Please record this part scripted spoken-word choir, part questionnaire. We would like to receive your recording by Dec 1st, 2016, midnight.

Instructions:

-There are two sections to this recording session.

-Please find a quiet space to record, an intimate spot, where you feel safe.

-Preparation is optional. We prefer spontaneous answers (especially because we’re asking you to do a bit of word association). There is no wrong answer. However, you might want to read through the whole script once over before pressing record, so you know what’s coming.

-Don’t worry if English is not your first language. Your voice matters.

-Section two can be done with a partner, if you wish.

-If you wish to remain anonymous, please create a fake name for Section 1, ONE.

-Record everything in bold face (including numberings and titles)

-If you made a mistake during the recording, no need to re-start. Simply give it a pause, and start from where the sentence begins. This doesn’t apply when you’re answering questions on your own. In that case just keep talking.

-Please save your recordings in two separate sections, labelled as follows: Example: HARMONY_LASTNAME_FIRSTNAME_Section1

Thank you so very much for embarking on this journey. For now, let’s jump in.

Much Love,

The Arctic Group

SECTION 1

ONE

This is _________________(your first and last name), ___________ (home town, state, zip code, country).

[Example: This is John Smith, New York, New York, 10001, United States]

TWO

If I can do anything in the world,

If there’s no restrictions,

Or financing difficulties,

Or familial, or societal, or peer pressures,

Or, in an alternate universe,

If I can do what I do to define who I am,

I’d call myself a _______

I’d become a ______

I’d do ______ for a living

Or just for joy,

Because then I’d feel my life infinite, and my time bountiful,

And my love for the world unadulterated,

And I’m satisfied with every breath I take,

And the vibration of every atom of my being

THREE

These are a few things I like:

(Tell me at least 5 things. Be specific. There is no item too insignificant.

For example, I like canvas book bags, blue horses, broken in trainers, double sided mirrors, stained glass windows, figs in my salad, avocado in my salad, T-shirts with ironic quotes, T-shirts without ironic quotes, all the wonderfully quirky things in the songs “these are a few of my favourite things”.)

FOUR

Bedtime stories

Imagine being in a room with a child.

Actually, imagine being in a room with your childhood self. You’re telling that child, a child that was you, a bedtime story. What story is it? Is it funny? Is it scary? A fairytale? A poem? Tell us that story.

Read from the original text, or paraphrase. It can be a passage from your favorite book, preferably a children’s book. It can be something real. It can be something completely made up, full of spaceships, or wizards, or talking potatoes, or talking monkeys. Anything goes. Tell us that story.

FIVE

Sing us the last song that was stuck in your head.

You can sing the whole song, or just a few bars.

Include lyrics, or just hum the melodies. Keep going and don’t worry about making mistakes. 

SIX

The alphabet

A is for____________,

B is for____________,

C is for____________,

D is for____________,

(Carry on for E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z)

SEVEN

Sight, Smell, Hearing, Speech, Taste, Touch

If you have to give up one of above, which one would it be?

If you have to give up another one, which one would it be now?

What’s the next to go?

And next?

And then?

The remaining one, the one sense you wouldn’t part with, which is it?

What are you thinking at this very moment?

EIGHT

Read your most recent SOCIAL MEDIA status (Our first choice is FACEBOOK, if you have one)

NINE

Read the most recent subscription email you received. (Newsletters you sign up for. Or advertisements. Those “junk” mails you don’t necessarily consider to be spam, but still never open to read. Open it this once.

Who sent it? Or, which company sent it?

Read out the subject line and the copy, if there’s a sales copy.

TEN

Harmony:

Agreement; accord;

A consistent, orderly, or pleasing arrangement of parts;

Congruity

In Music, it means any simultaneous combination of tones, when blended into chords pleasing to the ear

Rituals and music were not, in the very beginning, created to satisfy the senses, but rather to moderate one’s emotions, and to guide one onto the correct direction in life.

Please sing the music scale to your best ability.

DO RE MI…

(And so forth, or C D E F if that’s what’s familiar to you)

ELEVEN

Harmony – Huh Sheh – The River Crab

In a river crab society, stability is paramount.

Stability has to be maintained at all cost.

The Grass Mud Horses disrupts that kind of stability and must be subdued properly.

Along with French-Croatian Squids

Chrysanthemum Silkworms, Quail Pigeons

And other mystic creatures

TWELVE

Harmony, translated to my native language is_________

It sounds similar to a different word___________

Which means______________

THIRTEEN

It is necessary for one to practice self-discipline

And refrain from thinking of the following concepts.

Abortion rights

Burkini Ban

Capitalism, Clean Coal, Common Core, Communism, Corruption,

Coup, Cyber Terrorism, Cyber Hacking

Dakota Pipeline, Death Penalty, Democracy, Dictatorship, Drones

Ebola, Euthanasia

Fascism, Feminism, Fracking, Free The Nipple

Freedom of Religion, Freedom from Religion

Genocide, Global Warming, Gun Rights, Guantanamo Bay

Hijab Ban, Homosexuality

Illustrations of The Prophet Mohammed, Islamophobia, IUDs

Japanese Internment Camps

Legalization of Marijuana

Mandatory Military Service, Minimum Wage, Misogyny

Oppression, Overthrow

Path to Citizenship

Refugee Crises

Radicalization

Same-Sex Marriage, Slut Walks, Suicide

Tax Havens, The Confederate Flag, Too Big To Fail, Trans Rights

Universal Healthcare

Vagina

Veteran Health Care

War on Drugs, Westboro Baptist Church

Xenophobia

In my home country, I don't feel comfortable talking about___________________________________________________________.

Because ____________________.

FOURTEEN

Breathe

I see people wearing masks

I see people with grass in their hair

Tiny specks of green

I see mud in their fingernails

Someone’s lips imprinted on a peace sign

Everything else is grey

The streets are cement grey, the smokes in the air, charcoal grey

The entire sky, a dusty kind of grey

I heard about the rising waters

Whole cities disappearing

I heard about people climbing higher, and higher,

Until there’s nowhere else to go

I heard about the cracked earth in the desert

I heard some guy walked around a city in China

With a vacuum

Industrial strength

It roared like a wild beast,

Sucking up dust and all the nothingness

He made a brick after 100 days

Open the windows

I got bricks shoved down my throat

Open the windows and

Breathe

Breathe

FIFTEEN

Hum what you believe to be the most universally recognized tune

SECTION TWO

You can answer these alone, or with a partner.

Tell us who your guest is. Or let them introduce themselves.

Please read the number of the questions, or the whole question if you want to.

Set 1

1. Would you like to be famous? In what way?

2. If you could wake up tomorrow having gained any one quality or ability, what would it be?

3. When did you last cry in front of another person?

4. What is your earliest memory?

5. What, if anything, is too serious to be joked about?

6. Your house, containing everything you own, catches fire. After saving your loved ones and pets, you have time to safely make a final dash to save any one item. What would it be? Why?

7. In your opinion, can people generally be trusted? Why or why not?

Set 2

8. Imagine you have a young daughter. Or perhaps you already do. What is something you want to tell her right now?

9. if you were to draw a picture titled: Safety, what would be in it? Describe the picture.

10. What is something you do to protect yourself?

11. Who do you turn to when you’re afraid?

12. Tell us about the last time you talked to a stranger.

13. What do the following words mean to you:

- Sanctuary

- Border

- Equality

- Popular

- Harmony

14. Is your home country a safe place for you? Why?

15. What’s the worst thing that could happen to you?

16. What is evil to you? And what are some specific ways to defeat that evil?