CO-ACTIVE PLAY.
This is a very early, monochrome video (made with a portapack half inch tape machine) of an activity we called Co-Active Play, a term coined at the suggestion of a friend who observed that we worked with eyes closed, concentrating solely upon our own, individual responses. We did this however, in the company of others...hence co-active rather than inter-active.
This was an intensely internal activity, hence the eyes closed mode. We were attempting to stop predicative, planned, strategic thought, and enter a state of being truly 'in the moment'. We concentrated upon using our bodies, within the force-field of gravity, to precipitate very small changes of state. Amplifying our sensibilities to ever smaller changes was our goal.
Overall documentation of this activity (during which we were oblivious to one another) showed surprising congruency in movement type, while at the same time displaying (more and more as we became more skilled) the individual characteristics of each participant.
This was a period of grave self-doubt for me. I was intent upon searching for a foundation of expression that might function as 'bed-rock', and provide a starting point for my creative efforts.
I consequently found myself pointed in two directions: one inwards to inhabit my own, personal, intuitive intensely human preferences; and the other outwards towards the implacable, non-sentient universe.
More and more from this point onwards these two polarities were brought into confrontation in my work.
Participants in this video are: John Cousins, Colleen Anstey, Christopher Blake, Catherine Van Paassen. Note: There is no sound track.
This was an intensely internal activity, hence the eyes closed mode. We were attempting to stop predicative, planned, strategic thought, and enter a state of being truly 'in the moment'. We concentrated upon using our bodies, within the force-field of gravity, to precipitate very small changes of state. Amplifying our sensibilities to ever smaller changes was our goal.
Overall documentation of this activity (during which we were oblivious to one another) showed surprising congruency in movement type, while at the same time displaying (more and more as we became more skilled) the individual characteristics of each participant.
This was a period of grave self-doubt for me. I was intent upon searching for a foundation of expression that might function as 'bed-rock', and provide a starting point for my creative efforts.
I consequently found myself pointed in two directions: one inwards to inhabit my own, personal, intuitive intensely human preferences; and the other outwards towards the implacable, non-sentient universe.
More and more from this point onwards these two polarities were brought into confrontation in my work.
Participants in this video are: John Cousins, Colleen Anstey, Christopher Blake, Catherine Van Paassen. Note: There is no sound track.
| cap_movie_.mp4 |