residency and showing reflections – what next?

With the time, energy and space from an important developmental stage in this project and in my practice as a solo performer I feel free and available to blurt.

On returning to Canberra from Bundanon I presented a 25 minute showing at Gorman House Arts Centre – QL2 Dance. I was eager, though quite scared and vulnerable, to present this work that I had in the immediate time been working so intensely on, but also to talk and discuss ideas of the importance of this process in terms of making it a long term career project one that I come back to at different stages in my life.

The showing went relatively well, feedback was positive and the small audience excitedly engaged in discussion about ideas I might like to explore or questions to consider. I found this sooo useful and though feeling exposed, exhausted and self conscious it supercharged me with an enthusiasm and trust in this project and my developing approaches to process and presentation.

Questions mostly surrounded the idea of including emotional place in this work. I am not sure it fits so well, in the way that I attempted here anyway especially as the other content is largely dealing with physical, natural or built, environment and movement responses to it. But I feel that I want to include these 'sites', ie. emotional places in the work, but perhaps it is about considering the physical environments in a new way to extract or to bring these emotions to the surface.

 

To continue this project for the duration of my life/practice I something that immediately felt possible and felt right when it was suggested to me at Bundanon. It is incredibly potent for the sociological, environmental, personal and process aspect of the work. In doing so I might interrogate and document the changeability of site/space as well as evolutions in my interests, movement, relationships to and experience of a new or re-visited site as time ticks by.

After talking to Leon, Josie and their friend Kate on our final night at Bundanon I have become more aware and connected to the origins of movement/dance in term of ritual, which in Australia is Indigenous ceremony and songlines. These are, to my knowledge performed only at certain sites and time/seasons and on particular surfaces and routes/journeys, and link to my own dance in site, time, culture in contemporary society. I am super excited to research this further and I see the potential for creating a site specific dance that indicates a contemporary ritual, ie. What is the ritual dance of /Australians today? What are the  ritual ceremonies connected to site/space time? What is the movement of these sites, times and ceremonies?

So after this revelation I hope to research and continue my site dance experiments with this historical/cultural awareness and an awareness of identifying my own rituals/movements connected to site.

I hope to continue the development of a full length solo work, a physical thesis on site dance, combining live performance and film. I will actively seek out opportunities to continue its creative development and present this work in a season in 2014/15.
 

 

rain relax and reflect

A beautifully cool and rainy day today, perfect for some culminating work to round off my stay here at Bundanon.

I woke and donned my joggers for an early morning walk and some site dance down towards the homestead, I was hoping to capture a shot with the vibrant 'purple trees', but a little disappointed with their density of flowers I sat and wrote a little. A reflective verse I think you might call it about my time here at Bundanon:

Bundanon..

Abun-dance of space,
beauty
calm, yet so active
thoughtful, imagine
experiments that bubble
up over the Cambewarra Mt.
A shot in time
glimpse to his-story
Studio dance
amidst a half done canvas
slumber deep, analysis
anxious
to feed
a lifelong curiosity
we will see

Walking back to the residence I was enticed by the sandstone wall of the Bundanon homestead and could not resist doing a site dance here. It was amusing to play with moving under and focussing on the single window. I was surprised that on the whole side their is only this one window, but I suppose all the window were strategically placed to over look the river. What fun this was to dance early into my day in the cool and refreshing air.

After brekkie, coffee in hand, I sat down to do some serious edit work on a film I started yesterday that I hoped would be a summary of my time here, site and studio dance as well as collaboration with other resident artists (and resident wildlife). Have a squiz below. It was great fun and packaged up my memories, discoveries and experiments very well.

This afternoon after some other boring emailing and admin artists buis-o, ran over to the studio through the steady gentle rain and began to refine and film scenes I hope to present on Tuesday. Josie and Leon had invited me to a BBQ this evening so wanted to achieve a good recap before a relaxed finale evening. Feeling content with leaving the projection work for rehearsal on Tuesday headed to the BBQ, whipped up a salad and met Kate (a lovely friend of Josie ad Leon) ad together spent the evening chatting, laughing eating and sipping. I felt guilty and then refreshed by the wonderful and sometimes trivial conversations we were having, but loved every second to wind down and just be IN the place and enjoy its company. Kate, another video artist and obvious avid historian, gave me some great insights about song lines of indigenous peoples in Australia, and that depending on the surface they would travel, move and sing in differently between sites. ie if it was sand or thick bush they would sing/move in a particular way.  I found this fascinating in regards to the connection between site and movement and artistic/cultural expression. Looking forward to doing some anthropology study on this.

A beautiful evening and peaceful day, feeling lucky, creatively chard=ged and a little bit drained.
In the mowing I hope to do a walk, a little studio recap time, advanced packing up and chat to David here at Bundanon before heading home to Canberra.

A mind, body and soul opening, two weeks! - and the best part was I got to dance AND enjoy the beautiful surrounds of the world underneath our feet.

"dance, dance otherwise we are lost"- Pina Bausch

 

Leon, Josie and myself.

Thanks guys you are beautiful people and incredible drone rangers!

Bundanon Recurring - a summary of adventures during my residency.

the drone rangers, episode 2

Rose at an early 8am this morning to meet Josie and Leon, my fellow artists in residence, take on the beaming sun and visit the amphitheatre with for some more drone filming.

The warm light seeped through the trees onto the beautiful flat mossy rock I had had a dance on before, it was stunning! For this film I set myself a movement score, circular, linear and liquid as well as responding as though dancing organically with the drone. I had a ball doing this, engaging with the drone quite literally and at times offering a smile to the phantom, which is the name Leon and Josie have given it. My only regret is the end, which I so carelessly gave in and didn't perceive what effect this might have on the edit process.

Leon and Josie were happy with the take and we wanted to do another site, so after gathering some supplies and lathering up with sun block, headed to the river here at Bundanon. We found a beautiful headland of a small river beach and decided to do some water filming, exploring slow ground level movements as the drone hovered over, first with camera facing the river and then looking straight down. It was boiling hot, so I was relieved to be in the water, though he sun in my eyes facing straight up, was piercing. These takes were both incredibly fun, again aware of the drone, but also exploring the sense of the watery environment I was in. At time Leon came very close to me with the drone, which I loved and later saw the effectiveness of this footage.

 

Arriving back we peeked at the footage which looked awesome, so stoked to do another session with the drone, Leon and Josie. We chatted about collaboration and had some well deserved coffee and omelette (thanks Leon!).

I was eager to get into my day and begin to tackle editing some footage of my site dances here at Bundanon. choosing some music, which I think always helps in the flow of an edit, I spent a good 2 hours starting to compile these sites, spliced with rehearsal footage of me working the Dot studio. A nice contrast I think and representative of my experiences here.

This afternoon/evening I worked in the studio to record and edit some audio and movement for the joy component of the emotional place scene that is still well in development. It was an interesting ride to access physical states of joy, vulnerability and love within a 5 minute section and I am interested to see how this reads to an audience.

With night setting in I was able to use the projector to play with the head torch film material from the takes I took on Thursday and Monday nights. Thursday nights footage was unusable and decided to stick with one torch light anyway and test how I could let the projected torch/dot of moving light manipulate my movements and how I might interact with it in the space. Further experimenting to be done but found some interesting physical responses like blowing it, jumping over it, and letting it pull me around.

Finally I did a quick recap of some projection scenes, making use of the dark, as tomorrow I hope to film a proper run of all the scenes for my record and feel prepared for the showing in Canberra on Tuesday.

Time has just flown and can't believe it's my last full day here tomorrow, and although I have achieved a lot I feel as though I'm just starting to get into it.

If only more time, and well I guess there always is.

 being joyful?

 

 

 

river site dance

 

 

amphitheatre rock with drone

creative vulnerabilty

After a relaxed morning dropping Dave at the bus in Moss Vale, I had a beautiful potter about and drove back to Bundanon to start my days work. I didn't mind this lag in starting so much, good to reset and refresh and get out of the studio after yesterdays progress.

I arrived back and had meeting with Josie and Leon to view their draft edit of the river drone filming we did on the weekend. It was really well edited and the shots from above and at ground really show the action and landscape just beautifully as well as my strange relationship to the drone. I suggested perhaps a shorter opening to the first film starting lying in the water and hope to tomorrow have a play around with the footage myself just for fun and see how different (or the same) it might be. They had in mind some further drone adventures exploring some rocky, leafy and river sites on the property which excited me greatly. They thought that perhaps this time my relationship could be more organic and comfortable and as though dancing with the drone around me. So tomorrow we will rise early and be the drone rangers once again!

After meeting them and a quick bite to eat at 3pm I was thinking a lot about where to go from here. Even though I had some scenes in mind for development and refining, I was actually feeling a little low, almost a come down, after the adrenalin and emotionally charged time from yesterday. And I think this statement helps shed light a little bit on the way I was feeling-

A note about creative people : "Like the color white that includes all colors, they tend to bring together the entire range of human possibilities within themselves. Creativity allows for paradox, light, shadow, inconsistency, even chaos –and creative people experience both extremes with equal intensity" - creativity scholar Mihaly Csikszentmilhalyi

I was keen to delve further into this idea of emotional place and I guess I felt in the perfect zone to do so. I brainstormed and researched the concepts of joy and vulnerability and ended up writing another poem, quite erratic and stimulated from thoughts of now and memories of performance, creating and putting myself and my ideas out there. With the writing that ensued and I headed to the studio to create a phrase of movement to accompany it, though I am still stewing over whether this is the best or most communicative way to express physical vulnerability. Perhaps simply standing a reading the text, without my most natural/prevalent form of art expression -  movement, renders me more vulnerable?

At dusk I headed to the road that leads into Bundanon and did some site specific dance on and next to the road and a speed sign. It provoked some shaking skipping and looking movements that repeated and grew in intensity. Back in the studio waiting for dark,  I quickly reviewed some phrase material for my muscle and text memory and did some cool down yoga and deep stretching which I really have needed more in this residency at the end of the day but have neglected to do so. It felt luxurious to spend the time to do so, and my body is thanking me hopefully.

At dark I stepped outside and up the hill slightly into a backdrop of tall trees, set my camera and mounted my head torch. I refilmed a dancing torch light scene so as to make sure the torch and my head stayed in the frame this time. I look forward to playing with this as an improv score tomorrow eve I hope.

Bed is very inviting right now and keen to have an early night to restore energy for fun with the drone tomorrow.

Adios!

A day that seemed and WAS perfect.

After waking late and a beautiful flowy yoga session with DCAF, I began to put my head down today to work towards refining and rehearsing scenes for another showing I hoped to present this evening.

I refined the edits of the Norwegian Opera House film and integrated/overlayed Lisa's, my awesome Norwegian friend who had returned my email. She had sent her voice grabs of some questions I asked her to answer about place, architecture and this building in particular - which is where we met! It was awesome to see that the film and audio seemed to merge nicely, but after the showing this evening I see that I need to work on the pacing still further of the video and thinking perhaps to incorporate my voice speaking Lisa's words too, so to have the colliding of language/culture united through place and our common interest dance/theatre.

I also worked on dotty dress chore and improv scores, getting closer to a structure that will communicate the sense of an aesthetic and image based place/site - in the dress! I am enjoying the confines of the framework and possibility within it each time I explore this scene but perhaps need to solidify more clearly to maintain audience engagement in clarity in what I am 'saying', which actually I need to clarify also.

 

I had a beautiful picnic lunch and a sublime siesta before heading back to the studio excited to recap and refine 6 scenes that I want to show this evening. I ran through each scene methodically, sometimes hard without the projector image/film as many of the scenes rely on this but the light is just to bright pouring into the space. But really I shouldn't complain in the least, the space is insanely beautiful and as I remarked tonight "I want this studio in my life". During rendering of the film and audio I busied myself with a site specific wine, wombat and bath dance, yes that's right, at sunset I danced in the field with a wombat, a bath soiled with poo and a glass of wine waiting for me and many kisses to be had with my guest camera man.

 

I am happy with how the showing went tonight and loved having DCAF around to bounce ideas off and hear is responses, thoughts and feedback. He thought it is accessible, powerful, personal and is very ME, in terms of my tendency to create quirky, fun and positive works. Over the moon with this I am excited to really nail it and bring it home over the next few days and still play with new and developing  ideas as well. I am hoping to do a showing next week in Canberra, to enable a further opportunity for dialogue and sharing of this practice and to fuel its ongoing development.

 

Greta and Matt, the screen writers also here at Bundanon, said a few days ago they think it an incredible project to keep working on throughout my life, to keep building this library of site specific dance films as I grow and change and develop over time. Talking to DCAF today he agreed and suggested the piece could be a series that could be an evolving expression of my relationship to this process, to space, to myself and the world in which I exist. Love it, and I absolutely can't resist this challenge and JOY!

 

An incredible day, with all the perfect ingredients...how lucky am I!

 

Poetry in motion?

Today was the 9th Day here at Bundanon, a little over half way, and I'm finding it a really important and telling time for me as a creator and performer.

Woke bright and bubbly and again I sat and contemplated what next? Some coffee and sun salutes set me in motion and I began to experiment with the idea of emotional place. To me this project, in process and performance is about physical and geographical locals or sites but can it also encapsulate the idea of emotional states. I composed a poem, not a good one, I'm definitely no poet, but to get out in language an expression of particular emotion and try to describe or colour the sense of the indescribable. From the poem I created a phrase of movement, gestural and very specific working from instinct and memorising the poem as I went along so as to speak it live with the movement.

This process of slamming text and movement together is something that I have particular interest in at the moment, and perhaps offers a way in for the audience but also provides somehow a different access point for movement creation. It took me a few hours to do this, much longer than I had anticipated, and so the plan was thrown a little today. But really the plan is there for the real process to take over is my theory.

It was warm again today, particularly in the Dot studio so headed back inside the accommodation for some lunch and film editing. I worked on compiling the Norwegian Opera House scene that I had started a couple of days ago, and considered what might accompany it. I though to use text in Norwegian about the design of the building and the architectural philosophy integrated as part of the image somehow and tried a scrolling text effect right to left, but this really didn't look good nor achieve what I wanted. I wrote to my Norwegian friend, Lisa Marie, whom I met at a site specific improve on the roof of the Opera House actually when I was there in October. I asked her if she could record some text I had found spoken in Norwegian and I will try it overlayed with the film/stills. I need to work on the rhythm of this still so it has the right build climax and resolution.

Later in the afternoon I headed back to the Dot studio and did a recap of all the scenes to date before driving to Moss Vale to meet my beautiful and incredible and insightful D-CAF!

Below are some pics from the Gonski studio where I did the poetry composition this morning, they are shots of the tables where previous artists have worked, splotched and stained with paint. Artworks I would hang though happily on my wall. But beautiful to see this layered build up of history. That question of what is art until someone say it is eh..

ampitheatre amidst the trees

A warm and muggy day in Bundanon, And after an awesome Skype session with my beautiful friend Emi in Toronto where the max temp is -2 degrees I thought it a perfect day for some reflection, butchers paper updating, re-editing of movement and film and adventuring walks with the site dance.

It was a little hard to get going today but eventually got my motor running and learnt the whole river pebbles improv from the video edit to accompany some pool splashing audio. A kind of beautiful juxtaposition I hope of a dry, harsh and pebbled river bed with a luxurious yet sterile and artificial hotel pool. I worked on this tonight briefly with the projection, but further work to be done to sync my movements as best I can.

I also began experimenting with improvisation following out of the set movement I had created for the Dotty Dress. I also realised that it could work to have this scene separate to the original film in the running of the piece, but as a recurring motif. For me this specifically 'costumed' section is a comment on the face value, the image or aesthetic place that we often put ourselves and others in. I discovered some interesting scores I can use for improv in this section, including playing dot to dot!

After lunch and putting out a load of washing, the butchers paper was calling! I wanted to recollect my thoughts and nut out the why? The clarity of what each of the scenes I am creating is commenting on. I was quite certain with some of the sections - making statements environmentally, socially and communicating about artistic process, giving the audience a sensation of place - but others I hope to find their place by the time I leave on Sunday.

This afternoon I walked with Leon and Josie to the amphitheatre, which was a short walk along a beautiful track amidst stunning trees, bark and greenery. We arrived and I was stunned at the beauty of the rocks, the trees growing out from the escarpment, the textures and palate of greens, and smells and incredible canvas I was seeing. I watched on as Leon and Josie had a fly of their drone amidst the trees, quite a challenge to navigate, but they did really well to coordinate it with many obstacles. The footage would be beautiful! Well worth it. I then did some site dance on top of the beautifully moss patched rocks and underneath the cliff like rock that seemed to have been cut away by water. It was awesome to be moving here, and kind of felt insignificant and uninteresting as compared to the natural beauty around. I had fun none the less and think I'll come back here for some further adventures, if not just to sit, read or write.

After a quick review of some of the scenes with the projector now that the light drench studio had dimmed I ventured out to the black of night and amused myself with a head torch dance in the middle of some huge trees and a very barky/crunchy ground. I'm interested to use this footage as an improv score to follow the torch light, or like a glow worm insect, manipulating and leading my movements live in front of the projected film. Ill test this over the next day or so, I may need to re-shoot it.

Excited for a visitor and solid development time tomorrow so best get some rest.

sunday site sessions..

Today was hot here at Bundanon and although my body didn't feel like much like doing anything, I really want to investigate further and go somewhere new each day with my thoughts, my experiences and my dance.

10am in the studio and I had already stripped down to a crop top, and after some yoga and improv scores (smooth edges, which way is up and the music is..) my pants were next.

I had reviewed the footage from the my showing Friday eve and incorporating feedback from the other artists had decided to re-chore some of the movement but keep the structure of the scene Actually. The repetition of the text and movement seems to work but looking at he movements they get muffled, jolted and perhaps are a little to complex to escalate and speed up the way I would like it to.

Working quite systematically today I ticked that of the list and moved to the next thing, re-recording some audio of my relationship to a particular site - the Black Stump in Coolah, which is accompanied by layered dance/film of the site. It was tricky to record this as though the first time I was asked about it, but I'm fairly satisfied with the match of audio and vision for now.

After lunch I met with Greta and Matt and we headed down to Arthur Boyd's Bundanon Homestead and Studio for a sticky (its only open on Sundays). The beautiful double story sandstone house was full of Arthur's artwork as well as a significant collection of his ancestors art as well. There were works there that he had painted at age 13!! Amongst the collection was also a display of Sidney Nolan's work ascending the staircase (See pic below).

Outside I decided to do some site filming and writing on the front veranda and was also lucky enough to dance inside Arthur Boyd's studio - the volunteer ladies surprised, interested and smiley. It is such a beautiful art studio with many of Arthur's bits and bobs and some unfinished artworks. I was particularly taken with the rows and piles of tubes of paint on his desk, all finger splotched and smudged, an artwork in itself! It was great to be moving in response to the colours, my imagined actions of how he might paint as well as moving intuitively. I noticed I smiled a lot, and don't know why really, but I guess I was happy.

Returning from these adventures I began some editing of a site dance I did in Oslo this year at the spectacular Norwegian Opera House, which is an incredible structure not unlike a glacier sitting a the foot of the water adjacent to the city. I played with extracting still shots from the video footage and compiling a film, which repeated and overlayed getting denser and denser. A fun and tedious process, and still need to work on the timing and rhythm of this and what might accompany it - recorded or live text? chore or improv? or just the film?

Tonight I got back in the studio as it was beautifully cool, and responded to a film I compiled quickly from yesterdays site dance 'gate.fence.trough' and played with integrating writing from yesterday and my response to the image when I look at it today. This was a fun process as in improvising I could feed from the projected image and the text.

I did today become a little overwhelmed with how much material I am creating with not such a clear direction with where it all might fit. But at the moment I seem more than anything to be expanding my process vocabulary, still with a clear focus and awareness of what might resonate with audiences who have never been to these sites, giving them a visceral experience and bringing them into the sense of these environments.

Ok. enough. natter. for now. night.

 Arthur Boyd studio

 

Bundanon Homestead

 

 

Sidney Nolan pieces

river, refresh, reflect, restart

Saturday... woo! Day 6 of my residency at Bundanon, time is flying.

Woke this morning very sleepy and wanted to sleep more but also wanted to jump into the day.
Eventually clambered out of bed a little sore form the showing last night and balcony style in the glorious sun, reflected and jotted down some plans for further development post showing. Headed to the Dot studio for some brief sun salutes before meeting Josie and Leon to venture to the River (The Shoal Haven) for some aerial drone filming (for those of you who think I mean a long deep sound check out what it really is here)

Sun blocked up we chatted along the cow padded path to the River and set ourselves up in a little sandy river beach with a breathtaking view of the trees, rock escarpment and river.

We took 3 or 4 takes of me as a washed up lady on the rivers edge reacting to the alien like creature hovering above and invading my privacy, chasing me and manipulating my movement. Fun Fun! Leon was really skilled at manoeuvring the drone and interacting with me as I moved, sometimes very erratically, in response to it.
We did aerial shots straight down as well as tilting the GoPro facing towards me as though it had a face - and it did seem to come to life actually, a buzzing and inquisitive personality I'd say. Josie filmed from ground level on her SLR and with my Video Cam.

After our efforts I was covered in sand (and in all the wrong places) so jumped in the refreshing water to clean off before a little sun bake and the trek back to Bundanon. We reviewed the footage immediately and all three of us were pleased with the results. The shot looked incredible from above and never ever have I had the chance to interact so much with the camera, as though it was alive! I am so appreciative of the time and energy Josie and Leon spent with me, creating a truly unique film that I can hopefully integrate somehow in my project.

This afternoon I chilled a little, and did some research and reflection for the days ahead. Really loving the time to create, adventure, experiment, show and reflect. Decided to head back outside to do some more site filming. I tested a new process of choosing the site, setting the shot, improvising in the environment and in response to it, and then stream-of-consciousness writing immediately after my dance. I look forward to playing with this footage and the text/prose that came out of it tomorrow. This method seemed to have value and ill keep playing.

Here is an excerpt of my jumble:
...so green that it almost seems sick. Motors buzz, but not then. There's always so much, the fence pluck it like strings. Deadly sound. Thongs are hardly appropriate for the farm rest on the post jump the fence, no the gate. Feel its buoyancy. Do I really want to get to the other...always greener, and in this case yes!...

Below are some stills from today's river drone site specific adventures.

show(ing) time!

Friday...Woah! A mammoth day.

I am writing this after sharing 25 odd minutes of what I am working on here at Bundanon with 5  artists who are also here in residence with me. Scary and I haven't felt that exposed, vulnerable and nervous in long time, but absolutely happy that I took a chance to do it. I truly yearned for the connection with an audience and to engage in dialogue with other artists after working solitary for 5 days.

It felt so motivating to work towards the showing - gotta love exquisite pressure!! And the
process of producing a full video edit of scenes, considering transitions and presentation throughout had me in a buzz of activity.

I worked hard to consolidate what I have been investigating this week as well as creating a live dance to accompany my Dotty Dress film. I compiled 5 scenes in total with a mix of video and performance into a loose structure. I knew that they still have a way to go, and maybe some don't work at all, but I wanted to test how they felt for the audience, for me to perform and to experiment with the assembly as a piece.

Out of this showing I aim to keep developing, keep pushing and going deeper into my interest in integrating spaces and environments in performance, bringing an adventure to audiences who can hopefully journey with me. I was offered some interesting suggestions, insights and feedback from the artists who so generous gave me their time and beautiful supportive energy. I was surprised and in awe that they were impressed with my film and sound editing as they are all video artists of some form and were transfixed my the layering effects I started to play with as well as repletion of text and movement mixed into video. yahoo! Thank you Josie, Leon, Chris, Greta and Matt!

Looking forward to tossing their ideas round in my head and body tomorrow as I edit, refine, chop and add to the work that is slowly starting to find a direction and physical/visual manifestation.

Josie and Leon tonight have also invited me to play/interact/dance with their drone with GoPro camera tomorrow by the river, and we have already conjured some crazy and quirky possibilities.

Right now I feel incredibly lucky, a little relieved, intrigued and curious, exhausted and adrenalised.

Bed has never looked so good!

A cheery old day!

I woke to the sound buzzing of quad bikes zooming past the Gonski accommodation where I am housed and with beautiful rays of sun streaming in, though I wish perhaps not sooo bright.
It seemed cooler. yes!

After brekkie on the veranda, (no sleepy roos today though) I ventured to the studio to begin warming up. Improv scores and sequences down the room, I didn't feel much like yoga. I wanted to move!

I continued by refreshing and refining my actually scene and edited the audio, testing some music underlayed with my voice but didn't think it worked. I was surprised to interrupted and informed that I should move because there are education workshops happening. This kind of really upset me for a second as it disrupted my already planned out day, but once I relocated to the Gonski studio, which is actually rustically quaint with paint stains all over the floor, I was super productive.

Here I refined a scene involving clips form my interactions with water during the blog project and significantly shortened it to hold both my interest and the audiences.

My fellow artists sharing both the Gonski accommodation and studio, Leon and Josie, were headed to the Bundanon Community Christmas party so I jumped at the chance to chat with others and get out for a few hours.

It was hosted at the Riversdale Homestead which just blew me way with the view and the architecture. I guess I didn't really realise the scale and beauty of Bundanon and hearing the CEO speak about the yearly achievements and joys I was incredibly humbled to be included in a small part of it.

You can check out some info about Riversdale, which is the Boyd Education Centre at Bundanon, with beautiful buildings designed by architect Glenn Murcutt. I spoke with some lovely people working for the trust in various capacities and opened my eyes to how much they actually do!

I also spoke at length with Greta and Matt, screen writers also in residence here at Bundanon, mostly about their processes, projects and goals. They create black comedy sketches which sounds fantastic and I can't wait to see some work! Hopefully tomorrow.

After picking up a few groceries and journeying back the  AIR complex I jumped into the studio again and began three site specific dances, one with the kangaroos just outside my window, another on the paint splotched floor (an art work in itself) and on the sculpturally intriguing water tanks. I took so much joy in doing this and it seemed to relocate me back into this practice - being spontaneous, being connected and engaged with the world around.

 I continued relearning 365 and played with possibilities of overlaying this with my strange attractor performance so that with the projection, the film of me performing and me actually performing live there will be 6 of me (with shadows). Don't know how effective this will be, but I'm going to have a play!

Before I hit the hay, I'm going to check out my site specific films from today.

Bring on Friday!

heat of the day

Well it is super hot here at Bundanon and enjoyed wearing not much and sweating a whole lot in the studio and even when I suit to have a break or do some editing.

I think from now on, looking at the weather, it seems it will cool down a little which allow a little more comfort in delving deeper physically.

Today I have thought a lot about the purpose of this project and redefining in my head and on paper why it is interesting to me and why it should be for others too. Something every artist should consider but not an easy task but I must.

So after last nights revelation of a aim to locate the audience in the studio with me as well as into my journey of exploring the 365 environments and spaces, I have run with this.

After a beautiful flowy yoga session this morning I began compiling footage for a scene that encapsulates my experiences during the project with water. It has made me ask questions and realise the importance of water in our lives, culture and for survival. I played with some improvising then relearned some of the improv from a film in the pool. Quite hard to learn without the buoyancy of water!

I also played with the projector (thanks D-CAF! x), I found the light in the day too bright to make use of it effectively so stuck with editing some more scenes, audio and text, playing with both improv and repetition of phrase material.I created a scene called actually.. which draws text direct from this blog in 2012. It highlights the repetitive and monotonous yet fruitful process of this project, and that each day and each dance are completely unique and different even though starting often times with the same preparation.

Some ideas I am contemplating:
- utilising my recent work with verbatim text, interviewing the other artists here about their connection to place, and maybe even specifically this place.
- drawing the attention of the work to the importance of place/environment, bring the outside in, and take them outside!
- blogging live in the performance about how it is going, locating them inside my brain!

Today I was also suddenly and passionately motivated by my belief and interest in the body (and dance) as a mode of communication and thinking how the body and its relationships to space and place can conjure all kinds of memories, thoughts, possibilities, connections for the audience, even if they don't know where or haven't been there in the flesh, my aim is to locate them there!! 

Ok well as I sit here in the dark with bugs crawling all over me because of my computer screen, I might give it a rest!

More tomorrow. ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzz

Bundanon adventure begins...

Well I arrived yesterday here at the beautiful Bundanon Residence in the Kangaroo Valley NSW as I enter a my creative process, I AM SCARED!!

I have been busily planning and switching my headspace from the chaotic couple of months I've had moving from one project to the next and slowly settling into what it is that I want to achieve, explore and experience in this important and somewhat of a luxury period of time. But now I think and feel content that I have landed!

I feel a sense of calm, anticipation, pressure, fear, vulnerability and excitement as I begin my solo development of 100,000 frames, a live performance component to accompany edited film from my year long site specific dance project.

It feels timely to re-engage with the content, subjects, ideas, and hours of video that I spent a whole year of my life dedicated to and also very daunting. And it has definitely brought up questions around revisiting old projects, Are they really old? Do I really think there is value in continuing to explore it?

Yes! Site specific practice is central to my work and my artistic interest. I am driven to dance and to create in spaces that provide possibility, spark creativity and engage with unknowing audiences. The question is why and how to I take, manipulate, arrange, play with footage from a year of site specific dance and create a theatre work?

A bit of a paradox I know. Im dealing with it - I've got 2 weeks to untangle this twist.

Aims for the two weeks:
- challenge, provoke, stimulate, test, laugh, cry, be, relax, work
- cataloguing my videos will be an ongoing process
- yoga, imagining that Janine Proost or Amelia McQueen are guiding me through an hour of power!!
- blog here each day
- mind maps, on ample butchers paper I stole accidentally from Joe Simons
- site specific dance here at Bundanon each day
- create 'a something' to be shown in Canberra or Bathurst over the next month or two
(- Read The HOBBIT again, before the next movie)

I have today worked on sifting through the footage from 100,000 frames and compiling the edits of which I uploaded during the process into one film of 58 mins!!!  It provided  me with a refresher of all the spaces I was inspired to move within and a canvas for me to GO from.

Later I entered the studio and began to cut together some ideas/phrases from my previous blogs post texts as well as edit some film working from strong sounds from another clip. I really want to stretch how far I can push this filmic material, responding to it in multitude of ways and explore how far my process, my experience and my skills will allow me to take it - to a new place - that's it! -  I want the audience to feel specifically located with me. And by that I mean, as though they have experienced this project/process with me. The site specific nature of this solo is here with me in my process and in performance.

We'll see how this sits with me in studio tomorrow, but for now this seems to have given me a sense of clarity and direction.

Attached are some pics of my beautiful surrounds and some creatures greeting me along the way. Sublime!

Until tomorrow. x

"its a dangerous business Frodo, stepping out your door. You never know where you might be swept off to."
- Bilbo Baggins

 

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...