Considering what I discussed in my first video diary, I think that what has framed much of the surprise in the process for me has been working with such a large group of people. Seven people, seven different sets of problems and seven different sets of expectations.

Probably much of what I initially expected to happen was informed by an individual experience. Certainly when you consider how personal something like a video diary can be, it is not surprising that this could become problematic for a large group.

Though that isn’t to say that there is a ‘problem’ (though there has been), it’s more that when operating in a group, the dynamic of suggestion and creation changes so dramatically. Decisions become more complex and often I found myself encountering that dreadful word – “compromise”.

But compromise in the sense of the creative process is interesting. Interesting in that when compromise occurs amongst 8 people it is not necessarily a negative. The group dynamic fosters a group creativity, which I found hugely entertaining and invigorating. It’s easy to forget how exciting working with other people is when you spend 4 years sitting in an ivory tower and dreading group assignments.

But what of ‘group-think’? Not that I think this has really occurred in any truly meaningful sense (at this point) but have our decision making capabilities been impaired by the need to acquiesce to other people’s priorities? I guess they have at points.

But I would say that compromise has resulted in more positives than negatives for me. However it’s not all happy sailing – my next video diary will be a more specific discussion of the too and fro of decision making and how it has had real effects to the exhibition it self.

Shae's Video Diary

stay tuned for a new one tommorow

Group Meeting - Saturday 12 April

Troglobites

A Troglobite is an animal that lives entirely in the dark parts of caves. Such creatures have become specifically adapted for life in total darkness and over time they have evolved to develop improved senses of taste and vibration detection, while loosing anatomical features that are superfluous without light, such as functioning eyes and pigmentation. Troglobites are often endemic to a certain site, having adapted to its particular environment and food sources. True Troglobites are eyeless.

HOORAY!

I finnaly figured out how to get on this blog.

eric

Helen & Gwenneth: workspaces

Since Gwenneth arrived on Saturday we have been catching up (after almost two years) and sorting out the basics. Yesterday was our first day of working together in one space. We have had some great conversations, which was really nice after having clocked up a hefty e-mail dialogue in the last months.

We meant to e-mail pictures of our studios to each other before Gwenneth came to Melbourne, to get a sense of each others working environment, but didn't get to it. We thought to pass these images onto the blog now, even though its a little belated.

See you all Saturday

Helen & Gwenneth's first update

Dear All,
We would like to give you an update on our process:

The two of us have been emailing and skyping over the past months, currently 10-20 times a week. As a starting point we discussed previous works, made both inside and outside our collaboration, that are somehow related to the kind of approach and conceptual concerns we are forming. We've been talking a lot about a project (titled Choreography) we began last time Gwenneth was in Melbourne in 2006, of which there are now two versions. We showed the latter version last year in a big project space at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam, enabling us to be specific and ambitious with the installation - which has become integral to this work. Installed as such, the work has become a point of departure into extended experiments and discussions. We plan to make a new work following this process and perhaps similar in mechanisms.

There are a few matters we can distil from our collaboration and that we would like to address in a new work for We Are Hidden …: the conditions and mechanisms of spectatorship, visuality and space, dialogue and the use of a transparent medium or apparatus. All points mentioned are related to a bodily observation and experience. Photography and choreography have been initial and key tools so far and have inspired the dialogue between us. We thought about using other media and methods now, perhaps revisiting previous performance and installation works from a different angle. Now that we sink into the process, we are more and more focused on what conceptually will function most strongly. We are beginning the process with experiments in photographic installation, but are open to the possibility that the process may arrive somewhere else. There is quite a degree of unknown - and this is very exciting.

(If anyone would like to see the large installation version of Choreography its on Gwen's site: Il faut.nl)