LiminaL Projects

Jackson two Bears
Susanna Hood
Tanya Doody
Tom Kuo

July 12 – August 10, 2002

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LiminaL is an installation and performance collective, a conceptual meeting place, an interdisciplinary creative locale focused on the development of collaborative works of art, music, theatre, and dance. The idea of LiminaL is active in the minds of its four collective members; digital media and sound artist Jackson two Bears, choreographer and composer Susanna Hood, sculpture and installation artist Tanya Doody and sound artist Tom Kuo. Working with a wide variety of media LiminaL merge their creative mentalities to produce work that speaks about human interaction, obscured synesthetic relationships, and unique forms of spiritualism. Together we work to create immersive environmental spaces that explore the concept of “limen”, a word used to describe a metaphorical threshold in between different states or realities.

Often working with various textile materials to develop sculptural forms we seek to create situations where these forms can be manipulated and transformed by human contact during the exhibition. For us sculpture functions as a representation of tactile objectivity, and is accessible to the body as tangible form. In performance the sculpture serves as a point of reference for an improvisational movement piece that explores the space between the forms. One exhibition featured the construction of a sculpture on site as a part of the performance. A sewing machine was used through the duration of the show to manipulate large rolls of paper. Once transformed the paper functioned as a wearable sound sculpture and served as a beginning point for an improvised movement piece. The sculptural material becomes actualized and re-envisioned as the spaces in between are permeated by the body.

The video and sound elements in our work contribute to the atmosphere that the physical resides in. It represents an imaginary space with its own suggested temporality and dimension. The video work is developed from 8mm video tape and scanned objects that are digitally manipulated to create partially representational collages of light and shadow. Occasionally 3D and virtual reality software is used to design perceptually interactive hyper-spaces. At a recent exhibition, “Expressions in Virtual Reality”, we worked with a tracking system that enabled us to decode physical movement in space as digital information. This information was then programmed to control video manipulations in virtual space during the performance.

The environmental soundscape is derived from samples of various personal spaces and is transformed digitally to produce the effect of a space in constant flux. Sound for us is about the activation of mental reflections and memory. Often layering several sounds together to create spatial juxtapositions, reverberative qualities are manipulated to provide the experience of sound emerging from various proximities. A series of explorations led us to develop multi-speaker system designed to output sound from 30 different locations. The system was used in several installations to impart a deeper sense of immersion into the constructed environment.

In performance we create improvisational compositions where movement, sound, and vision intersect. Typically using multiple computers, some analogue music machines and a variety of found and constructed organic instruments, we enhance the space by interacting with the entire sensory environment. Improvisation allows us the liberty to explore sound and movement in the moment of creation. Ultimately our interaction is what determines the situation in which the work takes its form. The development process endures throughout the presentation of the work, and is tied to the moment of immediate experience.

LiminaL seeks to explore the boundaries between our own cognitive visceral spaces. With our performances and our installations we seek to engage with the viewer on a phenomenological level; the work doesn’t search for meaning, uncover truths or make statements. The experience of the ephemera turns the viewer back to themselves, it invites our imagination to complete the form, the narrative, and give it personal meaning.

For the Artspace gallery LiminaL will be developing a multi-media environmental space using video projections, a surround sound speaker system and sculpture. The installation itself will be shown from July 12- August 10. An improvisational performance within the environment will be conducted during the opening reception on July 12th. Our objective for this project is to deal with hypothetic reality verses the real, familiar and unfamiliar substance, and accessible and inaccessible spaces. Sculptural works will be developed using fabrics and paper to render casts of everyday functional objects. Once placed inside the gallery these forms will serve as an abstract theatre set to be interacted with and manipulated by the performers. Video works developed using Virtual Reality software will also function to re-envision common objects in partial hypothetic reality. The visual works will be accompanied by a sound scape developed from sampled sounds taken from similar objects. During performance the atmosphere will be added to and subtracted from while exploring this hybrid space through movement and improvised sonic explorations.