Concluding the First Interval
It has been three months now that incoming artists-researchers Ludvig Elblaus and Charlotta Ruth have left the in-situ phase with the resident simularr team in Graz, concluding thus the first interval of the project. Yet, we are only beginning to work through the many materials produced, thoughts and concepts, sketches, sonic and performative actions. While in-depth analyses are saved for forthcoming articles and chapters, and the digitised materials remain, for the time being, in our internal repository, this blog entry will provide a glimpse into our doing.
A good amount of techniques, concepts and formulations were brought in by each member of the team in the end of March and beginning of April, put to test and transformation in the group. What are the connecting surfaces between compositional, choreographic, installative and architectural thinking that would make it possible to share our processes? Is it possible to think while doing, or need there be rhythms of making and reflecting? What is everyone’s individual working rhythm, and what happens to these rhythms as they meet and overlap?
The two ‘intensive weeks’ of retreat surely were accurately labelled, as many artefacts and propositions were developed alongside each other, with daily commune activities, as well as supportive facilitation by artist-researcher Emma Cocker. The very fresh takeaways from the retreat were presented at an IEM Signale Soirée, including a test edit of Charlotta’s recurrent video walk and edits from the music sessions of duo Sun Til Threads comprised of Ludvig Elblaus and Daniele Pozzi, who developed a conceptual figure named Dancing Man for the dynamic structure of their signal processing approaches. The works continued their development, and were presented in additional concerts at IEM Graz and Der Betrieb Vienna, and later in an exhibition at xCoAx, including the intermedia piece Phoretic Rogues by Hanns Holger Rutz and Nayarí Castillo, which was one of the elements that received development and discourse during the retreat. In between, before the departure of the guest artists-researchers, a final session was held at Studio KI, where we discussed the outcomes and reviewed the materials as a tentative physical meta exposition, a format we intend to develop further. A number of video interviews were recorded, which still await editing and post-production. It was also the moment to share some materials among the group for the first time, such as a true crime inspired audio piece developed by Charlotta and Daniele.
Where does an interval end? In our method diagram for simularr, we call for a ‘dispersal’ of the transformed practices and thoughts, as the group becomes dislocated. Some initial conceptual condensation took form in Hanns Holger’s presentation at CARPA Helsinki in August. And as we write these lines, we are preparing a presentation for the symposium ‘Walking is still honest’ in Vilnius in October. Movement and walking seem a crucial element in collaborative processes, something that lies in the air, as CARPA’s theme had also been ‘Solved by movement’. During our first interval, a movement within our ensemble occurred in many forms–endomation: a movement within of thought and bodies–including question walks initiated by Emma, performative walks by Charlotta and Naya, Daniele’s Ongoing Experiment—individual walks based on sonic and spatial memories and augmented reality—the visiting of the Rogues in the tower, the incessant reconfiguration of the sound space inhabited by Ludvig and Daniele, the wandering movement of Franziska Hederer, who mapped the architectural space.
Movement is also what lies ahead, as we plan to hand over the process from the previous to the next duo of invited artists-researchers. This will coincide again will ambulatory practices, as we join the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Lisboa in November for a week-long workshop on Simultaneous Mapping Practices, the details of which are reserved for a later blog entry…