VB29 – Natatorium

VB29 Natatorium

Compton’s Live, London City
Saturday 17 December 2011 • 10am – Noon PDT • 6 – 8pm GMT

CONCEPT: In VB29 – Natatorium we consider the phenomenology of corporeality. We consider the avatar as a haptically instantiated being. Taking as our inspiration this summer’s coming London 2012 Games of the XXX Olympiad, and Zaha Hadid’s remarkable London Aquatics Centre for those games, our avatars experience the immersion and weightlessness of liquid space.
PREVIZ: http://vaneeesa.com/2011/12/13/vb-previz-54-natatorium/
PREVIZ: http://vaneeesa.tumblr.com/tagged/vb29-pre
FLICKR IMAGES: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vaneeesab/sets/72157628599359343/
PERFORMANCE DOCUMENT: http://vaneeesa.tumblr.com/tagged/vb29-doc
PARTICIPANT LIST: http://vaneeesa.tumblr.com/post/14399843725/participant-list

VB29 – Natatorium, an exploration of time in liquid space. Performed in Zaha Hadid’s London Aquatics Centre, site of the coming 2012 Olympic Swimming Events. Performance made possible with the gracious assistance of Compton’s Live, Gallery Xue of London, and London City Managers Torric Rodas & Billy Arentire.

Apmel Ibbetson
Atila Coba
Bailey Saxmundham
Bear Morgwain
Betty Tureaud
Calliope Lexington
Calliope Novaland
Cindy Denver
Coffee Queen
Emma Peel
Gina Broono-Arnica
Kay Mermaid
Laurel Leavitt
Lichine Indigo
Loulou Oddson
Lucille
Martha Graham
Monerda Skute
Part Shamen
Pennyroyal Calamity
Pixel
SaveMe Oh
Torric Rodas
Ush Underwood
Xue Faith
Zola Zsun
(26)

VB29 – Natatorium unfolded with symphonic-like drama and counterpoint. Pixel providing the adagio, with SaveMe inserting dissonant fugue notes.

My own a priori visceration on Natatorium was more of an adagio, yet this is only one way to feel this work, and the beauty of an ad hoc community amalgamating is… a community amalgamating. By day’s end this work had indeed been a symphony of many movements performed on a wide range of instruments.

LONDON, England, 17 December 2011 — for 2 hours today Zaha Hadid’s London Aquatics Centre was filled not with Olympic athletes toppling world records, but with performance artists engaged in a durational floating work that served as a sublime counterpoint to the de rigueur split-second timing this facility is typically associated with.