recent presentations

WATER/SELF/other. Knowing Water Symposium, Abbotsford Convent, Melbourne, August 28-29, 2013.

This paper examines the behaviour of water, and our similarities to and differences from its substance. It argues that performance is a process of negotiating our vulnerable authority in relation to the information we process. I refer to the work of philosopher-biologist Charles Birch and discuss how dance ecology practice is relational but also never escapes some key aspects of the human condition–i.e., the struggle between assertiveness/giving shape/taking action and response-ability–and the ethical questions this raises in our ecological processes.

DANscienCE Week, CSIRO, August 2013

L’Optimisme: an illustrated performance/lecture on the life and art of JAne Avril-daner at the Moulin Rouge and patron and muse to Toulouse-Lautrec. Avril suffered from a movement disorder [St Vitus’ Dance] and claims she was ‘cured’ by dancing. The presentation examines the relationship between mapping, accepting and living with dis-ease and methods of interpretation via art and science.

Inside/Outside: re-thinking our biology

An illustrated lecture discussing dance ecology as an ethical practice–what one considers whilst engaged in such a performance. How does this relate to other ecological practices?

Balnace/Unbalance Conference:  May 2013-06-07

The eye of the maker: feeling into counter-memory. Presentation at VEXIX (Visible Evidence: international documentary film conference, National Film and Sound Archive, Canberra, 2011). Includes discussion and viewing of Anthems and Angels.

Opening speaker, Gudgenby: Traces at Craft ACT: Craft and Design Centre (May 2010)

“Re-membering the invisible: landscapes of healing in the therapeutic process”. Illustrated lecture given to Canberra Jungian Society (August 14, 2009)

Venturing Past an Idea (2009) and Baselines (2008), Craft ACT forums.

“Intersections of the Timeless with Time”, multimedia presentation at the Biophilosophy: Towards an Ecology of Practices Conference, (Canberra, Humanities Research Centre, August 2004)

“The taste of memory: inheritance, amnesia, ancestral dreams.” Migration Affect & the Senses Conference Humanities Research Center, ANU 2004.

“Body, space, sound”: presentation, Australian Percussion Symposium, School of Music, ANU 2004.

“Shamanic awareness, self and ‘other’ [Sub-theme: A child-like new world] ” Workshop presentation, SLAM2000 (Melbourne)

 Weldschmerz: ‘world pain’ and change.” Workshop presentation: PRR Congress (Melbourne, 2000).

“Here be dragons”: Centre for Performance Research, Cardiff (UK): taped presentation of performance script (1998).

Bleedlines: the limits of performance, Sydney 1993 –committee and panel.