Chiaroscuro2

'The technologization of dance...has clearly opened up new creative possibilities for choreographic practices.'
Sherril Dodds



To view piece click here
Shooting Footnotes:
Currently creating this new piece through the editing process, and have created a short sequence from the 33 stills shown above, using footage filmed in a variety of different sessions at Trent Park during February and March. Performers are Dominique Bulgin, Isobel Cohen, Maddy Tongue and Chirstinn Whyte.

Zoetrope 1-4

'From Joseph Plateau's Phenakistoscope to the Thaumatrope, Zoetrope, and work of the other chronophotographers, the breakdown of movement into punctual units was required as a first moment in the operation of its illusory reconstruction.'
Mary Ann Doane



To view the piece, click here

Shooting Footnotes:
Filmed in my living room during November 2004, this footage works particularly well when looped and translated into the form of a Zoetrope. Performers are Franck Baranek and Chirstinn Whyte.

Connective Tissue2

'It is perhaps no longer appropriate to analyse video dance within stage dance criteria: a whole new set of appraisal techniques needs to be developed'
Sherril Dodds



Shooting Footnotes:
Performer for this section is Maddy Tongue. In what will be a key image for the piece, I gave her the task of washing her hands, which produced very fluid and seamless sequences of movement.

Close Reading2

'The fact that the video dance body is technologically enhanced raises questions about where 'biology' and 'technology' begin and end. These shifting and unstable boundaries highlight an element of subversion and 'fluidity' in the theoretical and material construct of the video dance body.'
Sherril Dodds



To view the piece click here.

Shooting Footnotes:
The performer in this section is Maddy Tongue, who is a fellow Cambridge-based dance artist, and who I first worked with on Shapeshifting in 2002. I knew that I wanted to work with Maddy again, and that her involvement would be central feature of the Memory Pool project, although I am still working out how her input will fit into the overall structure of the piece.

Native Speaker

'Critics who dismiss video dance for its lack of established dance techniques need to reconsider the evaluative criteria of what constitutes 'dance'.
Sherril Dodds




to view the piece click here.
Shooting Footnotes:
Further filming at Lakeview on March 20th has resulted in some very interesting footage, tying in with my research into cognitive film theory, and expert movement practices. The performer is orchestral conductor Alan Tongue.

Connective Tissue1: Night Shot/Snow in the Forest/Brick

'The cinema...is not exclusively human. Its subject matter is the infinite flux of invisible phenomena - those ever-changing patterns of physical existence whose flow may include human manifestations but need not climax in them.'
Siegfried Kracauer



Shooting Footnotes:
I have an ongoing sub-project to film a variety of natural phenomena as part of the larger whole of The Memeory Pool, and the weather over the last few weeks has provided the ideal opportunity for filming the movement and patterns of snowfall. Although each view appears entirely different, all were filmed from the balcony of my flat in Cambridge.

Breaking The Frame

'If what is in the frame can suggest what is outside of the frame and relate to it, viewers can sense that what they see is part of a larger world.'
Eiko Otake



To view the piece click here

Shooting Footnotes:
Filmed as part of the 'living room session' in November '04, this material has a particularly sculptural quality which is well served by the starkness of black and white.

Surveil

'Everything in the frame matters'
Bob Lockyer



Shooting Footnotes:
Experimenting with filming from above, which gave a slightly intimidating and claustrophobic feel to the resulting footage. Performer is Isobel Cohen.

Close Reading1

'The edits cut fast and directly from hand to foot to knee, to a lock of hair, creating a 'cinematic body' of moving fragments that relate to an unseen whole: a new kind of body existing only in cinema.'
Amy Greenfield



To view the piece click here.

Shooting Footnotes:
Filming again at Lakeview on March 6th, and attempting to compose a synthesis of individual body parts. The quotation above is from Amy Greenfield's writing on Hilary Harris's film Nine Variations on a Dance Theme (1966), and describes a territory I am aiming to explore. Performers are mostly Isobel Cohen, with my arm in the top right hand corner.