Application process for The Practicalities of Documentation, 10/11/11 Michael Mayhew, 168 Platt Chapel, Manchester.
http://www.inremembrance.org.uk/
This exchange of insights, skills, knowledge, experiences, reflections on the issues and actuality of the documentation of performance practice is part of.
This exchange invites 11 participants to engage with 4 professional artists who use their art form to document ‘the living moment’.
Using the disciplines of writing, photography, video and sound, participants will work for a day exploring the practicalities of documentation, investigating the systems needed to fully document the ephemeral work of 11 performance artists work that will be performed on the 11th, as part of the performance event, 11 11 11, In Remembrance, Manchester.
This documented material will then be immediately utilised in the generation of a 4-hour installation – In Loving Memory.
State what area of documentation you are interested to pursue; photography, video, writing, sound. Please send 500 words informing us what you have done that is relative to this situation and what you believe you can bring to this situation. Within the text inform us what you believe to be the core of the documentation of performance art.
THE DEADLINE HAS PASSED
MY APPLICATION
I am a Manchester based visual artist who makes work in response to the context of my surroundings and use different mediums such as live art intervention, performance, sound and video. For the past two years I have been blogging about my practice on a-n, artist talking and Newworknetwork websites respectively. I have found the process of writing a blog has given me a space to reflect on ideas and an independent way of creating a legacy for my work. I initially started publishing a blog out of pure frustration, struggling with support on my MA course and wanting to find my own voice rather than an academic style of correspondence. During my MA staff were quite dismissive of performance work and live art micro events preferring object based/film work.
My performance and video work has been shown at live art micro events at the Bluecoat in Liverpool, Greenroom in Manchester, and at the Arnolfini, Bristol. I have worked internationally most recently I re-performed The Eventé for The Night of the Arts 2011, at Gallery Jangva in Helsinki. I participated in a four-week artist residency in Chongqing China in 2010. I have documented all my projects on my blog, published videos on You Tube and used social media platforms to promote the work. I do feel there is a lack of accessible information out there about live art practice, which is why I believe that it is really important to keep blogging.
I feel I can bring my energy and experience of being an artist and struggling myself with the documentation of work. I have used different media such as video, sound and photography to record performances although I feel blogging can bring all these elements together and continue reaching diverse audiences after the event. How do you blog an 11hour event? Can a blog be an artwork or is it simply documentation? I think it can be both however for me the core of the documentation of performance art is for artists to be able to learn from it, re-use the material and to keep reaching wider audiences.
