THE
SOFTER THE SOUND THE WARMER THE HEAT
The above mp3 file (click title to hear it) is an example of a workshop I ran called "Nuances as Narration."
I am very interested in the
idea of making visual art for radio. So I designed a
workshop with a group of six different participants with
different levels of sightlessness, from fully sighted to
those with no optic nerve. We had one day, three guide dogs
(who fought with each other!) and a box containing objects
from a padded star, to a butternut squash. We then
transcribed felt experiences either on braille machines or
with a sighted volunteers and created 'sculptures' that
didn't actually exist. This is analagous to some techniques
I developed in Polyfaith.com - how to make art without
actually making it. So in this case, the visual art pieces
were made "as poems" and assembled only in the head.
It was a fabulous day, everyone seemed to get something out
of it, myself included, and it added to the body of thought
I have been encountering over the last ten years regarding
consciousness, form and existence.
Here were some instructions from the day:
a) It can be a sculpture which is based on a narrative: A
story or a dream or series of incidents or a memory or a
recollection.
b) It can be a sculpture which is based on philosophy or
religion or a scientific concept
c) It can be a sculpture which is based on architecture,
buildings and such like.
d) It can be a sculpture which is based on sound or music,
but bear in mind we do not have the time to recreate these
elements in this workshop, so anything musical would have
to be described.
e) It can be a sculpture which has a practical purpose, so
craft isn’t ruled out, kitchenware, but it doesn’t have to
be domestic. It can be a harness, it can seem to be
practical. Remember you are not limited by scale here.