Myra Stuart is a designer, spatial artist and puppeteer.

A key part of the Festival 23 veering group, she is responsible for coordinating and designing the decor on site and curating visual art for our DeStablise area.

Alongside working as a set designer and prop maker for the likes of the Southbank Centre and Brighton and London based arts organisation Theme she is one half of the Future Zen Variety Show, where she explores the very fabric of reality, channelling characters such as Alan Watts, William Burroughs and Diane Di Prima as complex and sometimes muppet like sages for the seekers.

Megan Alan D (pseudonym) is a busybody who has at one stage or another had a hand in puppetry, poetry, opera, musical comedy, DJing, theatre, experimental soundscape, illegal parties and mixed media spectacles, creating performance art of some kind in venues including Royal Albert Hall, 02 Arena, Brighton Dome, Secret Garden Party and Supernormal Festival.

Currently exploring interactive nonsense, (heading up that department for the festival) Megan brings Happy Hardcore Aerobics, Human Dog Crufts and Spirit Animal Fashion Show to Festival 23.

Megan is partner in the Future Zen Variety Puppetry firm with Myra Stuart (the firm that brought you Puppet Alan Watts and Puppet Tim Leary) and also performs in experimental magi-pop band ‘Bloom.’

Alan Watts, Robert Anton Wilson and the tidalwave of ideas, friends and realisations that followed rescued her from a period of surgically imposed muteness, changing her life, and opening her up to the cosmic void of pure everything we all happen to be. Megan is also a Music Technology Lecturer and emoticon witch. Hail Eris.

Twitchey Spleen was born in the late 1970’s. Bad dreams necessitated he begin on the path of lucid dreaming around the age of seven years.

1986 was a significant year for young Twitchey: he publically performed his first musical ‘composition’*, and almost successfully cheated his way to attaining a ‘3000 Metre’ swimming badge **.

In 1992 Twitchey picked up the habit of playing the electric guitar. His conscious motivation to learn and play was due to an accurate and realistic fear of the torturous challenges he would face in later life. Musical study, and willingness to please, diluted both his personality and punchable smile.

He attempted to attain a low degree of control of the guitar, and in doing so has to date spent several thousands of hours of technical practice.

He has also made some music.

In the interests of avoiding further crimes against music, he has also clocked up several thousands of hours trying to unlearn the aforementioned technical study.

In 2007 his guitar (un) work paid off, when he met his future wife and partner in fun ‘Lexington’. She is the sparky clutch that validates and thickens his fragrant, brothy stew.

In 2014 founded his latest vanity project, a band called GIBLET***.

Twitchey and GIBLET are buoyant and proud contributors for the Festival 23 Project.

Footnotes

*…which had no name, because he had clumsily plagiarised the main theme from the opening refrain of the contemporaneous hit record ‘Every Loser Wins’

**He employed the clever ruse of feigning breaststroke, and bouncing on one leg in the shallow end of the pool

***a band

Once a Yorkshireman who handed out flyers for events at night and played his guitar by day writing music. In between various chef and cook jobs, Bob was offered the chance to organise a live gig one time and from there, and by the gaul of his cheek, he slowly got more into being a promoter (with no money, but great memories).

Eventually he started to take matters more seriously and year by year worked on bigger and better festivals and shows. Along the way he realised it was better to offer production services to earn his money and to organise crazy parties to feed his soul.

This journey started just over 23 years ago! For the last 6 years he has been running his own events company which now produces festival style weddings for strange folk in forests all over the country and crazy parties for people who want something different out of life

He met and became enchanted with Pope Absinthe Codeina / Anwen Fryer last year and, since then, day by day and week by week, has slowly become aware and enthralled by the world of Disco.

Reading John Higgs‘ KLF book was the glue to join all the odd shaped and sized pieces of the crazy jigsaw world of Discordian madness together in his party battered brain. He is now slowly chewing his way through the Principia Discordia itself, changing his mind on a daily basis as to whether he is a Discordian or not!!

Since spending most of his time in forests on events, he has evolved…….

Bob is now very pleased to state, as part of his Disco trip in life, ………… “I Am Groot!!!!”

Adam Baker is an artist, mental health nurse, film maker, photographer/digital manipulator, occasional actor and former roller derby bench coach.

Currently working as a rehabilitation clinician in NSW, Australia, Adam has also worked in several acute inpatient settings both in the UK and Australia. At present Adam runs several art and music based groups in the Mental Health Rehabilitation Unit he works in and also runs a popular ‘Spirituality’ (soon to be renamed ‘Ideaspace’) group with the clients. This has become a space for free flowing ideas and discussion to emerge and the clients enjoy discussing and learning about a wide range of topics from Quantum Physics to Philosophy and so on.

Adam has also completed a BA Fine Art degree at the School of Art, Margaret St, Birmingham back in 2002. Alongside his work as a mental health nurse, Adam also creates videos for his Youtube channel with one video fast approaching a million views involving the catching of a Huntsman spider with the use of a Toblerone. Photoshop is another of Adams interests, having recently photoshopped ‘Putin fighting a kangaroo’ as explained in John Higgs’ latest book. This particular photoshop enabled Adam to meet John Higgs as well as the organisers of Festival 23 at a recent BLOOMING BUZZING CONFUSION event (with Alan Moore, Robin Ince, John Higgs and Grace Petrie).

Much of Adam’s work had magical undertones even before he realised that was what he was actually doing. It was only after studying the work of Alan Moore and Robert Anton Wilson, amongst others, that he realised this and the power art and magic can have when practiced thoughtfully and with intention.

As an artist, Adam has been involved in several collaborations which have included spending 12 hours in a lift dressed as a Pookah alongside several other ‘Pookahs’ for a performance with art collective AAS. He has played the part of an astronaut in a film about the doomed Columbia mission and impersonated art critic Matthew Collings in a strange performance held at a curry house in East London. Adam also exhibited artwork alongside Bob and Roberta Smith at this show.

Happy to let life take him in whatever direction seems best at the time, Adam also became the first roller derby bench coach for Coffs Coast Derby Dolls having also designed their team logo and come up with their team name ‘Daughters of Mayhem’.

After attending the finale of the Cosmic Trigger Play in London, Adam has since been spiralling down the rabbit hole of various synchronicities associated with having been to that show. This basically explains how he has ended up ‘finding the others’ here at Festival 23!

Adam’s YouTube channel
https://twitter.com/AdamBakerOZ
Bello Moon Tribe

Young Mother Hagbard / Pope Absinthe Codeina / Little Pope Peep / Anwen Fryer has always been a daughter of Eris, before she knew it even.

Her talents and resume have been maverick, dynamic and varied. “A” level art, head waitress, managing a pub, working in a Stampmakers, Project 2000 Nursing, being part of Sheffield based Curfew Sound System running their bar and cafe van in the 90s, social & green activism. All these things led to her founding her shop, Airy Fairy, 16 years ago: a fair trade, local art & new age gift shop and veggie cafe in Sheffield.

Her friend, playmate and colleague at the time, the Buddhist Punk, passed her Illuminatus. First being hit up with RAW’s work in 2002 led to a look sidewards at each other, they said “Is the Principia real?”. From that moment on, Discordianism has played a monumental part in her life. Choosing her blend of hodge and podge, she calls herself a Discowiccan or Wiccacordian depending on her mood. She likes life to be full, light hearted and deep, full of humour, magic and creativity all at the same time!

A bit like marmite with glitter in, you will come to love her or hate her. Either way, you can’t stop her twinkling.

http://www.airyfairy.org
popeabsinthecodeina@festival23.org.uk