Drawing with Light: Criw Celf workshop

To view the presentation I gave at the DIVERSE conference 2009, Aberyswyth University, click on:

http://echo360.aber.ac.uk:8080/ess/echo/presentation/f8de5ce6-43a5-4e7e-9624-a3109007b256

To know more about DIVERSE click on:

http://www.aber.ac.uk/diverse/

Here are a selection of the drawings I created during the rehearsal and performances of Skin Deep. Some are done by traditional “eyeballing” methods observational drawing. Others are made by using the visual mixer and projection technology.

I am presenting a paper at the DIVERSE conference:

http://www.aber.ac.uk/diverse

Drawing with Light: an exploration in the use and application of digital projection technologies for the teaching of embodied drawing.

Abstract

I am committed to delivering art workshops and residencies, which are about enabling participants to engage with their creativity through engaging in the processes I use as a professional artist.
On 21st March 2009 I delivered a Masterclass for Criw Celf (Gwynedd Arts Agency) to young people on “Performative Drawing”.

The methods I employ are part of my new practice to marry traditional modes of drawing and contemporary digital technology.

The Masterclass comprised of screening film footage I had made as part of my own work onto a large piece of heavy weight drawing paper. The young people were invited to draw directly onto the paper whist the film was being projected. The projection onto large paper was then repeated, but using a video mixer linked to a camera on an easel (with paper on board). The camera fed into a data projector and whilst drawing took place on the easel paper, the image and the hand doing the drawing was seen in the large projection on the screen. In the re-screening the participants experienced drawing in the film in a different way. It was still a “trace” of a moving image, but done in an entirely new way.

In order to visualise this process please view the film Tone Line Colour on my website: www.mariahayes.info

I will present my findings from the Masterclass using documentation of the workshop and will contextualize the role I see for the use of digital technology in the teaching of traditional drawing.

The performances of Skin Deep took place at Riverfront Arts Centre 5/6 June 2009.

The Wounded Selkie” is an old myth with a contemporary resonance. It speaks of the journey from anger to forgiveness, from prejudice to tolerance and of how we might learn to live alongside the “other”. Visual Art, Music and Dance combine to tell this story in another way and invites’ the audience into a world of emotion and mystery, to look more than “Skin Deep”

This production integrates traditional art forms with digital technologies to develop new possibilities of expression. Each performance has improvised sections and is therefore a unique experience every time.

International collaboration between Wales based (dancer) Paul Davies and (visual artist) Maria Hayes with Portuguese based (dancer) Sandra Moreira and (musician) Pedro Carneiro.

With special thanks to John Thorne for his technical advice and assistence.

Funded by Arts Council of Wales, Visiting Arts with additional support from Rubicon Dance, Cardiff and the Riverfront, Newport.

Some audience feedback:
“You took us on a real journey, I felt very moved”
“I wish I had come last night then I could have come again tonight” – someone who came on Saturday 6 June.

And an email from storyteller Michael Harvey:
“Just to say once more that I really enjoyed the show. The basic projection/movement thing you are doing is really sound and compelling and multi-layered and very human. I think that might be the big difference between what your doing and a lot of other stuff that mixes technology and live performance – you really go into the human aspect of it in a way that works with the intensity of the form.

…. I would like the telling of the story to be a lot more spare so that I can fill the gaps with the stuff that the other art forms are throwing up. I only realized much later that you were having an Yves Klein moment with Sandra on the floor!”