Post-Immersion

Spent the last week at Carriageworks with the most amazing bunch of audiovisual artists as part of Gail Priest and Sam James curated project Immersion: Electric Empathy. A week long residency where we sort of set up a temporary band rehearsal structure which I loved - getting together with an incredibly strong contingent of artists who know their stuff, know how to dive straight into explorations of sound and image. My sound work was predominantly made in collaboration with Sam, but also had the distinct opportunity to improvise with Peter Newman, whose work I want to marry (is it possible to marry an artwork? surely it would be easier that trying to bypass the gay marriage laws? or would it be seen as an act of terror?). Dubbed 'an exploration of the audiovisual subconscious', all the material resonated strongly (for me) with the recent violent storms in NSW. A kind of blissful and overwhelming sense of drowning has been the theme carried by the experience of being in this place for the past 3 weeks (I also spent a week working on electronic sound design material and live audio with Belgian choreographer, Hans van den Broeck, too - on the development of the Settlement project). Sydney-siders had assured me they'd 'never seen weather like this' and so the whole experience of literally not being able to go outside for fear of being blown onto the road and killed was palpable. The rain kept falling and all 7 Immersion artists were encased in the ice-box studio at Carriageworks, planning and rehearsing two 45 minute 'sets' which we then performed over 2 nights, 50 people per night.

As a residency, the 7 of us found ways to work with each other, to be sensitive to the aesthetic choices we each made, to find ways into each others sounds and visuals, to really explore what it means to match the sonic and cinematic without compromising one or the other.

As a residency, I hope it happens again.