the dotty dress..

As my final post for this epic project, I decided to add some music and break the rules a little. This film was made for showing at the Canberra Short + Sweet Dance season as I knew I wasn't able to perform live this year, but thought it relevant to post here as a final hurrah!!

I had such a ball whipping this up in about a day, using the rhythm/score of the music and in a way telling of the process, the beginning and ending of this whole project as I walk away and towards the camera, setting it up in all these weird and wonderful places.

I had chosen for this final leg of the project to wear the same dress to create some consistency to the subject as I move from space to space. This made it really fun to edit, especially close ups of the dress. I noticed how similar each filmed dance was, from set up to finish, but loved the variety of the space which made them also so markedly different.

I have added a contrast/brightness filter to this film, something a bit new to me, which gives it a sharper, 'arty' touch, why not...

I have recently been excited and motivated by questions of: what's next for 100,000 frames? where to now??? (ideas welcome) I have been granted a 10 day Bundanon residency for November 2013 and I am eager I think to develop a live performance element and complete reworking or organisation of the footage I have collected during this residency. Can't wait!

Feeling a little sad yet mostly satisfied with this project, and see that undertaking it has allowed me to learn a lot about myself and where my interests lie. It has been challenging, frustrating, joyous, fulfilling, surprising, burdensome, trivial, revealing...and I am definitely considering undertaking another project of this nature in the future, to cure some of my withdrawal symptoms...

Thanks for supporting and watching...enjoy!

catching up to the end...

...the period of filming for the project has finished!! pheww.

But I regrettably I have had some catch up editing to do, and have finally arrived on top of it all. It has been refreshing to look back over the footage, some of which I had forgotten about, watching films in their entireity and noticing what I find interesting having had that time removed from them.

The first of the two excerpts is a collection of footage from across the year that have somehow gone astray and are therefore not in a chronological order of when they happened. Which I kind of like for a change gives some variety to the environments that I encounter. It has made it interesting when it comes to editing them next to each other and triggers thoughts as I try to remember where I am, what I was doing, and how I am feeling at the time in each new space.

The second excerpt is the nearing the end of the project and sees me visit some of my favourite spaces as I travel between my work engagements in regional NSW. One that sticks in my mind and body is the experience of performing in a sea of yellow canola in Cowra, especially fun as I could disappear and reappear and feel so insignificant amidst the varsity of it all, (and of course yellow happens to be my favourite colour). I notice, which I have pointed out before, that I am drawn to film in outdoor spaces and the natural environment, and I love this tendency, it forces something beyond myself and my own movement exploration extending into the essence of the surrounds.

I have one more film to post which is a bit of fun and has a running theme that kind of breaks the boundaries of the way that I have been in filming and editing for the majority of the project.
So stay tuned...

almost there...

Yes, I have been a little absent from posting these past months, but nearing the end I thought I better get my act together and put my editing hat on.

With this excerpt I have consciously tried to capture unusual spaces, varied my shot depth and frame composition to really try to mix up and provide contrast with each new clip.

The sites still follow my patterns of everyday work life - car trips in the countryside and studio time, and play life - with shots for example on the Manly Ferry, one of my favourite spaces I have done to date. A lovely helpful gentleman held the camera as I flounced around on the deck, wind blowing my hair, much to the delight of onlookers.

Nearing the end of this project I am beginning to realise how much I enjoy site specific performance and am definitely interested to pursue it further as a part of my practice. One of the main reasons I think this is, is because I can give myself permission to dance anywhere anytime, without specific audience, purpose....etc. another reason is that I think dancing outside opens up a whole new world of physical stimulus beyond the closed box/blank canvas if you like of a studio, there are so many variables and therefore responses to an outdoor uncontrolled space.

I recently performed a new work at BEAMS Festival 'construct-her' in which I plant a garden in the middle of the road, a comment on the way we construct nature in an ever increasing concrete world. The way people seemed to engage with it was really rewarding, people were actually compelled to come up and tell me how much they enjoyed it, how unexpected it was, which was awesome to hear because all the while I have been doing this film project for me, which realistically is a selfish thing I guess, so it is great to see that when placed in an artistic context like a festival that this kind of performance goes beyond me and can affect others too.

Ok well take 14...

momentum in the moment

This upload documents my activities over the past few weeks, settling back into work after some adventures in the outback. The spaces are contrastingly man-made and stark in comparison to the silence, beauty and rarity of the landscapes that I managed to capture in the last post. But to notice and record this diversity of my geographical and physical movements is pretty awesome too. I did miss the tactile and vast nature of the spaces from outback, getting down and dirty in the red sand for example and rolling on the incredibly smooth stones, was juxtaposed in my mind with the cleanliness and rigidity of the constructed spaces that I tend to explore here.

With these performances, I consciously chose to take my camera with me on more work, leisure and errand activities to find something interesting within unlikely and unconventional times and spaces. I found that when I made this choice I consciously made the effort to perform somewhere on that outing and they proved to be quite unique, which was fun... particularly enjoyed performing the table at a restaurant (subtle though it was).

I also realised that I love playing with light, finding spaces that use strong pools or strips of light from a window, door, car lights which seem to naturally create a double frame almost and a focus for the movement in the space.

Editing this film I noticed strong patterns of movement, repeated from day to day, and a nervous and continuous energy that I found hard to shake. Perhaps with the momentum of life speeding up again my brain and body have become a little consumed by this. Similarly I noticed I began to choose similar angles of shots, like a default mode, so I am looking to break these habits for the next post. Shifting the framing and proximity of body to the camera.

 So here is excerpt 13. Woah!!! Its getting closer to the end (October).... but I secretly don't want it to end!!!

All around the place

So I started this excerpt of video in the midst of creative devlopment project in Canberra and have since been involved in two others, which has been incredible, lucky me!! One was in Bathurst an amazing group of performers and the other 70ks from Alice Springs, in the outback.
Experimenting in the different places and contexts has been a real artistic wake up for me over the past month, looking forward to making decisions about where would be the most interesting space to perform/film as each day unfolded. the more foreign the better. I loved immersing myself in a space that seems to have, from my perspective, undetermined potential or unchartered territory, the unknown is exciting!!!

Being out in the bush, amidst a diversity of different natural landscapes was particularly revitalising, from river stones, to the muddy river bed, to thick grass land, a red sand hill...etc and words cannot describe how awesome it was to be in these spaces, the silence and peacefulness of the environment is striking. And as we noted on our trip, it just is. It is when we are there in it, and it is when we are not.

Something I considered quite a bit when on my bush theatre adventures was who was the audience? Was I performing for nature or for myself? I tried to play between these and realised that for me I find it much easier with an audience, ie. people, so it did become a little challenging when it literally was just me moving in vast space. But ultimately, at least for this project, each filming experiment is an exploration of space, and my relationship to it, and that was what kept my interest.

Favourite moments during this post include performing in 'No Place' showing, at the airport, the red sand hill, and up the tree. The sense of play for me is a big part of it, and in spaces I felt free to go with that instinct..fun..fun.

ok well here it is...

back in the swing of it...

Ok so it has been a while... hmmm well perhaps a little more than a while, but after a few months of blogging absence I'm back and determined to finish, if only for self satisfaction and most probably not artistic brilliance.

So although I haven't been posting, I've been keeping the performing/filming going mostly everyday, but now I have arrived at a backlog of editing that I need a week to sift through. But here is the past 20 days captured in my transitions from a few places, Bathurst, Cowra, Canberra, Sydney and Canberra again. With these performances I tried to capture a moment in the day when it seemed unlikely, random, unspecific even, perhaps a little mundane, but never the less an insight into my life, my pathways, my movements. I notice I go through patterns of close ups with details of body etc. mixed in with wide physical moving shots. Movement patterns also seem obvious to me, but maybe not so for the viewer. A particular highlight was in an exhibition room at the MCA in Sydney, rolling around with pillow and looking up at the artwork on the ceiling, I think other visitors thought I was part of the art, and well I guess I was maybe, for just that snippet of time...

Currently I'm working in Canberra with Adelina Larsson and an amazing group of improvisation performers, a sound artist, video artist and set designer, on a project called 'No Place' which is exploring 'hypnogogia' the state of transition from wakefulness to sleep or sleep to wakefulness. It has been a brain fry for me in a lot of ways, as we try to access the subconscious mind and body whilst actually being aware and active simultaneously in the physical reality. I am enjoying the challenge of exploring the tension between these, and makes me consider how I might channel my subconscious, which seems for me to have more connection to the imagined, into the improvised scores that I do for filming. How can I channel these tools and experiences of accessing the subconscious into my everyday act of performing in a specific space? Can I choose a space and a state or a score and experience the performance as something apart from or additional to, the physical reality.

Woahh... anyway, this is what I am going to attempt.

go forth and imagine... :)

give me a sign..

Wow what an interesting couple of weeks it has been, following the signs... seems very deep, but actually its not that profound and just a bit of an experiment.

 

 

As I mentioned briefly last post, I decided to apply a theme or restriction to performing and filming, just to mix it up and make it a little more interesting. So for this upload I decided that I must dance in a space which features a sign/symbol.

 

 

Having this constant of including a particular component to the performance was at first a little dull, struggling to find interesting sites or spaces that incorporate signs to which I could directly relate and integrate into my physicality. Starting with basic road signs (boring!!!) I was then able to diversify a little to include sites that are unique to the place where I am, Mt. Panorama for example, which was too much fun, starting in poll position. :) Also enjoyed using my daily activities to continue to influence the filming, I found myself drawn to notice the signs around me and reflecting on how they might influence me in performance. It's funny how much you don't notice until you actually pay attention. The 'for sale' sign was also a highlight, finding my voice with this one which actually was quite surprising, though the postie thought I was on crack it think, holding an auction to a cluster of wheelie bins!!

 

 

I would love to actively try to be a bit more brave with including sites that are quite busy, and have the potential for more interaction with the space, but also people moving through or utilising that space. I must admit I was a little off-put with the filming of 'Detour ahead' sign in down town Bathurst as I was yelled at quite aggressively by a group of teens hanging out the window of their car. In general people are quite indifferent though and often times just ignore or try and go about their business. A happy medium between ignorance and abuse would be ideal... but that goes with the nature of it, the unpredictability of the situation.

So here is Day 103 to 121, the sign- post.

 

Up next... I'm attempting to film at the exact same time every day wherever I am, whatever I'm doing. Strangely excited about this challenge, as I must be strict and honest with myself, even if I find I'm in the most uninspiring space, how can I make it something worth doing and worth watching???

More on this soon...

experiencing some technical difficulties...

I realise this post has been a long time coming and I take comfort in the fact that I have finally done it, because well I had to overcome a few little barriers to finally get to the stage where I could upload this next video.

Firstly since my last post I have started using a new laptop, meaning that I have had to transfer all my video clips and editing software to an external hard drive then to a new computer system. Ok this is fair enough, but then the silly software chucks a wobbly and decides that it doesn't like this new home (windows 7 operating system) which means I can't edit and save and upload the new footage. Gahhhhh!!!!

So I try multiple suggestions from online forums to fix this problem. After some stress attacks, freaking out that I'd done all this work and now I'm not going to be able to continue it, what a waste, woe is me type scenario etc, etc...BUT thanks to dear old Dad I finally solved the issue, (which i still don't really know what is was, but if it works who cares!!).  

But secondly I have moved to a new town (or old town in my case) and been intently busy with a new project. This has been joyous, but very consuming. Having the filming everyday has been strangely relaxing and calming, redirecting my creative side, stopping me from getting to 'heady' with anxious thoughts about the project ahead.

So this video documents Day 79 to Day 102, a few last days of holiday/family time travelling, as well as settling in and exploring new (but old) town/home. I particularly enjoyed filming at my Uncles farm at sunset and finding some contrast in extreme close ups (hair on floor) and wide shots. Enjoy!

I am currently undertaking a new approach to 100,000 frames, choosing a theme and sticking with it for 10 days or so (till the next post). I've decided to film next to or utilising some sort of signage, so hmmm... we'll see how that goes. But I thought it could be interesting to place a commonality or restriction to the freedom that I had been experiencing, and see how I deal with it, and try and make it interesting each time even with the similar spatial features.

Anyway more on that next time!

Silly Season!!!

Well what a festive season it has been! I've had many interesting adventures along my travels and activities over Christmas and New Year, which has been very busy but as always the best time of the year!!

Some of my favourite experiences of 100,000 frames so far have happened in this last edit; dancing amongst the Christmas lights, a family watching me intently as I danced near the driver reviver on Christmas eve, a 2 year old girl joining me for a dance on the ground floor of the mall, the train from Olympic Park to Lidcombe in Sydney on NYE....all were great fun and seemed so much more surprising to me in what unfolded during the improvisation. It feels also like I kind of gave myself permission to be a little crazy and just went with whatever happened.

I'm noticing too the importance of changes in depth of shot, having a variance in being close to the camera as well as distanced from it. The focus in the shot changing from a particular body part to my whole body, from site to site, is really interesting when it comes to the editing process and allows a greater use of the camera as a framing medium, to draw attention to things that perhaps we wouldn't ordinarily focus on. This is demonstrated perhaps in the washing up dance, where the movements of my hands are the main point of interest.

Similarly I have been attempting to play more with the idea of coming into and out of the shot/frame, marking the space (when I can) to where I would be in and out of shot. This is also an intriguing creative choice, for me as the performer but also forces the viewer to think outside the box as well as focus in on the characteristics of the space that I have chosen to shoot.

So Enter 2012!!! Excerpt below features Day 47 to Day 78. Enjoy. :)