Day Four: Collaborating modes of expression

It's difficult to know how else to describe last Thursday evening's gathering. After a series of vocal and body warm-up exercises from Heather Dick, we again formed three groups. People wanting to work in drama and spoken word went with Heather, others wanting to do visual art went with Nicole -- with Andrea to arrive later -- leaving the large room with all the musical instruments for eleven others to improvise with Rick on a couple of soundscapes.

Having been reading David Rothenberg's book on music and nature, and explored a site on "experimental musical instruments", I opted this time to try collaborating on a soundscape.

Rick led the entire group in a brief session of improvising with a variety of simple small hand-held instruments (none of them as grand -- or wet! -- as in this brief video at http://youtube.com/watch?v=8p1QMEOK50I) before dividing us into two groups. Each group was to take as a theme an element and compose a short piece evoking the actions of that element -- in our case an illustration of a riddle for the sounds of the wind. With about a half -hour time limit to create a soundscape to present to the entire group, the process was an intensely involving blend of spontaneity, experimentation, and collaboration that all somehow came together very effectively.

When all three groups convened and presented what we'd worked on, it seemed as if the components of a larger piece were actually starting to take shape. The performance piece inspired by the element of Earth was charged with energy. The visual constructions are still exploratory, for they require a lot more time to make, but what has been built to date indicates that the visuals will be responsive, as will the music, to the voice and movement of the drama group, and that the drama group in turn will be able to incorporate the other modes of expression into what they've begun to develop.

Given that only six more weeks remain to create the ultimate piece, we are each to select a modality (soundscape, drama, visual art) to focus on for the rest of the project. My initial notion was to work with voice and drama, since they relate to my storytelling. However, the soundscape session completely captured my curiosity. I'd never before attempted anything like the experience of shaping sounds in a group: it's exciting and engages not only close listening but a connection with body and imagination I hadn't anticipated.