Coleridge

The sense of the sublime "arises, not from the sight of an outward object, but from the beholder's reflection upon it; not from the sensuous impression, but from the imaginative reflex."

Coleridge (1853), cited in The Library at Night by Alberto Manguel (2008: 17)

This voting thing that goes on as part of The Place Prize has made me think a lot about how it is that we respond to work, and the nature of those responses. As a choreographer/director my interest is in finding ways of provoking a viewer, to make demands on her/his perceptual, conceptual and kinesthetic experience. But, at the same time, I seek to embed 'ways in' into the work, footholds with which the viewer might climb into the form-content. I recognise that Gertrud is not particularly 'easy' in this respect. In the context of The Place Prize, perhaps this was a mistake?

Tinkering

Tomorrow (Monday 15th September) I have another opportunity to tinker with the production of Gertrud. I've had a bit of feedback from various people about the darkness of the slide component of the work ... it left people feeling uncertain as to what the shapes were, and whether or not they were accidentally out of focus (they weren't out of focus, just sort of black on black shadow). Initially I was interested in the dancing figures (of Bodenwieser) being like a 'shadow of a ghost'. Tomorrow, however, we'll get the chance to play with different amounts of light in this slideshow section ...

I think it feels good to have the chance to trial a few things that have come directly out of performing the work.