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Dance artist Laura Fisher is seeking expressions of interest from artists in and around the Moray area, to collaborate in the role of GUEST AUDIO DESCRIBER, for their upcoming performance of FORGED (in the tender heat of your embrace) at Rise festival in Findhorn, this May.

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((ABOUT FORGED ((

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FORGED (in the tender heat of your embrace) is a durational performance installation and a temporary site for collective rest which holds the archive of an ongoing choreographic collaboration between artist Laura Fisher and seven sheets of copper metal. Drawing parallels between the materiality of the metal and the artist’s body which experiences chronic pain, the collaboration utilises body heat in an intimate relationship of interdependency. Through cycles of moving and resting, body and metal shift in supportive relation to one another, from which sculptural forms emerge.

 

Disrupting sight as the dominant sensory engagement within the gallery, audiences are offered permission to rest within the soft sculptural installation designed by Zephyr Liddell. Inviting tactile interaction between material and bodies, FORGED considers the complicated relationship around care, power, illness and intimacy that often exists for disabled people.

 

The performance integrates an experimental live audio description by guest artists, whose words, observations, and narration become a third dancer in the performance. Audio Description is a mode of access in which images and aesthetics are translated into words and sound to support blind and visually impaired people to access the visual elements of an artwork.

 

FORGED responds to each new site it is presented within, working with a local guest artist to create a new interpretation of the Audio Description each time the work is performed. Each artist’s approach to the AD becomes part to the evolving archive of voices, bodies and perspectives that make up the work. Previous guest audio describers have included poet Ellen Renton and improvisational cellist Simone Seales. You can listen to the archive recordings of their performances here.

​FORGED (in the tender heat of your embrace) is an Unlimited commission, supporting the work of disabled artists with funding from Creative Scotland and the Dave Toole OBE Bursary fund. Supported by Creative Scotland, Dance Base, Outerspaces, Present Futures, Studio Somewhere, and The Work Room’s residency programme. 

 

Ahead of RISE festival, Laura is seeking a local guest artist based in or around the Moray area, to join the project and perform in the Guest Audio Describer role.

 

((THE ROLE  ((

The role of the Guest Audio Describer is to provide a live, Audio Description for the performances of FORGED as an integrated mode of access for blind and visually impaired people, and an integral part of the artistic collaboration. The approach to audio description in FORGED is experimental, framing each performance as an imperfect attempt to describe the work as it unfolds, and inviting each guest performer’s practice, perception, and associations into the work.

 

Modelling a feminist practice of citing and building on the work of others, the Guest Audio Describer will work from existing Audio Description scripts created by dance artists Romany Dear and Raquel Meseguer Zafe. The guest AD will be supported by Laura to workshop their approach and adapt the scripts to reflect their practice and voice.

 

The guest audio describer will perform the AD live across all four performances on Saturday 25 May at Moray Arts Centre at Rise*. Audio recordings will be made from these performances and will then feature in the audio installation which will remain at the Moray Arts Centre as a public exhibition until 9 June.

 

((WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR  ((

 

We are particularly keen to hear from musicians or live sound artists with an improvisatory practice however artists across a broad range of disciplines are welcome to apply. You should be comfortable with reading aloud and performing or speaking text. You do not need to be a trained audio describer to apply.

 

FORGED is a queer, disabled-led project and we value the opportunity for the Guest Audio Describer role to bring a breadth of perspectives, lived experience and intersectional identities into the work and archive. We welcome intersectional perspectives and particularly encourage people with lived experience of neurodivergence, disability, or chronic illness or pain to apply. There is an access budget available to support the Guest Audio Describer

 

*Please note, that the Guest AD is not expected to learn the script by heart. The performance involves both reading from the script and moments of responding live and improvised to the work.

 

((DATES ((

May - Pre-meeting over Zoom, watching video footage and AD script development.

Friday May 24th – Rehearsal at MAC

Saturday May 25th - Performance Day
 

Location: Moray Arts Centre, Findhorn, and online

 

Fee: £750 (3 x £250/day) freelance contract

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If you have any questions about the role, or would like to have a conversation with the lead artist, Laura Fisher, prior to applying please email laurafisher_performance@outlook.com.

 

((TO APPLY  ((

If you are curious about the project and are interested in applying or learning more, we would love to hear from you!

 

To apply, please email laurafisher_performance@outlook.com with a brief expression of interest sharing a bit of info on what your practice is, why you are interested in the project and the role of guest audio describer and a few examples of your work. This might be a CV, links to video or audio footage, images, writing or other ways of sharing your work.

 

Please also include info on where in Moray or the surrounding area you are based.

 

((ABOUT LAURA  ((

 

Laura Fisher (she/they) is a disabled dance artist and performance maker working at the intersections of dance, sculpture, participatory practice and live art. Often working site specifically or responsively, Laura’s performance work makes gentle observations and interventions to site through artistic encounter that seek to shift the social choreography of a space. Drawing on definitions of ecology that decentre the human, they regularly collaborate with materials as a practice of questioning human relations to materials and our perceptions of their value, away from that of commodities and towards their own artistic agency. www.laurafisherperformance.com

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Header Image: Photos of Laura Fisher, Ellen Renton & Simone Seales by Emily Nicholl. Graphic by Laura Fisher with design elements created by Michaela Pointon

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