Output details

Bridging (part 1)

The research output is a site-responsive performance/installation on the River Clyde, Glasgow, supported by the International Network for Contemporary Performing Arts (IETM). The underpinning research imperatives were: (i) an exploration, through practice, of seemingly opposing concepts of site-specificity and mobility and the potential of destabilising these apparent binaries in developing fluid yet meaningful understandings of place and identity; (ii) an exploration of multiple, changing perceptions and conceptions of the River Clyde and urban, post-industrial rivers more generally; and, (iii) an investigation into human/non-human interdependency and notions of non-human agency through devising and realising a performance with, on and for a river and a consideration of the implications of this approach in the development of nuanced and progressive ecological paradigms. The research findings were presented in the performance/installation which took the form of an attempt to lace together the banks of the River Clyde using over one mile of thick mooring line, dragged back and forth across the river by a workboat and tensioned around bollards - relics of the Clyde's maritime and industrial heritage - on facing quaysides, to create a zigzag lattice of rope spanning the watercourse.

As a practice led project the research aspects of the performance are evidenced by this portfolio of material:

2a/ an essay written by the researcher on the performance: 'The Urban River and Site-specific Performance', Contemporary Theatre Review, 22.2. 2012, pp. 213-223;

2b/ an essay written by the researcher on the performance: 'Bridging Part 1', Performance Research, 17.4, On Ecology, 2012, pp. 49-51

2c/ an essay written by the researcher on the performance commissioned by Public Art Scotland: 'On Planning and Improvisation, Success and Failure, Control and Unruliness', Public Art Scotland, 2011, http://archive.publicartscotland.com/reflections/78

2d/ archive documentation of Bridging Part 1 consisting of 2 x DVDs, containing photographic and video documentation of the performance.