For my second session I wanted to focus on a practice plate spinning area and used the climbing frame as a curtain with different textured materials draped, framing sections of the structure. From the intro session the blue and red colours worked really well together and I added neon orange paper. I feel very lucky to be able to use the 4d space at the school as a studio although I am using it in a different way using the colour setting instead of surround video. I introduced some colourful hoops, smaller plates + sticks, torches and paper till roll for floor work. I composed a soundtrack of electro, atmospheric music, which built up to, a fun digital fairground sound and I wanted to see how this would effect the atmosphere of the room and what the children’s reactions would be. The idea was to work with the same children however the school where eager to encourage more people to experience the space.
The first group of 7 children where of various ages which was quite a large group for one artist to work with although I was curious to see what would happen. Working with some of the older children I was surprised that all of them where into the idea of spinning a plate as there was always a chance that this could be seen as a bit uncool especially with younger children in the room at the same time. Part of my research to create some structured mini performances where challenging to get started as there where so many new people who just wanted to explore for the first time and freestyle their own way around. Although we did try some loose ideas such as bringing the plates together, dropping them at the same time, working with the steps and follow my leader around the space.
The afternoon group started mainly on the floor with lots of repetitive rolling of tapes, plates, papers, and cardboard rolls across the room. I prepared more floor-based activity reflecting on last weeks session and often I would lye down on the floor spinning a plate. The ceiling in the 4d room is adorned with planets, which is really fitting with this work and it has got me thinking about using the floor more and how a performance could be experienced from a different perspective. I stumbled across this resource on Facebook by Unlimited an ideas list for developing venues understanding of access which mentions fluid performances and being able to lye down http://weareunlimited.org.uk/rest-reset-recharge/. I found a great free downloadable music website http://freemusicarchive.org and created a playlist inspired by the opening music in films, the fairground and the aesthetic of the space that had a gentle pulsating lifting feeling which could motivate movement or simply listened to.
I am working with Jake Ryan a filmmaker for the first time, which feels like a total luxury although essential to capture all of the children’s contributions in our sessions. Often I have lots of ideas for using video/photography, as there is so much potential in using the documentation as material. Jake also took some beautiful portraits and having an official documenter was of intrigue to the children who where very happy to have there picture taken. I would like to use this camera focus, as this did seem to pull some of the children together from free play into the lens and encouraged performing to camera. Reflecting on these images is making me think about the different visual perspectives of the performer in a space, and I question how will the audience experience the work, how can we experiment with blending video, live action and music.
