Brass Art, The Imagining of Things – Shadow Worlds: Writers’ Room
Brass art, pixilated, 'ghostly' image from Bronte parsonage
Mon, 10 Feb 2014 11:56:00 GMT
Night-time visits to the Brontë Parsonage to capture the Brontë Sisters for Huddersfield lecturer Anneké Pettican
A TRIO of artists, including a University of Huddersfield lecturer, have taken an electronic device invented by Microsoft for computer gamers and used it to pioneer a new form of performance art that has intrigued hundreds of gallery-goers with uncanny works influenced by the Brontë Sisters and their moorland home.
The artists are Chara Lewis, Kristin Mojsiewicz and the University of Huddersfield’s Anneké Pettican (pictured). Collectively known as Brass Art, they have exhibited in Australia, Britain, Europe and the USA.
Brass Art developed an interest in the Kinect, a form of motion sensor camera designed for use with X-Box gaming consoles, recording the movements of the gamer. They recognised that it could be a powerful tool in their long-term project Shadow Worlds: Writers’ Rooms to record performances in locations associated with famous writers and steeped in atmosphere.
They chose one of the most atmospheric of all locations – the Parsonage in Haworth, home to the Brontës, and now a world-famous museum. The artists negotiated two lengthy night-time recording sessions in the Parsonage, scanning their abstract performances using the Kinect. Composer Alistair MacDonald worked with Brass Art to create a looping soundscape that simultaneously suggested real landscapes alongside intimate whisperings of the artists.
The resulting exhibition, The Imagining of Things, premiered at Huddersfield Art Gallery as part of ROTOЯ, Art in Yorkshire Goes Contemporary 2013 and the town’s world-renowned Contemporary Music Festival. The exhibition was featured on Radio 3’s Hear and Now programme. It was a highly successful exhibition with hundreds of visitors, lots of visitor feedback and an extended gallery run.
“We don’t prescribe the way that people should react,” said Anneké Pettican. “There are a number of levels on which visitors could respond to the exhibition. We were interested in conveying an uncanny sense of the space.”
The Brontës by night
Pictured above the installation of Brass Art, The Imagining of Things.
The three artists prepared props for their performances, and during their night-time visits recorded by programmer and University of Huddersfield lecturer Spencer Roberts and photographer Simon Pantling, they responded directly to the atmosphere and associations of the Parsonage and its famous former inhabitants.
Chara Lewis explains: “For one of the pieces we used the dining room where the Brontë sisters often walked round and round the table reading their writing to each other. They led a very enclosed existence, so we responded in a particular way to that specific space.”
All of the Brass Art artists are lecturers and researchers and presented a collaborative paper on this unorthadox use of the Kinect at a conference in Los Angeles. Organised by SIGGRAPH (Special Interest Group on GRAPHics and Interactive Techniques), the conference brings together annually top researchers, scientists, engineers, artists, entrepreneurs and filmmakers dedicated to the advancement of computer graphics and interactive techniques.
Now Brass Art are investigating other atmospheric locations with literary associations where they can record new performances. They also aim to find new venues in which to recapture the success of The Imagining of Things.
