'Looking from a distance' at Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival 2011

'Looking from a distance' exhibition at the Gymnasium Gallery will be a part of this years Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival, which will run from the 23rd - 25th September. The programme is now online, click here for more information.

Editing 'Without Mind'

Been a really busy week of editing the new work and making preparations for Looking from a distance, which opens on the 10th September. The work is looking really great thanks to the editing skills of Andrzej Wojtas (Hacksquad) and we are now making the final adjustments to the colour grade and sound.

I am thinking of using either Without Mind or The Mind Without Mind for the title of the piece. Both are translations of Zen expressions, either mushin or mushin no shin, which refers to the idea of focus through a de-focusing of thought, losing anger, fear and ego and achieving a sense of flow. The term applies directly to the practice of the Japanese martial arts though it can be achieved in other areas of life. Scientific research has shown that martial arts practitioners have an increased ability to regulate brain wave activity through entering this flow 'zone'.

Dance City shoot

Creative Summer Residency @ Dance City - part 2

Started working with Andrzej Wojtas and Ewelina Aleksandrowicz (Hacksquad) yesterday capturing some video footage of selected clips. I was amazed at the quality achieved with the Panasonic camera they were using. The close up shots of showing texture and quality of skin are absolutely amazing. We are now hoping to work with Red cam, Which is capable of capturing with a faster shutter speed at 120fps, so will be able to recreate the shots and capture even more minute detail in the movement and expression.

Tomorrow we will also be working with cinematographer Kyle Heslop.

Stills from the shoot yesterday...

Creative Summer Residency @ Dance City - part 1

I was very happy to receive funding from Arts Council recently to both begin development of a new body of work and install an exhibition at the Berwick Gymnasium Gallery, which will also be part of this years Berwick Film and Media Festival.

Since Monday I have been working at Dance City with my Grandad on a Creative Summer week long residency. The experience so far has been amazing! After 25 years of training he has attained the level of black belt, 3rd Dan in Wado Ryu style karate.

Watching him perform the karate katas (choreographed movement phrases involving blocks and attacks) in the past it has appeared both complex and in some way simple. I realise now that achieving the appearance of simplicity is very difficult. Monday and Tuesday we worked together as teacher (Sensei) and student as I attempted to learn the first black belt kata (Seishan). It was fascinating to learn, but more interesting to learn from my Grandad and to see him change from the the man I know to the intense focused state when performing. He told me that when he is performing the kata's he sees nothing else, everything else disappears.

During the fisrt 2 days I also observed my grandad performing three of the black belt kata -Seishan, Basai and Rohai - and began capturing some of the more dynamic moves.