Shadowgraphic

shadowgraphic themes on film

shadowgraphic — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 00:17:10 +0000

I recently watched two fascinating films that have some common themes with the Shadowgraphs project: the woods, the attempt to reconstruct an idea of ‘what happened here’, and the confluence of the other and the self.

Anti Christ (2009)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/movie/129974/antichrist

Helen (2008)

http://www.directorsnotes.com/2009/02/25/helen-christine-molloy-joe-lawlor/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/may/01/helen-film-review

Shadowgraphs at NoiseFloor, Staffordshire Uni

shadowgraphic — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 15:35:36 +0000

Last Friday I presented a paper about Shadowgraphs at the NoiseFloor festival at Staffordshire University. The installation also ran throughout the three days of the festival. I really enjoyed meeting composers and artists and listening to great music. Thanks to the organisers David Payling, Ben Ramsay and David Revill for a truly rewarding experience.

You can see the drawings people contributed to the installation below.

And up next: a live performance of Shadowgraphs at the Sound Thought festival in Glasgow on 4 February.

Click to view slideshow.

installation video and performance recording

shadowgraphic — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 20:12:02 +0000

You can hear a mix of the live performance of the piece Shadowgraphs on my myspace profile: www.myspace.com/gharries

And experience the installation materials here:

http://www.myspace.com/gharries/videos/video/106299363

drawings, photos, sounds, traces

shadowgraphic — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 09:28:41 +0000

Some ‘traces’ from the last performance/installation. The images are the photos used in the installations (as snapshots or a video in the space) combined with the audience’s drawings, and the sounds are from the live performance (showing a strange similarity between sound of typing on a computer keyboard and rain on a tin roof…)

Thoughts on participation

shadowgraphic — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 07:24:23 +0000

Part of this Shadowgraphs project was to see how the audience could be involved in the process of creation. The various ways in which this worked were quite revealing.

The first stage was an installation in a gallery in which the visitors were asked to sit in a tiny room (with a door you could close if you wanted), listen to a soundtrack and draw. This seemed to work very well, and resulted in very intricate and varied drawings. These drawings became part of the experience for following visitors and in this sense the work was indeed participatory and multi-vocal.

The next stage, which was this blog, seemed to work but only to a certain extent. The Internet seems to be a space that one doesn’t ‘prepare’ for or commit oneself to as much as when visiting a gallery or attending a performance. It is embedded within our routine, and as a result, it seemed that there was a reluctance to invest more than a couple of minutes in responding to the blogs creatively unless pestered by yours truly. This was not always the case of course and those who actually did contribute came up with fascinating responses. Still, I am not sure as to how one can use the blog format for wider communal authorship.

The live performance stage was influenced by the blog. Unexpectedly, I felt that by sharing the thoughts and influences for this piece I was ‘living’ the material more intensely and the narrative had an increased emotional resonance.
Also, In the foyer of the performance space, the drawing installation was presented again. The limitations of time, as well as the fact that there was no secluded, private space for drawing (someone even said he felt like he was at an exam with people looking at what he was doing the whole time) meant that there wasn’t quite as much participation, but still there were quite interesting drawings which I will include in one of the next blogs.

Conclusions? People need time and maybe some privacy, as well as a more dedicated space and time (a ritualised situation?) in order for them to feel they can be part of a work.

Thanks to everyone who did leave their mark, or in the words of one of the contributors to the first installation ‘You’ll never know how much I needed this’.

show and installation in London

shadowgraphic — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:37:49 +0000

Just wanted to let you know that there will be a chance to experience Shadowgraphs in ‘real life’ if you happen to be in London this coming Tuesday 17/11. There will be an installation where you can listen and draw, as well as a live performance of the piece. The concert also includes other electroacoustic pieces, including guitar and live electronics. It starts at 7pm, but be there at 6.30pm if you want to experience the installation. Here is a link with the details:

http://www.city.ac.uk/whatson/2009/11_no/17112009-sound-studio-concert.html

This blog will continue for a couple of weeks after the show…

the book that never was

shadowgraphic — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 01:18:43 +0000

I made a slide show consisting only of images which I found on the internet using the words people contributed on the ‘soundtrack revisited’ post. A simple principle: one image for every word, and another image which is the result of a search using all three words together.

AND HERE’S THE NEXT GAME:
if all these images came from the same book, what would be the title of this book?
PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT WITH YOUR ANSWER!!

words and worlds

shadowgraphic — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 16:43:54 +0000

I’m quite intrigued by the words chosen by the different contributors to the ‘soundtrack revisited’ post (thank you, kind brave people!). I am also amazed at how effectively these three words can indicate the subjective world of the listener.
Some similarities emerge (nature, space, darkness) as well as some dissimilarities (abstract or not, different locations, various worlds of reference).
I will put the film/slide show I made on the next blog. So keep tuned!

[Granules; unhurried; textures] [suspense, fear, psychopath] [Dark moist jungle] [blackbirds, high and spacious] [darkness, frost, trepidation] [electric crickets. shakers. desert] [mycelium birds churches] [cave-winter-war zone] [Creation and communication] [stillness slither Rapture] [dusk sleepy unknown] [Asia, insects, everywhere] [opaque slither submerge]

exhibit no. 3

shadowgraphic — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:27:34 +0000

It’s the 100th anniversary of Schoenberg’s Erwartung (Expectation) lauded as groundbreaking, pioneeringly atonal and athematic. It’s a monodrama based on a libretto by Marie Pappenheim.

The story: a woman wanders into the woods in search of her lover whom she has been waiting for for three days. Eventually she seems to have found him. Dead. Then she sees a house where she probably isn’t welcome. And then she mentions another woman…

What really happened here. Who killed him? Did she really find his body? Did she kill him?
WHAT DO YOU THINK??

Watch the video to read and hear some more (the sounds are from performance by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, on the Sony / Boulez CD, but you can listen to the whole piece here: http://www.schoenberg.at/9_webradio/jukebox/Operas_e.htm).

soundtrack revisited

shadowgraphic — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:44:40 +0000

Here is the soundtrack that belongs with the drawings in ‘imagining the sounds’.
What three words come to mind? Add these as a comment. These will be used to create a new little film… Results to be shown in a week’s time…