June 24th 2002
Thank you to all the Video Combustion artists from the organisers:
Cindi Drennan and Justin Maynard (tesseract research laboratories)
It's Monday, we're recovering
quietly from a massively full on couple of months preparation culminating
in Saturday's Video Combustion *Alpha Release show.
We are happy to announce
it was succesful, over 350 people attended, who enjoyed the event and
gave us plenty of positive feedback. The space looked fantastic with
ten projections onto screen sculptures (including a mobile projector
that used the performers' skin as canvas). Ten parallel interwoven streams
of imagery and sound were performed or remixed and projected in patterns
around the space, and were accompanied by soundtracks provided live
by electronica acts and a DJ.
So many surprises were included
in the event its difficult to list all the highlights, but its important
to mention the collaborative approach and simultaneous/synchronised
live performance by many of Sydney's video artists. Also a key factor
was the performance by Jaqilen Pascoe which was created to link the
many disparate parts of the event and present some of the ideas being
explored technologically through the medium of live performance.
Other highlights for our
audience would have been the attention to detail in the design of space
and screens, the lighting design including a specially created "follow
spot" outfit, and the involvement of live camera as an element of performance.
The NEMO Cloning Vat enabled our audience to also create content to
add to the screens. Extraordinary visual material created or appropriated
for the event was a feast for the eyes. Red was a playful theme of the
evening, Jaqilen at one point pulling offal out of a bowl of red liquid,
and later we had fun handing out red cordial to our audience and then
projecting red images to the screen as they drank it. At the end of
the first phase "Memory" we surprised the audience as Drew
Halyday (tribots collective) went mad smashing a television set (being
egged on "Do it! Do it!) :)
The second phase featured
a world first - Javidimidi - Joel Salom and Mike Sheetal live audiovisual
performance triggered by juggling balls. The courtyard featured a beautiful
industrial sculpture of recycled televisions playing appropriated imagery
from the show, by the Tribots. It was great to bring all these things
together into one event, and I hope it was as immersive and interesting
as we intended!
So far the comments have
been very useful to us - encouraging us to continue to develop the project,
to consider certain approaches and also eventually tour it. Please feel
free to email us comments and
feedback - all constructive criticism will be gratefully received, and
help us further develop the project.
The feedback from the artists
has been very positive also; comments have ranged from appreciation
for the opportunity to be involved in something interesting and original
as Video Combustion, to gratitude for the opportunity to learn new skills
alongside other artists, to excitement at the creative connections and
being able to have input into a larger collaboration.
Video Combustion is an ongoing
project in which we are attempting to fuse and interweave various forms
of electronic performance art, using the QUILT system to manage many
parallel audiovisual streams. The project since the inception (at Electrofringe
2000) has been about creative collaboration, support and live improvisational
performance among many artists. The success of Video Combustion *Alpha
Release is evidence that a collaborative, improvisational audiovisual
event is not only possible, but also offers opportunities to learn,
to grow a support network, to be inspired and to innovate! Group work
and collaboration are important to this project and useful skills to
learn. Its often challenging for people who may be used to having total
control or singular attention to begin to work as part of a group on
a bigger project - but wow, it really impressed our audience that we
could all work together to do something so amazing. And we (tesseract)
will work hard to ensure that this exposure and recognition reflects
back to every single person involved.
We want to say many many
thanks to all of the artists who were part of the Alpha Release pilot
project. We had a crew of over 50 performers - and this group consisted
of Video performers, audiovisual acts, noise and audio artists, dancers
and actors - too many to mention but all are credited on the video combustion
Alpha Release artists page. Of special
mention is Mike Sheetal (Project for better digital) who ran with the
idea of a virtual stage manager and designed the VSM user interface.
Also Alex Holver, Brian Murray, Luke Dearnley who provided lighting,
video, audio, theatre tech expertise. Nicole Belle and Ben Jardine who
set up the NEMO cloning vat. Daniel Jones who came to the rescue with
last minute screen construction and rigging. Jaqilen Pascoe who supported
the project with time and creative energy; wrote herself into the event
and performed live.
Our gratitude goes especially
(can't tell you how much) to the fantastic people - Dan, PFBD, Jaqi,
Di, Steve, Davor, Alex, Brian and more who not only were involved in
the creative collaboration in committed way from the beginning, contributing
ideas and content, being involved in the collaborative process, and
also put in many hours to help bump in and bump out as well as performing
live. Thanks also to the audio and AV acts for being so patient and
good natured as we evolved our way through this new kind of process.
To the dancers who were willing to experiment with projection. Thanks
humbly to the people who loaned gear and props. To Michael Ney and crew
for their work to document the project. And also Richard from the Performance
Space who was an absolute gem, helping us realize our ambitious screen
installation plans! And to the many other performers, crew, volunteers:
we really do hope you all enjoyed it as much as we did.
Thank you to tech-gurus who
helped make the machinery possible: Daniel Heckenberg for his input
and programming of QUILT prototypes, Brian Murray for video routing
knowledge, overt@overlobe.com for the midi-thru thing which was used
for multi-stream triggering via midi. Also of importance to mention
is that the laboratory (featuring QUILT) and many projectors was only
made possible through the generosity of the artists who all pooled their
equipment to create the mega machine. Admittedly 90% came from tesseract
and McRent (renown Gear pigs), but vital components were also loaned
by inCube, Gruchy Productions, Cicada and TAFE NSW.
We appreciate the contribution
of Lalila, Marynowskj, Eyebyte and Helen Clemens who are all significant
artists in their own realms, and we appreciate their general support
for this venture. Also Goretti (IoFusion) and Passage dancers Helena,
Talia and Annie for working within the project. And a special thank
you to Momo for your outstanding performances during the show!
We were supported by the
Community radio station 2SER with radio interviews and general promotion
by several of the shows (Weds and Thursday breakfasts, Paradigm Shift
and Electroplatique). SPRACI provided us a rotating banner, and EcoSlut
assisted with postering and promotion. Liquid Labyrinth and others provided
additional promotional support through their email networks.
Thank you to the collectives:
Liquid Labyrinth, Tribots, Clan Analogue, Imperial Slacks and Projectroom
who continue to offer informal and self resourcing networks of support
for creative, community minded people. You are the real glue of Sydney's
creative culture - may your respective warehouses remain evermore unharried
by unReal Estate greed, may Australia recognise your worth and protect
you from invasion of the Meritons.
Our thanks to our audience
of 350 (which included visitors who travelled from three other states
especially to see it). About 15 or so were from Arts funding organisations
and we appreciate these representatives coming to see the fruits of
our labour. The rest: people who were keen to see and support what we
were all trying to do. The feedback on the night and in general has
been great. We'd love to hear constructive criticism from you or from
others as well, this will help us learn how to do it better next time.
We were also very fortunate
to have access to a fantastically supportive inner city theatre at a
reasonable price, access to the facilities and staff there, without
whom we doubt the project would have been such a success.
Our thanks,
Cindi Drennan and Justin
Maynard
