Had a great chat with crit group C.
Amy responded by saying my most recent video was the closest to a finished work, whereas the the others felt more like documentation. She responded to the minimal frames, whereby not everything was visible in the picture, and she enjoyed wondering what was happening outside the frame. The element of wondering was present for her. She also mentioned a desire to follow me, and enter the exploratory nature of the work with me, if possible, and she brought up the idea of an abstract improv video, where I guide the viewer to doing the scores with me. She mentioned Event for an Unknown Person from the Fluxus workbook. I think this was in response to the Face Score that I tried on the streetcar ride home, and other ideas around furtive practices, or performances for unknowing audiences. I like the idea that even though you can’t see something doesn’t mean it isn’t there. This makes me think about the work of perception, and the practice I’ve been developing.
Marion felt trapped or enclosed by the space I shot the video in, and proposed it could take on some other dimension. I’ve been thinking about this too. During my crit in New York it was put forth that the space had distracting elements, like the power outlets and ceiling rafters, and I might consider a void space, with a complete absence of visual clutter, perhaps via green screen. Marion suggested hanging fabric, or something to illustrate the walls. She also mentioned she loved the camera work shot from the floor, looking up the wall, and suggested different dimensions of close, medium, and far along these planes. She brought up the notion of an ‘actual projection’, or dancing against a backdrop of my own video image, to see me moving against myself. I like this idea of multiplicity.
Margaret responded to the sounds, and the vocal tones that I layered using a score of ‘finding the middle tone’, as well as the shadows, making her think about Peter Pan, identity, the subconscious… The shadow self came up, and Amy sent me a pdf of The Shadow from a Buddhist Perspective by Jason Espada. The idea of 'exhausting something until something new emerges' came into conversation, and she recommended The Body in Pain: the Making and Unmaking of the World by Elaine Scarey, as well as On Longing by Susan Stewart.
Ana also picked up the theme of Identity. This is something that resonates strongly with me, as much of this work is centered on abandoning my perception of identity, or the façade I present to the world that is both in response to the world, and also supports the continuation of things as they are. We are complicit in the perpetuation of communication codes. But there are also small changes over time... Ana also asked me about my intended relationship with the audience, and we discussed my interest in ‘sharing the experience of dancing’. The ‘experiential’ force of the work is something I want to be more direct with in future incarnations. I also loved Ana’s reference to Masters paintings (in response to my Face Score) whereby they captured emotions and states through the face. I then discussed the importance of the score for me in relation to emotion, in that emotion might be depicted, but only by virtue of following the score.
Other references and themes of interest:
Ruth Zaporah Action Theatre
Philosophy in the Flesh by Lakoff and Johnson
Edward T Hall – anthropologist, The Dance of Life
Transformation
Embodiment
AND we all want to set up a sensory deprivation tank in Berlin. It could happen…