collaboration

Collaboration:

The Society Of Wonders: The Society of Wonders (TSOW) is an artists collective of which I am a founder member. The group was formed after initial workshops in 1998 and over time has functioned as a collective for large collaborative project building, and as an umbrella for individual work and smaller collaborations. With a group of artists at it's core, the membership of TSOW has evolved on a project-by-project basis. Working with this group has been formative to my development as an artist. People who have sheltered under this umbrella over time have been musicians, writers, pole dancers, Morris dancers, fine artists, body builders, theatre makers, designers, puppeteers, children, photographers, housewives, illustrators, magicians and the simply indefinable. We've shared skills and ideas and always tried to make work which is honest and without compromise. The Society Of Wonders Website.

The Society Of Wonders Website.

Martine Seitle, Prague, 2002

Collaboration: I have always approached collaboration as an opportunity to learn from different types of practitioners and to share ideas. In 2002 I spent six weeks working with a choreographer and Laban teacher, Martine Seitl, based at the Duncan Centre in Prague. We devised a series of studio and site based exercises to explore overlap in the devising of text and movement practices. In 2006, I shared ideas with a theatre designer who was working in site specific installation while we were joint resident artists in Stavanger, Norway (see below). I am currently working on a short graphic comic with illustrator . Viviane Schwarz.

Electra: Electra is a new contemporary opera for which I am currently writing the libretto. Unlike the traditional roles- based approach to writing and staging opera, this is being developed at all stages - from initial concept through to performance - as a joint collaboration between myself, the designer and the composer. (More here.)

Residency: Tou Scene Art Centre, Stavanger, Norway Hosted by TAOH (The Art Of Hospitality). In March 2006 I was joint artist in residence at the Tou Scene Art Centre, along with theatre designer Ellan Parry. The residency is set up along flexible lines with on-site accommodation and the use of art centre facilities and spaces - our commitment was simply to give a weekly public presentation at the art centre. Ellan and I had the option to work separately or to collaborate and in the end we did something in between. Ellan had strong idea's about a project, Vessels, that she wanted to make. This was to be a site specific fine art performance installation, an autobiographical allegory, a form she was approaching for the first time. I was interested in practicing documentation and editing techniques, so I took the opportunity to create a documentary DVD for the Tou Scene archive by following Ellan's progress. During this time I also found that I was interested in supporting Ellan in the practical development of her piece through challenging her in interviews, as well as hands on helping out. This sparked an interest in me in facilitating for other artists which I continue to develop.

Audience polaroid of Der Butcheroper with some of the core members of TSOW at The National Review Of Live Art, Glasgow 2006

TAOH Logo

Ellan digs with Ivan - A local smallholder who came over to ask why Ellan was digging up the frozen ground in winter.

Tou Scene Art Center, in a dissused beer factory, Stavanger, Norway.