GestureLab 2
BODYWORKS or WORK IN THE HEAD
Gesture Lab 2 BODYWORKS or WORK IN THE HEAD
Workshop facilitated for OPENLAB programme, Chisenhale Dance Space, London, 2019.
Invited by A de la Fe.
The session at Chisenhale Dance Space drew on multimodal research material of everyday working gestures:
The participants are offered extracts from the material of recorded gestures, dissected phrases of instructions and echoes of physical impacts. I propose we take a journey across these networks of material, emotional and metaphoric overlays. What will occur if we traverse physically, poetically and askew: mirroring, enacting and imagining? Can this working gesture inspired thinking lead us to new universal meanings and imaginary choreographies?
The structure of the event was devised loosely to move from guided exercises to self- initiated responses. After a warmup co-led by the participants with exercises from somatic practice and Tai Chi. Next, the participants engaged with the video sequence developed for GestureLab 1. The role of the video was different in this set-up — while during the GL1 it was the main exploratory material, here it was part of the warm-up, of getting into the headspace — a shortcut into my thinking about object-gestures.
At that point, I invited a shift from the structured and controlled engagement to an open and fluid absorption. I made an ‘offering’ of multimodal material that included extracted instructions, images of bodies at work and gestic soundscapes. The material has been distributed across the space to be selected, engaged with directly or used as an inspiration into movement. There was a progression in dealing with the materials from mimicking to simulating then imagining, allowing the explorations to inform the increasingly self-directed movement.
At that point, I invited a shift from the structured and controlled engagement to an open and fluid absorption. I made an ‘offering’ of multimodal material that included extracted instructions, images of bodies at work and gestic soundscapes. The material has been distributed across the space to be selected, engaged with directly or used as an inspiration into movement. There was a progression in dealing with the materials from mimicking to simulating then imagining, allowing the explorations to inform the increasingly self-directed movement.
_____From notes on a hairdresser : a self-choreographed dancer performing with the unruly matter, an aesthetic therapist in a social contract of trust, a creative cutter in search of beauty. An unmoving and unmovable model reduced just to a head. Extended gaze and smiling effort. Heat, disinfectants and deadly-sharp objects.____
Sample visual material, 2019, mixed media
Sample list of soundscapes, 2019.
1___Kneading Malleables_live_laptop_recording.wav
2___Sound of the Mountain_Craig Pedersen.mp3
3___Communion with the Wind_sherylcheung.mp
4___30 MINUTES_ Construction Site Ambience (CC BY 4.0).mp3
5___ASMR Office Cleaning (1 Hour).mp3
6___SAPPHO and SWEAT. HEAVY Breathing AUDIO 266mb.wav
7___BBC_Auto hacksaw cutting through sheet metal_07046073.aup
Sample list of soundscapes, 2019.
1___Kneading Malleables_live_laptop_recording.wav
2___Sound of the Mountain_Craig Pedersen.mp3
3___Communion with the Wind_sherylcheung.mp
4___30 MINUTES_ Construction Site Ambience (CC BY 4.0).mp3
5___ASMR Office Cleaning (1 Hour).mp3
6___SAPPHO and SWEAT. HEAVY Breathing AUDIO 266mb.wav
7___BBC_Auto hacksaw cutting through sheet metal_07046073.aup