Spiral Motion Project

"The spectator creates his own story"

"What would I think if someone were to call me an artist? My response would be: recognition at last! I would like to be regarded as an artist. If my work doesn't appeal, I will work on it until it does, or I couldn't call myself an artist." With these sincere remarks Jos Hustings ended our conversation, in which his work as composer and his involvement with the "Spiral Motion Project" were the main items.

In the spring of 1985 a number of musicians started preparing for a project with the name "Spiral Motion". This project wants to tell the tale of man, looking for the inner self and the outer social comfort.
These processes alternately interchange, consolidate and suffocate each other, thus creating a spiritual spiral motion.
Clearly this is a complex process. Jos: "The spectators will not have a story with a beginning and an end. We'll show situations from man's life, on stage, by means of music, dance, video and slides. And through these means the spectator creates his own story. I don't expect visitors to fully understand right away, but I hope they will start to reflect.".......

from an article for a local newspaper. October 22, 1986

from the archives

press release

The Spiral Motion Project is a treatise on human relationships in the widest sense of the word. The performance gives expression to such themes and concepts as alienation, fear, borders, eroticism, illusions, rituals, taboos, sadism and masochism and does so through various interacting forms of creative expression. Melody, lyrics, movement, scenery, video and slide projections express these themes in their own particular ways. Their juxtaposition sometimes result in harmony, but frequently yield startling and painful contrasts.
The overall effect of the composition, however, is stressed throughout and none of the individual forms of expression is ever allowed to dominate the performance.
The ostensibly unstructured succession of situations is a reflection of the course of life itself, which often alternates between harmony and chaos.
Man continually seeks to be united both with himself and with everything around him. In this search for unity man is seen to initiate a spiral motion. Following the spiral, the same elements seem to confront him over and over again, but in reality these elements are increasingly refined and essentialized.
It is up to the audience to create their own story.

starting-point: relationship-involvement-connection

thematic design, looking for a cadence of offering structures and taking them away again
showing aspects (i.e. "situations"), images to be designed and eventually integrated in music and lyrics
chosen images are situated inside the cadence

Jos draws a time-line which will situate events in time: when is structure being offered, when does chaos arise.

Simone and Jos have been associating on the themes:

Relationship-involvement-connection between and from within people:

A. Human-Human

love	estrangement	to strive
eros	mirroring	solitude
dependence	to take into account	borders
to need	to spare	emotion
to lose oneself	to consider	trust-distrust
sexuality	prudence	words-babylon-web-illusions
sex	to explore	grip means structure
curiosity	intellect-feelings	arrogance
interest	self protection	fear
to use	to claim room	nudity
being used	to give in	envy
wonder	dedication	concessions
temptation	power	rejection
hatred	sensationalism	egotism
tenderness	warmth	protection
to touch	playfulness	trauma
humor	contempt	sadism
subjection	being alone (fundamentally)	masochism
to look - to see	connection	communion

B. Individual-Society

structure	dependence	power
out of fear for chaos	crowd-loner	taboos
illusions as grip	perception	threat caused by anomaly
rituals	standards-values-conscience	outsider-insider
individualism-conformism	togetherness	expectations-are they realistic
subjection-fighting	circles (spiral allowed)	oppression-war-money
survival of the fittest	subgroups-subcultures	status-safety
companionship	own perception<->reality	man-woman-heterosexual standard

C. Individual-Cosmos

dreams	hallucinations	fantasies
and their taboos, borders
nature	elements	killing
animals	atmosphere	conception-predestination

D. Individual-Self

secrets	satisfaction	distortion
values	separation	fear
solitude	indolence	fighting
development	compulsiveness	will
searching	boredom	explosion-implosion
victory	pride	repulsion
arrogance	vanity	laughing up one's sleeve
spoiling	apathy	individuality
identity thanks to loss of individuality
> things you create and things that arise from within
> and eh... what to do with all other senses

A summing up of what we did so far:
associating on the words carrot, lump-veneer, silversmith, glider, icebubblepopsicle and stirring cap generated some images:

- man inside the egg, is the egg, and that's where it all happens, shells, a game with half shells, trying to put them together
- work with solid material, but how solid is solid, transformations, bending
- ropes in different colors, duets, short, long, elastic, waves, strangle
- forge metal, persons, eg lights and explosion, roller
- ballet with roots, bites, chewing, spitting
- metal tape, transformed by two parties into a spiral

The time-line

Prelude	Pre-vacuum	Never take me home	Mourning glory
1:10	4:30	2:30	2:10

	Flashback	1	5

Remove the candle	Overcrowd	Last Triangle
3:00	2:30	8:40

8	4	7

Narcissus Rescutinized	Countershade
4:00	7:10

9	1

SlowGun	A nightmare song
3:00	8:40

6	10

One way screen	Internal Capsule
1:15	18:00

4	4

Short breath	Somewhere/Your softness	A new model
4:55	2:55	3:40

9	8	10

Silent revolutions 1-3	Clear of bitterness	Can I take you home
5:58	2:43	4:10

8	8	2

Somewhere consequences	The Cyclic Entanglement	Stuck in the revolution...
3:10	3:00	7:05

2	5	3

..of a spiral motion	Spiral motion initiative
7:05	4:00

3	9

Scheme

October/November

December

January

February

March

April

May

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Dance	Preparation	Rehearsal	Live-group	Rehearsal
Music	Rehearsal	Recording	Video		Spin-off

from script first part

Title	Dance	Film	Screen	Scenery	Synopsis
pre-Prelude					while people enter, the prelude-tone sounds, the room is dimly lit, on stage several people: knelt, dressed in colored gowns
Prelude 1					as soon as the flute starts they slowly rise
Prelude 2				FENCE \| / \ /---\	after the timpani the fence drops. the bars are drawn aside and the lights are steadily increasing to create the illusion the audience is being drawn towards the stage
Pre-vacuum		1. desert 2. Mountaintop sunrise 3. lightning strikes and campfire 4. rain, snow, oasis 5. Metropole	METROPOLE fade-out	METROPOLE fade-in	Metropole Slide shown, fading out Film starts. At the Metropole part the people start to move. Metropole Slide fades in as the film ends into still. Lights at people, murmuring and gesture starts.
Never take me home			METROPOLE widens		People start searching, reach out for the void, panic Focus slowly to one person At the start of the 'rock' part people drop their gowns, the one person is painted all over.
Mourning glory	people are starting to move towards the one person in a threatening way challenging, flirting, uncomfortable desperately offering pieces of clothing			RAIN	Raindrops, the paint is slowly fading
Remove the candle	sometimes she lets herself get dressed, sometimes she insists on putting them on herself gradually growing into an erotic duo.
Overcowd	Duo slowly splitting up			AUDIO TAPE with sounds of eating	Abruptly everyone except the duo starts rearranging the scenery, the duo splits up the group decreases steadily. the last person on stage starts speculating on various suicide-methods, leaves the stage screaming
Last Triangle		FAIR		FAIR rollercoaster	playful, colourful attractions to win the most horrible humiliations, enormously crowded
-

1. Estrangement

Emptiness, without contacts, staring, secretive

2. Playfulness

3. Borders

4. Fear

5. Rejection

6. Sadism

7. Masochism

8. Eros

9. Temptation

10. Illusions

Discography

Narcissus/An Sich (1986)

Silent Revolutions (1986)

Musicians

Charlot, Frans-Leonard, Karin, Jos

Frans-Leonard, Bert Achterkamp

Hanneke, Annelies

Marloes

Bert Achterkamp
Drums

Hanneke Alink
Vocals

Karin Alink
Vocals

Nettie Bulthuis
Vocals

Joop Fiedler
Sax, Guitar

Frans-Leonard Hummelman
Keyboards, Bassguitar,DrumComputer

Jos Hustings
Guitar,Vocals,Keyboards,Piano

Noud te Riele
Percussion

Charlot Rutten
Vocals

Marloes Smit
Recorder

Annelies Thijssen
Keyboards, Piano

Mitille de Wolf
Vocals

Bert Vermijs
Keyboards, Piano

Edwin Vermijs
Drums, Percussion

Marco
Drums (a new model)

Jaap
Sax