Lorna Green interviews Theo Jansen 4 July 2009

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Yes, but what does it all mean?

As dusk settled on Shrewsbury Square and Andy & Sue's excellent projection installation 'Heresy' lit up the undercroft of the Old Market Hall, I crept away for two weeks holiday. Now I've had time to reflect on the whole Shift Time experience, I thought I'd put down a few thoughts. Firstly a huge thank you to everyone who helped make it a success and particularly to Anna Douglas for her vision. The run-up was intense and far more stressful than I bargained for. We've done some ambitious things in Shrewsbury in the past bringing science and art together on common ground but this was by far the most 'out-there' thing we'd tried. What would the public make of it and would anyone turn up? Every day began with the nagging doubts and most often ended with a sense of relief and surprise.

Theo Jansen was a charming man and the patience he showed when explaining his work was a real inspiration. Only occassionaly, I was left alone beside Umerus when people came to marvel or scratch their heads. I would explain as best I could what Theo's inspiration was and how the many thousands of pieces combined, created a walking beast. There were a number of occassions when I was asked 'what it meant'. Theo's Umerus was not the only element of the festival to provoke the question. The night of surrealist films programmed by 7" Cinema provoked a similar response from me. But when I heard myself ask the question it provoked an altogether more philosophical one. Why does it have to 'mean' anything?  There is an obsession with meaning that seeks a significance in almost every though, act, event or artistic response. If, we entertained people and provoked the occassional thought, then that is all we could reasonably expect. It was not for us to provide meaning. The essence of the festival was to blur the distinction between the artist as 'supplier' and the audience as 'consumer'. Darwin's theory of evolution by Natural Selection often struggles for exceptance because of the invisible barrier of expectation erected by those who seek meaning in all things. "Why are we hear?" "Because there's been enough time for evolution to make it all possible." "Yes, but why are we here?" - you can see how this conversation can go round in circles for eternity.

In the OMH cafe after the Entangled Bank screening, I recounted to a small group a short tale I'd written inspired by the obsession with finding meaning.

A rhino is born and his mother quickly teaches him the ways of the African Plains. He notices that on occassion, small birds decend and pick the ticks and fleas from the backs of the rhinos, greatly easing their discomfort. Why would they give of their time so freely and ask for no reward? The rhino becomes obsessed and is determined to know the answer. He goes to extraordinary lengths to learn the language of the birds until one day he is able to ask one of them why they are so philanthropic. The answer comes abrubtly "We are birds and our favourite food is ticks."

What does it all mean? What does any of that matter? Simply being - and enjoying the ride ought to be enough. We're a long time dead.        

Ok, so that’s a pretty big question. But what if you had ten days this  July to think it over…. And, since it’s 150 years since Charles Darwin  published his thoughts on the subject (in The Origin of Species) to put  us firmly in our place…and it is his birthday (well sort of, he was born 200 years ago)… and the fact that he was born in Shrewsbury (we  think that a very good thing), what better time and place to focus the  grey-matter (your brain) on the subject of – what it is to be us.

Darwin’s theory for the diversity of life, even after all this time, arouses  passionate response: which we think is fantastic. Darwin’s testing  ideas cause grown men and women (even scientists and vicars) to  argue (loads). Whilst artists and designers, musicians and writers  love the way his thoughts have helped them probe into new forms of  creativity, including tampering with the idea of life itself.

Over two weekends this July, we’ve gathered a host of passionate  people to Shrewsbury for a festival of far-reaching ideas – Shift-Time. 

We are pretty excited by what’s on offer. But, to single out some of the  highlights: in The Quarry Park, engineer artist Theo Jansen’s gigantic creature Umerus emerges for the very first time; Evo/Devo biologist  Arjen Mulder disputes Darwin’s evolution-theory and gets some collars heated; whilst in Marcus Coates’s latest film unexpected  animal sounds emanate from Shrewsbury’s townscape. There’s the  dramatic new music-theatre The Weather Man (what did happen on The Beagle between Darwin and the Captain?); and an Evolutionary  Tour round the town with Tim Brennan - no Darwin stone will remain unturned; and our rebellious finale event - surrealist films, live cello, and light projections.

Shift time – if Darwin were still living in Shrewsbury we’d like to think  he’d come along. Festival programme director Anna Douglas