Event 7
AURORA
Norwich
13-15.11.09
The festival highlights for me were:
1. Shezad Dawood ‘Feature’, which was an interesting Western-themed film of performed scenes, set in the landscape at Wysing Arts Centre, and using a cast sourced from very specific local groups (such as the Cambridge Chinese Community Football Team). A performance to camera, in the most public sense, this film conveyed the complexities of the process in its final manifestation.
2. The panel discussion about distributing video work on YouTube, the pros being access to out-of-print films, the cons being lack of control over screening context. One speaker proudly stated that he hooked up his plasma screen to YouTube. I wondered about the beautiful abstraction the pixelation would do at that size.
3. Ben Rivers ‘I Know Where I’m Going’, which was as much about the filmmaker’s process (a deliberate attempt to get lost on a British road trip to the Isle of Mull) as it was about the people he found. It made me think about Richard Long again, and other journey-based live art: it’s often close to fiction, as it requires the audience to imagine the distance, route and duration. Only a tiny part of the experience can ever be communicated to an audience, and I liked Ben Rivers’ choice of presenting encounters with people and stories.
4. The communal spirit: eating meals with international filmmakers is the best sort of networking.
Live Art Development Agency Study Room
London
19.11.09
I went to London to perform ‘Longwinded in Five Parts’ with other/other/other at the Royal Opera House, and after the technical rehearsal I had enough time to go to the Live Art Development Agency Study Room. I’d never been there before, and I would strongly urge anyone who is interested in live art to make a visit. There was so much material, but everything was catalogued and easy to find, and there are brilliant artist-produced study guides to help you navigate by theme if you are just browsing. I knew I wanted to look at the FrenchMottershead guide: ‘Making it your own? Social engagement and participation’, and so spent a while looking at work on DVD and VHS that I would never have looked for otherwise. I also read Luke Jerram’s ‘Art in Mind’ book, which is great for anyone interested in perception, and creating artwork in spaces at the edge of consciousness. Brilliant. I have since bought it, for future musings. My favourite quotation was: “I expect much of the research in your project area was done in the 60s and 70s. Research was more flamboyant then.” Dr Alison Diaper (p37).
I also listened to all of Janet Cardiff’s ‘The Missing Voice (case study b)’, although technically I should have walked down to Whitechapel and done the walk for real, but I think it was cold outside and I was feeling lazy. It became an interesting exercise in listening to site-specific work out of intended context, although she has released the piece alongside publications, so perhaps the interaction with the physical space isn’t so important. Anyway, I was interested in her use of voice and stories, and the disconcerting feeling of having those stories whispered into your ear. The obvious mixing points between two binaural recordings also helped to turn the otherwise straightforward field recording into a fictional space.
