Transformational
Touch: Traction: Transform
Digital Arts and Immersive Media Project
(April 2017- April 2018)
Encounters
Water Strider by by Daniel Ari Friedman CC
ALL PARTICIPANTS NOW SECURED. THANK YOU.
I am looking for both Participants and Technical Collaborators to take part in the creation of a final body of artwork for a public exhibition in 2018.
This project is part of my Practice-Based Ph.D. Research at De Montfort University Leicester, which explores individual storytelling and immersive transformational practice. I trained at Goldsmiths College and The Slade School of Fine Art London, with a background in Broadcast and Media Production, Higher Education and Arts Psychotherapy.
Participants:
I am looking for people over 18 who may consider themselves as being at, or wishing to reflect upon, a ‘threshold’ point/s in their lives. Thresholds can take many forms, be that ‘birth’, ‘death’ ‘illness’, ‘age’, ‘divorce’ or other ‘social’, ‘relational’, or ‘habitual’ life change either forced upon you, or that you have inflicted on yourself as a ‘trigger for change’. These self identifying 'aha moments' may have bought positive and or negative realisations that are leading to changes in your life.
The ‘Touch: Traction: Transform’ project will require a willingness to explore notions of identity, intimacy, communication and the potential for transformational growth, shift, transition. The exact processes, tasks and modes of engagement will be planned in dialogue between ourselves, artworks and technology but are likely to include journaling, storying, film and art-making both individually, one-to-one and as part of a small group. Selected works will form the basis of an exhibition in April/May 2018.
Time commitment:
You will need to engage periodically over a twelve-month ‘relational’ period - your level of engagement can be mutually arranged depending on your availability and other commitments.
Phase 1: Apr - Jun '17 Preliminary chats with Artist, walk, talk, cuppa coffee, 5-minute daily written/audio/visual journal type exercises.
Phase 2: Jul-Aug '17 Filming, interviews, workshopping, (also accounts for Participant and Artist Holiday Period and time off the project)
Phase 3: Sep - Dec '17 Editing, collaborative 'making' of final filmic/animatronic/sculptural artworks with Artist & Technical Collaborators
Phase 4:Jan - April '18 Final artworks completed and installed into Gallery, audience engagement assessment, post exhibition feedback
Any further engagement can be requested/arranged if you wish to deepen the process but is not necessary.
Technical Collaborators:
I am also interested in working with collaborators on the technical aspects of software programming to include MAX MSP, HD and 360 Virtual Reality filmmaking and sensory and responsive technology applications with sculptural/animatronic objects through the use of Arduino type hardware - I'd love to hear from you!
Time commitment: As appropriate and to be decided collaboratively between us but likely to centre between Sept '17 - April 2018.
Interested? I hope so! I’d love to work with you so please do get in touch. Best wishes, Alice.
Supervisors: Prof. Craig Vear, Dr Sophy Smith, Dr Alissa Clarke. De Montfort University. Leicester.
'Re-authoring involves telling a new story about who you are, about the role of trauma in your life and about how what happened was part of your life journey. It is a story of how the event fits in your life. Life is complex. Often there are different ways of looking at things. And, indeed, those people who are flexible enough to consider alternatives tend to do better. Making sense of ourselves is a lifelong process. And the meaning of life is not fixed but, rather, varies from person to person, day to day and hour to hour. What's important in re-authoring, then, is the ability to look at the past through a different lens.'
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(Joseph, S, (2011) p.210, 'What Doesn't Kill Us', Piatkus, London and New York)