cdefgab (random mix): http://www.divshare.com/download/7951656-5f3

a (crescendo):
http://www.divshare.com/download/7951888-11a

e: http://www.divshare.com/download/7951907-6f1

g (chord): http://www.divshare.com/download/7952030-c9e

g min (chord): http://www.divshare.com/download/7951888-11a

I’m excited to announce my updated website, featuring recent work. I will still continue to post works in progress here.

www.brigidmcauliffe.com

Re[turning] is live cinema performance about the significance of the Tango to a community in Rosario, Argentina. I became interested in the Tango during my first weekend in Rosario, living in a historic Tango venue. As I watched the dancers through the steamy glass of a rooftop window, the fog condensing from the cold air outside and heat of the dancers inside, I became entranced. This project seeks to capture the aesthetic beauty of the Tango while also speaking to its historical and cultural dimensions. As a foreigner, my images convey the gaze and wonderment of a distant observer. They reflect movement, memory, longing, and the increased symbiosis of bodies in motion—all viewed from a lens none too clear.

The dancers describe why Tango is important to them. Many of them talk about how it’s part of their identity, both personally and culturally. They describe the feelings one experiences while dancing and the emotions of the music, reflecting “all of life in three minutes (the standard length of a Tango).” An older woman talks of how she danced every night with her husband when he was still alive and how her whole family dances. “It’s part of our identity,” she says. A young woman eloquently traces how the Tango reflects politics as well, explaining how Tango had to go underground and was almost lost during the seventies and eighties when Argentina was in political turmoil. “People didn’t think of having fun, or feel safe going out. Fortunately the major Tango artists kept it going and today the tradition carries on.”

Using VDMX, a live mixing software typically used by VJ’s, we (David Fodel and I) created a ten minute performance piece combining my footage of the dancers and the interviews with live writing and music. As the interview clips came up on the screen, I translated and reacted spontaneously to what each participant expresses in various clips while Dave mixed the layers. The performance culminated in our own version of Volver, a famous Tango song that embodies the memory and longing Tango is known for. In my first version of this project, a musician I interview spontaneously sings this song in front of my camera. David and I start this song with an electronic midi track, transitioning into me playing this song on my accordion. Throughout the piece we highlight the combination of old and new evident in the Tango. We do this mostly through sound by mixing in static and also mixing old and new instrumentation in our version of Volver. The combination of images, also touch on this concept. Some are grainy and foggy, mimicking history and memory, while others are clear and fluid, feeling more contemporary. The people being interviewed also speak about the juxtaposition of old and new, as they discuss the significance of the Tango, both personally and culturally. We titled this piece [Re]turning, an English translation of Volver, that expresses the physical turning of the Tango, as well as the psychological return.

Final Statement:

My work reflects population movement and changing notions of home idealized in a simple geometric shape: the cube. From box-framed houses to the box shaped cubicles we work in, this transcendent shape signifies the spaces where most people spend their time. Thirty vellum boxes represent population growth and movement across the United States over the past decade. From left to right, each column of five boxes represents data from the US Census Bureau indicating growth over the past decade for California, Texas, Colorado, Illinois, Florida and New York. Population change is reflected in lines of thread. Simple, abstract flight patterns over each region are printed on the back of each box. The fabric backdrop is inspired by the flight patterns of the entire United States. To further represent transition and migration, I suspend the boxes as if in flight.

More info: http://www.co-lab.info/noplacelikehome

Photoshop mockups with slight variations in form…

Boxes in progress…

Your Secret Here is a commentary on the confidential nature of coded and encrypted communication and the growing concern for privacy and protecting our identities. This age of electronic information has created a fear of public exposure of private life, thus building distance, dishonesty and secrets amongst people. Your Secret Here urges the viewer to participate through writing or speaking their secrets in a confessional booth. A conflicting tension is created by both the fear and the desire of being exposed. With the popular use of online social networking venues, such as Facebook, MySpace and Blogspot, private lives are willingly exposed. As the viewer participates, this tension is addressed and exploited. The spoken secrets will be aurally shredded through audio manipulation. The written secrets can either be posted on the gallery wall, or shredded and dispersed. We urge the viewers to participate in a cathartic ritual with their shredded secrets. The viewers are invited to walk around the space, dispersing their secrets along with others. As the carefully arranged floor design is eventually swept away, so are the secrets.

Here are some photos of the floor in progess…

Adam Butler took this last photo of the floor queens.

Photos from the Installation:

My ultimate work of installation art will include the following:

I will organize a team of international artists and documentarians to create an intercultural collaboration. The majority will be Argentines, considering the project revolves around the Argentine culture and it will be shown at the MALBA. However, including artists of various nationalities will be important to offer different perspectives.

There will be three huge projections on the building of the MALBA (Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires). I am choosing the MALBA because this project fits their mission. “Our main objectives are: to educate the public, and to stimulate public interest in Latin American artists; to contribute to awareness of Latin America’s cultural achievements, encourage appreciation of regional cultural and artistic diversity; collaborating to these ends with the national and international community, promote artistic exchange between national, regional, and international institutions, and support innovative programs that focus on the visual arts and Latin American culture.” http://www.malba.org.ar

Live narratives of the Argentinean culture, history, identity and memory will be told through stories of the Tango. The voices will be amplified. We will have an open call for participants, where they will submit their stories to the selection committee. In addition we will recruit certain people we discover through research or friendship.

We will be utilizing the unique construction of the MALBA. It has three large, angled surfaces that are made up of many large tiles. The images will be projected onto these tiles, eventually covering every tile. The video will be interactive, using patches created in Jitter or Pure Data. There will be certain conceptual words such as “memory” and “identity” which will trigger the images.

After all the tiles are filled, there will be a moment of silence where the projections  change to a black slate. An interactive performance will finish the piece. A Tango orchestra (Orchéstra Típica) will play and dancers will perform in front of the building. The dancers will be simultaneously projected upon the building and the images will be manipulated through another Jitter or Pure Data patch. This patch will manipulate the images depending on the dynamics of the music.

Influences:

My main influences are Krystof Wodiczko and Janet Cardiff. Wodiczko usually works with large scale, socially conscience projection projects. He often projects large images onto historically or culturally loaded public structures while also adding narratives that reflect or inspire the imagery. Janet Cardiff changes spaces through audio narratives, playing with ideas of memory, history, truth and fiction. Both artists push the boundaries of installation art by transforming spaces outside. They are working to transform exteriors rather than interiors.

You can view an animated sequence at the link below:

Untitled from brigid mcauliffe on Vimeo.

Some photos from one of the two shows in el Levante…