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. I have included four (below) from a quick search in Pixabay.

Minotaur images downloaded from Pixabay 22/01/2025

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/

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.