Becoming Contours is a long-term project which encompasses a series of site-specific promenade performances and a video work, created with and performed by teenagers.
Inspired by different non-human logics, from whale sonars, to plant root-systems and tidal patterns, the project aims to translate the city ‘map’ into a process of ‘mapping’. Asking, how can we notice and embed ourselves more deeply within our constantly shifting environment?
Maps are static documents that enforce a specific value system. Colonial histories and the power structures between human/environment and settlers/indigenous peoples, are deeply entrenched in them.
In response, Renae together with participating teenage groups, is developing an environmental mapping practice that creatively re-imagines the hierarchy of how we, as humans, move through the world, creating criss-crossing narratives of the changing landscape.
Still in-development, Becoming Contours works with the same group of 10-15 teenagers over a 3 year period. The group will have an annual public performance outcome on the same site once a year, with new performative material being developed for each outcome in relation to the nuanced changes within the surroundings. The performance and rehearsal documentation will culminate in a video work that maps the transformation of the city in relation to the growth of the teenagers.
The long-term nature of the project is important to enable the participants, audiences and video viewers to comprehend the scale and magnitude of the environmental crises. By measuring human growth in relation to the ecology, Becoming Contours aims to provide a tool to comprehend long-term environmental changes (10,000+ years) in relation to the 100 year timescale of human lifespans.
DEVELOPMENT DATES
January - June 2023: Dis-Tanzen solo development (Germany)
November 2019: BREC / Performing Lines Regional Residency (Australia)
September 2019: Regional residency at The Farm working with their GreenHouse Youth Ensemble (Australia)
PREMIERE to be confirmed
TEAM
Concept, Direction: Renae Shadler
To be developed in partnership with a local dance organisation and presenting festival/venue
2023 development funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media in the NEUSTART KULTUR program, aid program DIS-TANZEN of the Dachverband Tanz Deutschland. 2019-2021 development funded by the Perpetual Trust through the Marten Bequest Theater Fellowship, the BREC / Performing Lines Regional Residency (2019) and regional residency partner, The Farm (2019).
DEVELOPMENT DATES
January - June 2023: Dis-Tanzen solo development (Germany)
November 2019: BREC / Performing Lines Regional Residency (Australia)
September 2019: Regional residency at The Farm working with their GreenHouse Youth Ensemble (Australia)
PREMIERE to be confirmed
TEAM
Concept, Direction: Renae Shadler
To be developed in partnership with a local dance organisation and presenting festival/venue
2023 development funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media in the NEUSTART KULTUR program, aid program DIS-TANZEN of the Dachverband Tanz Deutschland. 2019-2021 development funded by the Perpetual Trust through the Marten Bequest Theater Fellowship, the BREC / Performing Lines Regional Residency (2019) and regional residency partner, The Farm (2019).
Becoming Contours is a long-term project which encompasses a series of site-specific promenade performances and a video work, created with and performed by teenagers.
Inspired by different non-human logics, from whale sonars, to plant root-systems and tidal patterns, the project aims to translate the city ‘map’ into a process of ‘mapping’. Asking, how can we notice and embed ourselves more deeply within our constantly shifting environment?
Maps are static documents that enforce a specific value system. Colonial histories and the power structures between human/environment and settlers/indigenous peoples, are deeply entrenched in them.
In response, Renae together with participating teenage groups, is developing an environmental mapping practice that creatively re-imagines the hierarchy of how we, as humans, move through the world, creating criss-crossing narratives of the changing landscape.
Still in-development, Becoming Contours works with the same group of 10-15 teenagers over a 3 year period. The group will have an annual public performance outcome on the same site once a year, with new performative material being developed for each outcome in relation to the nuanced changes within the surroundings. The performance and rehearsal documentation will culminate in a video work that maps the transformation of the city in relation to the growth of the teenagers.
The long-term nature of the project is important to enable the participants, audiences and video viewers to comprehend the scale and magnitude of the environmental crises. By measuring human growth in relation to the ecology, Becoming Contours aims to provide a tool to comprehend long-term environmental changes (10,000+ years) in relation to the 100 year timescale of human lifespans.