Thoughts on the go...We begin with introductions while the media is set up... it always takes that little bit longer to set up. Chris begins by reminding us of the focus of his contribution to the lab: to explore ways by which documentation and archiving contributes to the creative process. Chris addresses that this involves choices, how you document, what you document for what purpose.. how do different types and approaches to documentation help the research as it archives an evolution of practice which may be as important as 'recording' the work itself. How can archiving and documentation help the reflective process (and this we mean beyond 'making decisions' of this works this doesn't). How can archiving and documentation be important to disseminate (make available the various layers --and therefore forms of knowledge- within a creative process). How can the archiving of process be an autonomous yet related aspect of the 'performance'?
In response to Chris' introduction interesting issues begin to surface:
- self documentation is more difficult than documenting the work of another
- how can we use documentation not just as a memory aid but also to help with discoveries?
- an important aspect of documentation is realising what we see and how we see when 'seeing' dance through a frame
- Vitoria raises the interesting issue of the body as an archive and therefore performance as a type of documentation
Unpicking these and more is what is to come...
We find ourselves talking a lot, but this is good as from now on every conversation helps us all clarify our individual research more and more, nothing is outside of the process, everything, in one way or another, becomes relevant....
Coffee and cigarette break...
We start by drawing....how we perceive and materialise visually...a table, a glass, a body from the side, a foot...We see our predisposition to 'see' things in a particular way...Chris brings to our attention the work of Zeki, his proposal that at times it is good to leave things out so the mind has to work at making new connections, if everything is there, given, connections lose their value...stimulus fixation... leaving things out may take us to new connections between what we thought were 'known' elements....
