Buzz Cut Up

//BUZZCUT// began its life on 15th December 2011, in a cold flat in Glasgow. Since then it has grown and evolved. 

In her description of performance art, RoseLee Goldberg reflects this definition: 'permissive, open-ended medium with endless variables, executed by artists impatient with the limitations of more established art forms.' (cited in Carlson XXX pXX). 

This is the tradition that fuels an event like Buzzcut. Sure, there are performers like FK Alexander, who could be said to be part of a more musical tradition (noise and industrial), but the emphasis on messing about with form fed into that tradition, too.
//BUZZCUT// is a collaboration between two artists in Glasgow dedicated to creating exciting, supportive environments for artists and audiences to experiment with cutting edge live performance.
This description matches elegantly with the atmosphere generated by the British and American radical theatre groups who appeared in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

But Glasgow, here and now, has an atmosphere, too. Poking through the line-up, it's intriguing to note how many artists come from the city - and how many want to come up and be part of the action.
Yet the experiments of the 1970s remain crucial for the examination of how devised performance can, through its processes, embody political ambition.

Glasgow-based makers include: Eilidh MacAskill, Paul Michael Henry, Cara Berger, Louise Ahl, Lou Brodie + Tashi Gore, Victoria Bianchi, Laura Bradshaw, Claire Cunningham, Peter McMaster, Steve Slater. And that is just a selection - and I am looking for a connection between their work, hoping I can point to it and say: that's Glasgow.

//BUZZCUT// looks to open up new spaces for performance to happen, to bring new audiences to live art, and to create new opportunities for artists to make and share work.

The influence of the American radical theatre – companies like The Firehouse Theatre, The Living Theatre and the San Francisco Mime Troupe (who went as far as helping Black Panther Eldritch Cleaver escape arrest) – encouraged consideration of how political theatre could engage audiences (The Agitprop Street Player’s The Industrial Relations Act was performed at a demonstration in Hyde Park, echoing the ‘guerrilla theatre’ of Ronnie Davis from the SF Mime Theatre, which included practical skits teaching passers-by ‘how to stuff the parking meter’ (cited Sainer, 1975)).

I am not sure I can yet - although maybe that inspiring live art tradition can help. What does it mean to be political in 2014?
//BUZZCUT// believes in strengthening and broadening communities, in bringing people from different walks of life together in one circle to ask challenging questions.

And in the difficult conversations that frustrated McGrath, there was a genuine attempt to consider how a collaborative creativity could operate.

//BUZZCUT// is about sharing; sharing food, sharing ideas and support, opening up doors and sharing homes.//BUZZCUT// loves festivals. //BUZZCUT// will bring a free five day festival of experimental performance and live art to the centre of Glasgow every March, with a broad range of artists from different places, different practices, and different stages in their career.