Moving and drawing
When planning ways to give visual voice to Antarctica’s changing landscape, the more elemental approaches seem most appropriate.
One method being explored is movement improvisation. I have learned much about this from working with dancers, and from researching the methods of others. [A review of this will be done.] I have built on the methods of others to devise ways of working with people to further dialogues I had had with Antarctic expeditioners.
My ultimate goal is to compose a chorus of voices, through animation, about changes people are aware of happening in Antarctica, and within some who have connected strongly with its landscape.
Movement improvisation, as devised by Rudolph Laban, based on first principles of human gesture, offered a foundation from which to develop a suitable workshop practice to this end. I sought ways of working that would reflect the elemental landscape of Antarctica, and the elemental existence reported by some who have worked there.
I am making drawings and animations in dialogue with other artists, moving together in gestural response to texts gathered from Antarctic expeditioners – words, images and sounds. I am animating traces of conversations that evolve through these workshops, from my observations and recordings of our different responses. I continue to explore ways of tracing these dialogues to evoke a sense of Antarctica from different perspectives.
My aim is to find ways to connect other people with Antarctica’s changing landscape, to raise awareness of climate change and the potential of change within our selves. I seek ways to transmit these findings on-line, through animation.
Today I explore, with two other artists, a very recent text – flute music by composed and played by Antarctic scientist, Rupert Summerson. Recorded in Christchurch in September 2008, it evokes the sound of Antarctic wind, eerily disembodied.