Workshop: Alberta University of the Arts
Monday, October 17, 2005 - Friday, October 28, 2005
Performance Cabaret: Nickle Galleries
Saturday, October 29, 2005
The Virtual Bodies workshop is aimed at exploring different strategies for situating the body in performance within technologised spaces. Part practical and in part dealing with artistic concepts, the workshop aims to enable the development of projects to presentation stage. Working across different disciplines we will consider multiple ways of working with technologies. Comprising a small group of dedicated artists, the workshop will consider the following issues, as pertinent to each individual project:
The relationship of ‘the body’ to the space it inhabits
The context and the spaces in which the work exists
The issue of presence and how one situates presence with different technologies
Use of self in performance, especially the video double or web avatar
The relationship of the performing body to the technologies used in the artwork
How best to present the work – video installation/webcast/live performance
Participants will come to the workshop with an idea or project – it need not be fully shaped but it must be brought to a stage where it can be professionally presented at the end-of-workshop show. The show/presentation will take the form of a Performative Cabaret to be held at the Nickle Arts Museum, Calgary. An important component of the workshop will be to encourage collective thinking and skills swapping amongst the participants and how best to make the presentation a strong event for everyone involved. Participants will be expected to work hard and to support each other to developed a strong contextual awareness. Above all the workshop is intended to allow participants to experiment and play with their ideas and strategies.
Anita Ponton lives and works in London. Educated at Central St. Martins School of Art and Goldsmiths College, she is currently completing her doctorate in Fine Art. Trained as a painter/sculptor, she now works principally in performance, situating her body as site, as process and as object. Her work has been exhibited/performed internationally, including events and shows at the ICA London, the Venice Biennale and the Liljevalch Kunsthalle, Stockholm. She teaches at undergraduate and post-graduate level and curates performance events and exhibitions in unusual places. Her practice is currently concerned with the relationship of the body in performance to technology and to feminine representation.
Co-presenters
