HONOURING MR. STEVENS - Process Diary

Today, I will continue to outline thoughts, decisions and developments that have taken place over the past few days. Rather than continuing with the Mr. Stevens psychopomp/changeling/Minotaur narrative, I will dive into design developments.

The Wardrobe

Jason Lehane and discussed various spatial and OHS/risk assessment considerations. Jason had been trawling Gumtree and Marketplace for an appropriate wardrobe that would fit aesthetically and that he could retrofit-design to purpose. Last weekend he drove to Camperdown, and visited an antique market, and found a pair of circa 1960 sliding doors (and the seller threw in a pelmet to go with them).

Circa 1960 sliding doors and pelmet.

Jason then designed a structure that would fit the RMIT 4.2.3 space and parameters within which we are working, as well as meet all the creative research criteria.

Wardrobe design mock up.

Above: Jason’s design drafts for wardrobe design.

Mr. Stevens’ meeting point

Initially, I had proposed to have Mr. Stevens on a lounge; then I switched to a coffee table and chairs. A friend was rehoming a set of circa 1970 green wooden children’s chairs and table (photo below). Each chair has a lift-up lid to a storage unit under the seat. Mr. Stevens will only be present during sessions on February Wednesday 26th and Thursday 27th, that is if the schedule I have drafted still holds after the RMIT risk assessment (HMS is currently under review).

This children’s table set adds a quaintness to the feel of the installation, and seating the bull changeling/minotaur at a child-size table and chairs reduces the character’s potential perceived “threat” by participants. In my experience across past works and also as an audience member, I recognise a power imbalance between the performer and the audience member/s, or in the case of this research project, “participants”. It is this imbalance that can create a threshold to participation.

In Barking Spider Visual Theatre works that I devised and/or directed, ‘The Memorandium’ (Barking Spider Visual Theatre 2012) and ‘In a Heartbeat’ (Barking Spider Visual Theatre 2017), there were high levels of audience participation/interactivity (I use these terms interchangeably). Each work was publicised as “interactive”. Most people in attendance at each work, but not all, are likely to have booked with the understanding that there would be a degree of interactivity and had had this expectation seeded. Even so, people can be anxious about what the interactivity will entail. For each work, the performers met the audience members in a “hostess” role. In each work, the performers were female (I performed in ‘The Memorandium’ (Barking Spider Visual Theatre 2012)). I use the word “hostess” in a gendered manner, as the works, while not set in an earlier period, echoed, borrowed from and leaned into sensibilities, courtesies and etiquette from the 1950s, a time when gender roles were more pronounced. We tapped into the “hostess with the mostess” trope, attributed to Perle Mesta from Oklahoma City, (Howell 2022), which is gently comic in its nostalgic harkening. Each work had distinctly nostalgic elements and aesthetics. Performers were dressed in costumes of the period. At each show, audience members were each welcomed by the performer-hostesses into the space in a friendly, warm and familiar manner. In ‘The Memorandium’, (Barking Spider Visual Theatre 2012), my co-performer Leah Scholes and I offered and served hot chocolate to people as they entered, and they were free to wander about on the set until the performance began. Audiences of ‘In a Heartbeat’ (Barking Spider Visual Theatre 2017) were welcomed at the theatre door and gleefully ushered to one of seven tables, set for high tea. Each work began borrowing from Brechtian-style performance techniques, where the machinations of the theatre-show are not hidden from the audience, Smith (2015) and the set, seating bank and performers were in full view. Unlike Brechtian-style performance techniques, both The Memorandium’ (Barking Spider Visual Theatre 2012) and ‘In a Heartbeat’ (Barking Spider Visual Theatre 2017) were prop-heavy, although props were held, touched, used and even consumed by the audiences, and each work contained segments where the audiences were passive recipients of story, spectacle or puppetry. Unlike Brechtian-style performance, each work deliberately set out to transport audiences, even with the fourth wall well and truly dismantled from the outset of each work. The fourth wall is a theatre convention where the audience and the performers are separated by an imaginary wall: actors cannot “see” the audience who are witness what is being performed (Bell 2008).

The distinction with Honouring Mr. Stevens is that participants will be first onboarded outside the installation experience in a non-performative manner, and then greeted in a performative manner by an actor. I plan to script a short yes-or-no fake induction survey for the performer to read through and notate with each participant. The survey will ask questions that may appear absurd or non-sensical, such as “Canine or Feline?”, aimed to amuse and intrigue the participant. Seeded within the short survey will be cues and clues to installation elements. “Canine or Feline?” is a survey question to be included, for if participants do unwrap a dog or cat mask gift from under the Christmas tree, they may feel a satisfied “aha” moment if and when they draw the connection from the survey (set up) and the presentation of the mask (pay-off). This fake induction will not have the gushing, “hostess with the mostess” style that I employed in the works mentioned above. Rather, while playful, I will direct the actors to have an air of mystery by not revealing the purpose of the survey, but presenting with a deliberate faux-seriousness as per someone making medical notes prior to a entering a doctor’s room. Unlike the two Barking Spider Visual Theatre works mentioned, there is no performer to guide the participants through the experience, and no overt story-telling. For participants who do encounter Mr. Stevens, the Minotaur, the changeling, they will discover the character, without any prior introduction or warning. It is for this reason that the quaintness of children’s table set may be important in enabling a participant to cross a threshold of performer intimidation, if the character is seated on a child’s chair. The tacit invitation will be for participants to join Mr. Stevens at the table and aid him in his activity. At this stage the activity will be sorting threads of read wool, which Mr Stevens has been cutting into pieces from a ball of wool, an allusion to Ariadne’s red thread.

However, I did find a wooden, upholstered, vintage (circa 1970) Carver chair on the side of the road a couple of days ago. I am interested to switch out Mr Steven’s seat from a child’s chair to this Carver chair, as it is far more imposing and grand than the small, children’s chair.

1970’s children’s table and chair set.

JANUARY 24 References

Barking Spider Visual Theatre (2017) In a Heartbeat, Barking Spider Visual Theatre website, accessed 27 May 2024. https://barkingspidercreative.com.au/in-a-heartbeat/

Barking Spider Visual Theatre (2012) The Memorandium, Barking Spider Visual Theatre website, accessed 27 May 2024.https://barkingspidercreative.com.au/the-memorandium/

Bell E (2008) Theories of performance. Sage Publications. ISBN 978-1-4129-2637-9

Howell M (2022) Perle Mesta: OKC's Hostess With the Mostest, 405 Magazine, Accessed 2025-01-24 18:13:27. https://www.405magazine.com/hostess-with-the-mostest/

Smith S (2015) Anti-Set design in Brecht’s Epic Theatre – curious arts, The Curious Culture In Canada accessed 24 January 2025. https://www.curiousarts.ca/anti-set-design-in-brechts-epic-theatre-curious-arts/

HONOURING MR. STEVENS - Process Diary

The first material I posted yesterday detailed the creative development process from late December 2024 through to the second week of January. Today, I outline thoughts, decisions and developments that have taken place over the past ten days.

I have been considering Mr. Stevens as the Minotaur and whether this is a motif or subtle storyline in the installation. I think that anyone who encounters a bull changeling, depending upon their cultural positionality and educational background, may form a link and find/make a connection to the story of the Minotaur in Greek Mythology. I cannot shy away from this, so how to embrace it?

The World History Encyclopedia, in Greek Mythology, as outlined by Saint (2022) Ariadne was the Minotaur’s half-sister. She came up with the clever idea of using a red thread for Theseus to use as a method to escape the labyrinth where the Minotaur was held. Ariadne gave Theseus (with whom she was infatuated) a sword to kill the Minotaur in addition the red thread. Theseus nominated himself as a tribute as the Minotaur was annually fed fourteen young tributes - devouring them alive. Ariadne’s desire for Theseus and possible revulsion at her half-brother’s dietary requirements outweighed any familial loyalty. What would the Minotaur feel at such disloyalty? The monster Minotaur of the myth is aggressive, violent, and hyper-masculine. Any Google image search will show the typical Minotaur imagery in one form or another.

In this classic story, the Minotaur may not have the human capacity for feeling. But supposing he did? In this case, what if beyond the tropes of a base human buried masculine capacity for feeling or sensitivity, the Minotaur in Honouring Mr. Stevens has a heightened sensitivity, sensibilities and capacity for empathy? What if this iteration of the Minotaur - Mr Stevens, as the changeling, is in a liminal place because he has unresolved business from his life as a human - former life?

Participants who encounter Mr Stevens, the changeling, in a three-piece, 1940s suit, are not going to encounter the monster Minotaur of Greek Mythology. Rather, this is a creature in need who has been wounded beyond mortally.

In 2015, through Barking Spider Creative (formerly Barking Spider Visual Theatre) with Jason Lehane and other artists, we created a double-bill theatre work, Psychopomp and Seething. It is to “Psychopomp” I now refer. A psychopomp is a being that transports the soul from the recently deceased to the afterlife. For this show, as writer, I selected four animal psychopomps, horse, moth, owl and dog, but in researching for Honouring Mr. Stevens, I have discovered that more than animals can manifest as psychopomps and that the typical types of animals defined as a psychopomp with any internet search is limited. In Chapter 5 ‘Flesh and Bone The Semiotics of Mortality’ of ‘Afterlives: The Return of the Dead in the Middle Ages’, Caciola (2016) outlines the myriad of forms a psychopomp can take, even the transformation of a psychopomp from animal, to vegetable, to object and all manner of semi-creature, semi-object, semi-human. There is no reason that this changeling is not a psychopomp; it is Mr. Stevens with unresolved “business” that keeps him here in this weird mortal form.


JANUARY 22 References

Barking Spider Visual Theatre (2015) Psychopomp, Barking Spider Visual Theatre website, accessed 22 January 2025. https://barkingspidercreative.com.au/psychopomp-seething/

Caciola N (2016) Afterlives:The Return of the Dead in the Middle Ages, Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Accessed January 22, 2025. ProQuest Ebook Central.

Lehane J (2024) Jason Lehane website, accessed 22 January 2025. https://www.jasonlehane.com.au/

Saint J (2022) World History Encyclopedia, accessed 22 January 2025. https://www.worldhistory.org/Ariadne/

Honouring Mr. Stevens - Process Diary

This blog is now dedicated to my PhD project. As of the beginning of 2024, I have been enrolled as a PhD Candidate at RMIT’s School of Design.  This is a practice-led research project investigating which circumstances foster play in adults through a live immersive installation experience (LIIE) lens. The research draws upon my thirty-five years of professional, interdisciplinary arts experience. A distinctive feature of my practice is that, while not exclusively creating with or for children, working with young people has been a significant, important, and consistent practice focus. The knowledge and expertise I have developed over many years underpins my proposed research and has provoked a long-standing question that I have endeavoured but not yet succeeded to solve through my creative works: why won’t adults play as freely as children? 

Title: Gasp, lean in and explore: How immersive experience installation art can provoke wonder and playfulness in adults.

 Main Question: What are the intimidation thresholds adults may experience that prevent wonder and playfulness, and can these be mitigated through live immersive installation experiences?

Across the PhD period, I will create four iterative versions of a LIIE, “Honouring Mr Stevens”. The first iteration takes place in February 2025. I will explore the methods and aesthetics of my practice, how these intersect with my LIIE works and how they may provoke and/or inspire adult wonder and ludic play.

ABOUT HONOURING MR. STEVENS

Summary (October 2024)

Honouring Mr Stevens is the first iteration of a live immersive installation experience set in the room of an abandoned house.

  A bit more…

Honouring Mr Stevens is a live, immersive installation experience set in a room of a (seemingly) abandoned house. Honouring Mr Stevens is constructed using theatre set-building techniques and is a complete, stand-alone unit. Assemblage elements are collected from op-shops with a 1940-1980s bricolage aesthetic.

Honouring Mr Stevens is the first iteration of my practice-based PhD project. Honouring Mr Stevens is suitable for families, but the focus is on adults.

Even though you’ve been invited, you feel a sense of trespass inside Honouring Mr Stevens.  In this dis-inhabited space, you explore, move, open, close and play with things. Think Goldilocks-meets-RONE (without the model murals). The room has usual human habitation trappings: couch, bookshelf, table, photos - a life’s detritus. But by exploring, you uncover the uncanny. Supported by subtle lighting and sound design, installation and assemblage elements draw from a liminal and Wunderkammer aesthetic. Assemblages include discoverable kinetic elements. For example, you open a cupboard and interrupt a miniature world going about its business (a puppetry inclusion). You disturb a hair-covered soap - it scuttles away and disappears.

A saucer hovers, spinning over a table, leftover from a séance.

Barking Spider Creative 2016, House of Dreams, Johnston Collection, Image courtesy of Adam Luts Photography.

December 2024 - January 2025

December 23rd

I have just reread my Confirmation of Candidature document. I did so because I am using it as a guide to why, what and how I am developing the first iteration of the live immersive installation experience (LIIE) “Honouring Mr Stevens” (HMS). Now that I have the RMIT photographic studio 4.2.3 as my confirmed site for the installation, I have been able to move ahead. 

Photo of 4.2.3, RMIT.

Earlier this month, I saw an Instagram post of a 2002 short film by David Lynch, ‘Rabbits’. In the film, three actors are in a pared-back domestic space with theatrical-style lighting and sound. Each actor wears a hare suit (not a rabbit - hares have long upright ears, which is how these David Lynch masks have been constructed) and wears clothing over the hare suit. One wears a business suit, another a house coat and the third a dress. 

Screenshot: Rabbits 2002, A Short Film by David Lynch, YouTube link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drjQfQtv2BQ

Accessed 2024-12-21 16:40:19

After watching the film, I have considered the hare as a motif. Coincidentally, a friend reminded me that she has one hundred plastic artificial pine Christmas trees. I propose creating not one space but two within 4.2.3 for the first iteration. 

 Jason Lehane constructed a room for his 2024 RMIT Master of Fine Art graduate piece, installation work “Things are not what they seem”. This room has the domestic, vintage aesthetic that I intend for HMS. The room can be reconstructed inside 4.2.3, and I propose this room will be the site of an identifiable domestic space. I will curate objects and design a domestic space based on the objects’ collective aesthetic. Across the PhD period, the installation will grow iteratively, adding a new room for each project iteration (four in total). Participants are invited to play, explore, uncover, alter, and add to different elements and components of each room. There will be puppetry in this first iteration, and I will test the efficacy of different forms of puppetry to evoke wonder and (depending on the puppetry form) playfulness. Forms of puppetry to be used are:

  • Shadow 

  • Kinetic (no puppeteer)

  • Body (also known as ‘suit’)

Participants will be onboarded outside 4.2.3. Three doors with a glass window meet at the entrance to 4.2.3. I am thinking of creating a shadow or silhouette image for each. Participants will be given an illusion of free choice of which of the three doors they would like to enter (mechanism yet to be determined), but will each enter through the only door to 4.2.3.

As part of onboarding, I am considering offering participants the option to wear a mask, specifically a dog mask or a rabbit onesie (hare onesies are not available off-the-shelf).

Why?

I want to observe people making a choice and to find out:

  • What motivated the choice?

  • Did it influence what they did in the installation?

  • How wearing a mask made them feel.

Why dog and rabbit? Both are unnatural/feral in Australia, and each has deep symbolism and meaning in lore, fairytales and dreams across different cultures. One - the hare, is prey, and the dog, hunter. It is interesting to see a performer as an animal of prey and the participant as a hunter. This shifts the power dynamic, most likely in an unconscious way for the participant, until they encounter the hare, and the performer’s behaviour may indicate (subtly) the dynamic at play. If a participant had elected to don a rabbit onesie, this would alter the hare/rabbit dynamic and play/interaction.

“Body” - Mask as puppet

The style of puppetry is “body (or suit) puppetry”, which uses a mask, most commonly in the context of a creature. The image below is from Spike Jonz’s 2009 film ‘Where The Wild Things Are’ and shows a wild-thing creature body puppet.

Movie still: Where the Wild Things Are 2009, Spike Jonze, Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures https://www.legendary.com/film/where-the-wild-things-are/

Accessed 2024-12-29 17:49:06

December 23rd-24th

Instead of a hare, I propose a man in a 3-piece 1940s suit with the head of a mallard duck - a changeling.

Screenshot: Drouyn C 2012, Stage Whispers Melbourne Theatre Company production Top Girls. Photographer: Jeff Busby. https://www.stagewhispers.com.au/reviews/top-girls-0

Accessed 2024-12-20 10:23:27

I have been interrogating the use of a hare mask because of concerns about an Alice in Wonderland trope emerging and being interpreted by participants. This feels unoriginal and like low-hanging fruit - a simple method to enable participants to understand or read how to interpret the experience as magical. To test wonder, I need to provide fresh wonder, not wonder re-dressed. Part of my process is to follow advice from my acting teacher, George Loros (Senior acting teacher and advisor at The Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute, New York, 1994). Loras said, ‘When you think you know what you are doing, do the opposite’. I toyed with several different animals: a deer, goose, goat, swan, antelope and duck. This mallard duck is the one that stuck - and resonates the most. Why? For relatively superficial reasons: ducks are funny, my son and I have a long-standing in-joke about ducks, and I have three china flying ducks, a duck lamp and a taxidermy duck; it would be easy to make a visual connection between the small space and the large through repetition of a duck motif. There is potential for play and exploration with feathers in various ways throughout the installation. Could a duck feather pillow become an object of family tragedy? Is there a trail or path of feathers leading the participant from one space to another? Are feathers secreted in odd, unexpected places in furniture or other objects?

The mallard duck is a changeling. The changeling would be seated in the large space, at a small coffee table, attending to an activity (such as shuffling cards, working on a jigsaw puzzle, sorting seeds, or playing chess). The surrounding room would be dark, and a 1940s standard lamp would illuminate the changeling. Beside him is a chair, two if the session has two participants, ready for a participant to join him, should they choose to do so. Through non-verbal cues, the changeling will offer the participant(s) to join in the activity. 

A person in a 3-piece 1940s suit with the head of a mallard duck (AI generated 29/12/24) 

LARP Mask, internet screenshot (29/12/24) 

December 29th

On December 23rd, I visited friends at their new home, and they were getting rid of a very good (realistic) artificial Christmas tree, which I now have, and on December 22nd, I was given a miniature Christmas tree. As I am creating two spaces, one smaller with a sense of confinement and the other a larger, open space. I am still considering how to use the two trees, but for now, the large tree will be in the larger space and the small tree in the smaller to create visual consistency and a motif. 

On December 25th, my friend with the one hundred artificial Christmas trees messaged to say she did not want the pine collection used in a public display. I have abandoned the forest idea. Without these materials (trees) being readily available, I am not interested in pursuing the idea because to do so would be antithetical to the principle of how installation objects are gathered. If, by chance, I stumble across a quantity of artificial Christmas trees, kerbside, post-Christmas, or at Reverse Art Truck (or equivalent), I would revisit the idea as the idea of a forest in an interior space fits well with the uncanny. 

I resolved, across the following 24 hours, that I could create an uncanny effect using a single Christmas tree well-lit, with a performer in a body puppet. Additionally, I found a small 1960s couch on the curbside with a colour scheme that suits the aesthetic I am generating. I can use this couch in either a small or larger space.

On December 27th, Jason Lehane, my artistic collaborator, told me he wasn’t thrilled with the idea of his study installation from his MFA (room only) being used for HMS. It is cumbersome to re-construct, and he didn’t want to repurpose it as part of his artwork.

For 24 hours, I was feeling very despondent. I had lost the two major framing pieces for HMS. On December 28th, Jason and I had a design meeting, and I explained that I needed some design help with 4.2.3. He challenged me on the need for two spaces, as my Confirmation of Candidature and Ethics documentation stated that there would only be one space. However, the size of 4.2.3 is large and doesn’t naturally read as a domestic space. If I were to set 4.2.3 in the style of The Neighbours, the Bulgarian Pavilion work for the Venice Biennale this year, puppetry would be difficult to achieve because there is nowhere to secret a puppeteer. Jason came up with the design idea of using two book-corner flats at the southern end of the room, and the furniture could be placed in relation to these flats. I thought about this overnight.

Mock up of theatre book-corner flats

On December 28th, walking around the farm, I came up with a more straightforward design solution. Using the two columns/poles that are a feature of 4.2.3, we can suspend lightweight domestic curtains treated with fire retardant on a heavy-duty wire between them. The curtains will hang on the western side of these two poles, creating a long, narrow, separated space, the “small” space. I propose to leave the black curtains on the eastern wall open, and on this wall will be hung an artwork of paper I made for an installation at Glen Eira Gallery in 2017. The work is constructed from sewing patterns from the 1960s. This will have low-wattage LED strip lighting running on a lip at the wall’s base to discreetly illuminate the curtain. 

4.2.3 photographed from the southern end.

Seamstress installation, Red Rock Gallery, 2018. Photo: Jason Lehane / ed. Penelope Bartlau.

The small space will be flanked with shallow-depth furniture: a chest of drawers, possibly a Singer sewing machine (if I come by one), piles of fabrics, a dressmaker’s dummy, and other bric-a-brac (lace, cotton reels, balls of wool) associated with a sewing/craft room. There will be a 1-metre path for clearance weaving throughout the space. Within the drawers and hidden in and around the bits and bobs, a participant who crosses a threshold and investigates will be rewarded with the incongruous, the uncanny, the odd and the humourous. I broadly term these inclusions ‘unheimlich’. Additionally, there will be materials for the participant to play with, which may include clothes to dress the dressmaker’s dummy and wool to weave around a frame or other object(s). 

A long, wooden, black-painted box, the “world box”, will be placed on a small table. The opening to the box is vertical and will have little curtains obscuring the interior.  Once a participant opens the curtains, the box contains a world with a kinetic puppet. The box has an improbable depth that goes beyond the curtain behind it and will be unexpected to the viewer.  The purpose of the world box is to encourage participants to “gasp and lean in”: it is intended as a component to inspire wonder.

Atrocious mock-up of the world box on a table.

At the southern end of the small room will be a constructed wardrobe large enough to walk through, with purpose-built interior spaces on either side of the wardrobe’s interior. On the left-hand side (eastern side), I plan a kinetic puppet with content that is yet to be decided. On the right (western side) is a shadow puppet screen, with space for a puppeteer to operate without being visible. Each of these forms of puppetry can be masked by a pull-across curtain for the HMS sessions that do not contain puppetry. All participants will travel from the smaller space through the wardrobe to the larger space.

AI-generated image of a (very fancy) wardrobe with a door in the rear that a participant could walk through. (01/01/25)

Rough designs Jason and I have been working on. (29/24/24)

January 2nd

I have had to re-think the mallard duck mask. I cannot find what I am looking for from hire shops or Melbourne Theatre Company (MTC) and buying online from LARPing suppliers is expensive. I have switched to a carp in a three-piece suit, which may change again if a more suitable mask comes up. My friend Emily Barrie (designer) is working at MTC and will hunt for a well-constructed animal mask. The brief I have given her is to look for a helmet-style (full head) mask, and I have steered away from a hare mask, although if it’s all that I can track down, I will live with it. I have been looking at other animals (nothing cute), including mallard duck and carp, goat, and deer. Not cat or dog - I am after animals that are prey, (although an owl would be ok). 

The attire of whatever the animal is may change. I am re-reading ‘Wicked’ by Gregory Maguire, and the imagery in the book is informing some choices and decisions. The carp or other animal may be dressed in attire more theatrical and fantastic - to be determined at a later point when other elements are clearer.

AI generated carp changeling in a 3-piece 1940s suit. (02/01/25)

I have being trying to source other puppet head masks, and contacted friends at A Blanck Canvas (ABC) to see if they had anything in stock (which they don’t). They pointed me in the direction of a gecko puppet (below), but it feels too garish and scary. I am familiar with and have investigated the stock at Snuff Puppets, but their puppets are too rough-looking. Snuff Puppet’s style is rough and ready-made, for large-scale outdoor use, not appropriate for this indoor and domestic installation setting.

Oozing Future’s “The Reptilians”. Photographer unknown.

Screenshot from Instagram 02/01/2025

I have been considering other forms of puppetry that use the human body as part of the puppet, that will inform the research. In looking through and thinking about possibilities, I have considered a style used by Compagnie Philip Genty in ‘FLOPPEINNCO’ and a variation of which I saw in a show in New York City in 2005, called ‘Shockheaded Peter’, directed by Julian Crouch & Phelim McDermott. 

Edited screenshot of puppet from Shockheaded Peter (29/12/2025)

The puppeteer’s head, face and/or hands form part of the puppet, with the rest of the (human) body concealed or veiled. The puppet’s body is the constructed/fabricated part of the puppet. In the case of ‘Shockheaded Peter’ and ‘FLOPPEINNCO’, the puppet bodies were diminutive in scale relative to their head sizes. To the best of my knowledge, this puppetry style does not have a name but is a stylistic inversion of the type of body puppetry I have been thinking about. I am still considering this as an option, if not now, for future iterations of HMS.

Cropped screenshot of ‘FLOPPIENNCO’ by Philippe Genty, music by René Aubrey (12/01/25)

January 4th

Across the past two days I have been developing a draft of a map of Honouring Mr Stevens. This has helped me plan, and figure out what to put into the large space. (The small space is as detailed above). 

As participants exit the wardrobe, they will find themselves in the large space. In front of them at the southern end of the room, they will see a couch lit by a standard lamp, with a side table at either end. I propose a coffee table (possibly) with a fake fish tank, placed in front of the couch. The fish tank (lit blue and may have an underwater sound effect) would contain a kinetic puppet - an incongruous object (yet to be determined). The object would appear to be rotating and floating (using a magnetic flotation device secreted within the tank). 

January 12th (Out of date order)

I would like to see if participants choose to sit on the couch or not, and to uncover their choice motivations during the post-HMS interview/survey. The setting is designed as an invitation to sit, and the fish tank is in lieu of a TV screen commonly found in a domestic setting. Sitting on the couch without explicit instruction is a crossing of a threshold. The couch is an invitation, and those who elect to sit will be rewarded with the weirdness of the fish tank. I wonder if it’s fishing for objects using a magnified fishing line on a rod with an object/objects that can be caught.

January 5th

The large artificial Christmas tree, will be adorned with fairy lights, and will have gifts underneath, that participants can open. They will be directed (by a card) to keep the gift. Some gifts will be large, others small, and some small gifts will be in large parcels and playful to unwrap (many layers  to get to the gift). Wrapping paper will be cleared after each particpant has left, and gifts replaced as required. 

Participants will come through (max 2 at a time, 45-minute turn arounds which include onboarding, installation experience, survey/interview on exit and reset time. 

January 8th 

I have made up a draft timetable. My gut feeling is that kinetic puppetry should remain through every session (to be discussed with supervisors).  I am concerned that my normal practice of rewarding audiences is habitual and may not be appropriate to the research, but I am concerned that the artwork will not be up to scratch without this inclusion. Part of my concerns are around the speed at which I am installing HMS means I can’t develop it in-situ, with enough time to make it as rich and experience as is my normal standard/style. Need to discuss.

HMS Timetable Version 1 08/01/2025.

January 9th

 Turning back to my notes from December 23rd, regarding onboarding. I had proposed that participants could be offered dog masks and rabbit onesies. I am now unconvinced of the relevance of the onesies. However, I have a quantity of dog and cat masks. These could be wrapped as gifts underneath the Christmas tree for participants to open. A small quantity of these masks could be placed within the small space of the installation, hidden in drawers, but only a few. I do not want the site to be saturated with these, nor the element of surprise to be stripped through overt signalling. 

Masks as gifts under the Christmas tree will pose at least two potential playful behaviours for remote ethnographic observation (REO) of participants. Firstly, does a participant open a gift (and if so, only one?); secondly, what do they do with the mask? Does it influence or inspire playful behaviour?

Dog and cat masks I have in stock (photos taken by me at a party in 2019

I am interested in testing this as part of the first iteration of HMS and seeing what may develop from this inclusion in the research. 

Jason and I did a site visit to 4.2.3 this morning. Jason took measurements and is on the case with the wardrobe design. By revisiting the site after creating the map, I am able to envisage better what I have developed. The space is not as large as I had remembered, which is an advantage as I have been concerned that the installation elements will be lost in a large space. Below is a rough design sketch of the wardrobe Jason has created.

Wardrobe rough sketch 09/01/2025

January 10th

I have been thrown by receiving an RMIT email regarding the need for greater clarification of the use of the site. I think I have symptoms of P.E.S.T. (Post Ethics Stress Trauma), as my knee-jerk reaction to the email was very Henny-Penny. Next week this will be sorted out.

 January 12th 

On January 9th, I made an appointment to visit Rose Chong Costumiers in Gertrude Street Fitzroy to look through their collection of helmet-style animal puppet heads. They had quite a number of them, but most were inappropriate.

Examples of helmet-style animal puppet heads at Rose Chong Costumiers, 09/01/2025

There were mascot-style heads, which are very large and cartoony/comic in style, made for stadiums, and a bunch of smaller helmet-style puppet heads made of latex. The smaller were generally for use at Halloween, so ghoulish and not what I was looking for. However, there was one - a bull’s head. While this is a new direction, a bull-head body puppet could work. With eyes set in the sides of their heads, bulls are animals of prey, although this may not automatically be interpreted by participants as bulls are not generally identified as animals of prey. In this setting, the creature could be interpreted as a minotaur, with the body of a man and the head of a bull. The Greek myth of the minotaur is that the creature was held in a labyrinth built by Minos and fed on human flesh until killed by Theseus (CED website, London).  It interests me that in HMS this (apparently) violent beast would be seated in a domestic setting, wearing a suit, and situated in the (relative) middle of the installation - like the minotaur in the myth. I propose working and have already lined up two female actors who will play the minotaur. I will direct them to execute “civilised” behaviours using classic English style manners, executed in a naturalistic way - not overdone. 

There are many threads to be unpacked here, not limited to but which include:

  • Mr Stevens as Minotaur - what does this indicate or imply, if anything? (Note: The original Mr Stevens story was never intended to be included in this iteration).

  • Integrating the myth into the whole installation? Ariadne’s thread is an obvious choice and works with the sewing room setting in the small room.

  • Considering the design to be semi-labyrinth, is this a step too far and unnecessary? 

  • Is there a link, and does there need to be a link between the Christmas trees and the Minotaur?

  • Is the fish tank relevant and if not, what then on the table?

  • Cow hides on the floor instead of rugs?

  • More animal inclusions? The cat and dog masks and other hints at animals throughout the installation, meaning, and potential influence on research into playfulness and wonder.

Jason in the helmet-style puppet bull head, taken at Rose Chong (09/01/2025) 


Endling Showing, April 6th & 7th, 2024.

Our short Showing season at ArtPlay went well. In the days prior to audiences, we bumped in and then spent time experimenting with and testing lighting, sound and AV. This included realising the final version of the animation, which I (Penelope) edited into two sections: the first the slow build of regeneration of Endling’s world, and the second the arrival of Endling at night time (Endling is nocturnal). Justin adapted the second section of the animation using photoshop, so that Endling slowly rose up, appearing from behind a pond as night was falling. Jason figured out lighting systems, and Laura worked intensively on the development of the audience-facing content, making sure that each section was a perfect dramaturgical fit for Endling’s themes and intention.

Some words from Laura Aldous - Endling’s Play Expert

Endling Stage 3 was such a beautiful experience. It was so exciting to share the magic of this work that we had made with children over the last few months, with children as the audience. In each show I was met with excitement, a little apprehension and an overall willingness from each group to creatively come up with a world where Endling would thrive. I was quite amazed to see how most groups of children worked together with such beautiful teamwork to create a thoughtful and playful world for Endling.

My favourite reviews of the work were;

“That was better than playing on my iPad!”

“That was the best day ever ever ever I never want to leaveeee” (from a 4 year old).

Working once more with Artplay has been such a joy, [Laura worked on Wood Wide Web, our earlier Artplay work] and creating work in their New Ideas Lab has provided an opportunity me to reflect along each step of the way. I’ve loved that there has been so much space in the creation of this work, space and time to engage with the world, space and time to create and explore and space and time to discover and reflection along each step of the process. Creating in this way has had a big impact on the final product and I very much hope this work has a future because after that small season I can feel we have created a beautiful and meaningful work for children. 

REVIEW - Stage Whispers, Michael Brindley, April 2024

“Endling is an ‘interactive installation/performance’ piece which seeks to ‘tackle climate anxiety’ and replace it with hope; to show that all is not lost.  It does this, not by telling, but by having the kids doing – and at the end of forty-five minutes they’re all smiling and so are the parents.”

Michael Brindley

Please CLICK HERE to read the review.

Children’s feedback:

‘This was the best show I’ve ever seen’

‘This is the best day ever’

Parent anecdote / feedback about their Endling experience:

“At one point Laura mentioned hope and he (child) whispered to me ‘I am feeling that too!’”  

ENDLING - The in-between times

In the gap between our Dreaming + Making and the upcoming Showing part of the ArtPlay New Ideas Lab, Jason Lehane (Designer) and Penelope Bartlau (me - Artistic director and puppet-maker/designer) met to discuss what we need to have prepared before/ready for the Showing - which is coming in about a month.

We discussed the structures within the space that we provided - the tree and the flying tent, and the idea of having “discoverables”. The rivers Jason made are fantastic and we want more of this kind of thing.

Penelope & Jason pondering….

THE CONVERSATION

Jason - what about big cardboard pieces on the ground that fold up - they are hinged. Like a pool.

Penelope - I think that the shapes need to be uggestive of the thing but not itslef. And would the cardboard, tripping hazard.

Jason - I’m thinking of the ground in front of the platforms?

Penelope - what if they are smaller ? Painted black on the exterior and sit against the black curtain and fold down - maybe velcroed, and the interior is a shape that is white but hints at a thing…

Jason - I think these limit the kids choices - too predetermined.

Penelope - I didn’t mean a predetermined think - amorphous.

Jason - I’m really having to drill back into where we were…

Penelope - Me too.

Jason - I think thinking about in tech elements. Lights? We need a DMX cable - so we have control the change in colour. Maybe just two more lights? Just have 4 lights in the room, and the colour wsah is the alteration. But - the rear projection. If we film the back ground change…

Penelope - Masking an animation?

Jason - Yes - in a similar way to how we made it at St Mary’s - Old Lens New Light. But how do we change the light? Do we film the light and then ad slides later? We left the animation table at St Mary’s

P - we could borrow it back? How much time do you think?

J - It would take a day - for me to do a trail and shoot. But it needs duration in it. How long does it go for?

P - what if it goes for 15 minutes, but if we need to alter the length we shift the playback speed

J - Yes, and we go across the day and into night time - and it will be paper

P - So it wont have the luminosity of the cellophane…

J - Yeah it might - tis like we are doing a faux overhead projector (OHP)- Or maybe we just film the overhead projection?

P - …and edit that. We could use the dark room here…

J - …we could do it at night time - but we need a proper screen and we don’t have that. We can’t project film onto/from the OHP - just what it’s filing onto. We film a minute, and fill it with a crossfade…

P - …a series of images and crossfades…

J - We could go int to the nighttime effect and have the stars there - which means wouldn’t need a star curtain.

P - ArtPlay has a data projector - so we don’t need the desktop overhead projector…

J - …Yes, to shoot.

P - Good, we have the budget for this and we need to go and look at some when we are next in Melbourne.

J - Good.

P - I wonder too, if we could film at night at ArtPLay?

J - No time. The background image is going to have to shift from a murky background image - at the start, I had a bluey, cold wash on the overhead projector and I added colours as elements across the time, and then I added the images - grasses, water, leaves on the trees, sun, birds, fish in the water, sun rose - and after this Endling appeared. Which will be tricky - how to time this…

P - I wonder if we need to have different films - like you have sound cues. Fade or transition from one to the next…

Jason - …As long as you don’t pause in the middle of a transition. We want to keep it steady, but it has to…

P - …be flexible…

Jason - Yes, and we need to work out how. Justin might know - how to store those files.

Penelope - On what platform?

Jason - I don’t know. I’ll do some research anyway. I think we make one state, the build to fecundity and daytime, and then we transition to the night time sequence. Three cues but with the same framing.

Penelope - I think the 3-step filmed sequence should be daytime to fecund, to night time, to…

Jason - …Endling coming in (lit by a full moon - have a different feel to it). Should be able to run this through QLAB.

Penelope - I think that the final image, with stars and whatnot, this is where we can have baby Endlings flying off into the sky - like bubbles. They don’t need to be clearly defined baby Endlings - more like tadpole eggs or embryos.

Jason - Yes - Need to experiment with that.

Penelope - How many i-pads will we need? Justin will be working with kids on sound in the space using one, which I need to purchase.

Jason - Just one. He is excellent at QLAB and will know what the cues. The lighting would be on this Ipad too - or I can take lighting as I am not on the floor.

Penelope - But how - from what device?

Jason - From a laptop wiht an interface. Light a lighting dongle - the DMX does all the conversions and you run it from your computer. The computer is the trigger system.

Penelope - So Justin on the i-pad and the computer and i-pad are not using the same QLAB program? How does this work?

Jason - How does the laptop talk to the lights? We need to set up a wireless system, and if not we need to run wires. Probably a wireless transmitter and receiver. I can set up a wired system for lighting.

Penelope - But I need to know what we need from a producer viewpoint…

Jaon - It’s pretty complex, we need to talk this through with Justin.

Penelope - Great. I will set up a meeting with Justin and Charlie. Cool - what about the things in the space - the pop-ups?

Jase - I don’t think I am going to have time to create extraordinary things. I just won’t have - and don’t have time now. The low-fi solutions are going to work. But are there simple things I can create. Something to open up - so children can lift a hinged panel and there’s capacity to dress it - attach things. Also I think we need our own netting - Black netting attached to black curtains.

Penelope - I would like to get some semi-speherical balls.

Jasom - I dont know how they’d work in the space…

Penelope - I think we test this out…

Jason - I don’t even know what they look like….

Penelope - Yeah - ArtPlay had some. Let me Google and show you. They will work. I know it. We only need 3. I know these will work. We don’t want spheres - kids will roll them and they will be a distracting play thing. Oh (insert expletive) I need to leave! I have to take the dog to the vet!

March 4th - More chats and decision making with Jason

Lighting and other design

Jason - As children families move from the welcome area to the create space, let’s light that differently.

Penelope - What do we need? Let’s put the wish list together.

Jason - Ok. I think I am making it too complex.

Penelope - Tell me what you’re imagining - let’s simplify.

Jason - The issue is that there’s too much light bleed with those the blinds. We don’t want the overhead lights either. We have two lights on the balcony. We need a winch up stand in the welcome space, plus another one…

P - …Push up or winch up?

J - Winch ups are good - they are solid. But it’s just so complicated! We could chuck the idea away, but it means we won’t have the magical effect at the end. As long as we don’t change the set too much. But we need some black netting on both sides that we weigh down with sandbags.

P - Both sides?

J - Yes.

P - So that goes on the list.

Jason - If I can winch up Endling’s caboose I can dress that

Penelope - That’s a me job - and we don’t want it too dressed.

Jason - And the flat things, the hinged pop-ups, these are relatively easy.

Penelope - What do we need for that?

Jason - Cardboard painted white? Like little ice-bergs.

Penelope - What about coreflute? - But it won’t paint…I have the old Barking Spider signs in the barn that we won’t use again.

Jason - I could use ply, but it will create a little lip.

P- But so will cardboard. I think that it should it should open from top down.

Jason - I mean more like a book - it becomes double what its footprint is.

P - If they are on the floor, how can we hang things on it?

J - You can’t - it’s more for assemblages.

P - I think it’s pretty busy in there. Max 1 pop up, to start with. It’s not as discoverable as the rivers either, or as flexible.

J - Ok - just the two black nets on the side and one of these pop ups

P - It’s just to experiment with. I am keen on the half domes - and Jeany said you pump them with a hairdryer.

J - Is there a next time with this?

P - I have already been getting emails about it. Also, becuase we are experimenting with capacity next time, going from smaller to bigger to smaller - that’s going to impact space. It may means that the “in-between” space…

J - I suppose that’s really the entrance to the world…

P - Ok - let’s call it the Entrance. So we have Welcome, Entrance and World spaces. And with bigger capacity, we might use the entrance space, and that could be good for the pop ups. So - where are we at lighting thinking-wise.

J - We use ArtPlay’s existing stock, quad pack, and I’m uncomfortable to bring in more equipment for a bunch of reasons - capacity. Does their quad pack dim?

P - Need to check the ArtPlay stocklist. Ok, so, I think we need to keep it simple…The problem is that we want to achieve magic at the end, but light bleed is problematic. If we have the blind brough down as part of Endling’s return to the rejuvenated world.

J - We need to make sure that the Welcome and Entrance have lighting if we dim the lights blinds. Justin’s sound will support this.

P - Last time we were improvising this, but we can cue it. Laura can cue SFX and LX, and that we will be between me and Laura. Then to light and sound. Maybe Justin operates from the balcony and Charlie is on the floor interacting with kids on the i-pad doing the sound creation that Justin suggested.

Jason - Yes - Also, it doesn’t have to be night…

P - ..I like night. I think it rounds off the experience for children, to say goodbye and Endling after the rejuvenation.

J - The blue lights were behind the puppet - problematic. I think we need two more pixel bars and two push up stands - and the extra pair will illuminate the Entrance space.

P - We should use those LED tubes we bought - the ones in the barn. I think we can hang them. They can go into the Welcome space and will illuminate that space when the blinds go down.

J - If the lights change, should we have additional colour? The light is not reflecting the change in the world. Should the materials on the projector the world should be blue - or in the palette?

P - That father that made the suggestion of more colour - we all dismissed the idea. I think we stay in our colour palette.

J - The lights could shift to green light as the world begins to flourish, and then the moon comes out - maybe Endling is nocturnal?

P - That’s a great idea!

J - So, we do need DMX control - with cables to link them.

P - It ends in moonlight. That’s nice bookending.

J - Should Endling react to the light - encouraging us to make more suitable/nocturnal?

P - I think the light and sound should do the work. The puppet doesn’t have capacity to react to light, and children simply need to see the effect of their world-building. Too much. I will put some EL wires into Endling that I can operate before her return/re-entrance into the rejuvinated world. She’ll look magical!

(Screenshot of EL wire and components below)

J - Great. Should Endling come from where you brought her in?

P - I don’t think so - too hard to get the puppet through the kids and into the new environment. Hang on - are we talking at cross-purposes? Do you mean that Endling comes from the Entrance space, not from behind Laura?

J - Yes. Means we don’t have to build the block wall.

P - Keeps it super simple.

J - And you can get through to the Entracne from behind the curtain.

P - But I don’t need to even be in that space…

J - …We don’t really need introduction for the Showing.

P - Charlie might. If she’s front facing/interacting with kids with Laura, then audience need to know who she is. I might need to too, but, let’s see if we can stay out of it. OK - shopping list:

J - Hire 2 more pixel bars and DMX leads, and two push up stands.

P - Two black and nets and cardboard (hopefully we can source this from somewhere).

J - They have a data projector?

P - Pretty sure they do.

J - hopefully there’s a long enough lead to op from the balcony

P - I will ask Jeany.

AT THIS POINT WE MADE LUNCH & CONTINUED THE DISCUSSION OVER LUNCH…

Summary of lunch convo: we are buying EL wires - not borrowing stuff from a contact of Jason’s, and we are going to hire the lighting and cabling that we need, ideally from Monash Uni Student Theatre. In terms of the animation, I (Penelope) am going to see if I can create the animation using Canva - rather than having to do a whole stop-motion animation which is extraordinarily time consuming…. Stay tuned! This is the design brief I will use as my guide:

Endling animation

  1. Empty steely blue with a sense of where the ground might be with the outline of trees - like dead trees

  2. The sun starts to appear

  3. Blue steely wash fades to a warmer blue colour 

  4. Leaves on the trees

  5. Bits of grass + Water comes in.

  6. More foliage so whole trees become green

  7. Birds fly across

  8. Fish 

  9. Nest & bird settle

  10. Moon replaces sun - night +stars

  11. Mama Endling appears

  12. Orbs with baby Endling blobs appear

STYLE - Like stills, where moment are captured. Not actual animated characters/assets. Cross fades between states.

ENDLING’S INCEPTION

People have asked where did the idea for Endling come from. The very first inspiration came from an episode of the podcast Radiolab, back in April 2022. CLICK HERE to go to the episode. The transcript of the Endling section of the podcast is below. The other point of inspiration draws from a conversation with friend of mine, Susie Burke, a climate psychologist. Susie spoke at the Powerhouse Museum’s 100 Climate Conversations. Here’s the link to Susie’s talk: Dr Susie Burke - Climate Psychology.

WHAT HAVE WORMS GOT TO DO WITH HOPE!

Regeneration - that’s what…

This is the coolest, weirdest, fun science-nature discovery, that gives hope for regeneration by making the impossible, possible. For more info, have a read of this article from The Scientist. Endling is not alone! Ever!

Endling - Dreaming. 13th-15th February, 2024

We respectfully acknowledge and thank the Traditional Owners of the land, waterways and sky of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung and Bunurong / Boon Wurrung peoples of the Kulin nation. We pay respect to their Elders past and present and acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded. Thank you for allowing us to create, dream and play on these lands.

Across two days, Barking Spider Creative artists have planned, plotted and prepped for our final day of the Dreaming of the ArtPlay New Ideas Lab.

Artists on the project are:

  • Jason Lehane - Designer/lighting design

  • Laura Aldous - Play designer and facilitator.

  • Justin Gardam - Sound Design

  • Charlie Clark - Sound design assistant

  • Yuhan Ye - Big dreaming expert and creative associate

  • Penelope Bartlau (yours truly) - Artistic Director, puppeteer and puppet maker.

  • Tarkin Watt and Rinske Ginsberg from ArtPlay

DAY 1 - MARCH 13th

MORNING BRAINSTORM SESSION


These are the conversational thoughts exchanged in our first time together

Creating sounds that are responsive to and within the world

We don’t start off in a harmonious world – like a radio station we tune into the radio station, you can be in the scratchy zone before you evolve into the world.

·      Desolate

·      Sparse

·      Discordant

Building something sonically one little thread at a time. Sound evolves additively – arises organically.

 

Kids need to be connected to the creature

Does the whole thing start with the story of Endling  - David Attenborough style?

Does Endling have different iterations?

 

Show Endling come out of hibernation for a moment at the start – intro.

 

Lighting puppet so audiences focus in on Endling?

 

Create a slide show of Endling, narrative structure world set up?

Are we concerned that the world presented in the slide show might be too prescriptive?

This age group has HUGE imaginative capacity.

 

No context for creation? The act of creation is the prompt itself. Polyglot’s We Built This City worked this way.

How do we create the context for children to build an environment to support life?

Ending is a creature, the co-dependency of creatures - life to environment and vice versa.

 

Peter Day’s Brolga project at Beeac Primary School: Farming kids were inspired by Brolgas and their local environment to protect brolgas - an artistic and political work.

AFTERNOON - PUPPETRY & DESIGN

(Pictures are worth 1000 words - or so they say! Please check out the gallery above to see what we were doing)

The artists separated into two groups:  Jason and Justin, with ArtPlay’s Rinske Ginsberg, explored materials - visual capabilities and sonic qualities, and also space set up for Thursday’s session with the 5-7 year old children coming from Woodline Primary School.

Penelope, Laura and Yuhan worked upstairs with the Endling puppet. Penelope delivered a crash course in puppet manipulation, and the three explored the dynamics and possibilities of Endling’s range of movement, plus some vocal ideas.

DAY 2 - MARCH 14th PREP

Today was prep and set up for tomorrow’s workshop with the 30 children from Woodline. Laura and I (Penelope) spent quite a bit of time detailing the workshop, while Jason and Yuhan worked on design and set up. Tarkyn (from ArtPlay) was with us today and was so wonderful! Their ideas and assistance really bounced the process along.

DAY 3 - MARCH 15th DREAMING WORKSHOP

The day of the World Dreamers

After final checks and a puppet rehearsal and walk through, the children - World Dreamers - teachers and some parents of Woodline Primary arrived. After Tarkyn introduced everyone to the site, Laura ran a physicalised acknowledgment of country, we (artists) introduced ourselves, and we were off!

Laura ran a physical theatre game for for movement, body awareness and play. I (Penelope) lead a discussion about the children’s world (Yuhan, Jaon and and Laura scribing the children’s descriptions to capture this for our next creative steps. The discussion circled around these sorts of questions / prompts. Where you live:

o   What do you observe?

o   What do you observe changing/happening?

o   What do you think animals, creatures, human need in the world?

Than, we introduced Endling (puppet). Laura interacted with the puppet while I operated, and we improvised a meet and greet so the children could identify Endling’s current “state of being” - how and where she lives etc, to lead us into the next step, where children considered what Endling’s needs are.

QUOTE OF THE SESSION

“Endling needs a whole entire habitat to survive. We need to know whether Endling is cold blooded or warm blooded” (Lucy)

Children from Woodline Primary meeting Endling.

We moved into a second space, populated by tables and chairs, and in small groups, children imagined what Endling’s world should be like, and an adult at each table wrote down the children’s thoughts and imaginings - World Dreamers: What does Endling need in her world? Creating 7 dreaming posters. Following this, led by Laura, each group (with their posters as prompts) created a physical tableaux of this world.

During the break BSC artists + Tarkyn reset the space. The 7 posters were pinned to black curtain. The kids came back to thier tables after sitting and sharing/exploring at all the making materials, kids sit back around the tables. They began by collecting one material, at a time/each person, then it became free exploration of materials and collaborative world building. Once done, we set up the space as a gallery and each group explained thier creation and its purpose. We finished with a reflection. (See photos of the mind maps and the table-top installations below)

We learned a lot about what we are doing and what our next steps are for the Make sessions. We explored the kind pf responses that children have to the materials and the subject matter, and observed what they gravitate towards to, and what they exclude. Wew had thought that children would intuitively gravitate towards Maslow’s hierarchy of needs - the original version with 5 needs, which more-or-less they did. IN the lead up to Dreaming, Jason had researched a newer version of this needs pyramid with 8 needs (see pyramid).

In discussion, we realise that children implicitly gravitate towards some of the needs higher up on the updates pyramid; aesthetic, self-actualisation and transcendence. We have decided that we will provide the materials and design the space so that these higher up needs can be intuitively discovered and explored by the children, through play.

BUILD - MARCH 16TH

ARTISTS ONLY

SOUND:

  • Justin and Charlie collated all of the sound ideas and observations generated by the kids yesterday.

  • Are generating a Streamdeck with buttons to make sounds accessible for the kids to control.

  • Categorised different environmental landscapes.

  • Are looking at bass level (synth), melodic level (percussive quality like a woodblock), textural level, organic life and the environmental relationship with movement and sound.

    Justin and Charlie discussed:

  • Where the sound should sit in the space, and decided the speakers will sit up pointing towards the roof to create spatial depth.

  • Questioned if the sound on Sunday is reactive to what the kids are doing and making in the space, or is it controlled by the kids with buttons (we will test this out).

  • The timing on Sunday of when sound comes in and at what level.

  • Sound to emphasise how our actions create change, painting the sounds in at the same time as the kids are creating - responsive sound.

  • Sound discovery on Sunday to be child led and child prompted and then artist led if it needs to be.

  • Experiment of Justin operating sound and Charlie on sound and child facilitation.

DESIGN:

Jason:

  • Created basic structure: front entrance, back play area wth two rostra and a white tree.

  • Experimented with a cubby, and this felt out of place. Instead, he tested a hanging structure (the pod) which feels more like Endling’s world and balances the space a little bit. The pod will be attached to a rope and we will test if children gravitate to this and pull it up without prompting.

  • Suggested a “pop-up’ book mechanism (floor based) with blue fabric, so kids could pull a river out or create a lake from the blue fabric. Penelope thought that it’s less prescriptive if we cut this blue fabric up into smaller pieces and the kids can initiate this element.

    We all agreed:

  • Green plastic leaves, do we like them? We don’t like the leaves! They’re too overt where the other materials can be more abstract. Rubber rocks can stay though..

  • We love the white arch - it’s magical! Adds dimension.

  • Get rid of cushions as they don’t fit - too human-made/out of world.

  • We have overhead projectors and would like to use these.

    Laura & Tarkin:

    Sourced materials from the artplay store: cushions, inflatable clear balls (which we can half inflate for better construction potential), stepping stones (blocks), black netting that could be suspended for kids to tie materials to adding texture. Fleecy baby blankets, balls of wool in the right colour palette, polystyrene white balls, cardboard cylinders, disco balls (not sure), fairy lights (not sure).

PLANS FOR THE REST OF THE DAY AND WEEKEND

Justin and Charlie are recording materials and collating sounds for Justin to work on tomorrow (Saturday) in prep for Sunday.

Jason is continuing to create and experiment, introducing large play elements (a tree and a floating pod). Jason also added in lights and created an Endling ending with the overhead projector.

Laura and Penelope:

  • Selected and set up materials working space + seating blocks for the audience.

  • Planned and walked through the sessions for Saturday which will be a template for Sunday, as Sunday will include a sound exploration station for the kids.

  • Did a big rehearsal, and revised the puppet’s intention. Penelope (I) introduced the idea that Endling is a wild animal - not tame - and can’t be communicated with or controlled in any human way. Laura adjusted her way of navigating the puppet, and this has shaped how we will share, present and show Endling (puppet) with the kids.

We have figured out the 3 act structure of Endling:

Problem - Endling’s world is uninhabitable - what do we know about our world and how can we fix it.

Solution - Build a new habitat for Endling

Outcome - Endling flourishes - new Endlings (bubbles, flying embryos - who knows!)

Below: Photos of artists at work on Make Day.

FEBRUARY 17th & 18th MAKE

Saturday and Sunday

The first workshop on Saturday was a by-the-seat-of-our-pants experiment. We had a plan to follow, and the premise of the work is very clear, but really, we in performance we were improvising and this really was a first test with an audience of people who didn’t know each other (unlike school kids who do know each other), and quite a small group (7 kids and 7 adults).

Everything went smoothly, but we picked up a lot of ideas - what worked/is working, and what we can add. We also have ideas about slightly shape-shifting the world in a nuanced way, and this is really in the way we are framing the world exploration with the children. One of the children said, mid Laura’s discussion moment about what environments do you know - what do you see, hear, feel - “Are we doing some making soon?”. A very clear signal that the “talky-talky” is boring/not engaging enough. Instead, we are going to get children to create these environments with the sonic elements, using their bodies and voices.

QUOTE OF THE SESSION

“I want to stay here and play with Endling for ever”

Questions to the children & their responses:

What do we need / what might Endling need? 

  • Stream with rocks

  • Nest for birds

  • Beds

  • Cave

  • Leaves on the tree

  • A swing

  • Drums

  • Stairs

  • Friend for Endling 

  • Watering holes

  • Vase of flowers 

  • Bedtime toys and fairy floss

  • Sleeping spots

  • A Present Gift)

CHILDREN’S FEEDBACK ABOUT THE SESSION

  • Liked making things

  • Endling messed some stuff up 

  • Phoenix wants to live here and see Endling have babies 


PARENT FEEDBACK

QUOTE OF THE SESSION

“I felt really sad when Endling was playing all alone - which was the point. The message was really clear.” 


Workshop 2

QUOTE OF THE SESSION

“When Endling was happy at the end, I felt happy. When Endling was sad I felt sad - my mum cries if I cry, even if I am not with her. I could feel Endling’s feelings”

(Charlotte - slight paraphrasing, but she touched her heart unconciously when she spoke about her feelings)

The second workshop followed a similar pattern to the first, but we added in a forest soundtrack to the space once the children had started creating it, which warmed the space up a bit. When we activated the children to create these environments with the sonic elements, using thier bodies and voices, it shifted the dynamic and was a much better choice.

Children’s input into environments they have experienced:

Rivers

  • Butterfly

  • Trees

  • Leaves

    Smells

  • Flowers (colours). Smell 

  • Stinky bugs

  • Crunched up leaves 

What do we need / what might Endling need? 

  • Water

  • Food

  • Plants 

  • Homes 

  • Keeping warm

  • Fruit

  • Sleep

  • Stars

  • Moon

  • Black 

  • Clouds sometimes 

THINGS CHILDREN MADE - ENDLING’S WORLD’S ELEMENTS 

  • Food

  • Pets

  • A waterfall coming out of a tent

  • Beds

  • Leaves on the tree

  • Pillow

  • Toy

  • Rocky area for Endling to throw

  • bitey fish 

  • Money 

  • Water

  • Sandwich 

  • A bow for her hair

  • Bush to hide from predators

  • Biting fish (there to protect Endling)

    PARENT FEEDBACK

  • Wider colour palette - reds? blacks? (Can we address this with lighting? Do we want to? - The answer is no…)

  • What about a white wall that children can draw on?

  • Can each kids show and tell what they have done (No).

  • Can we add scents? (We would love this - OHS issue though)

  • More moments of transformation like the tree and the pod.

  • I observed in myself how difficult it is to step back from my adult impulse, perspective and method

  • Enjoyed seeing different children’s personalities expressed through their creations and considerations

  • Loved the warm up and introduction

  • More sounds


    ARTIST THOUGHTS

Jason: I am looking for the moment of transformation. The kids are loving making, and whether more things like the tree and the pod, or something that could open up in the middle of the space. This is kind of what I meant with the pop up book experience. If the blue fabric pokes out from underneath a rostra, it can be pulled. I have added two pieces to test out tomorrow. I noticed that all the pop up bits (except the tree) require prompting).

Penelope: I didn’t understand originally what you meant by “pop up”

Laura:

  • At the end - a transformation for Endling: stars in the sky. Family? (End with wonder).

  • I don’t like the idea of increasing the colour palette (we all agree - it would become a mess)

Penelope - What did you think about the lights?

Tarkyn - When it’s overcast it’s a bit gloomy, like a “stale church on a winter morning”

Jason - The lights lifted things, and taking them off the floor was more effective. I prefer a colour backwash than a frontwash. I am interested if some of the objects themselves are illuminated (with DMX control to shift colour - we all agree). It wouldn’t take any more than 4 lights. Some of the lighting stands, the nut doesn’t quite go all the way in, not perfectly countersunk, so they wobble a bit. I have sandbagged them so they are ok - but is there anything else?

  • We think it needs a real transformation at the end. Night time - birth, stars, wonder. We need to have a beautiful ending of awe and wonder to tie off the piece, (underscoring the premise).

  • Star curtain at the end would be beautiful.

  • The documentary will need to be in the introduction area.

  • Psyche wall at the back? Changing colour wash.

WHAT WE NEED TO CONSIDER IN THE SPACE FOR TOMORROW & SHOWING SEASON

More seating for parents - energy was flagging in the afternoon.

SUNDAY SESSION 1

QUOTES OF THE SESSION

“What happened to all Endling’s friends and family?” (Felix)


Felix: “The thing I didn’t like was when I had made something and someone dismantled it”

Laura: “What did you do about that?”

Felix: “I just went and did something else.”

Thanks Tarkyn Watt for the above photos

OVERALL ARTIST THOUGHTS FOR THE FIRST SESSION

  • Younger age works - we had 3-6 year olds, and the session worked.

  • Felix was asking the big questions “What happened to her friends and family”.

  • What do we think about rubber bands? Concern with babies - We can warn any parent with a baby…But we have decided no.

  • Let’s put the boxes out, in the space as the kids didn’t explore unprompted, and put tuille inside as a discoverable.

  • We will structure the piece to end at night time.

  • Materials are informing the cosy spots the kids are creating with the ArtPlay blankets - can we swap things out?

  • Colour palette - variations? Next one we add browns?

  • Structure - Maybe tree truck structures, or squat things. Also, we are missing the air element - clouds, bubbles.

  • Feedback session was boring for kids - for the Showing session, we might consider doing feedback in the foyer

    Justin suggested bringing and i pad into the space so that he can move around and engage the children with sounds connected to what they are making. Also more speakers in and under things that connect to the space - probably connected to the pop up we will create. Justin’s going shift something from recognisable instruments in the entrance play space to wood and water based sounds, which will then be the bed flowing into the space. Sound will build to an end at night time - after Endling has entered the new world and explored,had a pat with the kids, it transitions to night so Endling can go to bed.

PARENT FEEDBACK

  • Way to attach things, tape and scissors. (We want to keep the tying aesthetic. Jason suggested wooden pegs, we will find some child-friendly equivalent.

  • More pop ups (stations for kids to discover and to build upon).


WORKSHOP 2 SUNDAY

QUOTE OF THE SESSION

“I’m seeing on the screen behind all of the element of endling’s world coming to life. that makes me feel happy” (Akira, 7 years old)

“My daughter is neurodiverse and she had a ball, i think it was perfect for 8 year olds” mum of a child.

ARTIST REFLECTIONS

Justin:

  • Child suggested there should be a sound inclusion of the howl of Endling, adn I’d like to integrate this, so that Endling can be heard far away.

  • Second session on Sunday felt like there was a proper shift at the end so we were in another world through sound transformation at the end.

  • Parent feedback suggesting there was more of a shift musically/ sonically at the end which we think is a good idea - making a whole moment of it.

  • Disperse the speaker system a bit more so the space can feel more and the environment can be enriched.

Laura:

  • Create a game that’s thematically relevant but serves the purpose of “Crunchy Pretzels” at the warm up - but, using environmental elements which are in-keeping with our theme. Then, when I ask about nature when the kids are siting, they will be able to spitfire more easily because they have just been physical/embodied the meaning. It’s important world set up.

  • The bones of what we have created is right for the next step.

  • We need to build in a moment of “huzzah!” Glowing descending orbs, bubbles, stars - absolute wonder at the end.

  • I’m really interested in the difference between morning and afternoon sessions, and I’d like to find a solution to this.

  • I want more magic - that will lift the ending of the work.

Jason:

  • I was out the back most of the time for Sunday number 2 playing with lighting and the images on the overhead projector.

  • The projector changes out the back are really working, the kids are amazed at the change. Endling number 2 (on the overhead projector) coming out at the end is a brilliant solve to how we make more Endlings in the world.

  • Projector, lights need to come down at the end as the kids leave the space, main illumination comes down, Endling herself glows from the inside, her world has fed her.

  • Not a complex lighting design, but couple of specific choices to enhance the story telling - need to be able to control the lighting state of the workshop space

Anything we want to experiment with / try next time?

  • More pop ups and glowing orbs, different Set pieces.

Penelope

  • More budget to hire a puppeteer so I can outside eye!

  • Really enjoyed taking the time with the puppet.


DREAMING & MAKING SUMMARY

ARTPLAY

What worked well and why….

We are an experienced team coming into ArtPlay, and knowing the staff, space, ethics, philosophy and style at and of ArtPlay means we could dive right in and start to create immediately.

  • Our artistic team worked beautifully with the ArtPlay team.

  • We felt cared for and respected thoughout our processes.

  • The parameters were provided by ArtPlay were very clear.

How delivering this creative experience informed our practice

Our practice methodology is well established, so what has been informed is how we make this particular work. We learned a great deal from the children and the parents/carers we co-created with, and this has deeply informed and shaped the future of the work. For example, we have changed the age we were originally pitching the work towards, from 5-7 year olds, to 4-8 year olds - a huge shift.

ABOUT THE PROJECT

We have come absolute leaps and bounds with this project. it’s interesting to me (Penelope), that our Dreaming stage of Wood Wide Web had some very clunky moments with the children/families we were creating with, which we then resolved during the Make. This time though, the progress has been steady and smooth (no clunkers) - which means it has been a different experience to last time so far: not better or worse, just a different process of creating/learning from/with the kids and families across the Dreaming and Making.

Our Showing is 6 weeks away, but we are clear on what we need to do in the interim, what we will create in the time we have at ArtPlay before we present, and and what we will test out. We will test different size audiences at the 5 showings so we know what the stretch is in capacity.

We have ditched some materials (stuff that didn’t work), but will re-use the things we brought across these first two stages. We had an idea of creating a documetary of Endling as an intro to the piece - but I am not convinced that we need it. We may not have enough time (with everything else going on!) to create this between now and April - but we will see.

I have just spent t=oday (February 19th) at the first day of the inaurgural RMIT Australian Posthuman Summer Lab. Endling is 100% en point for the themes raised in this academic and artists gathering. I think we are onto a good thing, and I hope that after the Showing, we have something beautiful, meaningful and playful to share with the world.

Endling - the start before the start.

Across January, and the beginning of February, we (Penelope and Jason - Artistic director and Designer) have been having design meetings, and also doing a lot of materials sourcing, so that we are well and truly prepared for when we arrive at ArtPlay in mid February.

In the meantime, I (Penelope) have been constructing the prototype puppet. Materials have included a whole bunch of stuff from Resource Rescue, three wigs I no longer need for a project which is over and done with, a bicycle helmet I found on the side of the road, and a pair of eyeballs that I pulled out of another puppet to using this one (cruel, but true).

Jason, designer, has drawn up and cast off about 10 different designs, but we know now what we going to start with next week. Below are images of Jason‘s designs and of the puppet.