2011 sweet spot
Move Dance TNQ creative development residency
In physics ‘the sweet spot’ refers to desire. Rather than the tangible and physical, it is a numerical state, an aggregate of elements that indicatively point to an opportune solution. Sport and musical instruments, refer to the “sweet spot” as having an affinity with the center of percussion, oscillation and other equations, presenting the ultimate highly desirable set of circumstance or sweet state.
Occurring frequently in nature the Fibonacci number pattern is recognized as a phenomenon and often referred to as a "law of nature". This sweet spot is identified by its patterning found throughout natures flora and fauna. Shells, fruit, plants and organic beauty are regarded as natures bounty and are of a seeming chaotic order beyond human perception.
The Sweet Spot project encompasses research design and structural development of a media and sonic environment in reference to the way interactivity may be configured around certain generative actions. It investigates the empathetic space between the performer and the audience, intimacy of the audience and screen environment, and translations of multiplicity and meaning through the convergence of built and natural environments. Using mixed reality and augmented technologies programmed through ubiquitous hand held devices in place of sophisticated motion tracking systems for human movement capture and locative spacialised environmental position GPS and a personalised computer vision system to integrate choreographic and site specific aesthetic concerns.
Research residency includes Russell Milledge and Rebecca Youdell artistic co-directors of Bonemap in collaboration with sound artist Steven Campbell and software programmer Jason Holdsworth at the The Space, Centre of Contemporary Art Cairns, April 2011
Sponsors: Move Dance TNQ New Move Network, RADF Arts Queensland and Cairns Regional Council, Australia Council for the Arts, KickArts Contemporary Art, JUTE Theatre, Centre of Contemporary Arts Cairns, School of Creative Arts JCU.
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Video Documentation:
2009 Whispering Limbs
digitally augmented performance
The ‘Whispering Limbs’ residency considered the role of environmental representation in the construction of identity. This was extended through each artists engagement and comittment to the unique situtation and cultural diversity of Indigenous and Pacific identity, tourism and the environment.
An inherent collaborative interdisciplinary framework through fieldwork and installation allowed research and innovation in set design and technical theatre, along with new methodologies for live performance and contemporary dance to evolve.
Russell Milledge and Rebecca Youdell artistic co-directors of Bonemap in collaboration with performers Lisa Fa’alafi, Fez Fa’anana, Earl Rosas, Leah Shelton, sound Steven Campbell, technical manager Steve Barton, and technical assistance from Paul Barron and Alex Cuffe
Performance: JUTE Theatre Centre of Contemporary Arts Cairns as a component of On Edge: Contemporary Media + Performance Festival Cairns, July 2009
Sponsors: On Edge: Contemporary Media + Performance, JUTE Theatre, KickArts Contemporary Arts, Cairns Civic Theatre, James Cook University, Arts Queensland and the Regional Arts Development Fund a Queensland Government and Cairns Regional Council partnership to support local arts and culture.
Reviews:
2007 tilt
digitally augmented performance
TILT (time-based installation layering transience) uses the idea of balance to ascribe metaphors for social, political, philosophical and geographical concerns through a performative interdisciplinary practice of choreography and design. Russell Milledge and Rebecca Youdell of Bonemap in collaboration with dancer Elise May and sound artist Lawrence English examined the idea of balance, and the provocative nature of balance. Without balance ecology falls over.
Using the combination of media and installation research, and investigating a multidisciplinary collaborative framework resulted in new choreographic interventions into a series of integrated media installations .
Key metaphors in the work resulted in substantial installation research for the physical and digital scenography.
Media & scenography design team:
Paul Barron, Daniel Gorski, Chedwa Whyte, Stephen Barton with intern Ines Blank.
Centre of Contemporary Arts, Cairns
sponsors:
JUTE Theatre, KickArts Contemporary Art, End Credits, Cairns Civic Theatre, Regional Arts Development Fund, Arts Queensland
2005 Brink
site specific performance
Defined as lip, rim, verge or edge, ‘Brink’ signifies our place on the Asia Pacific rim and the blurring of artistic boundaries and ecologies. Set in the Tanks Arts Centre, Tank 3 transforms, back from the brink of extinction of disused abandoned oil tank into an art habitat and microcosm of images and imagining.
The historic value of the site through its significance in WWII domestic policy for the protection and survival of the Australian species is not lost. The artists work to contain elements involving everything from an environmental defence campaign, observations of humanity, attributes of nuptials, and the domestic wild will to live.
Ocean care, global warming, understanding cultures, endangered species, disappearing habitats and values, its all there, in this jam packed artwork containing principles for a sustainable future which encourages development of a deeper awareness of social and environment issues.
Through performance intervention it is possible to facilitate significant embodied artistic engagement within sensitive endemic locations without leaving destructive residue or traces on the site. As a common thread between collaborators this may be contextualised as a reconciliation of organisms to environments and an engagement with the body and its surround. A demarcation is the critical engagement between performance and mediating technology and how to reveal subjective and explicit interrelationships within grounded ecological approaches as they are expanded into the imagination as both the visceral and the virtual.
Russell Milledge and Rebecca Youdell of Bonemap intermedia art join with guest artists DJ Olive (USA), performers David Williams (Version One NSW), Brian Fuata (NSW), Jess Jones, Sue Hayes and Amanda Le Bon. Technical team: Werner Burger, Simon Tait and Stephen Barton.
Tanks Arts Centre Cairns
Sponsors: Tanks Arts Centre, Arts Queensland and Regional Arts Development Fund
Reviews:
2003 Bridge Song
digitally augmented performance
The artists reflects on what impacts on the quality of daily life, the relationship of flesh, earth and weather. Is the act of living transformative for the environment?
Intimate, thoughtful and engaging, ‘Bridge Song’ leads its audience on a journey over bridges’, through the lens of urban and environmental ecology. The work seeks to illustrate the fragile relationship between humanity and its environs with images linking visual and aural statements in a performance discussion politicising the body and surround.
An artistic collaboration between production designer/director Russell Milledge, choreographer/performer Rebecca Youdell, and the toy instruments & percussion kinetics of Erik Griswold and Vanessa Tomlinson - Clocked Out, the artists explore awareness of environmental sensitivity through performative metaphors of the 'bridge'.
Milledge's ability to craft images and objects and Youdell's idiosyncratic movement sensibility produces an experiential space which fosters a rich creative dialogue with Griswold's and Tomlinson's playful and imaginative sound world.
Choreographed and improvisational dance, performance art, live music and projection/new media design, provide the artists with images that provoke and delight our "out-of-awareness" perceptions of time and place. ‘Bridge Song’ uses the unique qualities of mediated and live performance – the virtual and the visceral, to extend the potential layers of audience empathy and engagement.
Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Art Theatre, Brisbane
Sponsors: Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts Institute of Modern Art, Jondi Keane and Vanessa Mafe – Co M-S-K and QUT Creative Industries, Arts Queensland
Reviews:
Anna Rice | Local ArtMary Anne Hunter | RealTime #56
2000 The Wild Edge
site specific performance
dance | screen | sound | image | object
the wild edge is a site-specific artwork emphasising the ephemeral body via the social and natural landscape.
Audiences engage with the artists interpretation of contrasts between the tropical Australian environment and the ‘wild edge’ of urban and built spaces which we inhabit.
Bonemap explores relationships of the moment, the body and notations of identity and place. Performance, multimedia, exhibition, installation and sound composition merge into a fusion and fluctuation of processes, rich expression and audience experience. Devised as discrete modules of performance, dance video, photographic and object based exhibition, audio CD and temporary sculptural treatments of environmental locations. The artists unleash their obsession with multidisciplinary artistic relationships in a layered and meaningful rapport with the world around them. Challenges like reconnaissance and personal knowledge of sites; small crew multi-tasking in diverse and distant locations; meteorological and extreme environmental effects on technical equipment (sun, water, tiny insects inside camera lens); and stretching of human/technical resources.
Artists included Russell Milledge and Rebecca Youdell artistic co-directors of Bonemap in collaboration with photographer Glen O’Malley and composers Silent Beat Michael Whiticker and Paul Lawrence.
Research: the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art III outreach program on Magnetic Island with visiting artist Lee Wen (Singapore/Japan) (1999). Development: The Australian Choreographic Centre (Canberra) (2000). Presentations: Tanks Arst Centre Cairns; Next Wave Festival Tokyo; Tokyo International Performing Arts Market; Umbrella Contemporary Arts Townsville; L'attitude 27.5° Festival, Brisbane Powerhouse, 2000. The Australian High Commission - Singapore (2001)
Sponsor: Australia Council, Arts Queensland, The Australian Choreographic Centre (ACT), Cairns City Council.
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2010 cove
audience interactive / mixed reality performance
A subtle interactive space filled with ephemeral light sources, projection and sound. Ethereal impressions reminiscent of meteorological effects create a transformative environment inhabited by Bonemap performers. Large forms are seamlessly integrated into the work as both sculptural elements and projection surfaces. Through the reinterpretation and creative visualisation of ancient landmass and fleeting atmospheric effects the work represents the sanctuary of a ‘cove’. Sculptural representations of sea passages and landing sites integrate with media and performance to complete the immersive quality of the installation.
Created as an interactive media arts experience that transforms the interior of the theatre into an immersive space that places the audience at the centre of an imaginary geography. The work uses a topographical metaphor where historical and contemporary art intersect in an expression of new media.
Russell Milledge and Rebecca Youdell of Bonemap have collaborated with sound artist Steven Campbell, computer programmer Jason Holdsworth and other creative artists to construct an innovative new work dealing with the nature of space, the cultural significance and ephemeral quality of light and performance – dancing light.
Centre of Contemporary Arts, Cairns 2010
sponsors:
KickArts Contemporary Arts, James Cook University, Cairns Regional Council, Arts Queensland
Reviews:
Bernadette Ashley | RealTime #97
Video documentation:
2008 The Exquisite Resonance of Memory
media arts installation
A room that pulsates with a world in reverse. Suitcases serve as places of accumulation and as an emblem for events and relationships of the past, each with its history of journey, memory and circumstance. Objects of provenance and museum stasis take on the aura of traditional icons.
The work dramatises the way memory functions through association, leaps, or dislocates out of time and space and how the more profound of these occurrences can give us a new understanding of our relationship with the world.
Video wallpaper adorns the room with a theatrical representation of the temporal body caught in the multiple and inconsistent life of mirrors, where through the poetics of surprise a sinister metamorphosis occurs.
The Exquisite Resonance of Memory has allowed the artists to explore the Baroque and Surrealist genres in the context of Media Arts practice.
artists:
Russell Milledge, Rebecca Youdell and Steven Campbell
Centre of Contemporary Arts, Cairns 2008
sponsors:
KickArts Contemporary Art, Arts Queensland, James Cook University
Video document:
2006 future perfect
site specific performance
Think of the alternatives, a fork in the path of future history leading to a different world. Old issues vanish, new challenges appear; down the track are scores of alternative worlds, some fit to live in, some not. Water, trees, oil, atmosphere - is the next generation becoming familiar with the idea of running out? Future Perfect or Future Foul, a reflection on the legacy that humanity is leaving the future planet., begging “what if?”
The promise of a perfect future is akin to the promise of a tourism destination. One that rarely turns out to be as it is portrayed in the accompanying glossy propaganda brochure. Ecology, weather and international incidents, with their economic, historic and cultural values all conspire to leave us trapped in our personal inner sanctuaries and urban dormitories. Faced with an uncertain future, a fragile ecosystem and profoundly vibrant lifestyles, what happens when it’s all tipped off kilter?
Considers what might be in-store for future generations. Why is our collective psyche imbued with the idea of running out? Is it on future’s foul speculation?
Russell Milledge and Rebecca Youdell in collaboration with guest artists, Jess Jones, Danielle Baccala, Maya Poole and Mark Edwards among others.
‘Future Perfect’ is contemporary performance & visual installations blurring the definitions of media and performance.
Tanks Arts Centre, Cairns 2006
sponsors: Cairns Regional Council and Arts Queensland
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2004 Rupture & Residue
site specific performance
Globalisation drives both the demographic movement of people, and the collapse of distance through information and communications technology. New perceptions of physical space and environments include an emerging reinterpretation and sensitivity to place, raising new issues around cross-cultural contexts for arts practice. While globalisation asks us to identify ourselves through brand/genre allegiance and technology replaces nature, what are the possibilities for positioning an identity and practice through proximity to the natural environment?
Conflux is an interdisciplinary and intercultural artists residency and exchange, a creative incubator for four principal creative producers and a number of cultural and educational institutions in Brisbane, regional Queensland Australia and overseas.
Within an ecological approach to art practice the residency proposal represents the politicisation of spatial design and durational performance in synesthetic media and sound design. Through the processes of temporal arts and media communication contexts, incorporating re-evaluation of the specialist skills of each participant artist, as a means to extend technology and the body into the voracious exploration of technological body and ecological surround.
These artists have trajectories that span transnational borders. Their journeys have been intrinsic creative processes without loss of intimate connections to the local, either through political or physical environments. They have sought to challenge, reinterpret and extend each others existing strengths; develop interrelationships with artists and their audiences in diverse geographic locations; and elevate the level of each others practice within an international context.
Russell Milledge and Rebecca Youdell team with Jim Denley - Machine for Making Sense, Simon Whitehead - Wales UK, and Lee Wen - Singapore.
Fieldwork: Emerald End Artcamp (Mareeba);
Interventions: KickArts (Cairns); Umbrella Studio (Townsville); Artspace Mackay (Mackay); Sandhills Art Gallery & Eco-Tourist Farm (Keppel Sands) Griffith University, School of Art (Gold Coast)
Peer review: Igneous (Brisbane).
Sponsors: Chapter Arts Centre (Cardiff, UK) and The Substation -A Home for the Arts (Singapore), Arts Queensland
Review:
Sophie Travers | RealTime #64
2002 Conflux
site specific performance
Beginning as a mechanism for exchange between artists in the Asia Pacific region and stemming from international involvement over a number of years, Conflux focused on engaging in critical debate, and interdisciplinary research at a fundamental level.
Questions of social, historic and environmental impact and of cultural identity and relevance bounce across 6,000km in an effort to embrace the blur of tradition, change and urbanisation implicit in contemporary lifestyle. For Conflux, Australia's antipodean European history and colonial influence became a catalyst and departure point for artists to engage in dialogue, stimulating idea sharing.
Visioning of this premise saw Conflux develop an imaginary geography, challenging perceptions and offering a broader perspective on isolationism, transience, postmodern and postcolonial rationale. It is the human condition, universal and the global that Conflux examines through the sentiment of individual, community and locale.
The complexity of multi-racial artists residing in Singapore and Australia amplified multiplicity of the global realm. Language (the usual barrier) tempered with the gestural in process, to experientially convene a holistic mind/body approach. The artists in dialogue, process and practice encounter the body and space with the notion of dynamism and stasis in the micro/macro world. The body in/as site and the greater environment serve to reveal insight into universal identity.
Sites chosen in Australia offer a diversity of environs, which teeter in high and low flux of progress. Ongoing urbanisation reflects the impact of humanity on natural environs as eco-tourism and the urban dream celebrates the reef, rainforest and savanna country. By revealing a greater sense of place, the artists grew an understanding of process and inclusion, raising awareness of the environment, culture, and the flux between them.
Artists included Russell Milledge and Rebecca Youdell artistic co-directors of Bonemap in collaboration with performer George Chua Khim Ser (Singapore), sound artist Jim Denley (Sydney/Brussels), dancers Christian Green, Charmaine Hart, Lisa McClymont, Hayley Warren and Christine Williamson.
Development and fieldwork: Tanks Art Centre, Undara Lava Tubes, Emerald End Artcamp and Fitzroy Island.
Performance: Commissioned by KickArts Contemporary Arts for the ‘Fed on Arts’ Festival.
Conflux media screenings: Ausdance - Creating Performances, Queensland University of Technology
Sponsors: New Media Arts Fund of the Australia Council, KickArts Contemporary Arts
1999 Listening to Skin
site specific performance
An exploration of a moment in time amidst a process of decay. The reef, rainforest and savannah meet with two seasons in tropical Australia. Dry and wet. Harsh climates, ravishing landscapes and transience abound while human refuse remains.
Decay is on a grand scale. Landscapes are rich in traces of decay and rust. A scattered history of disused and abandoned values & objects are captured moments transposed through an interdisciplinary choreographic investigation into this environment.
Fieldwork: Glen O’Malley Rebecca Youdell, Leah Grycewicz, Rebecca Youdell and Randall Einhorn and Russell Milledge.
Exhibition: ‘Listening to Skin’ collaborator Glen O’Malley, black/white framed photographic prints, Rondo Theatre – Cairns, Kick Arts Gallery, Cairns Perc Tucker Regional Gallery –Townsville, Gallery 482 – Brisbane
Screening: ‘Eden Flesh Against Earth’ film made with Leah Grycewicz, Rebecca Youdell and Randall Einhorn and featuring the sound score of Rigel Best. Rondo Theatre – Cairns ‘Bridge’ Umbrella Studio; Australian Youth Dance Festival, Townsville; Dance Lumiere Dancehouse Melbourne 1998
Performance: Russell Milledge, Rebecca Youdell with Silent Beat (Michael Whiticker and Paul Lawrence. Film footage courtesy of Russell Milledge.
Special thanks to Naringa Creek Ostrich Farm, Mainsail Productions, John Genge and Steve Barton.
Sponsor: KickArts Collective, Australia Council for the Arts
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