A snapshot of college, march 2011

Creative Practices:
My initial idea of incorporating moving backgrounds on my website has now become its sole focus. All I want is pages of movement with a few navigation buttons. This has reduced from complex ideas of static backgrounds moving when you click on icons and multiple galleries. The static images, though wonderful, would be a mis-representation of my practice; I am not a photographer, what is currently important to me is the movement and what I am currently learning is the use and manipulation of film. I intend to use images from Balance installation, Wings performance and Les Velobici performance.

With the intention of researching places of work, I will e-mail Sarah at the Arnolfini, asking about peoples routes to their current situation and their projected futures.

Specialist Practice:
Network Recycling are looking to work with artists at festivals. Their aim is bringing recycling to life through creativity. Their plan is to create a rubbish sorting 'theatre', a space where performative action occurs. I intend to work with them on this with a three stranded approach. Firstly I shall focus attention on the action by framing the space with theatre curtains made from rubbish - a richly textured cloth, as encrusted as barnacles on a hull. I have also devised an automata/sculptural installation plan, using old bike bits, create moving sculptures along the frontage. These should engage the audience as they are interactive and will also be made from rubbish and give colour and height to the site. The second aspect will be screen dance, made at the festival. Using footage of the rubbish sorting during the day and related images from around the site, a short iMovie film will be edited and projected onto the lowered curtains at night (will it be dark enough?) This supports my exploration into the use of projections as performance, again I'm choosing to project onto a textured background because i find the atmosphere more ambiguous and it is also less about the subject of the projection, more about the atmosphere and movements within it. The third strand is more performative - creating the 'Rubbish Olympics', this, rather than being an excersise in character, will be performance as interaction. I hope to stage a series of games, beer can shot put, tent pole limbo, etc. Also giant domino rally. These are for fun as I feel, and research shows, that didactic information sessions only reach the already converted. I don't intend to give out any information about recycling, the celebration of materials will be enough.

The Cross-Art Improvisation Lab goes from strength to strength for me. Our last session, slightly too busy perhaps, included text, music, props, voice, movement. I love the soundtrack that has resulted. At the next session I intend to experiment, and improvise, with live projections.

We have signed up to be part of the Montpelier Arts Trail in May. There will be many things happening, my intention is to create performative spaces and interventions. I shall set up the slack rope in the garden and work with Chris, an avent-garde musician to create something, we are currently imagining working with a wetsuit and having the rope over the pond. I am also thinking of re-creating my recent 'Balance' installation but adding the performative element of walking over a mirrored floor on one path (rope) repetitively until one path is powdered.

Les Velobici have been discussing 'the original meaning of burlesque' and it's satirical mocking commentary. We are using elements of this in our mock sexy dancing and we've been trying nipple tassel twirling with bike lights. Costume making has been an important feature recently as is filling in application forms and developing our new routine.

Creative Histories is really interesting at the moment. My research, which I thought was taking me off on a tangent, actually circled itself and ended up answering the original question - what's the difference between Performance Art and Popular Entertainment? I generated a lot of material around ideas of hybridity within the arts and performance in particular and this is a very interesting subject, one which I will return to I would imagine and I still find Carolee Schneeman and Ping Chong's statements about hybridity and trivialisation intriguing. I think the question I intend to explore is 'what's the difference between Performance Art and Popular Entertainment?' to which I will answer 'there is no difference between Performance Art and Popular Entertainment, they can easily be comprised of the same content. The difference I was seeking to explore when I asked that question is the difference between authenticity and mimesis. It is often assumed that the difference is between high brow and low brow but, as we've seen, popular entertainment can be low brow but completely authentic and most definitely performance art (sprinkle). Marina Abramovic on the other hand is arriving at a similar point from the other end of the spectrum, she has moved away from 'theatre as enemy' into ways of incorporating authenticity into rehearsed, staged and repeatable actions.

attempting to become that which i never can be

I've been thinking about how to document/present my performance ideas. Photo's are the obvious step. A mixture of photo, film and projection (is it possible to lay my films over eachother? To split the screen and have all four at the same time? how can i work with sound?)

When thinking of the photos I have, it seems that the most accessible form of identity construction - showing what we think of ourselves, or what we want to present ourselves as - especially in the context of a budding performance artist, is a facebook profile. Wit, politics and narcissim.

artist-in-residence at Network Recycling

Half finished proposal:

Proposal: Artist-In-Residence with Network Recycling

Aim:

Create opportunities for public engagement with recycling issues using creative activities and artistic interventions rather than traditional didactic education methods. Letting the work speak for itself.

Objective:

Create and inhabit a public space using the sorting of the rubbish as a performative action. Create installation work around the subject of recycling, focusing on camping.

Create opportunities for the public to move beyond passive spectatorship.

Foster a re-valuing of the ‘found’ materials through creative interpretation

There is potential for a four phase project delivering different aspects over the duration of the festival. Below are outlines of the phases and suggestions for activities which could be completed or instigated during these phases.* 

Prologue: Beginning the process of documenting and contextualization with film.** 

Phase one: Creating a space - 

- Sculptural/textural installation e.g. quilts made of tobacco packets, hangings from fabric/plastic, screens made from woven ‘four pack’ plastics & objects/wrappings

• Making and projecting film into the space

Phase two: Inhabiting

- The sorting of rubbish in public (almost ritualistic/theatrical), visible as if staged. A constant backdrop to all other activity.

- sculpture e.g. tandemonium bike sculpture, tetra-pack stonehenge (or other relevant icon)

- workshops - tetrapack hat/corset/wallet, tent fabric skirts etc laminating objects

- instruments made from junk

• Use space for educational workshops e.g. the lifecycle of fabric, the situation in calais
• improvised performance opportunities working with themes of shelter/materials etc possibly create walkabout characters.

Phase three: Moving beyond the space

• taking these activities out to meet the public e.g. documenting, walkabout characters,
• fairground rubbish games: think olympics rubbish hurdling/fair ground stall hoopla / village fete coconut shy/playground jacks/giant domino rally, tent pole limbo dancing
• prize giving

Resources needed:

video Camera & tripod

laptop with final cut

projector 

stable power supply?

tools: cutting, piercing, flattening, sewing, sticking implements, iron?

sculptural e.g. chicken wire.

transport - esp if we decorate my bike...

safe storage & locking point for projector when sited.

*These ideas are NOT intended as a prescriptive list of what will be achieved, rather as an idea of what may be possible in the space. The plans will stay necessarily loose and flexible so as to better accommodate ideas presented at the time.

**Film - 

Use of film could be a great boon to this project however it is time consuming and, were equipment to be lost or damaged, potentially costly. 

The film could take some, all or none of the following as attitudes ‘screendance’, ‘comedy’, ‘vox pop’, ‘documentary’, ‘sound track’.

 A certain amount of pre-festival filmed research could give body to the projections and influence the artistic interventions made at the festival. Background to the film: History of rubbish - ask Rhiannon/Cae/Olly ceramics about rubbish through the past. Ask Ed (and CAT?) about recycling now. Ask campers about their attitudes/techniques for rubbish and their attitudes to shelter, if they’ve heard of no-boarders. what’s their worst camping/waste disaster?