based on notes from parenzana residency notes

Sarah Neville and family are in residence at foam for 3 weeks in October 2013, firstly at Castello Parenzana near the legendary town of Motovun in Istria and amidst the urban landscape of Brussels. In company with her five month old daughter Florence and together with Maja Kuzmanovic and Nik Gaffney, Sarah is investigating ancient and contemporary myths formed from making meaning of natural disaster. Sarah’s husband Matthew and four year old daughter Miranda are contributing to the project remotely from home in the Adelaide Hills in Australia. Miranda is sharing her understanding of the natural world through creative storytelling and painting and Matthew is participating by responding to the concepts emerging at Castello Parenzana through an exploration of sound.

This project has been on slow boil for me for several years. I have struggled to contextualise my research within the contemporary dance or theatre worlds but do feel that this project has been finally seeded in suitably fertile ground within the cultural laboratory of foam. I enjoyed a couple of successful collaborations with Nik Gaffney in Adelaide in the late 90's and with this project it seemed like the right time to pick up the collaborative thread. My husband Matt also collaborated with Nik in the past and was looking forward to participating in the residency in Croatia along with four year old Miranda. However, when state funding fell through, the family had to ecomimise and decided that Florence and I would travel to Europe and Matt and Miranda would contribute to the project remotely via daily skype meetings and email.

The area of research stretches over the fields of history, psychology and anthropology. Artistic forms put into play include photography, story telling, poetics and theatrical improvised movement.

• This project is based on ancient world fables that spring from anxiety about the future. I am investigating the time old tradition of looking back to look forward. Hence, mining mythology to decree the future of a conflicted world anchored in the anxieties of our times.

Nowadays with climate change on the political agenda and summers becoming hotter, there is a real fear emerging about the future of the globe. Hail in Melbourne CBD in March might once have been interpreted as the wrath of an angry God. Delayed flights in Europe due to the explosion of the Icelandic volcano are named by insurance companies as, “An act of God.’ The question is how does the superstitious imagination make sense of all this? Why is the volcano angry and why are the summers too long? I am extremely interested in the sublevel panic that pulses through current media hinting at a dire future of floods, famine and fires. It triggers reasoning inspired by practical knowledge about the impact of greenhouse gasses and the evolution of natural disaster along side creative narratives born of moral blame. By referencing past myths through a highly contemporary lens, we can assure ourselves of our ongoing capacity to deal with and understand natural and social disaster through our imaginations and creativity.

• When we arrived in Istria I expected to delve into local legends whilst discussing current climate change issues.

• concise description of the way the research will be (has been) developed from establishing the problem definition to the final results
• justification of the methodology

Whilst in Croatia, the foam residency was structured to include my whole family so my husband Matt contributed a sound score and our daughter Miranda sent drawings and stories in response to the creative content generated. Foam founders and collaborators Nik Gaffney and Maja Kumonovic, not only contributed creative ideas but picked up the ‘hard to do with a baby in your arms’ tasks like note taking and documenting.

• concise description of the actual outcomes of the research

• comparison of the expected and the achieved results
• suggestions and comments on the research process and its results
• description and suggestions around the collaboration process (if applicable)
• suggestions for the future work based on the conclusions of the research
• comments on the response of the public (if applicable)

Traveling and working with Florence by my side has been a joy.During my residency, Florence’s smile, giggle and attentive observation of the world was a delight. My journey was enriched by her look of awe and surprise at Dubai airport, her fascination with all the safety videos on the plane, her cooperation in falling asleep promptly whilst travelling or when in transit no matter whether she was in a car seat on the floor under a table in an airport, her ability to laugh at almost any situation, her love of baby food from 3 countries, her loud and confident contribution to all serious arts discussions with her own baby babble, and her amusement in waking up amongst changeable scenery day in and day out and often night in and night out when I prammed her to restaurants. Florence’s generosity in sharing her morning song with Nik who accompanied her trilling and omming with his own basset tones put smiles on everyone’s faces. Her post- presentation cuddles with Maja helped calm everyone’s nerves after intense discussions.

In my experience working in the arts cannot by design be a selfish pursuit, so there has not been a giant shift in perspective in my life now that I am responsible for a baby. Just as in the art world, where teams of people work together, the responsibility of caring for Florence is not mine alone. My husband is informed and involved in everything Florence and I do and his opinion along with the point of view of Florence’s Grandparents and wider family is always considered. My work has always depended on working closely with other artists, whilst simultaneously working one or two full-time jobs outside of the arts to support my practice. It goes without saying that if I didn’t always have a sense of others in the world then collectives would fail, partnerships dissolve and collaborations would bomb. Often my paid work has included caring for other people’s children, so having Florence with me as I work is a familiar challenge and joy.All in all I am arriving home with a creative vision dreamed up, a new network of futurists met, a very creative collaborative experience and a world of possibilities to develop my work through avenues opened in Europe. For Florence I hope she has gained a sense of herself in a larger world, a tolerance of travel and somewhere deep in her conscience the knowledge that the world is full of creative and strong personalities who can envisage a fantastic future. For Miranda I hope she learns that no matter where I travel and for how long, I’ll always come back (and perhaps next time she can come with me). More importantly I know Miranda realizes that wherever I am, my life includes her and I cherish her involvement in my work. For Matt, we both know that creative collaboration is part of the glue of our relationship, whether that be formalized in an artic collaboration or the creative stuff of flexible parenting.

Lastly, it is to Matt that I’ll be forever grateful for enabling this trip not only financially and by leading the way in empowering flexibility in our family structure but also because he pushed me out the door of our cozy house in the Adelaide hills with the words “off you go, this is what Sarah Neville does.” To summarise, high quality art making takes fabulous teams of people working together seamlessly, the same goes with creative parenting and a workable family life for us. It is not always easy but when it works then relationships deepen, extraordinary lives are lived and astonishing art is created.

• literature used in the research (books, magazines, journals, URLs…)
• media used in the research (film, audiovisual media, photographs…)
• visual/sonic/tactile material generated in the research to be archived at FoAM