This fragile expanse is a musical composition for Solo Cello and spoken word. The text is the poem, 'Water over Time', and it was read by Scottish Author Alexander McCall Smith.  The piece tracks a relationship between geological time, the cycles of water within it, and 'the expanse'. It was commissioned by the Edinburgh Sacred Arts Foundation and performed as part of the Edinburgh Festivals

Whalley, J. Harry

English

UCA Research Online

ErasureBirgitta HoseaErasureProject DetailsName of Researcher: Professor Birgitta HoseaName of Output: ErasureUCARO link/s: Erasure: https://research.uca.ac.uk/5098/‘Made by Hand’: https://research.uca.ac.uk/5084/‘On Paracinema and the Dematerialisation of Animation’: https://research.uca.ac.uk/5070/Output Type: T – other; multi-component output comprising solo exhibition with catalogue and 2 chapters in edited collections Year and mode  of dissemination:Key Words:2018, Erasure, solo exhibition / catalogue2019, ‘Made by Hand’ in The Crafty Animator: Handmade, Craft-Based Animation and Cultural Value, ed. Caroline Ruddell and Paul Ward, Palgrave MacMillan2019, ‘On Paracinema and the Dematerialisation of Animation’ in Expanded Animation: Mapping an Unlimited Landscape, ed. Jürgen Hagler, Hatje CantzInvisibility of labour, hand-made, manual labour, time and motion studies, para-animation, dematerialisation of animation, performative research methodsErasureFunding: The practice component of this project was supported by in-kind funding from Hanmi Gallery, Seoul, Korea; Whelkboy Gallery, Folkestone, UK Development of the research through dissemination and discussion at conferences was supported by invitations and travel grants from Beihang University, Beijing; SW Minzu University, Chengdu, China; Chengdu University, China; Ars Electronica, Linz, Austria; Seoul International Imagination Industry Forum, Korea; and Brunel University, UKAdditional Links: Hanmi Gallery—Exhibition information: https://tinyurl.com/yb4kf3zpVideo of the exhibition:  https://tinyurl.com/ybrdxzahLink to the film, Erasure (2017): https://vimeo.com/197415215Artist’s website—Exhibition: https://tinyurl.com/yb2wh7tuErasure film: https://tinyurl.com/yakpvucw Rosary Drawing XII: https://tinyurl.com/y94znkcaScrubbed Clean: https://tinyurl.com/y9pjqfv3Warping the Weft: https://tinyurl.com/yb3yvfr8ErasureErasure consists of an exhibition of artworks, a catalogue and two thematically-linked book chapters. Scouring, scrubbing, sweeping, bleaching, rinsing, brushing away – all these words refer to different ways of removing dirty marks during the act of cleaning. All of these processes were also used to make Erasure, a body of works brought together as a solo show at Hanmi Gallery, Seoul. The exhibits included a short film, installations of animation projected over wall-mounted objects, defaced books, photographic documentation and remnants from a performance that took place at the private view.The word ‘erasure’ has several possible interpretations that could refer to removing part of a drawing, cleaning away dirt, censorship or obliteration. Through animation, sequential works on paper and performance, processes of erasure are used to record the duration and actions of domestic labour. Inspired by Judith Butler’s notion of performativity, the works investigate how invisible labour can be made visible through a physical and material approach rooted in auto-ethnography. Based on the artist’s experience of working as a domestic cleaner and memories of her grandmothers, these works use repetitive actions of scrubbing and scouring and the textures of ink, bleach and other cleaning products to reanimate household labour. Utilising a performative methodology, the artist employs and embodies the processes she investigates.Creating the practice was integral to the thinking behind two book chapters, written in parallel to development of the artworks. This writing shares the aims of the artworks to explore animation as material trace of labour, time and motion and proposes a new form – para-animation – in which the traditional notion of animation is dematerialised. The artworks appear as case studies in both chapters.The portfolio of supporting information describes the contexts, aims, methods and insights, presents a visual record of the practice, and includes the two written components.SynopsisHanmi Gallery, Seoul, KoreaErasure exhibition overview, Hanmi Gallery, Seoul, KoreaScrubbed Clean (2018)(installation of animation projected over 112 scrubbed paper panels) Hanmi Gallery, Seoul, 2018Erasure (2017) film stillsScoured I-XVI  (2016), detailHanmi Gallery, Seoul, 2018Scoured I-XVI  (2016)(block of 16 images, ink, bleach, paper on canvas, 20cm x 20cm each)Hanmi Gallery, Seoul, 2018Rosary Drawing XII, 2015Stills exhibited and live performance at Hanmi Gallery, Seoul, 2018 Minus Me I, How Eating Makes You Hungry, Minus Me II (3 x found books, cleaning cloth, 13 x 20cm, 2018)Hanmi Gallery, Seoul, 2018Warping the Weft  (2017) (installation of animation projected over string, nails)Hanmi Gallery, Seoul, 2018ErasureFemale artists have engaged with acts of cleaning that are performed and then documented, e.g. Sophie Calle (1981) and Mierle Laderman Ukeles (1973). Others have investigated the removal of surfaces, e.g. Naomi Uman (1999), Adrian Piper (2003) or an animated cleaning lady, Zilla Leutenegger (2010). Erasure’s contribution is to employ the techniques, tools and materials of cleaning in order to directly record domestic and manual labour. This is intended to give a voice to the experience of working-class women, whose perspective is erased from society in general and rarely shown in the gallery context. The ideas have been further widened in the writing to reflect upon animation as manual practice that records a material trace of labour, time and motion.‘Made by Hand’ considers how ‘craftivist’ opposition to mechanical, technological and digital techniques is validated in the independent animation sector through unexamined assumptions that haptic knowledge by skilled physical labour and the exploration of materiality, autographic mark-making and imperfection (Wabi-sabi) are guarantors of authenticity and individuality that can only be carried out by hand. Tracing connections between craft and activism since the Industrial Revolution, this chapter critically reflects on discourses of craft and the handmade through reference to Ruskin (1851), Morris (1892), Benjamin (1935), Thompson (1980), Hobsbawm (2000), Krauss (2000) and Takahashi (2005). Whereas the experimental animation community privileges analogue, handmade processes that appear to oppose and critique commercial animation production, building upon Warburton (2016) and Frayling (2017) it is argued here that this approach is underpinned by nostalgia and often faked.‘On Paracinema and the Dematerialisation of Animation’ draws upon a strand of expanded cinema - paracinema - as defined by film theorist Jonathan Walley, who uses the term in the sense of the dematerialisation of film into idea. Based on archival research and unpublished materials by VALIE EXPORT and Anthony McCall, examples of their expanded practice in paracinema are presented in which film becomes live event and thus questions the institution of cinema, its strategies of voyeurism and perception. Extending this idea and building upon animation theorist Alan Cholodenko’s notion of animation as concept, the animated performance and installation work of contemporary artists Tingting Lu and Hosea’s own practice are proposed as a form of para-animation. Working at the interface of live experience and recorded media, these works dematerialize animation and investigate the inscription of movement over time as concept rather than purely technique.Key Texts:Benjamin, W. (1969 [1935]) ‘The Work of Art in the Age of   Mechanical Reproduction’Cholodenko, A. (1991) The Illusion of Life: Essays on Animation (Sydney: Power Publications)Frayling, C. (2017) On Craftsmanship: Towards a New Bauhaus (London: Oberon Books)Hobsbawm, E. (2000) ‘Introduction: Inventing Traditions’, in The Invention of Tradition, edited by Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) Krauss, R. (2000) ‘“The Rock”: William Kentridge’s Drawings for Projection’, October, Spring 2000, no.92, pp.3–35Ruskin, J. (1892) The Nature of Gothic: A Chapter of the Stones of Gothic (London: George Allen)Takahashi, T. (2005) ‘Meticulously, Recklessly Worked Upon: Direct Animation, the Auratic and the Index’, in The Sharpest Point: Animation at the End of Cinema, edited by Chris Gehman and Steve Reinke (Toronto: YYZ Books)Thompson, E. P. (1980) The Making of the English Working Class (London: Penguin Books)Warburton, A. (2016) ‘Spectacle, Speculation, Spam’, in Edges: An Animation Seminar, Whitechapel Gallery: Edge of Frame, https://vimeo.com/194963450ContextErasureInk drawings from the making of the film Erasure (2016)(ink, bleach, series of 9, 20.7 x 20.7 cm)ErasureResidency 1Rosary Drawings I - XIVSeries of drawings based on the artist’s Grandmother’s rosary beads and processes of domestic labour.Atina Asilo, Italy 2015 Residency 2: Aschenputel II (ash on paper, 42x59.4cm)Series of process-based drawings based on the materials and gestures used to clean out the peat stove.Cill Rialaig, Ireland, 2016Residency 3  Projecting animation over the ex-isting collection of paintings.Whelkboy Gallery, Folkestone,Residency 3  Cleaning I and II (20 x 31.8cm, papercut) Experimenting with absence and presence - cut out silhouettes from photographed performance of cleaning the gallery windows,Whelkboy Gallery, Folkestone, ErasureAims, Questions and MethodsResearch aims: To use performative research methods to make visible the invisible processes of manual labour.Research questions: How can the gestures, effort and duration of women’s physical labour be captured in a non-photographic form?Can this be done through sequential mark-making processes and repetitive loops of animation displayed in a expanded context?Can personal memories of haptic processes inform a mark-making process?Are sequential images that record time and motion a form of animation?Research methods:Auto-ethnography: starting with an evocative object as memory trigger that was subsequently explored through drawing in a range of different media (Hosea’s recently deceased grandmother’s broken rosary beads), the research developed into performative reenactments of the domestic labour that working women perform, recorded through traces of time and motion marked by cleaning products and scouring actions. Practice-based investigation through sequential drawing: undertaken at three residencies in Atina Asilo, Italy; Cill Rialaig, Ireland; Whelkboy Gallery, Folkestone.Iterative development: showing work-in-progress as part of festivals, group exhibitions and conference papers and then responding to feedback.Contextual review: developed in tandem with the two book chapters, the thinking behind the artworks drew upon literature review on materiality, craft, performativity and expanded cinema.ErasureEnacting the subject of the research through performative mark-making enabled a record of the time, actions and materials of domestic labour to be traced on paper. The labour of the artist invites comparison with ephemeral marks made by cleaning work and is a reflection on the invisible efforts of domestic workers and cleaning staff in homes, galleries and art colleges: what opportunities are there for working-class women to have time to labour on their own creativity?The insight that a set of rosary beads records time and a set of potential actions (a prayer for each bead), like a strip of film, led to the process of capturing time and motion through sequential still images that are created and performed in real-time. These are conceptualised like a series of frames to be viewed side-by-side rather than consecutively in a film strip. This process further developed Hosea’s previous thinking about ‘live animation’ into a new theory of ‘para-animation’: a form of conceptual practice that investigates the dematerialisation of animation.Working with evocative objects as memory triggers and auto-ethnographic material gave the artist a sense of the nostalgia that is associated with working with hand-made aesthetics. Consequently, she went on to develop a critique of the privileging of handmade aesthetics in independent animation circles, which she argues is a form of populist nostalgia for the ‘good-old-days’ prior to the introduction of digital technology.Research Insights and ContributionErasure film poster, 2017ErasureResearch Dissemination and RecognitionDissemination: Solo exhibition: Erasure (Hanmi Gallery: Seoul, 2018)Catalogue: Erasure, artist’s catalogue (edition of 500, Hanmi Gallery: Seoul, 2018)Book chapters:‘On Paracinema and the Dematerialisation of Animation’ by Birgitta Hosea in Expanded Animation: Mapping an Unlimited Landscape, eds Jürgen Hagler, Michael Lankes, Alexander Wilhelm (Ars Electronica in association with Hatje Cantz: Berlin, 2019). This book is a collection of the best presentations at the Expanded Animation section of Ars Electronica 2011-18.‘Made by Hand’ by Birgitta Hosea in The Crafty Animator: Handmade, Craft-based Animation and Cultural Value, eds. Caroline Ruddell, Paul Ward, (Palgrave MacMillan, 2019)Follow-on-activities: Film distribution: (short film Erasure)2018, signed distribution agreement with Fabulosis Film for screenings and distribution via their on-demand Vimeo channel2019, Shorts TV purchased broadcast rights for EMEA, North US, South America and South Asia territories for screening on Netherlands (Ziggo – Channel 125); Netherlands (YoufoneTV – Channel 301); Netherlands(T-Mobile – Channel 321); Netherlands (Delta – Channel 312); Belgium(Telenet – Channel 314 Flanders and 334 Brussels); Serbia (SBB – Channel 175); USA - DirecTV (Channel 573), AT&T U-Verse (Channel 1789), Google Fiber (Channel 603), Frontier Communications (Channel 1789), CenturyLink (Channel 1789), US Sonet (Channel 292), Blue Ridge Cable Technologies; Argentina (DIRECTV – Channel 1521); Chile (DIRECTV – Channel 1521); Colombia (DIRECTV – Channel 1521); Ecuador (DIRECTV – Channel 1521); Peru (DIRECTV – Channel 1521); Uruguay (DIRECTV – Channel 1521); Tata Sky channel HD 112 and channel SD 113.ErasureFollow-on-activities (continued):Items from the series in group exhibitions:2019, Empire II: VOID, 58th Venice Biennale UK Collateral exhibition: ‘Erased’2019, Empire II: After Extinction, Oaxaca Museum of Contemporary Art, Mexico: ‘Erasure’, ‘Erased’2019, Metamorphosis, Red Square Museum, Shenzhen, China: ‘Erasure’, ‘Rosary Drawing XII’2018, Empire II: Playing God, Haus Gallery, Tallinn Art Week, Estonia: ‘Erasure’, 2017, Longitude and Latitude, Chengdu Museum of Contemporary Art, China: ‘Warping the Weft’2017, Empire II: Age of Anxiety, 57th Venice Biennale UK Collateral exhibition; Brussels Art Week; Unit 1 Gallery, London; SPEKTRUM, Berlin: ‘Erasure’2017, Holland Animated Film festival, Utrecht; Strangelove Film Festival, Folkestone; Canterbury AniFest, UK; AnimFest, Athens; Mzansi Women’s Film Festival, Johannesburg, South Africa; Libo International Animation and Comics Festival, Guizhou, China; Les Femmes Underground Film Festival, Los Angeles; Eye Myth Festival, Vancouver; AntiMatter, Victoria, Canada; AFC Global Fest, Kolkata, India; Locomocion, Mexico; Visionaria, Italy: ‘Erasure’2017, 51% Remember Her, Elements Gallery, London: ‘Rosary Drawing XII’, ‘Erasure‘2016, Beyond Noumenon, New Media Arts Centre, Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, Chongqing, China: ‘Rosary Drawing XII’, ‘Scoured I-XVI’, ‘Cleaning I-II ‘2016, Kicking an Elephant Through a Catflap, Royal College of Art: ‘Cleaning I-II’2016, Erased, Whelkboy Gallery, Folkestone: ‘Scoured I-XVI’ErasureFollow-on-activities (continued):Conference papers:2019, ‘On Paracinema and the Dematerialisation of Animation’, Society for Animation Studies 31st Annual Conference: Animation is a Place, Universidade Lusofona de Lisboa, Portugal2018, ‘The Impact of Things: Object Analysis as Memory Trigger’, 3rd Annual Animation Studies Conference of China, Chengdu University, China2018, ‘Setting the Stage: Theatrical Techniques for Creative Animation Education’, 56 Moon West China Universities Animation Festival Conference, SW Minzu University and Xihua University, Chengdu2018, ‘Setting the Stage: Theatrical Techniques for Creative Animation Education’, Opportunities and Challenges: Symposium of Contemporary Animation Creation and Teaching, Beihang University, Beijing, China2018, ‘On Paracinema and the Dematerialisation of Animation’, Expanded Animation Symposium, Ars Electronica, Linz, Austria2018, ‘Made by Hand’, Seoul International Imagination Industry Forum, Korea2018, ‘Made by Hand’, Edge of Frame Animation Symposium, BFI2017, ‘Erasure’, Documentary Discourses symposium, UCA Farnham2017, ‘Erasure’, 56 Moon West China Universities Animation Festival Conference, SW Minzu University, Chengdu, China2017, Keynote: ‘Made by Hand’, The Crafty Animator, Rich Mix, LondonErasureInfluence of the Research: Reviews: Exhibition‘Erasure, Manifest’ by Dr Lilly Husbands in Erasure, artist’s catalogue (Hanmi Gallery: Seoul, 2018) (catalogue appended)‘Birgitta Hosea: Erasure at Hanmi Gallery Seoul’ interview by M K Palomar, Studio International, 2018: https://tinyurl.com/ybnkfcwf‘Eye Myth In Profile: Birgitta Hosea: Erasure’ by Daniel Fishbayn, Eye Myth blog (Canada, 2017): https://tinyurl.com/ybu3vrj7Reviews: ‘Made By Hand’‘Scratching the Surface: Handmade Cinema in the Digital Age’ by Holly Willis, LA Review of Books, April 17 2020: https://tinyurl.com/ycdwpq2z‘Crafty Fingers and Imperfect Frames’ by Laura-Beth Cowley, Animation Studies 2.0, January 6 2020: https://tinyurl.com/yb4y6t67Invitations:Prix Ars Electronica Judge (Computer Animation) 2019, 2020, Linz, AustriaInvited speaker on behalf of the Prix Ars Electronica jury and panel moderator, 2019, Ars Electronica, Linz, AustriaCo-organiser, 2020, Expanded Animation, Synaesthetic Syntax: Sounding Animation / Visualising Audio symposium, Ars Electronica, Linz, AustriaAdvisory Panel member, 2019/20, Creative Media Research Centre, St Pölten University of Applied Sciences, Vienna, AustriaKeynote lecture, 2019, ‘Live Animation: From Lightning Sketch to Lasers’, International Conference of Creative Media Technology, St Pölten University of Applied Sciences, Vienna ErasureInfluence of the Research(continued):Citations: ‘Made By Hand’Petter, T. (2019) ‘Sponsored Silhouettes: Lotte Reiniger’s ‘Useful’ Films in Britain’ in Cook, M. and Thompson, K.M. (eds), Animation and Advertising, London: PalgraveGilbert, R. (2020) ‘The Concrete Zoetrope: engaging students in pre-cinema with an eye towards the future’, in Early Popular Visual Culture, 18(6):1-14  Erasure 28University for the Creative ArtsResearch Portfolios© Copyright All AuthorsGraphic Design: Studio Mothership

This Fragile Expanse (Water over Time) - Composition and poem for Solo Cello and Spoken Voice

http://research.uca.ac.uk/5098/1/Hosea%2C%20B.%202019.%20Erasure%20Portfolio%20on%20UCARO.pdf

This Fragile Expanse (Water over Time) - Composition and poem for Solo Cello and Spoken Voice

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