In May and June, the performance TV collective irreality.tv will shoot a participatory science-fiction series for TV. NIGHTWATCH is set in a world that could be ours: a 24/7 rhythm rules everyday life. Nights are bereft of darkness and sleep is first optimised, then banned altogether. Hardly anyone dares to dream. And yet, there is some resistance against this regime of sleeplessness. A sleepeasy opens in Ottakring, a secret place where people meet for collective sleeping. Hope for a blackout is alive.
Based on Jonathan Crary’s essay 24/7: Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep, the series confronts the present with the parallel reality of a sleepless world. What happens in this world and what twists the plot of the series takes will be decided together with all participants during shooting. There will be no script. Between documentation and fictionalisation, irreality.tv employs the strategy of soapification. The scenario of a sleepless world is above all meant to be a call to imagine – and live while shooting – a fictitious everyday life in one’s own life. Everybody is welcome to join! Those interested are invited to register at info@irreality.tv or to simply show up at irreality.tv’s production office during shooting. Following an initial shooting period in May with interventions at various places throughout Vienna, the NIGHTWATCH sleepeasy will open in June as part of the SOHO in Ottakring festival. The world premiere of the series will then take place at brut in the autumn of 2018.
irreality.tv is a platform for site-specific and participatory TV projects. Its series are created in collaboration with people on location; everybody is welcome to join. Projects are centred around the question: What should or could happen if life was a TV show? Last season, irreality.tv realised another series, DER RING DES NIBELUNGENVIERTELS, in co-production with brut.
Opening hours of the production office and the sleepeasy at Altes Kino Sandleiten:
Just come by and join!
Production office (at Altes Kino Sandleiten)
2 to 12 May, every day from 5 to 7 pm
2 to 16 June, Wednesdays to Sundays 4 to 7 pm
Sleepeasy – collective sleeping in secret (at Altes Kino Sandleiten)
2 to 16 June, open for sleeping Wednesdays to Sundays from 12 pm, on weekends and upon registration even over night!
The production office is open from 2 to 16 June, Wed-Sun, 4 pm till 7 pm.
Location of production office and sleepeasy: Altes Kino Sandleiten, Liebknechtgasse 32, 1160 Vienna
Individual events with free admission around NIGHTWATCH
Saturday, 5 May, 9 pm
Because the Night. Night walk (Registration: tickets@brut-wien.at)
To kick off the first round of shooting, irreality.tv calls for a night walk inside the world of insomnia. Visitors are invited to join in a search for darkness, staging the first vital signs of the Nightwatch, a secret organisation fighting against the exploitation of sleep. Please register at tickets@brut-wien.at. Meeting point: Altes Kino Sandleiten, Liebknechtgasse 32, 1160 Wien. Further information
Monday, 7 May, 5 pm
Out and about: Workshop Sleep coaching
with Dr. Brigitte Holzinger and irreality.tv
During the filming of the project NIGHTWATCH, irreality.tv invites you to the institute of conciousness and dream research. Here, sleep expert Dr. Brigitte Holzinger will teach everyone interested and those who are involved the secrets of sleep. Sleep tight! Further information
Saturday, 2 June, 8 pm
Sleepeasy – Grand Opening (registration for sleepovers: info@irreality.tv)
Sleepeasy Opening! Come by to get a solid rest or take a nap at noon! The Sleepeasy is open for sleepin from 2-16 June, Wed-Sun, from 12 pm, on weekends and after registration at info@irreality.tv you can stay the night! Live act: theblackpaint. For the opening is no registration required. Meeting point: Altes Kino Sandleiten, Liebknechtgasse 32, 1160 Wien. Further information
Thursday, 14 June, from 8.30 pm
Lukas Kranzelbinder & The Blind Owls
14 June promises to be a special evening at the Sleepeasy. Jazz musican and composer Lukas Kranzelbinder, who also is responsible for the NIGHTWATCH soundtrack, comes together with The Blind Owl to play a concert which can be enjoyed whilst laying down.
Further information.
Saturday, 16 June, from 9 pm
The Big Black-Out
Both film shooting and intervention in the city space at the same time, irreality.tv’s big series finale will hopefully involve a complete black-out in Sandleiten. Are we going to succeed in dimming out the city and turning off all TV sets, neon signs and street lamps? And then, what are we going to do under the screen of night darkness? No registration required. Meeting point: Altes Kino Sandleiten, Liebknechtgasse 32, 1160 Wien. Further information
irreality.tv: Daniel Ladnar, Lars Moritz, Esther Pilkington, Jörg Thums mit Otmar Wagner als Herr Sandmann
Production: Elisabeth Haid & Magdalena Scheicher
Music: EXPRESSWAY SKETCHES
Graphics: Christian Raab
A co-production by irreality.tv, brut Wien and SOHO in Ottakring in co-operation with Kunstverein EXTRA. With the kind support of the City of Vienna’s Department of Cultural Affairs.
brut im alten Kino Sandleiten
Liebknechtgasse 32, 1160 Wien
accessible
Nordwestbahnstraße 8-10, 1200 Vienna
Subway: U1, U2 (Praterstern), U4 (Friedensbrücke), U6 (Dresdnerstraße) Tram: 5 (Nordwestbahnstraße) Bus: 5A (Wasnergasse)
not accessible
Zieglergasse 25, 1070 Wien
Subway: U3 (Zieglergasse), Tram: 49 (Westbahnstraße / Zieglergasse)
Eschenbachgasse 11 / Ecke Getreidemarkt, 1010 Vienna
U-Bahn: U4, U1 (Karlsplatz), Tram: 1, 2, D, 71 (Burgring), Bus: 57A (Getreidemarkt)