'Light Dial 2' - a further investigation into collaborative practice and textile design processes

One of the objectives of the project was to explore how collaborative practices could be used to produce imagery for textile/surface pattern design. Following on from the 'Light Dial 1' project involving Rambert Contemporary Dance and music/performance group Collectress and artists Chris Rutter and Evelyn Bennett, a new version was developed for the 'Digital/Material: Developments in Printed Textiles' conference at UCA Rochester. The music and choreography was reworked to suit the different situation and a new element involving audience participation, OHP projection and co-working with BA Textile Print students was devised. During the performance audience members were asked to create drawings in response to randomly selected questions and these were combined on overhead projectors to produce images which were created partly in response to the movement and music and partly combined with other images. The images were documented as they evolved and new static collaged images were also created by other collaborators. Later the images were digitally processed to create a collection of textile/surface pattern designs. Experiments in design processes have been an important part of my practice and have been influenced by participation in shows created as a member of Needless Alley Collective at The Kings Head theatre, Islington and Camden Peoples Theatre. Both these shows used ideas about audience involvement in performance previously explored in Dada, 'Happenings” and by A. Boal (Theatre of the Oppressed). How chance processes and environmental influences affect design outcomes and how they can be manipulated was a central concept of the project from my perspective. With collaborator Rebecca Waterworth I gave an illustrated talk to the conference about the processes and ideas we were using. A short film about the project was on show in the accompanying 'Partners in Print' exhibition in the Sandra Rhodes Gallery and a new range of textile designs was created. Talks about these processes and experiments in Textile design and Design Development are given to my students as part of my teaching practice. Links to Light Dial 1 and Keeper of the Pattern