Arts House, North Melbourne, April 21
Tim Darbyshire's More or Less Concrete is conceptualised as a visually and sonically immersive experience in which the audience is required to enter into a particularly felt experience. Audience members are asked to select their mode of seating; reclining or upright. They are insulated via the use of headphones. This is quite effective in defining the limits of attention. Whether the headphones add significantly to the actual rather than the perceived sound is questionable. Much of the sound is equally audible without the phones; added are elements of effect and soundscape on top of that human-generated sound, sometimes deliberately drowning out the body-sound. These could presumably have been achieved without the use of headphones. So, in a sense, perhaps their inclusion is more broadly experiential rather than purely aural.
Movement begins mysteriously and organically. In a haze, misty blue figures begin to move, slowly, at times imperceptibly. A tangle of limbs belie the fact that there are only three dancers. They seem biomorphic but not obviously human. Contact between body, breath, clothing and floor come into increased focus. Movement and sound intermingle with soundscape and effect, emerging and retreating. The figures become more apparently human. They emerge. The design creates illusions of scale with the remoteness of the figures who have been partly concealed behind a barrier. As the dancers move closer to the audience they surprise with their "bigness" and proximity. Here the emphasis changes from sound as a by-product of movement to sound as impetus for reaction. Heavy slapping, drumming of hands and fingers on the floor create a different kind of sonic landscape. Although in a 50 minute work, some variety of approach is needed to command the audience's ongoing attention, this shift feels less satisfying and more forced than the original "body music".
This is not a work for an audience wanting pure dance and so the viewer needs to enter into the particular zone of the work. It is a matter of waiting and allowing the performance to reveal itself. More or Less Concrete is an experimental hybrid performance with a number of interesting elements that work successfully. Some may consider it to lack sufficient dynamism and contrast. As a study of "an introverted and contained body - one that observes itself", More or Less Concrete, carries a minimalistic movement language. It is a surprisingly quiet work for one exploring sound. This restraint is perhaps a good thing, as active listening engages the audience. The audience must come to meet the work rather than being forced to react to it.
Design is a particularly strong element in More or Less Concrete. Lighting, creates texture and atmosphere. Contrasts of hardness with blur are offset by the hazy blue-ness and ambiguity of the human shapes. Dim lighting creates a spectral effect. Darbyshire seeks to "create meditative states" and the sound design assists significantly in realising this. It is partly achieved in the way that audience members are psychologically isolated from one another through the individualised delivery of sound. The audience is invited to be mesmerised by the slow unfolding nature of the work. More or Less Concrete not only creates "audible movement", but provides an experience where attentiveness to its details reward the viewer.
- SUSAN BENDALL