bridging wounds

testing the string screen pre-preformance at the grand illusion cinema in the university district

the first in-progress showing of bridging wounds was a few weeks ago on april 21st at the henry art gallery's open floor series. bridging wounds is a collaborative multi-media piece that blends the mediums of music (live and pre-recorded), movement, animation, video, and textural environment (that's i&m's contribution) to create a piece that explores what it means to be human from a multitude of perspectives.

the open floor series allowed us to show the piece as it is right now. we kept it super casual, talking between sections and letting the mistakes happen. we were able to learn SO MUCH, it was such an invaluable insight into where the piece is, where it's headed and what it might end up in its final incarnation (which will premiere in october of this year).

there was a string trio, clarinet, trumpet, pre-recorded sound, snippets of video and animation, ezra did his amazing movement thing and i brought the string screen prototype (since this showing b has gotten on board, and we will be designing the environment as i&m).

amanda moore is helping hold up the screen. she is the master mind behind the video and animation component for the piece. she did some repetitive motion video that ezra improvised (movement) over/adjacent to - it was so good!! mmmmm.

the string trio

we are exploring ways to sort of hide the drum set when it's onstage for the final performance. post-its was our first stab. it looked totally rad, but after a few hours they were all over the place...(and that's paurl, the sound genius)

ezra dickinson (choreography and movement) and paris hurley (artistic direction, music & movement) present a sliver of the 'peripheral systems' portion. paris used a flashlight to bring attention to various body parts of importance. the flashlight was meant to be a temporary solution. eventually a spotlight or perhaps animation will be projected onto his body to illuminate the body parts. we were supposed to pretend paris wasn't there with a flashlight (remember this is an in-progress and very casual performance)...BUT BUT BUT the most interesting thing happened. the exchange between paris and ezra (as she was shining and trying to stay out of the way) was really interesting and extremely intimate. we/they never would have known what we thought was an 'easy fix' would add such dimension to the piece. YAY!!! for in-progress screenings...

the second half of the open floor event was audience 'participation.' and it was WAY more fun and WAY less awkward that any of us could have imagined. paris was great at making everyone feel comfortable and everyone actually participated. she had us tearing paper, pulling apart velcro, chewing gum, standing on stage and raising our (LEFT) arm in tandem, turning circles at 90 degree increments and much much more. and of COURSE she recorded (audio & video) of the entire thing. and i can tell you we ALL can't wait to see howthe audio and video is integrated into the piece.
pulling apart velcro

tearing paperparis doing her thang...

everyone on stage

can you believe she actually got people out of their seats? it was truly amazing and REALLY fun. it was like we were in this big group art project/experiement. OH WAIT we were!! there was a feeling of uninhibitedness that you don't get to feel as much as an adult.

so yeah it was FUN.

:)