Life Art - how do you see yours?
The Experience was called 'Traces' and it was actually a really simple piece.
I hand-picked carefully and wisely suitable 'guide-dogs' from my friends to lead spectators/participants blindfolded on the 2km journey through london streets from studio 3 to my house. halfway through the journey they had a chance to negotiate their walk on their own, with the aid of a sturdy bamboo stick, through a carpark, and along a quiet residential street...
they enter eventually my house, where their guides describe to them some photographs on the hallway wall - then they are led into the room where they are sat down and left alone, until the last participant has come through the door and sat down. Sometimes we can wait 15 minutes before the next person arrives, but generally it is only one or two...
I'd blacked out the windows and draped an old black stage curtain over the door to block out any light, and a recording of me starts to play, telling them that they can remove their blindfolds. the outcome of the blackout is that their open eyes just meet with total darkness; they have no idea that i am sitting in the room with them, or of who else is present... I'd recorded me saying some stuff - I will post it up later - inviting them really to reflect on their senses and perception, and memory and some other little things. The recording fades in and out of clarity to give their own minds opportunity to wander... Only 4 or less people could experience the piece at any one time which I think works best... at the end of the recording, silence and I light a candle to break the darkness, alerting them to my presence, and feed the participants a chocolate and a cognac (mmm!!) There is the muted murmur of traffic seeping into the dim light of the room... I have painted a beautiful moroccan mandala on the wall...
We talk, about their journeys, about anything that they are inspired to talk about really, after which they go outside and see the photographs that were described to them, with other paraphernalia strewn and pinned around, and then on out into the outside world once again - with their own eyes, and minds tick tock ticking :)
Well, that's it roughly in a nutshell. Simple, but effective it appears and it seemed to stimulate and press the buttons that I was aiming for... reflection on perception and aperception, .... etc.etc. The whole thing in all takes about an hour...
A woman from Battersea Arts Centre, Shelley Hastings, was interested after my tutor Katja told her about it, and came to experience on wednesday, so it may be that I will have the chance to develop it further and take it around London - if so then there is lots that I would fine tune and incorporate... it can be taken off into so many different directions...
listening to: Reggae... well it's been sunny and we have been sitting in the garden all day :)
I hand-picked carefully and wisely suitable 'guide-dogs' from my friends to lead spectators/participants blindfolded on the 2km journey through london streets from studio 3 to my house. halfway through the journey they had a chance to negotiate their walk on their own, with the aid of a sturdy bamboo stick, through a carpark, and along a quiet residential street...
they enter eventually my house, where their guides describe to them some photographs on the hallway wall - then they are led into the room where they are sat down and left alone, until the last participant has come through the door and sat down. Sometimes we can wait 15 minutes before the next person arrives, but generally it is only one or two...
I'd blacked out the windows and draped an old black stage curtain over the door to block out any light, and a recording of me starts to play, telling them that they can remove their blindfolds. the outcome of the blackout is that their open eyes just meet with total darkness; they have no idea that i am sitting in the room with them, or of who else is present... I'd recorded me saying some stuff - I will post it up later - inviting them really to reflect on their senses and perception, and memory and some other little things. The recording fades in and out of clarity to give their own minds opportunity to wander... Only 4 or less people could experience the piece at any one time which I think works best... at the end of the recording, silence and I light a candle to break the darkness, alerting them to my presence, and feed the participants a chocolate and a cognac (mmm!!) There is the muted murmur of traffic seeping into the dim light of the room... I have painted a beautiful moroccan mandala on the wall...
We talk, about their journeys, about anything that they are inspired to talk about really, after which they go outside and see the photographs that were described to them, with other paraphernalia strewn and pinned around, and then on out into the outside world once again - with their own eyes, and minds tick tock ticking :)
Well, that's it roughly in a nutshell. Simple, but effective it appears and it seemed to stimulate and press the buttons that I was aiming for... reflection on perception and aperception, .... etc.etc. The whole thing in all takes about an hour...
A woman from Battersea Arts Centre, Shelley Hastings, was interested after my tutor Katja told her about it, and came to experience on wednesday, so it may be that I will have the chance to develop it further and take it around London - if so then there is lots that I would fine tune and incorporate... it can be taken off into so many different directions...
listening to: Reggae... well it's been sunny and we have been sitting in the garden all day :)
posted by tara at 1:58 am
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