WHAT it’s not/and the SOME  | 12 minutes | 2015

In January 2015, Video Jam premiered 4 new audio/visual works at the Whitworth Art Gallery for a special programme to mark it's re-opening following a major extension. 4 pairings of emerging film and sound artists were commisisoned to work with a small range of footage chosen by the North West Film Archive relating to Manchester’s social history and cultural development. Each pairing was given the opportunity to produce a piece using their personal choice of this footage combined however they choose with their own visual and aural material. All of the artists involved were given access to the same archive footage, making the commission an experiment in individual interpretation.

Artist statement:

'WHAT it's not/and then SOME is an immersive situation in which all elements are a catalyst to one another - movement, sound video. Physicality alongside repetitive visual ideas were played out within a live setting. The film uses an ironic approach to art school footage alluding to experiences of the 'moment' exploring the problematic nature of nostlagia alongside movement influenced by the same footage and performed by 5 dancers. The gestural, pedesterian movement weaves through the audience in reaction to low-fi green screen processes of ambiguous objects and behaviours layered with found footage..../and then SOME." - Amy Lawrence

Assistant Director: Ella Deacy

Dancers: Hannah Buckley, Izzie Capper, Juliet Davis, Josie Hepplewhite and Emmy Lahouel.

Musicians

Alto saxophone: Paddy Shine
Tenor saxophone: Sam Andreae and Sebastein Perrin
Double bass: Otto Will
Drums & percussion: Andrew Cheetham
12 string guitar: Harry Taylor

Amy Lawrence is an artist and choreographer whose multi-disciplinary practice encompasses site-specific performance and choreographed intervention concerning the physicality of space and the body. Amy creates live and recorded work within collaborative scenarios using forms of interaction with a knowing and unknowing audience. Amy also runs LEGROOM with Juliet Davis, a company that explores movement with artists, non-artists and varied spaces. There are three strands which include creative projects, educational/facilitation and curatorial/research.  

David McLean is a prolific Manchester based musician. Alongside a slew of solo projects ranging from microtonal sound works to shuddering industrial techno, David performs in critically acclaimed bands as disparate as Gnod, Naked (On Drugs) and Charles Hayward’s Anonymous Bash which has seen him tour the UK and Europe for several years. At the very core of McLean’s practice is collaboration and as an active member of Manchester vibrant and diverse improvisational music scene he has recorded and performed with dozens of musicians in a variety of groupings and settings in the past three years. Whereas his previous appearances at Video Jam have been solo and wholly electronic, this event will see McLean present an entirely acoustic ensemble piece focusing circular interplay, repetition and experiments with the acousmatic properties of the gallery. 

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