Creative Collaborations

Together is Better

As if multimedia wasn't exciting enough in its own right, the power and scope that can be achieved when different Creative Media combine and work on collaborative projects together are all the more magnified. Take a master of one medium, a rock star, and put them together with a master in cinematography, say, or virtual reality, and the result is a creative masterpiece. here are just 3 examples to get a taste and flavour of what's possible.

Fantastic Reality

Bjork has been wowing audiences with her idiosyncratic vocal performances for around 25 years, attracting a faithful following from her early days fronting the Sugar Cubes. Her evolution as a performing artiste involved her breaking out on her own to pursue a solo career; some acting, and an attention-grabbing line in costumes. Cue: James Merry, long-time collaborator, and mask-maker extraordinaire: a uniquely matched pairing of innovative creatives over a period of 10 years. Merry, with his academic background (including ancient Greek) and love of embroidery, and wildly original designs was stretched beyond anything he had created before by Bjork's new venture into the world of Virtual Reality, in Vulnicura VR. In fact, everyone was stretched by the requirements of this particular concept. New ways had to be invented for mastering and mixing the audio for the VR, a task that was taken on by mastering engineer, Mandy Parnel, and Martin Korth, who had to work out ways of mastering 'stems' and real-time - all totally beyond me, and it took them months to accomplish the task; a huge undertaking, to create the right kind of 360-surround-sound. But, that's what comes of the creative urge, and Bjork's love of keeping abreast with, if not forging ahead with, new technologies - it's up to everyone else to keep up! Hard to boil it down to one partner - so much was expected of so many to make the project work. 

Moving on from previously used Samsung Gear V.R. to HTC Vive headset, and two hand-held controllers, made for a more immersive experience with its full room tracking. In her own words: 'I build bridges between tech and the human things we do'. In fact, she believes VR will one day be as available as iPhones, but at this stage, it's much like anyone who practices their craft for hundreds of hours so that it appears effortless. Huge kudos to all involved - whole team who were needed to make the magic happen, including directors Warren Du Preez & Nick Thornton Jones. And then there's the animation...a mycelium of hidden collaborators all working together as one creative organism.

 

So, who would go to experience the Bjork Digital on its tour? The old faithfuls, for sure, but also techie nerds; costume designers; and, starry-eyed escapists from Reality-Reality.

A Body of Work

In any dance performance you would naturally assume, even expect, that the costumes play as much a part as the dancers. This couldn't be more so than in Body Meets Dress, Dress Meets Body, (otherwise known as 'Lumps and Bumps'), a creative collaboration between American dance choreographer, Merce Cunningham, and Japanese High Fashion Designer, Rei Kawakubo, who founded Comme des Garcons. What did they have in common? 

Both could be described as Radical. Merce was known to push boundaries in his field, challenging the roles of dancer and audience; detaching the dancer's movement from the dictates of the rhythm, mood and structure of the music: flying in the face of convention, and, as it happened eager to embrace technology, being a pioneer of using T.V., video and computers, as well as body sensors, as a choreographic tool. 

Rei Kawakubo is also a Radical, and Revolutionary Visionary, or vice versa; challenging traditional forms of garments, notoriously pushing the limits of wearability. She once described her work as similar to Zen koans - unsolvable puzzles. A perfect match for Cunningham who favoured the use of chance and randomness in his pieces, often using the I Ching or throwing dice to determine certain outcomes; he gave Rei free rein in her design concept. The result was bound to be extraordinary.

Kawakobe made a point of emphasizing sexualised aspects of the human body; but then, hasn't that always been the case? Think of bustles, and corsets. There's also a nod to the growing phenomenon of body dysmorphia that's being played out. The weight and shape of irregular bulges make balance and movement an issue; compromising both, which is what extreme body-consciousness, and the grip of fashion will do; how pregnancy can affect a woman's body-sense; how obesity, or deformity changes how one carries oneself. There's more here than meets the eye. Talking of which, Kawakobe prefers to keep mirrors out of the dressing room, insisting clients get the feel of the clothes, rather than focus on the look. 

Unlike Bjork's 'non elitist' nature of VR, this kind of dance, this kind of fashion, is more of an acquired taste; usually attributed to the higher echelons of moneyed classes. And that's key. High fashion fetches high prices. For all the unwearability of Kawakobe's pieces, they bring a turnaround of about £215,000,000 a year. That kind of notoriety is attractive to many. But it's also about artistes being prepared to take risks, the kind no-one else would try! The dancers would have had to feel into their moves, as nothing they had done before would have been of any use in managing the size and weight distribution of their crazy costumes. A fashion reviewer's dream.

                                         

Exciting! Novel. Profitable. 

Building Success

Art and Architecture, like Family, can be closely related or distant and at odds with each other.

But if disaster strikes, people tend to rally and pull together. This is, in effect, how this next creative collaboration was born, in the aftermath of a 9.0 earthquake and resulting tsunami that devastated Japan in 2011,and the coming together of British artist, Anish Kapoor, and Japanese architect, Arata Isozaki to create Ark Nova. 

The name of this temporary, inflatable, mobile, concert hall capable of seating 500 people carries with it the association of securing life in the midst of disaster; of survival; of protection. God's breath brought First Man to life, and air is what makes this structure come alive. Art alone could not have achieved the necessary requirements of the right kind of acoustics, it needed the expertise of an architect to ensure the best conditions were met that would enhance audibility and visibility. Care had to be taken in managing how to anchor and support the tensile engineering that supports the inflatable skin. Access and emergency exits, also had to be part of the design considerations. 

It's poignant to learn that the wooden seating is made of ancient cedar trees that were uprooted by the seismic catastrophe, finding creative new life in an eminently practical form. This, I'm sure would have been much appreciated by those who attended concerts when the hall toured the areas of upheaval, two years after, that something good could be salvaged from what would otherwise be an even greater tragedy. A triumph of art, architecture, engineering, ecological re-purposing, music and marketing! 

And what art! The translucent membrane diffuses natural light, as though one is inside the belly of a whale - another Biblical place of refuge in stormy seas! The undulations and curves of this organic form have a pleasing feel - like an embrace; a big hug of a building; or a big bosom of soothing comfort. The color and tensile skin were the artist's choice; purple on the outside; warm red on the inside, creating a sense of magic and transformation.

This, primarily, was aimed at uplifting those who had experienced their lives being uprooted, and livelihoods lost; with the assurance that it's there for everyone, and can be shared by many as it travels around the country, even abroad. It's generous, and full of hope. It's innovative and bold, not defeated by what has gone before, but spurred on by it. It finds common ground between two art-forms that can often be opposed to each other, in conflict. Japan is a country that understands respect; the older folk would attend in that regard, the young would flock to be swallowed up by its novelty. It found common ground between two artistes, who both had an understanding and familiarity with large scale projects; engineering feats, and aesthetics. It would also bring commercial profitability to any area it visits - giving back to the community what it had lost to the elements.