AIR Open Dialogues presentation
09.10.09
I took part in a panel discussion on the theme ‘Points of Departure’. The other panellists were Dot Howard and Samantha Epps. I was discussing the re-definition of practice after a period of collaboration. Here are some of the notes I made beforehand:
Working with visual artists has helped me to address the visual aspects of sound-led work. During my BA I was often adamant that there should be ‘no visuals’ because it was about the sound, but I’ve managed to shift that assertion into a more gestalt view. Obviously, most people experience some visual element when they are listening to something (such as the room, or light conditions), so over the last few years I’ve been trying to develop ways of exploring this relationship. Collaboration has helped me explore different approaches.
Cans (April) was performed specifically so that the audience could identify the direction and sources of sounds; the lighting/black box performance was unusual for me at the time but it is something I now want to develop (in terms of how the audience behave in the spaces)
Use of video (documentation and performance to camera):
I was previously a little bit simplistic in my documentation/dissemination of work. I would be left with a great sound recording, and a few photographs, which would then have to be cobbled together for showreels. Having seen Dot’s use of the camera-as-object, and having had discussions with my Escalator mentor I feel a lot more confident in developing my work in the direction of performance-to-camera (good for the ‘physics demonstration’ elements of my work) and playing with the screen as a physical object in relating to the audience, in the same way that I use stereo headphones in my work.
Experiments: collaboration allows work to develop at a tangent to your practice. It is liberating, rewarding and distracting at the same time. I had to re-assess what I’d been doing after and during periods of collaboration in order to maintain an identity and not feel as if I was stealing ideas.
