Orr and Sweeney

'media line' and body | camera site-based research

2010-03-19T01:51:00.001-07:00

The dancing body working with site decides image composition. Camera: Panda. Body: Rachel Sweeney. All images from Camera|Body|Place research project, July 09, Bridgetown Western Australia.

The 'media line' concept is a term I came up with through a need to address a perceived gap in the language and therefore working relationship, between photographers and dancers working together on site toward a common end, albeit across disciplines. 'Media line' references a figurative line on the ground / or projected into space where the bottom of the camera lens' frame sits, or appears to sit, within the physical area of the working site. It defines where the media people are, and where they are not, and where the dancers are and where they are not: the media people are behind the media line, the dancing bodies are generally in 'front'.

In site-based research, the media line is eternally moving. This is particularly evident when the media moves in the same space as the dance. It comes into play within the boundaries of a set working area decided by the facilitator, which has been decided by the nature & properties of a site. Media lines come and go, and change, over the space of seconds, and are called upon by any researcher (regardless of discipline) as a point of reference to maintain strong relation into the space, and to each other.

The media line is present regardless of distance between the lens and the focus of the composition. It may move vertically or horizontally or on any angle. The media line's intensity alters according to proximity between dancer/media person/site spaces & materials, depth of field, focus, shutter speed, and the speed and other movement qualities of the dancer and/or the photographer's body, to name a few.The media line offers the opportunity to share common space. Here it is evident through distance/proximity. With only a matter of inches between the camera and the dancer, the media line intensifies. Camera: Panda. Body: Justin Morrissey (media), Marnie Orr (dance).

Metaphorically, media line can simultaneously reference the dialogue between the media and the dance, the photographer and the dancer, the camera lens and the focus or intention of the dancer. For me the term enables a space or moment to be shared, as there is an understanding that we are talking (across elements), sharing moments, bound by the definitions of the immediate surroundings.

The media line is often decided by the choices of the dancing body, and not the media body. And we (ROCKface) are in the throes of understanding how the media line is first and fore mostly decided by site. There is constant negotiation and re-negotiation, and this is where the creative tension I think is most exciting, and something to aim for, or rather, to set up the opportunity to occur.

The media line is a helpful concept in engaging photographers to enable the dancing body to maintain the power to choose the frame. This 'frame' may not necessarily be referencing that of the final photograph, but it may do (dependent on how the photographer takes on the concept).
The frame of the: performance / intention or focus of the dancer / dancer's path, at any given moment, is now what the photographer is challenged to re-compose themselves around. A new composition is often evident in images taken from this perspective.

This we have found, gives rise to holding the dancing body's ability to work with a space or place, less inhibited - or at least, less controlled - by the photographer's presence, insofar as with the prioritising of the dancer's frame over that of the photographer's at a group-parameter level, there becomes a shift from (in my interpretation) a somewhat culturally established power relationship with the photographer/dancer, to the dancer being allowed to see the photographer as a part of that space, that place, inclusive of the camera and lens itself. Hence we are working with an acknowledgement of the agency of the dancer. Let the dancing body decide where to crawl. Read this through attention to focus. Camera: Panda. Bodies: Carol Nelson (media), Michelle Outram (dance).

Working with a consciousness around 'media line' is helpful to maintain media bodies (photographers/videographers) into continual conscious relation of how they themselves are effecting a space, and taking space - media space - that may at any moment become dancing space, if that is what the dancing body chooses, and what the site speaks at that particular moment. No media line awareness from the camera man here! Camera: Panda. Body: Jess Lewis (dance), Kim Perrier (camera).

It is also practically helpful for when many media people are working together 'surrounding' dancers, being inside others' lens frames (intentionally or not).

Would love to hear your thoughts.

Marnie

Inhabitate workshop training

2009-07-21T23:57:00.000-07:00

ROCKface workshop
Hovea, John Forrest National Park, Western Australia 4-7 July
photo: marnie orr
dancers: rachel sweeney | jess lewis

SURFACE TENSIONS: Interdisciplinary Dance Practice - conference paper

2009-07-21T23:07:00.000-07:00

ADSA annual conference (Australasian Drama Studies Association), Perth Australia, 30 June - 3 July 2009

Paper Draft

Presented by ROCKface – Marnie Orr & Rachel Sweeney

In an ever increasing volatile balance between human development and material resources within the present boom or bust climate, promoting an awareness of individual agency must start with whatever individual’s sensibilities are present.

‘Surface Tensions’ is a mixed media talk presented by Marnie Orr and Rachel Sweeney of ROCKface interdisciplinary performance collaboration. They address the dancing body in contemporary performance praxis as a shifting site reflecting cultural and ecological concerns, directly engaging with matters surrounding sustainability based on its ability to articulate physically a critical response to interior (anatomical) and exterior (environmental) states.

‘Surface Tensions’ cites four years of performance / dialogue exchange of interdisciplinary inquiry into site-based performance making processes interfacing contemporary choreographic research (based on Butoh and Bodyweather practice, see biographies) with disciplines of geology, cartography and environmental science. Using stills/video projections and journal extracts, this joint presentation introduces our latest project Inhabitation, beginning in Western Australia, July 2009.

Reflecting on the emigration of materials as societal action, we parallel how the performance ethos of ROCKface adapts processes of material property exchange as a work motif, exploring sensorial approaches to land through live field investigations of the dancing body in relation to its immediate surrounds.

The shifting dynamics of our transnational terrain inquiry relating to power, culture, language, audience and intensity are considered under the terms Translation, Transmission and Transformation.

Translation:// We regard ourselves as interdisciplinary ‘live researchers’, where the critical hub of ROCKface identifies processes of adaptation surrounding the body’s relation to site, subscribing to key philosophical principles underlying ‘Deep Ecology’^ⁱ. Current ecological concerns look to adaptation as key to sustaining endemic mineral, animal and vegetable life through identifying possible compatible species trans-globally.

Transmission:// We outline our performance methods, focusing on the transfer of physical principles between studio and site across time and geographic distance.

Transformation:// Vital to sustaining ROCKface performance practice is the recognition of ecological integration and adaptation processes as macro/microcosms of human relations, in parallel with physical matter redistribution and changing states.

i First coined by Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess. ‘deep ecology’ describes an ecological philosophy and ethic-aware scientific approach based on the lived experience of deep, radical interconnectedness with environment. Rejecting a reductionist methodology, the worldview builds on cultural historian Thomas Berry’s position that the world is made up of “a communion of subjects rather than a collection of objects” – see Stephan Harding’s explanation in Animate Earth, Science, Intuition and Gaia, Green Books, 2006.

Furthering the movement of deep ecology is the anti-mechanistic theory of Gaia developed by atmospheric chemist James Lovelock and evolutionary biologist Lynn Margulis. Gaia theory refers to the earth as a living organism, where all things are interrelated and interdependent. Adopting these foundations, ROCKface identifies the body as constantly, simultaneously engaged with the self and the immediate surrounding environments, living the experience as embedded within the world’s ecological matrix.

Orr & Sweeney - July Events in Western Australia

2009-06-24T06:54:00.000-07:00

TALK: Thur 2 July 09, 11am @ Edith Cowan University, Mt Lawley, Room 3.112.

Presentation of a joint academic paper at ADSA, the Australasian Association for Theatre, Drama & Performance Studies. http://createc.ea.ecu.edu.au/conferences/junejuly_2009/index.php Read the outline on page 70 of the Full Programme.
Photo: Marnie Orr. Bodies: Michelle Outram (on rocks) & Caitlin McLoughlin (standing) during Inhabitation Kalamunda. March 09.

RESIDENTIAL WORKSHOP: 4 - 7 July 09, in Hovea, Perth Hills. See blog entry below for details.

Photo: Marnie Orr, for Transnational Terrain, Piesse Brook, Kalamunda, July 08.

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT: 9 - 16 July 09, Bridgetown
Working across the mediums of dance and photography/video, working with site.
In collaboration with Kim Perrier, Bridgetown visual artist.
Invited guests include film artist Justin Morrissey from Brisbane, and psychotherapy student & trained opera singer/actor/film editor, Cristina Santolin.
Guest speakers include local environmental management professionals Sheila Howat and Cheryl Hamence.

Includes:
COMMUNITY WORKSHOP: 11 & 12 July
(See below for details)

EXTENDED COMPANY RESEARCH: 13 - 15 July.
Researching the camera as holding agency, working with body in site.
Photo: Thomas Kelly of his own hand, during Movement Lab, Bridgetown inhabitation research, Feb 09.

TALK: Fri 31 July 09, 3:30pm @ Symbiotica, Human Biology Department, University Western Australia.
For details - email amanda(at) symbiotica(dot) uwa(dot)edu (dot)au
Photo: Rachel Sweeney. Bodies: Marnie Orr (left), Billy Rippe (right). For Palimpsest, Mapping Project Mar 07, Dartmoor National Park, UK.

Critical questions of site

2009-06-16T18:11:00.000-07:00

From skype conversation
[13/06/2009 5:30:53 PM]
Surface Tensions intensive will focus on

MICRO-KINETIC SENSITIVITY WORK - blood bone lymphatics vessels. eg Thoracic area. Opening up arms from spine. Creating space.

AVAILABLE BODY- to its own systems of movement and other bodies. Now move into a space working on eg. bag of bones - eagle wings - an extension of this work. rather than elemental states eg. wind - anatomical images.

HOLDING AGENCY of pure complete awareness of supporting upper body through upper body, with holding wings. holding shape. rather than specific form, but still form based.
Another body in there. Internal working - operating with its own frame of reference and rules of engagement. How does that body stay open and able to be effected by its environment.

DEVELOP IMPROVISATION PROTOCOL
(Inluenced by Joao Fiasdeiro's method - Real Time Composition)
critical creative thought - not reactive but responsive.
Inhibit desire to perform. This creates clarity and trust for audince.
Practice the preconditions to work - no reflex and no expectations.
SURRENDER PHYSIOLOGICAL STATE TO THE SPACE/TIME MOMENT
Employ
- decision making tasks - points of consideration - Point A to B to C etc.
- external locus of control mechanism
- task: pressure on arm and then it will float by itself when you let go.
moving without tension. from butoh. It's being done to you - external control, working with resistance.
- ways of not disturbing the place

PRACTICE SUSPENDING TIME
(Developing in parallel through Rachel's performance work with Ellen and Marnie's workshopping with Fiadeiro)
Identify the central throughline of the moment, and stay with that moment until just before it is about to change. Do this by:
Reading the Land (Paddy Roe reference) or Joao says read the scenario.
Wait for the throughline to emerge.
Name / Describe the throughline (added bonus)
GO - do the act required as you are needed. If you are not needed, don't go.
FIND THE MOMENTS WHEN READY TO SPEAK/ACT
THIS IS FINDING OUR OWN AGENCY WITHIN THE SPACE/TIME MOMENT
THROUGH AUTONOMY AND IMPLICITNESS
The scenes of decisions become apparent. rather than being reactive, you are creating a set of possibilities to become self-evidenced in the space.
Stay in relation to own process.

RADICAL GIFT ECONOMY - SUSTAINABLE EXCHANGE PHILOSOPHY
IDENTIFY MODE OF SELF OPERATION
Questions around changing that sense of what the environment needs, working with community decision - more than this. what is it that activates community?

This time is for ourselves
HONOUR THIS TIME

Camera|Body|Place - Rachel Sweeney arrives in Australia this month

2009-06-08T08:15:00.000-07:00

Camera|Body|Place
11-15 July 2009.

Site based research investigating the camera as holding agency in relation to human body in place. The extended company is working with local new and established visual media artists from the Bridgetwon area, south Western Australia.

Click on image to enlarge.

SURFACE TENSIONS - Immersive Physical Workshop --> 4 - 7 July 2009

2009-05-04T07:49:00.000-07:00

Surface Tensions
Body | Land | Relation

Immersive Physical Workshop
for dance and visual artists

4 - 7 July 2009
Hovea, Perth Hills

Cost: $300 full / $260 conc.
Includes 4xnights basic accom, & food.
More info: http://orrandsweeney.blogspot.com
Contact Marnie — e: dance at filtered dot com / ph: 0412 115 925

Dance artists Marnie Orr (Aus) and Rachel Sweeney (UK) lead a 4-day residential workshop for professional dance and visual artists exploring creative approaches to site based movement and visual performance practices.

Using body mapping | micro & macro site exploration | topographic movement training,
Orr & Sweeney steer an interdisciplinary performance investigation into perception, propriocetion and perspective exploring the relationship of body and land.

The working day is divided between studio practice including a Bodyweather MB workout (mind/body, muscle/bone), on-site solo/group improvisation work, micro-performances and discussion/review sessions. Includes visiting field specialists from geology/ecology, video presentation, peer mentoring and access to literature.

For the duration participants stay in a workshop studio on ’Noonyarra’ property in Hovea, Perth Hills. Participants share evening meals, cooking & cleaning duties.

Company Bio:
ROCKface was founded in 2006 as the research arm of the Orr/Sweeney partnership, investigating site based performance and movement for the development of physicality and its associated verbal language for understanding across disciplines. Our work is sustained through rigorous studio-to-field training utilising immersive, inhabitational and durational processes. With combined backgrounds in Butoh and Bodyweather practice, the root of our work is to highlight the sensory, kinetic intelligence of the dancer working in immersive conditions.

We draw from intuitive and proprioceptive memory working in distinct perceptual modes of engagement with a particular site or environment, and also in consultation with a range of ‘field’ professionals working in the disciplines of geography and ecology, and other local knowledge holders.

Ongoing research in the UK is steered through Mapping Project in partnership with Aune Head Arts, supported by Centre for Sustainable Futures, University of Plymouth and Dance in Devon. Future projects include: research collaboration with Willem Montagne, Geographer and Dartmoor National Park Authorities Representative, utilising Geographic Information Systems within a contemporary choreographic / cartographic inquiry (Summer 2010); a photographic exhibition of ROCKface work, in collaboration with Devon dance photographer, Kevin Clifford at the Duchy Exhibition Centre, Dartmoor, Devon (Summer 2009).

ROCKface recently began a relation into Australia upon Marnie Orr’s return home after four years based in UK. Via a virtual exchange in 2008 Orr & Sweeney began Transnational Terrain project, investigating geographical and cultural correlations across city and wilderness sites, between Plymouth docks / Dartmoor National Park (UK) and Perth city / Kalamunda National Park (WA) through solo/duo performance walks and body-place interrogations identifying the camera eye and frame as holding agency.

This work continues by feeding into the upcoming Inhabitation project, July 2009, a research and development phase toward a multi-media performance and photographic exhibition programmed in the south-west 3rd annual Bridgetown digital media, film & arts festival, Stream Dreaming, Jan/Feb 2010. Orr & Sweeney will work with a collection of performers and media artists as well as two environmental systems managers working between Perth hills (Kalamunda/Hovea/John Forrest National Park) and Bridgetown, two locations on the edge of the geologically significant Yilgarn crator.

The predecessor to Bridgetown is Surface Tensions, the immersive physical workshop presented as a 4-day group residency in Perth's hills.

Kalamunda Solo Investigations - for Transnational Terrain - Camera|Body|Country

2009-03-12T06:47:00.000-07:00

Marnie Orr - Self portraits taken at Piesse Brooke

ROCKface - body|place|frame research

2008-10-28T07:55:00.000-07:00

Mapping Project Stage 1 & 2 - Dartmoor National Park, Devon UK
Mar & Sept 07

Triangulating Body-Camera-Country. Process with arts collaborators and photographer Kevin Clifford. Photo: Kevin Clifford. Bodies (L to R): Ann Rapstoff, Rachel Sweeney, Marnie Orr, Natalie Wauldbaum, Llewyn Maire.

Training & Exploration: Blindfold activity - enables 'sinking time'.
Photo: Kevin Clifford. Body: Rachel Sweeney

Walking Workshop - Wind investigation.
Photo: Marnie Orr. Bodies: Rachel Sweeney & Ruth Dawe.

Cartographic processes - Mapping ancient mapping at East Birch Tor. Photo: Rachel Sweeney.

Drop/Snap performative task - Triangulating Body-Camera-Country.
Photo: Rachel Sweeney. Body: Marnie Orr

Mapping Stage 1 - Tourist Bodies - Perfomance presentation at Grimspound, exploration of 'Physical Approaches to Place' - navigational tool developed by Orr and Sweeney.
Photo: Alex Murdin. Bodies: Natalie Wauldbaum & Marnie Orr.

AnonAnon - interactive dance duo

2008-10-28T07:11:00.000-07:00

SkinCity site-specific dance intervention for Big Dance London, 06.
Installed into Oxford Street and surrounding dingy backstreets.

ButlersAnon - Vibe Bar Intervention, 4-month residency, Feb 07

CreaturesAnon, Vibe Bar Residency, Brick Lane London Mar 07

ButlersAnon - Red Shoe Films Opening night, Hackney London, Jul 06

ButlersAnon - dance performance @ Red Shoe Films Opening, Hackney London, Jul 06

AnonAnon-esque - London 07