Category: collaborating

After along time of missing each others schedules, josh and I finally found some time that aligned for us to film. We set off to Richmond Park in the evening in hopes of catching the sun set to back drop josh’s movement without many other expectations.

I consistently find that having low expectations, being present in the moment, play and experimentation to foster the best environment for creating authentic and earnest work. This is the environment Josh and I attempt to build when we are working together. “What if we did this?” is my favourite question, and more often than not the answer will be “What’s the harm in trying?”.

When you allow yourself to be vulnerable with your ideas and trust in your collaborator and their skills, I think only good things can come from that.

Here are some clips before we start the edit:

In today’s session, we were introduced to the Das Theatre model for feedback, a system designed to shake up traditional critique formats and get everyone more actively involved. Out of all the methods we explored, gossip round easily stood out as my favourite.

It’s a style of group critique where participants talk about the work and the artist as if the artist isn’t in the room—even though they’re sitting right there. This playful shift means everyone refers to the artist in the third person (“I think she’s exploring something really bold here,” or “He seems unsure in this section”).

It might sound a bit strange at first, but there’s real value in it. By introducing a bit of emotional distance, it takes the sting out of feedback. The artist doesn’t feel personally attacked because the focus stays on interpretation, not confrontation. It’s less “You did this wrong” and more “I wonder what’s going on with this choice.”

That subtle shift makes space for more honest, open conversations—without putting people on the defensive. And honestly, it’s just more fun. There’s a slightly conspiratorial, performative energy to it that helps everyone loosen up and lean into curiosity over critique.

Taoist paintings usually contain large, sprawling landscapes of nature. Artists often showcase natures grandeur by depicting humans as small and insignificant in comparison to it—if featured at all, they fill a tiny, off centre portion of the frame. Another key feature of Taoist works are the writing which commonly occupy the corner of the piece.

These features of Taoist paintings serve as a great inspiration as I move forwards in this project, with this being one of the first times I have shot a video for anything besides a hobby. The use of ‘white space’ is also something that I love about these works, every detail seems to have been carefully thought out with composition being a great focus.

Below are some photos I have taken with this type of framing in mind (in build up to the shoot day for this project) and some Taoist paintings for reference.

欧豪年 (Ōu Háo Nián)

马远 (Ma Yuan)

Mao Yi

Here are the three sound pieces that I have made for this project. Keeping in mind that josh is still to add spoken word, I decided to use for drone like soundscapes to give the other elements of the project to breathe and not take too much of the audiences attention—but also to offer a safe and calming presence.

After asking around and pitching my ideas to my creative friends, someone has reached out who I would be more than happy to work with again. Joshua is someone who I have collaborated with multiple times now, with each project varying in approach and outcome, I’m looking forward to seeing where this project will take us. 

At first we sat and thought about which concepts we could explore, but decided that it would come to us when the time was right. He pitched the idea of writing some haikus based off of the music I would made—both stemming off what ever theme we would come to chose. I loved the idea and suggested that the haikus could connect to form a longer piece, lets see where this goes…

Here are some notes from our conversation:

-collection of haikus that make up one complete poem

-video in parks, nature, around the city for each haiku

-music based on thematic content

-poem read by josh/ sang by me

Although josh and I haven’t been able to get together and work on the actual creation of this project yet, we have met up to share many ideas about where we are taking it and both feel like we are making progress. This is a proof of concept video that I contains videos taken while exploring the hills in Ireland, poems by josh and music I have been working on for a different project. I don’t think the final video will look anything like this but for the purpose of getting feedback from my peers at the crit it should hold some value.

After the first collaborating session, the independent interdisciplinary project seems to be the pathway that will allow me to explore the most creative ideas, however I will wait to see the animation students pitches before I make a clear choice. However, I do have some ideas that for the interdisciplinary project that I’m going to note here:

Idea 1:

Collaborating with design student to create a synth or some kind of physical sound production device. This will definitely push my boundaries.

Idea 2:

An EP, poems and/or set of videos based off a philosophical concept, similar in approach used when making Wu Wei. I have some close collaborators in mind for this already.