COPE (Communities of practice emerging) Second workshop, Bega, Sunday March 31 2019

Footage from the second workshop of the COPE (Communities of practice emerging) project in the Bega Valley. Initiated by Gabriela Green Olea the project is funded under a CASP (Country Arts Support Program) grant administered by Regional Arts NSW (RANSW) on behalf of Create NSW. Apart from the introductory talk all performances were impromptu improvisations.

Liquid Electric Dance

Dance: Alison Plevey & Gabriela Green Olea. Music: BoomBox. Video: Bob Georgeson from original footage shot by Martin Ollman. This video is supported by CREATE NSW, with special thanks to fLiNG Physical Theatre and QL2 Dance.

Cormorant Dance

This video is the result of the third visit to Camel Rock on Monday November 12th 2018. Performance by Gabriela Green Olea...

Third Visit November 12th 2018 (stills)

Pics from yesterday's session at Camel Rock with the incredible Gabriela Green Olea! Video to come soon...

The Language of Space

First Visit March 5th 2018

Documentation of the first discussion about the development of a video/performance work. With Gabriela Green Olea (dancer and social artist), Joy Georgeson (sculptor) and Bob Georgeson (video artist). Camel Rock, South Eastern Australia, Monday March 5th 2018.

Sun Dance

A celebration of life and the love of nature. Choreography and dance by Alina Stefan. Music by Alessio Lottero. Video by Bob Georgeson.

Projection experiment #3

Photos taken from a day of video projection experiments to show scale and resolution...

Old Bega Hospital

Old Bega Hospital is my favourite building in the local area. Sadly fire has left it in a state of disrepair. Recently funds were allocated to re-roof the building as a start towards restoration. It is obviously needed as an important part of the local heritage. However, I like it just the way it is, and although I recognise that it won't remain like this forever, I do think that it is in a perfect state for an intervention. Whether this be projection or performance or both I  am open to suggestions. Of course, all highly illegal, but nothing ventured, nothing gained? Contact me if interested...

Shadow Chase

Sometime in the latter half of last year Ana Cordeiro Reis (Hyaena Fierling) had asked me if I was interested in providing her with a half-an-hour of video footage that she could then compose to with a view to it being used in a live performance in the UK. Naturally the chance to work with her was all the motivation needed, and so we began discussions on the what, the where and the how.

I had recently had my work projected publicly for the first time (as opposed to being shown on a flat-screen TV in a gallery setting) and was thinking about the need to tailor the work to the environment in which it was to be shown, so my first questions were about where Ana was planning to perform. Locations in Birmingham and possibly The Gregson Institute in Liverpool were mentioned and I spent some time researching the type of places these were and the type of performances held in them, as well as looking at Ana's other recorded live performances on YouTube and Vimeo.

The spaces were fairly small and intimate (as opposed to stadium type) and the projection would not be on a huge scale. I had to consider peripheral lighting, possible people movement and that Ana would be weaving her magic against a backdrop of my imagery. To produce a narrative or anything too subtle seemed pointless, so the challenge was to make something visually interesting in such a setting over the space of half-an-hour as well as maintaining some continuity and having some alignment, if not meaning, with Ana's aesthetic.

We discussed via Skype a theme. Dreams, journeys, imaginary landscapes, juxtapositions...

Ana sent some footage via WeTransfer of road movies she had taken in Portugal and also some still images from her vast collection. I had also been working on footage from unrelated sources, so it was a matter of trying to find a balance between her suggestions and what I needed to maintain my interest and enthusiasm.

I had never made a video of this length before (10 minutes being the previous max). I also was used to working to a soundtrack, not in silence. I was not comfortable with using still images (seemed like a slide show) so I began merging the road movies with dream like snippets. At this point the combined footage ran for less than 20 minutes. I thought that to have some footage of Ana herself might be a nice touch, so that the audience could see that the film was specifically about her as opposed to some random imagery.

Over a few months life and work get in the way of the best laid plans. Other little projects crop up, ideas get modified, directions change. I was doing long road trips from one end of the state to the other, Ana was in UK one day, Portugal the next. Occasionally snippets would arrive, we continued our Skype discussions and I continued to try to build the film without really knowing what the soundtrack would be. I must admit at this time I was really struggling to maintain continuity, so when some more footage arrived of Ana dancing it became the catalyst to start bringing it all together. I compiled the film out to around 28 minutes and sent a rough cut back. I had called it 'The Dreams of Ana'.

It was only a matter of a few days when a 10 minute soundscape came back with the title of 'shadow chase'. From here on it gave me the direction I needed to start pulling it all together, and so began the tightening up and working out the colour harmonies and 'flow'. Also Ana sent some more footage of her hands and shadows which helped me to resolve issues I was having with the start and end. I got to a point where I thought that this was about as good as it is going to get, so sent off the second draft. She continued with finishing the composition, and so Shadow Chase was born...

The soundtrack will be released as part of an EP, and we will let you know when the live performances are likely to take place. 

You can download the film from the Internet Archive here...

Our other collaborations have been:

Why is this happening?

The Illusion of Freedom

I forget you

Ana's website is: akousmata

Hyaena Fierling: TIMELEAP live

Following on from the recent post 'The grass is always greener...' (see below) this video has just been released of Hyaena Fierling presenting her suite TIMELEAP as soundtrack for Artavad Pelechian's Seasons of the Year. Performance at the Old Mo, Birmingham UK, Oct 2013. Enjoy...

3 points of a circle

Performance proposal: Griet Menschaert - sound; Denitsa Dicova - dance; Bob Georgeson - video

An earlier post Across a troubled world referred to a collaborative project I have been working on this year. We have decided to go public with some of the material, and below are the 5 video experiments in descending order from most recent to the earliest, plus the above performance proposal.

Projection experiment #2

Projection experiment #1

With the recent collaboration between Griet, Denitsa and myself and the new multidimensional art space in Bega fresh in my mind it has been timely to be able to experiment for a few hours with a borrowed data projector. The experiments revolved around departing from the static single projection on to a screen to exploring uneven surfaces, back projection and transparent 'curtains'. A long way to go yet, but it's a start...

 Seeing how long one can hold one arm up before collapsing in pain!

Giving the neighbours a show. They all think we are strange anyway...

The star in these three pics is Pinot, the cat. Singularly unimpressed with the human's feeble attempt at creativity...

...and special thanks to Joy for helping out.

ReArtVision

Well...it had to happen eventually. Bega catching up with the rest of the world that is. If not quite there yet with aesthetically pleasing architecture then at least the germ of a creative 'movement' that has been propelled by the current (and inaugural) Festival of the Face, an offshoot of the now national, and lucrative Shirley Hannan Portrait Award. And a major part of the transformation has been the 'occupation' of the old Retravision electrical retail store into a multidimensional art space.

Saturday night saw an 'event', hopefully among the first of many, where the pictures on walls concept was augmented by performance, films and music. And an opportunity for me to have some of my videos projected on the 'big' screen. Many thanks to Richard Maude and Tony Dean for making it all happen...

The space transformed

Musician Dr Chris Korvin at the 'operating' table

Some of my photomontages

Still from 'Black Red White'

Still from 'Black Red White'

Still from 'Broken'

You can follow Festival of the Face on Facebook here...

Billie Holiday

I find it hard to write about Billie Holiday without getting very emotional. In fact I don't even listen to her recordings all that often for the same reason. It is hard to comprehend what an unbelievably tragic life she had, to the point where one is sickened to the core by man's inhumanity to man. These two performances I post today with a sense of frustration that there is still so much injustice in the world, and in the hope that the messages can still touch us enough to take a stand against oppression and continue to fight for freedom of speech and expression. April Fool's Day tomorrow and believe me Humanity: the jokes on you...

Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit


Billie Holiday - Fine and Mellow