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ActiveLayers was formed in March 2008 by Liz Bryce, James Cunningham,
Suzon Fuks and Cherry Truluck. We began working together in early 2007
are interested in discovering a mode of 'cyberformance' which satisfies
our need for the 'real' - the interactive.
Past work includes: The Old Hotel II (part of UpStage 070707 festival),
The Old Hotel III (both these works used online performance platform
UpStage as well as taking shape on site in Hammersmith, London) and recently Calling Home.
ActiveLayers continues to collaborate on experimental cross-disciplinary
works that have layers of meaning and push the boundaries of the different
media involved. We combine our disciplines of theatre, dance, video and
visual arts not only through digital media but also in the method
of working an idea. We challenge the ideas of location and 'site,' using the
places where we happen to be (local site) combined with a variety of
media and performance software that allows us to work together in
real time from our different physical locations and across different
time zones. ActiveLayers makes work which enables a genuine proximal
and haptic experience of space for its geographically dispersed audience
and performers. This is achieved through the imagining and projecting
of 'in-between' spaces, spanning the concepts of the virtual and the
physical by means of live and interactive performance. The founding members
of the international cyberformance group ActiveLayers are Cherry Truluck,
Liz Bryce, Suzon Fuks and James Cunningham.
CHERRY TRULUCK (UK)
is an artist and designer. Her work is motivated and inspired by her
original training in architecture, as well as through a process of continuous
research. She is currently investigating ideas about performativity in
cyberspace, both in research and art practice. Meanwhile, Cherry’s
work as a theatre designer allows her to explore her ideas in relation
to specific texts. Recently, she has enjoyed working with digital media
to create a space for a compilation of scenes from the works of Shakespeare.
Having completed her degree in architecture, Cherry worked for architectural
design firms Charter Consultant Architects and Cube Design Ltd. She
was also instrumental in setting up Architecture and Urban Design company
Urban Sense.
MA Theatre: The Visual Language of Performance (Research Route)
2005-7 - Wimbledon College of Art, London
Bsc (Hons) Architecture (2:1)
2000-2003 - The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, London
BTEC Diploma: Foundation Studies in Art and Design (Merit)
1999-2000 - Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London
LIZ
BRYCE (NZ) is a Dunedin based multi media artist.
Her interest is in place as a palimpsest, particularly where it is invested
with conflicting interests. Her work has appeared nationally and overseas
in individual and group shows. Sometimes this is in space not usually
designated as an 'art' place.
Some of her concepts and research are focused on ‘becoming
indigenous’, ‘public interventions’,
and the development of 'coloniana' theory.
SUZON FUKS (Belgium/Aus) (multimedia
artist, director and photographer) and JAMES
CUNNINGHAM (Aus) (choreographer
and performer) have been collaborating artistically since 1993, share
the artistic directorship of Brisbane-based multimedia and performance
company IGNEOUS.
Together they create stage shows, performance-installations, video-dance
works and online performances, presenting work in Australia, Europe (Belgium,
France, Switzerland, Germany, Poland), the UK, Canada and India. They
facilitate workshops, master classes and labs on the integration of media
and the performing arts, have been artists in residence at the University
of Sydney, Brisbane Powerhouse, Dravidia Gallery and Shivashakti Kalarikshetram
in Kochi, India (through Asialink), Dance4 Nottingham, and University
of Brighton, and were awarded a fellowship at the Australian Choreographic
Centre in Canberra.
Works
include Body in Question a multimedia solo dance show; The
Hands Project a performance with a cast of 17 across 3 generations
in which the audience move from room to room; Fragmentation a
site-specific installation performance, and the video-dance by the
same name; Thanatonauts - Navigators of Death a "serial" multi-site
performance delivered over 7 days and later adapted to a screen-based
video; Liquid Skin a show where puppetry meets dance in a
liquid skin of water co-produced by the 2005 Theater der Welt Festival
Stuttgart; Mirage a performance installation playing on perceptual
illusion, the construction of hybrid forms, and the real and virtual
fusing and separating (short-listed
2007 Australian Dance Award for Outstanding Achievement in Independent
Dance), and the videodance Fragmentation is
a finalist for the ReelDance Awards 2008.
In 2003, under a grant from the New Media Arts Board of the Australia
Council, Suzon and James were mentored by Keith Armstrong and Kelli Dipple
on networked and telematic performance. Subsequent online performance
projects include The Old Hotel II, Rejection and Interface (UpStage
070707 festival July 07), The Old Hotel III (Sep 07), and Calling
Home – part 1 (Apr 08).
SUZON
FUKS (Belgium/Aus) born
in Brussels, trained in dance, theatre & music
(69-76), completed a Masters in Visual Arts at La Cambre, Brussels (79-84),
and moved to Australia in 1996. Co-artistic director of Igneous,
she created the multimedia projections for, and directed, most of its
productions. She gives lectures and workshops in Australia & Europe
integrating video with performing arts & fostering multimedia artistic
collaboration. In 2008, she organised Brisbane Bridges and DIAL (Brisbane
node), a streaming event connecting 5 international cities.
She
has made award-winning films, videos and solo performance shows, received
recently a Green Room Award for Outstanding Video-Scenography in Theatre
(New Form), FRAGMENTATION (videodance), internationally screened, ReelDance
finalist, was nominated for an Australian Dance on Film Award. She
created the film part of the Mandragore Theatre's groundbreaking show The
Strange Mr Knight, which toured the world for 5 years (87-92, Adelaide
Festival 1990). Her photographic exhibition Keeping the Light toured
from 1997 to 2001 to seven capitals of the world, and her photographs
are part of the State Library of NSW and the National Library of Australia
collections.
JAMES
CUNNINGHAM (Aus) completed
an Advanced Certificate in Dance (performance) at the Centre for Performing
Arts Adelaide (87-88), and was dancer with Dance North, Townsville (89-91).
He paralysed his left arm in a motorbike accident in 1992, and went to
India to recover and retrain. In 99 he received an Emerging Artist's
grant, as a choreographer, from the Australia Council through Ausdance,
and in 2000 performed with DV8 Physical Theatre in Can We afford
This? (Sydney, London and HK). Co-artistic director of
Igneous, he performs and choreographs for most of its productions.
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