Sounding out: performance drawing in response to the outside environment

My enquiry focuses on how a drawing, when made in response to the outside environment, might be conditioned by that environment, and in turn how that environment might be influenced by that drawing. Examination of texts by, among others, Bachelard, Merleau-Ponty and Baudelaire have contributed towards understanding ideas about humankind’s physical memory of landscape, phenomenological experience in relation to the outside space, and ideas concerning the interaction between the practitioner and the outside space. Four key issues related to drawing are explored in this research (each is the subject of a chapter in the thesis). Firstly, the practitioner’s stance in the process of drawing is examined, in particular the practitioner’s gesture, which mimics the form of the subject, and performs the subject into being. The practitioner’s position is addressed in relation to how the gaze of the other fashions that position into a performance. Secondly, ‘movement’ is identified as a crucial material component of the process of performance drawing. Movement’s capacity to energise the work, stimulate engagement with the subject, and promote the continual development of ideas is also investigated. Thirdly, a number of interpretations of the outside environment established by individuals who work in different professions are examined. These different readings of place identify ‘signs’ as conditioning the character of place, and as being read by passers-by as directions through place, thereby revealing an interaction between place and humankind. Fourthly, while exploring how to performance draw in direct response to place, the methodology is developed through three stages. The traditional mark-making onto paper was found to keep a distance between the practitioner (observer) and the subject (the environment). The mark-making transferred onto the outside environment was found to retain a distance, held by the tool, between the subject and practitioner. And the practitioner by using her body and voice was found to bridge the space between subject and self. The drawing with sound methodology was found to map, signal, and measure place in direct relation to practitioner, while also revealing an interactive conditioning between place and practitioner, through sonic reflection and resonance. Critical analysis and documentation of findings concerning the practical work are interspersed throughout the written text, and a DVD of audiovisual documentation of practical works is also included as an attachment to the written thesis

Drawn Together: Collaborative Performance

In the collaborative work of Drawn Together, a group formed by the artists Maryclare Foá, Jane Grisewood, Birgitta Hosea and Carali McCall, diverse practices are collectively materialised through performance drawing. Focusing on the notion of fragmentation has been instructive in identifying how the collaboration binds together a series of fragments and discontinuities that are enacted and reassembled in unpredictable and new ways

Skype versus night sky

A live performance connecting London and the island of Papay Westray as part of the Papay Gyro Nights Festival, Orkney. The stars that burn in the night sky were used as an ancient guide to navigation. This live telematic drawing performance will contrast ancient and modern forms as it travels via telecommunications satellites at the speed of light between Papa Westray and London. A camera in Papa Westray will point at the night sky and transmit video images and atmospheric sound live through SKYPE to London. These sounds and images will be projected in a gallery space and the group will make spontaneous drawings as they chart the night sky in Papa Westray. A camera in London records the live drawings as they are created and a live video feed will be sent back to Papa Westray via SKYPE, where it will be projected onto a wall in front of festival attendees

Did you Hear the Trains Singing?

The material, spatial, and social conditions of place can be revealed through ambient sound, while awareness of the affects of sound interacting with place can enhance humankind’s understanding of being in place. It was not until I arrived in Montreal that I could know the indigenous sounds of this city: the constant hum of air conditioners and the two-tone sound of the metro trains on entering and leaving their stations. Calling for a refreshed awareness of place, I invited participants of the Art and Cartography workshop to perform a collaborative Montreal Driftsong; a sonic interaction with place. This chapter describes the research undertaken prior to the workshop and the collaborative Driftsong performance of the workshop participants. This includes a reflection on the impact of sound throughout the workshop event, as I pondered the possibilities of sonically mapping place

ARC: you draw for us, we draw for you

ARC is a collaborative performance drawing process generated from written instructions. The concept of ARC grew from the visualisation of communication technology, the image of a signal beaming from its source (in one location) and arcing over to its receiver in another place. These instructions are action relayed collaborations, hence the acronym ARC. The ARCs are transmitted by hand-written or typed notes, telephone, SMS messages, email and Skype. During Drawn Together’s ARC performances the transcribed instructions are laid face down on the floor for the performers to pick up and action