'Gunfighter' – a cross disciplinary, multi-medial and collaborative exploration of ideas and processes around 'Gesamtkunstwerk'.
Bennett, Evelyn and Rutter, Christopher (2015) 'Gunfighter' – a cross disciplinary, multi-medial and collaborative exploration of ideas and processes around 'Gesamtkunstwerk'. [3D Design, Digital art, Performance, Printmaking, Sculpture, Sound art, Teaching, Textiles, Video]
The aim of the project was to work towards producing a multi-medial and collaborative work incorporating some of the ideas of a 'Gesamtkunstwerk'. It was also an exploration of collaborative multi-disciplinary practice and how this might be facilitated. With a variety of collaborators (10), from circus performers (Circo Rumbaba and Katie Welsford) and filmmakers (Lesley Davies-Evans) to digital artists (Genetic Moo), textile designers (Evelyn Bennett), sculptors (Chris Rutter and Evelyn Bennett) and musicians (Rebecca Waterworth of Collectress and Chris Rutter), the objective was to see how far an existing piece of work, a collage entitled 'Gunfighter', could be extended into different media. The project performances and experiments took place over a week at Limbo Artspace, Margate.
From a textile design perspective one objective was to explore alternative ways and methods in which textile designs can be created and to explore the use of narrative within textile design. Another area of interest was experimentation with the use of 2 dimensional imagery on 3 dimensional forms/sculpture.
Ideas and methods from, amongst other sources, Dada theatre and literature (Tzara and Ball), Russian revolutionary theatre (Eisenstein and Malevich and works such as 'Victory over the Sun') were central to the approach of the project.
Different improvisational and cross-disciplinary techniques were experimented with using the interactions of sound, music, spoken word/narrative, light and digital projection, performance and movement. Results were documented using appropriate media.
From the collage a cut-up poem was created which was later made into an illustrated paper publication (ISBN 978-0-9930502-8-2). A wearable sculpture was created using fabric digitally printed with the 'Gunfighter' collage image which was used in the performance. Musicians improvised around the live action of the performances and the performers interacted with movement sensors which created projected images using software developed by Genetic Moo. A film was made of the performances which was shown to the public. The poem publication was available to the public. Digital imagery and video produced by interaction with the Genetic Moo software was used in creating new textile designs. A musical sound track was recorded and used in a short film. These were shown at a UCA research conference.
Significant progress was made towards the production of a large scale piece of work ready for public show at a later date and with further funding.
The project was funded by UCA and the Wellcome Trust (Genetic Moo).
Links to Gunfighter poem, Keeper of the Patterns and Digital encounters
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4893-936X and Rutter, Christopher
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