Rewriting distance︎︎︎
This is a performance workshop creating an open space for allowing time to be felt and measured by our own looking—where the cadences of time improvise themselves within various art practices simultaneously. Thus Rewriting Distance generates “a world that is crescent rather than created; that is always in the making rather than ready-made” Creativity and Cultural Improvisation, Hallam & Ingold, 2007, pp. 2—3.
The original form has three participants: a performer, a witness seated in a chair and an audience person seated behind the witness chair. The practice begins as the performer in an open space, with a table and paper for drawing or writing, who begins to move, speak or write. The witness can join the performer at any point they choose, and the performer can leave the space at any point they choose. The audience person moves into the witness chair when the witness enters the performance space and the event unravels in this manner; as each participant moves through the various roles. The table with paper and pen creates an island inside the open space where people are free to write, draw, read, sculpt, etc. The form can take on many participants (one to 20) and in larger group settings there are more participants in the audience position who pass through into the performance through the threshold of the witness chair.
The original form has three participants: a performer, a witness seated in a chair and an audience person seated behind the witness chair. The practice begins as the performer in an open space, with a table and paper for drawing or writing, who begins to move, speak or write. The witness can join the performer at any point they choose, and the performer can leave the space at any point they choose. The audience person moves into the witness chair when the witness enters the performance space and the event unravels in this manner; as each participant moves through the various roles. The table with paper and pen creates an island inside the open space where people are free to write, draw, read, sculpt, etc. The form can take on many participants (one to 20) and in larger group settings there are more participants in the audience position who pass through into the performance through the threshold of the witness chair.
︎︎︎from Rewriting Distance, a long durational arts practice and exchange between dramaturg Guy Cools and choreographer, dancer Lin Snellng
Welcome to mapping collaboration, a toolbox for workshopping and creating across disciplines...
In spite of a long history of interdisciplinary creation, from our earliest recorded arts to our present moment, artistic pedagogy has created divisions between disciplines. This has left artists in a "post-Babel" condition where we don't share the same language and definitions. It’s also encouraged artists to develop practices for devising, creating and composing work that are distinct to their disciplines.
In spite of a long history of interdisciplinary creation, from our earliest recorded arts to our present moment, artistic pedagogy has created divisions between disciplines. This has left artists in a "post-Babel" condition where we don't share the same language and definitions. It’s also encouraged artists to develop practices for devising, creating and composing work that are distinct to their disciplines.
The inspiration for this project came from faculty and students at Simon Fraser University’s School for the Contemporary Arts where BFA, MFA and PhD programs in Dance, Theatre Production and Design, Visual Art, Film, and Music and Sound all work together in studio settings and playfully experiment with processes of art-making.
We wanted to create a database of projects, assignments and theory that we collect inside the studio and from research happening in other places. We are curious about how we collaborate and how structures reoccur, translate and deviate from one discipline to another.
Composition is central to these processes and offers a base for our approaches and experiments. We are excited about what our students are doing and inspired by the new languages in contemporary art and performance we continue to see develop.
︎︎︎select a category above to build assignments, learn more about how artists process ideas across disciplines and to create a collaborative process of your own
︎︎︎these tools are collected and used in workshops and classes; some are resources from artists; some are quotes about art-making and how bodies think and listen; others are ideas to expand and disrupt your own training and processes.
︎︎︎Each idea is intentially short- and not meant to be executed as written, but to be adapted to your own practice and specific project/context. Some may be taken in parts or combined with others to spark new ways of training and making together.
︎︎︎submit your own ideas and tools so we can keep building this site!
︎︎︎select a category above to build assignments, learn more about how artists process ideas across disciplines and to create a collaborative process of your own
︎︎︎these tools are collected and used in workshops and classes; some are resources from artists; some are quotes about art-making and how bodies think and listen; others are ideas to expand and disrupt your own training and processes.
︎︎︎Each idea is intentially short- and not meant to be executed as written, but to be adapted to your own practice and specific project/context. Some may be taken in parts or combined with others to spark new ways of training and making together.
︎︎︎submit your own ideas and tools so we can keep building this site!
