RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
Since December 2019 I have been a permanent resident of the Watershed’s Pervasive Media Studio in Bristol, where I am exploring ways to enhance my live illustration practice with the help of creative technologies through various R&D projects. I am particularly interested in creating live drawn set designs, by projecting my live illustrations during various performances to expand their reach.
LIVE DRAWN STAGES
Photography © Khali Ackford
Live Drawn Stages is a R&D project gratefully supported by Visual Arts South West as well as Watershed’s Pervasive Media Studio. Taking from the learnings of previous project Live Illustration Expanded (see below), I partnered with Bristol-based performer Tom Marshman to live illustrate on stage two of his existing projects: Butterflies & Dinner Ladies and Clause 28. This time I had the opportunity to create live drawn sets on “real” stages, two of Bristol’s landmark venues: St George’s and Ashton Court’s Arts Mansion. It was fascinating to experiment with symbolic texts and explore how live drawings can extend the metaphor to create a magical atmosphere.
Read more about this project on Watershed’s blog.
LIVE ILLUSTRATION EXPANDED
Photography © Khali Ackford
Live Illustration Expanded is a R&D project gratefully supported by Arts Council England DYCP grant that took place between April and October 2021. Through this project I wanted to make an ambitious shift in my ability to produce and support physical and virtual stage events with live drawings with the help of projection mapping and live streaming. As a live illustrator, I have always felt that there is an under-explored potential in how live illustration can transform physical and virtual environments, and be a performance in its own right. I explored this through two prototype collaborative performances, one physical and one virtual. I am lucky to be surrounded by the fabulous team at Watershed’s Pervasive Media Studio in Bristol and the following brilliant collaborators:
Lawrence Hoo, poet
Xavier Velastín, sound artist
Limbic Cinema, multimedia design studio
Toby Harris, creative technologist
Watch the Live Illustration Expanded performances here
Sharing Live Illustration Expanded with an audience: A lunchtime talk at the Pervasive Media Studio
I really enjoyed talking about the project at Watershed’s Pervasive Media Studio in Bristol during a hybrid lunchtime talk. It was a brilliant way to cloture the project and to think about what’s next for the future. Follow this link to replay the talk, watch both performances and live chat.
This project is made possible with the support of
ACROSS THE ROOM: ETHNO AUGMENTING SOCIAL REALITIES
I was very pleased to team up with the fabulous Imwen Eke, Takita Bartlett and Will Taylor as the collective Across the Room. We were been selected as a recipient of the Pervasive Media Studio’s Future Themes fund for our project Ethno Augmenting Social Realities. We explored how to create multi-user tools for cultural relevance in physical and digital spaces to produce more inclusive experiences. I personally focused on developing an enhanced live illustration practice to expand the possibilities of virtual graphic recording.
We discussed our findings during an online lunchtime talk at the Pervasive Media Studio and in this blog article written by Will Taylor.
EXQUISITE CORPSE
EXQUISITE CORPSE was a series of three virtual live illustration performances taking place at the end of August 2020. You can see the three episodes on replay here.
Through this series of short live illustration performances, I wanted to give the audience a moment of peace and quiet, perhaps even a meditative experience. The liveness of the performance brought people to the heart of my drawing process, triggering a range of emotions that I hope were liberating. Carefully curated to ambient soundscapes, EXQUISITE CORPSE invited its audience to a playful, quirky but relaxing experience during the first summer of the pandemic. It was an opportunity for me to learn about live streaming using the software OBS.
EXQUISITE CORPSE became then a print, a merging on paper of the three virtual performances and incorporating QR codes leading to the replay of the performances. In my journey to develop my live illustration practice through the help of creative technologies at the Pervasive Media Studio, I am interested to explore what stays after a performance, what traces of an event we can imagine to go beyond a nice visual shared on Instagram. This is a first attempt to answer the question. The print can be purchased here.
This activity is gratefully supported by a grant from Arts Council England Emergency Respond Fund for individuals.