Spittoon Collective Sends Off 2021 with Fiction Fest

Ana Padilla Fornieles | Dec 8, 2021 9:30 am | Add a comment | 168 reads

Time sure flies when you’re having fun, and good, literary fun is something we can expect on a regular basis from Spittoon Collective.

Look where they stand six years from their humble origins at Mado Bar! A magazine featuring some of the finest contemporary Chinese literature translated to English, a cool website and a solid monthly calendar: Book Club, Fiction Night, Storytelling, Poetry Night and a Poetry Workshop, rounded up by quarterly events such as Spit-Tunes.

Proudly run by volunteers, Spittoon Collective seeks to give back to the community through their passion for words, music and culture.

With 2021 on its way out, Spittoon’s last big hurrah for this year is happening this Thursday at Soi Baochao with an event you shouldn’t miss: Fiction Fest, a mix of the written word, live art and music. Expect readings from Kelly Dawson, Abigail Weathers, Alexandra Smith, Ivan Stacy, David Harrison Horton and yours truly.

Tunes will be provided courtesy of music producer and composer Devin Wang, whose style ranges from post rock to ambient electronic, working with artists making works on the fly to create a background and soundtrack fit for live storytelling. Not convinced yet? Read my conversation with Devin and readers David and Ivan below.

Why, hello, gentlemen. Thursday will mark the third edition of Spittoon Fiction Fest, so the event is kinda consolidated by now. What can audience members look forward to on Thursday?
DW: Being a big advocate of immersive experiences, it doesn’t get any more immersive than what’s about to happen this Thursday. I’m looking forward to composing music on the spot and sharing an immersive evening with everyone.

DHH: Music, text, video. At least that’s what I’m expecting. It’s nice when art forms work together to make the spectacle a little bit more robust for the audience. There’s a lot that can happen in the intersections.

IS: I have no idea! And that's one of the pleasures of fiction night — you never quite know what's coming and there's usually a mix of styles and content. Throwing in music and visuals just adds to the variables so the best policy is just to turn up, grab a drink and go with the flow.

Devin, your music is one of the crucial elements making this such a special night. Tell us, what are you bringing to the stage? Have you ever collaborated on a project like this? How do you expect your music to merge with each work?
On Thursday I’ll be essentially making different soundtracks to the stories on the fly. I’m hoping to inspire readers to share their stories more dynamically while also giving the audience an enhanced experience. It’ll be a good challenge, too. It’s not every day you see people *make* music live. To do this, I’ll be bringing my mobile composing setup, which consists of my MacBook Pro, Midi Keyboard, an electric guitar, and my pedalboard. I’ll be running a software called “Logic Pro X” (basically fancy GarageBand), and use the midi controllers to trigger hundreds of sounds in accordance to each reader’s story.

David, regulars of the Spittoonverse (yes, I just coined that term) probably know you best from our Neo-Benshi event and Poetry Night. What has this break into Fiction felt like for you?
I’ve enjoyed working on this piece. I had the performance aspect and time parameter in mind as I wrote it, so it functions as much like a text score in my head as anything. I used a traditional fiction form and have hopefully done something with it that others might appreciate.

Ivan, we’ll be lucky enough to enjoy your prose on Thursday, however our readers may not know that you’re also in charge of Spittoon's most recent brain child, Spittoon U. Care to share more about this with us?
It's a way of getting Beijing's student population involved with Spittoon. Of course they — like anyone — are welcome to come to any events, but we've also run writing workshops specifically for students, and there's also a section of the website called Spittoon U Corner where students have the chance to publish their writing.