that sites suggested will be of personalised, emotional significance to the artist, rather than the traditional London landmarks.
Pendurance Challenge from THINK-WORK-PLAY.COM on Vimeo.
24 Hour Record Player
Furniture designers Hendzel and Hunt called upon London's top creatives for a 24 hour challenge: to design and produce a machine capable of playing a record within the set 24 hour period. These guys only used found materials in Peckham.
Richard Linklater
Richard Linklater's films are meandering, wordy explorations of relationships and solipsism and are usually set in the space of a day. His preference for conversation over thundering plot singles him out as an American filmmaker that goes against the grain, with brilliant films such as Slacker, Dazed and Confused, and Before Sunrise.
Surakarta 24-hour dance
How did you celebrate International Dance Day this year? You know what, I won’t even pause for your reply, because it was probably nothing compared to these eleven dancers from the Surakarta Arts Institute in Indonesia, who completed a non-stop 24-hour dance performance. Reports say their feet were sore afterwards. I’ll say.
24
I know, I know, illustrations and record players are nice but 24 hours really mean one thing: Jack ‘Grimace’ Bauer. The seemingly immortal Jack Bauer protected the world in one hour stints, seemingly immune to those pitiful human indulgences such as eating and going to the toilet. A brave and brilliant show, the premise was ingeniously simple – an entire season spanning a day, with each episode covering a ‘real-time’ hour. Except it wasn’t really real-time, because of ads and stuff. But I digress. The upcoming movie apparently comes with a warning to bring adult diapers and a packed lunch, but don’t take my word for it.
Click here to apply for The 24 Hour Plays: Old Vic New Voices.
Image: Open 24 Hours by hodgers, available under a CC BY-SA 2.0 licence.