IDEA BASE CAMP – Jan 2011

5^th Jan 2011

Hi Dan,

interesting thoughts.... the camp idea seems really good.... dead keen on that... lets do it.... either in Shroove or if we must do it in Northern Ireland then somewhere else. Having a sort of "base camp" for an expedition into ideas and experiences rather than to a "place". It would mean getting a good timetable. The whole weather issue becomes a positive not a negative if we bring the "show" back to a derry gallery space.

Actually Shroove could be argued as the best accessible place for a large number of NI residents actually with its proximity to Derry. I think we could argue this from a strong point if we bring an exhibition component... installation, records, video... etc into a Derry gallery space afterwards. It means we need to get on with finding out about permissions, etc and doing some costings.... and finding an appropriate gallery space. Maybe we can talk to Context... maybe they aren't programmed for then yet... or have a summer gap.... who knows... otherwise maybe there is a city council space.... I'll try to get Sarah to do a bit of research on that. Perhaps we can bring the piece to the Ebrington site.... it will be before it gets all corporate and heritage/tourism/cultural hubbish... because at the moment it isn't more than a building site... so we might not be overloaded with broking people breaking our hearts. I think this might be a way to get a space for free.

Ideas come to mind. Taking individual people climbing on routes we are exploring. Introducing embodying landscape process to small groups or individuals. Discussions about sport, art nature, artifice, creativity... Projections of climbing films ... and movement films... including some rushes from our ongoing exploration as well as some "classics". Also possible to have the other dancers down as visitors for maybe two days (at least one overnight stay) and use this as a basis for creating a group movement work for the gallery installation. This part... 10 - 14 days. i.e. A few days to settle in before the "invitations" are programmed and "days off" for you to be with family. Maybe a few days acclimatsation. A couple of days for you to go home then a week to make open camp.

Move everything from base camp to gallery space and create installation. 10 days. Show in gallery 10 days.

Wow... I am really excited about this now. Somehow this really begins to crystalise a lot of my ideas and addressing a lot of the doubts about context and avoiding a "gallery show" or a "theatre production" it seems to address our questions by including and embracing them.... appeals to my ageing hippy....

I think having a clear outline will energise me to really work on my climbing and on the dancing and to explore more the photographic and video stuff. Also gives a really nice basis for early publicity and getting possible "visitors" up for it at an early stage. I think the other EE dancers will be really into the idea.

Fair Head!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That looks very very SCARY to me! I used to go to the borrom and look up when I was a teenager....... the idea of going up it is .......is.... oh dear.... but maybe.... if I knew we were aiming at that I could make my priority to train between now and the summer... to get stronger and more confident.... but still.. Shroove feels more my scale...

let me know what you think

also ... if it is ok with you I will forward this whole thread to Ailbe and Sarah so they know our thought processes.... anything you want edited out?!!....

best wishes from very snowy Moscow,

Steve

P.S. I going to talk to my friend who guides in the mountains about Mount Belucha, August. He is in Moscow for a dance workshop by chance. I saw him briefly today but I'll see him again on Friday.... you wanna come????

S

6^th Jan 2011

Hi Steve,

Very excited that you are excited too! Lets do it!

I'm happy for you to send the thread to Ailbe and Sarah - let's get them working on it!

Ebrington is ok as long as it's not the main focus - I know the space - we had a tour the other month when we were in Derry. If it means a low cost venue - it might work well (also could be interesting contrast natural and highly ordered - from Military camp to "goose stepped" culture comsumption camp!). Have to be careful that the ebrington doesn't become main show tho.....I wouldn't see it needing lots of live performance - I see it more as an after the "live event" scenario.

Where do you see the big costs - if the derry venue is lowish cost and not resource intensive? I know transport, materials, equipment, people costs etc will mount up but.....?

this could be soooo cool....and really could develop exciting stuff.

dan

7^th Jan 2011

Hi Dan,

yes lets decide to go with this idea. I'll send the thread to A + S and confirm that they think it is do-able. Probably need to clear it with the funders but I really don't think it'll be a problem if we present it in the right way for them.

Ebrington I see as a back-up idea really... still thinking we should be looking for the venue that really suits us in Derry. I am with you about the Derry part not dominating the process but actually I'd be rather more worried that it gets neglected! I feel might have to find a creative compromise for the funders in some way... perhaps, for example for me to make a performance piece with some of the dancers from Echo Echo and show it in our studio so it can be conceptually connected to the process but is spatially separate.... not committed to this but just want to think about it because it could impact on the budgeting.

About money: possible big (ish) costs.... transport, insurance, shanty town building materials, fees for work (if any) that echoecho dancers do with us, electricity generation on site, rental of derry installation space, food, publicity (very important to get people thinking of coming to our camp from an early stage maybe already in spring), fee for a "base camp manager" for helping set up, security and for fetching water, looking after electric generation (can we do it eco with photosensitive cells... or wave power and batteries ???? No idea if this is in any way feasible). Some climbing/camping equipment perhaps.... at least some costing of wear and tear on our own equipment.... some replacements of stuff for example...

Steve

THE LOCATION IS WHERE IT SHOULD BE – Jan 2011

4^th Jan 2011

Hi Steve,

Yes I'm not excitied by Prehen now - lets ditch it and move on.

Ebrington may have possibilities - I know it and the big plans they have - I'd need some convincing to become part of the that brokered culture tho. It seems a bit difficult tho - I'm trying to imagine the context and loadings.

I have a lot of interest in your thoughts truning to either really outside (natural) or really inside articifial (a proper gallery or studio space)

In terms of outside.......I'm very excited by these thoughts

Here's a quick mind flow:

If we were able to something really cool and ambitious and challenging:

I would:

set up a camp / installation / workshop outside at a climbing spot such as Shroove (thro the pirate arch - access would be easier through that field...), or the other climbing spot near the pier in Culdaff (which has a camping area), Kinnegoe?

Where we would basically live creatively for a week (or however long) conituning dance, climbing and crossover activities and "outputting" more resolved outcomes to audiences at specified times - but could also include social activites, meals, talks, screening etc. could also be patrticpatory - workshops?

The camp could be quite shanty town - tents etc - but also some kind of lean-to maybe - a make shift cinema / shelter /climbing structure / platform???

Small petrol generator

video projectors

speakers

cooking stuff

big white boards / black boards

It might mean we invite some other people to inhabit the camp also?

Audience transportation coould be part of it - maybe with a derry venue component

ALL THIS WOULD BE SO BRILLIANT TO DO - WOW!!!!!!! this would host a lot of the cultural / lifestyle apects of the sport not sport debate.

The big issues are of course - weather, permissions, transportation, sustainability (how do we manage an off-site over a period of time)

And you previously mentioned being in ROI would be difficult in terms of Legacy Trust...but maybe we could argue this - and especially if there is a start point and component in derry (bus pick up venue and event / screening etc??)

The flip side of this - is that this is basically what happens in our expedition period and we bring all this inside to a "non-natural" space and re-inhabiti it somehow.

So this leave us looking for a venue again....

The tower in cushendal is lovely - I've stayed in it once. Not sure how it would accommodfate audience tho - but it has a small outside area. It's in quite a good location for climbing (fairhead).

Other places in NI - Murlough bay - Fairhead (National Trust own it - they also have a cottage for hire there I think...). Fair head is a big area for climbing - quite intimidating - but some stuff we could do together.

dan

MEANING AND LOCATION – Jan 2011

2nd Jan 2011

Hi Dan, greetings from snowy Moscow.

I will check with Ailbe and Sarah about the 28th when they are back in the office. I'm not sure if I have a committment that day or whether there is studio time. I'll need to get back to you about dates in Fevruary and March too as I managed to come away without my calendar for next year....

I think we should try to think quite soon about making a timetable for work up to September. Decide on some dates that we want to work intensively.... dates for an "expedition".... dates for decisions etc.

I have been having doubts about Prehen House. Just can't quite find enough "up-sides" to it. The space feels quite limiting (not in a good way) I think and I can't get a feel of any relevance to our ideas. Maybe I'm wrong... open to being persuaded.

There is a good possibility we could use outside and inside space in the Ebrington Barracks Site. Almost certainly for free or very little money. The city are trying to animate it in the next 24 months ready for City of Culture. It is a huge outdoor space and there are lots of buildings in various states of (dis)repair around the grounds. Just in terms of access, variety of choices and indoor outdoor possibilities it could be good and the support from the City of Culture/ILEX (development organisation) could be helpful. If you think it might be a good idea to look at it I can contact Caoimhin Corrigan the "cultural broker" (whatever that is) and ask him to let us look around and have a chat with him about it.

Otherwise... what about the tower in Cushendall owned by Bill Drummond... do you know anything about that?

Or what about St Columbs Park? . . . .

Some thoughts:

what is our conception of this process in relation to ideas of natural and non-natural (artificial). Landscape has some history of bringing "nature" into the gallery/drawing room/hotel lobby, ... but often the "nature" of the landscapes were either melodramatic emphasising the safety of the non-nature context or very tame and unthreatening. In a way both approaches seem to at least partly deny the reality of natural forces.... they emphasise the alienation from nature. Maybe part of what i am doing in my embodying process is to relate the concept of nature outside to the concept of nature inside.... taking a "naturalised" physicality into an environment which is created to resist nature poses a threat to modern value sytems.... It is this natural physicality created in response to wind, rock, rain, sun, natural rhythms of sleep and waking, environmental sounds that makes me feel often out of place and disoreintated, not belonging, an outsider in highly mediated environments like malls, offices, and more and more, peoples homes. Steve Paxton said that Contact Improvisation grew in New York as a response to the fact that the only bit of nature that humans now have to deal with directly is gravity.

These thoughts lead me to think of either situating our work in a "natural" environment (whatever that might mean(????) or in a highly refined "non-natural one"... one in which the body/movement/physicality nature of our process and creation will seem "dirty"..... can we create such an environment? or do we need to find it?.... can we take a Natural frame and create a non-natural frame within it in which to place our response to natural forces....? Maybe we can do something like this as part of our process and documentation.

I see smelly t-shirt, rope and mud on a floor of of white bathroom tiles....

this all seems to have something to do with the ideas about climbing as a sport or not.... the sport idea locates the activity in the changing room and showers... in the sauna and the spa. The alternative has us washing in the sea or river and in the wooden Russian Banya....

... just some thoughts.... still no "clarity" on what it might mean.....

we DO need to take practical decisions soon. My feeling is that we have lots of background material, ideas, and we need to find a place to "apply" them soon so we can let that place seep into the process. In some way It seems that it almost doesn't matter what place (within reason). Anyway Ailbe is keen that we should have a decision by early on in February.

Prehen House

Empty Warehouse Space

Arts Faculty Building at Magee (underused in summer)

Foyer of Millennium Forum

A circus tent

A big lorry trailer (relates to your mobile cinema project and gives opportunity to travel the "show" and gives outside/inside (dark) possibilities, projection, structure to build onto and out from...

St Columbs Park and associated buildings (sports centre, st columbs park house,)

We don't have to do it in Derry.... so any spaces/places that appeal to you..... add to the list for consideration.

I am keen to do the embodying process more.... to revisit a location/route over and again to enbody more detail... to video the process in non-studio environments as well as in the studio... to photograph the details of a location/route.... do you have any ideas about a route that would be possible for me to "learn" and which would also be interesting for you..... or two routes in the same location.... what is your favourite climb.... or the one you find most intriguing? Could our "expedition" be a deep research into one route or a pair of related routes? Of course the research could include surrounding things... other routes nearby, the equipment, the food, the cups of tea... the filthy t-shirts etc..... but these things might focus on one route... one pattern of experience.... one changing relationship with the form of the rock... This could bring up interesting perspectives as a skilled experienced climber and as a novice.... the contrast between the musician with wide experience and skill and the one who has learned one tune on the same instrument....

.... I'll be in touch re- dates....

Happy New Year

Steve