Oil/Gas 'Producing Fields' - or Ocean

Map identifying a plot of ocean acreage owned by Santos energy conglomerate within the Carnarvon Basin in the Gascoyne region mid-west of Western Australia (image taken from Santos website).
Having arrived in the Kalbarri this evening watching the sunset over still, still water, the truck pulled over the ridge driving north along the scenic route into Kalbarri. The ocean was spectacular - so overwhelmingly ginormous. It seemed deep - probably because we were so far above it looking down on an angle. With the brilliant solar glow on the blue mass it looked so daunting, as I imaged the life moving and breathing under its surface - vast and expansive. How to correlate with the image of this map representing the 'significant acreage... with interests in 10 producing fields'. Taken from: beta.fusion.com.au/sts/026/public/exploration-acreage/carnarvon-basin.aspx

This blog wishes to address the variation and breadth in our language in describing a location, and the associated perception that the words generate of that place. How do we address this variation in terms of perceiving / imaging / imagining a faraway place, but still hold/acknowledge cultural, historical or other significance?

Jun-Aug 2011 Project Update

Adaptation Cross-disciplinary research Intensive, 9 days in April 2010, Dartmoor National Park, southwest England UK. Artists L to R: Katie Etheridge, Llewyn Maire, Manuel Vason (back), Lisa Newman, Carla Vendramin, Rachel Sweeney (front), Michelle Outram. Camera: Marnie Orr.

COME AND JOIN US!

Time is nigh for the following projects happening for Dr Rachel Sweeney and Marnie Orr, continuing their Orr & Sweeney collaborative research through X-disciplinary arts, this time in Australia. Intensives presented under ROCKface collective title.

Timeline:

June
ADSA conference workshop (Orr & Sweeney) and paper (Dr Sweeney)
Sweeney (travelling from north-west England) & Orr (coming from southwest Australia) meet in Melbourne to present at the Australasian Drama Studies Association conference.

July
RESILIENCE - PHYSICAL WORKSHOP INTENSIVE
Thurs 20 – Sun 24
CIA Studios: Centre Interdisciplinary Arts, West Perth Western Australia – main Workshop space
AM 10am - 1pm; PM 2pm - 5/6pm

Bodyweather based MB practice in mornings OR afternoons, working between studio and site, open forum for ROCKface facilitated and/or self guided research practice.


RESILIENCE - REFLECTION PERIOD
Wed 27 – Fri 29 Metricup Studios, down south
Come down for a day or 2. Phone for a chat.


August
SANDSKIN | BLOODWATER - CROSS ARTS COLLABORATIVE PROJECT
1 – 4 Lake Grace
Working with sculptor Tania Spencer as well as local photographers, a writer, another visual artist.
Gaining special access to a location of white cliffs hopefully.
Accommodation TBC, requires a chat.
This is going to be a sensation.
Working toward self-sustained and/or live directed activities as in Bridgetown, July 09 (focus on the visual art – dance collaboration).

PLEASE JOIN US as an artist or researcher.

Survival strategies

Coastal waters running from inland in ebbs and flows. A massive 12-hour tide in Barmouth, Snowdonia, Wales UK shows the consistent, neverending cycle of water movement. What happens when this cycle is interrupted by unusual weather patterns and events like cyclones and floods?

The human body starts going into shut down or 'safety mode' if for instance there is not enough water coming in to its system to equalise what is coming out of it, on a 24-hour daily cycle. Skin stretches and cracks, livers weaken, bowel motions stiffen.

What then can we take from the knowledge of the ecology of the water cycle and apply to ourselves, in identifying survival strategies to engage the human in when dealing with gross environmental change?