PARIP 2005

International Conference | 29 June - 03 July 2005

Lane: Cathy | UK

Gazetteer – Explorer Yarns and Sagas

Dr Cathy Lane and Cathy Greenhalgh

Media School

London College of Communication

University of the Arts London

We wish to present, perform and invite discussion and peer review of Gazetteer – Explorer Yarns and Sagas, an audio visual performance piece in progress. We aim to present the work in different styles;  as interactive performance,  separate video and sound, research evidence, academic paper, argumentative conversational banter etc. These may amplify the process of developing the work, focusing on three main themes. First, the immense advantages and difficulties of cross arts collaborative work, particularly concerning the visual and the sonic, and between ourselves as collaborators from different disciplines, traditions, practice languages, approaches and technical skills. Second, finding ways of structuring and presenting material through real time performance and improvisation to challenge our ways of working and the roles of sound designer / composer and film director / cinematographer. Thirdly, cultural and performative aspects of the spoken word, storytelling, memory and interactivity and navigation between maker and user / audience.

As an initiation into this dialogue, Gazetteer  uses “explorer” stories in which differing routes could potentially be chosen through the space / experience. We are using the material as source,  perhaps as ‘database narrative’ invoking a ‘poetics of navigation’ (Manovich, 2003) or, as Bakhtin’s kinetic concept of utterance suggests, as embodied ‘participant thinking’  which determines narrativising activity (2001).The material was collected in a trip to Iceland in 2004. On this “expedition” we experienced, recorded and captured detailed concrete images and sounds on a micro level and at the same time lived out, wove and heard stories of adventure, daring and exploration related to an aesthetics of  the macro geological, geographical landscape.  Chance encounters with Gurkhas on an walking expedition to Greenland, Iceland glacier superjeep drivers, a female Iranian glaciologist undertaking academic research, young Scandinavians seeking Viking roots, birdwatchers, filmmakers and ice climbers, impacted on environmental experience and our thoughts. We recorded our musings, conversations and performances within the landscape of black sand desert and iceberg lagoons, using the spoken word, the harmonics of the wind, the ice and the lava rocks. We talked of  ways stories unfolded into each other, how moments are invoked or performed, experiences embellished, attunement or immersion experienced or disturbed …about yarns, sagas, archives, gazetteers, navigating maps, communication devices, tales and technology, tales of explorers and exploring stories, stories of our own, stories we had taken with us to read…

The developing artwork is invigorated by these multiple tales, through which we are investigating how improvisational ideas,  borrowed from free music making and performance practices, can help us find ways to work with the material while working side by side. We hope to break out of our usual working methods and allow for integration and equality between roles of sound and vision and collaborative working practices that challenge the traditional film director / sound designer roles.  We aim to build on our existing research into innovative approaches to cross arts collaboration (with sonic arts as a core area) and continue discovery and development of creative digital tools that allow us to manipulate sound and image in an improvisatory and perfomative way in real time.