PARIP 2005

International Conference | 29 June - 03 July 2005

Chapman: David | UK

This will be a presentation of a collaborative DVD-based research project which documents the performance practice developed around the playable sound sculptures, the Steel Cello and Bow Chime. This AHRB funded project, made in partnership with Adrian Palka of Coventry University, explores the development and the various contexts of performance of these sound sculptures, which have involved collaborations in the fields of dance, theatre, cabaret and moving image in addition to concert performance.

This DVD based project had two major aims. Firstly, to develop an understanding of an interdisciplinary performance practice relating to sound sculpture and secondly, to provide a lasting archival record of the historical development of Steel Cello and Bow Chimeperformance practice. The methodologies employed included those normally associated with documentary /documentation practice, i.e. videoed interviews, performance documentation and the collation of archive material in various media. This focused on the work of Bob Rutman who invented and developed these sound sculptures. Rutman’s work includes both individual and small ensemble performances alongside a wide range of collaborations across a number of disciplines, including work with Merce Cunningham, Heiner Goebells, Robert Wilson and Einstürzende Neubauten amongst many others. We also extended this process to examine the work of a second generation of practitioners with these sound sculptures, primarily Adrian Palka and German sound artist Wolfram Der Spyra. This examination of the second generation also aimed to make apparent the shifting status of these sound sculptures from ‘art object’ [unique work attached to an individual creator] to ‘musical instrument’ [multiple object used and developed by a number of practitioners in a variety of contexts and combinations]. 

As well as the specifics of the project, I will also be discussing the use of the DVD as a medium in a practice- based research context. I will examine the specific attributes of the DVD to provide a database of material in a variety of media, and its capacity to organise multiple views of an event and a range of additional material which can be presented alongside a linear document. This material could include research papers, previous work, direct links to online sources of information, or alternative edits which could allow for different modes of interrogation of the performance documentation. This poses the question, does the medium offer new possibilities for foregrounding the research aspect of performance documentation? I would suggest that the possibilities of the DVD medium can facilitate a clearer orientation through documentation material, foregrounding where appropriate the underlying research concerns of a performance work. This is of obvious use both to students and other researchers but also makes apparent ‘embodied’ research to other colleagues within academia.  Therefore making easier the peer review of performance based work in a research environment where the written word is the common currency.