Bundanon - Day Three

I usually look at the bigger picture. I take in the gist of a story, but never remember names or dates. I’ve been challenging myself at Bundanon though, and forcing myself to look at the intricate details and textures in our surroundings – and using these as ‘palettes’ of colour and texture to build a bigger picture.

Yesterday though, I was so focused on the minute detail that I forgot about the bigger picture and got lost in the bush. It took a very long bush bash through tall, thick lantana, and several hours trying to climb my way around the rocks in the river bend before it got dark and I was finally rescued in a tinny by two lovely people, Keith and Yvonne Hazlewood, who unfortunately lived on the other side of the river. Not exactly how I planned to spend my day.

But while I was walking I came up with two potential ideas to explore – one that would involve Ben and one Julian. I wasn’t sure whether they’d like the ideas though. (Ben would politely nod either way, Julian would be more blunt) But would they make a spark? Would it matter? Or would my vision create enough momentum?

This got me started thinking about the process of collaboration, and how difficult it is to develop, and then work towards, a shared artistic vision.

I’ve been talking to Ben the most about my visual ideas and the kinds of things I want to achieve – and have been stealing his photos as source material (planning to also scavenge from Dan’s and Julian’s pics). I guess to some extent this is collaboration: Ben’s technical skills are much better than mine, and I need his talent to achieve my vision. But at the moment it is still my vision: though as it's not fully formed there is potential for this to shift over time.

These thought processes have fed into discussions with various people. We always planned to stop and take stock part way into our stay, and I feel as though we are reaching a pivotal moment.

There are lots of smaller projects that have been sprouting during our time here: For me, I can see how my work ties in with Ben’s photo narratives and potentially Dan’s interest in bark painting; I am interested in exploring further with Dan and possibly Serena the idea of the community of Bundanon and using this as the basis for a radiophonic work – maybe drawing on Julian’s expertise? And now I’ve had time to clear my head I’m keen to get started on writing some music.

There are a few musical ideas I could get started on, but first I want to know if it might tie into something bigger. My main question is: are all (or some) of us going to start focusing on working towards a shared artistic vision? Or are we going to pursue our own individual and small group projects with the possibility these might slowly merge into a Life Between Buildings group outcome?

There are mixed feelings about this in the group. Dan is really keen to sink her teeth into a group project: to explore an anarchical collaborative model. Julian is more focused on a number of individual projects and doesn’t want to force the process of collaboration. Ben and Serena are both quite happily engaged in a number of individual projects but would be happy to look at how these might become part of a whole group outcome…