Consciousness, Literature and the Arts

Archive

Volume 5 Number 1, April 2004

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Reverie II—A Video Installation: Revelation, Consciousness and Peace

 by

Anna Bonshek

Multimedia artist and director, Australia

 (Figure 1)

At the Australian International Documentary Conference in Byron Bay this year, Wim Wenders stated that films on war only perpetuate war. What filmmakers need to do is to make films about peace. Wenders also mentioned that during the 1990s all film students thought about was how to get their first commercial or video clip up. They were uninterested in content. Wenders felt this was as a result of an age of consumerism. Films, he remarked, either reflect what’s happening or avoid reflecting what’s happening; all the big films that are showing around the planet refuse and deny knowledge that we need[1]. In an effort to identify the dynamics of cultural change as “intercultural” or “multicultural”[2] practice and to expose the problems of globalism in an increasingly theoreticized cultural space, film, artworks, installations and performances seek to undermine, transgress, rupture, elide, disembody, challenge and put forward strategies for analysing the increasingly complex, writing and reading of art, material culture, cultural production and history. Concurrently, in western film and television, as reflected in recent programming, there is an accelerated interest in reality TV. In Australia, channels like SBS, as Marie Thomas states, look for documentaries that deal with “real life” as opposed to the boring BBC style[3].  It seems that the move toward ever more “real” content has is motivated as much by ratings as any move to promote diversity or new ways of story telling. Clearly, drama and even documentary created in one cultural context will not necessarily translate to another. The immense popularity of a film or program in one setting does not guarantee universal appeal. In India in the late 1980s, 80 million people watched the serial the Ramayana. In some locations entire villages joined together to rent a television set:

The Ramayan serial had become the most popular program ever shown on Indian television… Never before had such a large percentage of South Asia’s population been united in a single activity; never before had a single message instantaneously reached so enormous a regional audience.[4]

The huge popularity of this series remained a fairly unknown statistic for western film and television aficionados in spite of interculturalism and an increasing appreciation outside of India for Indian culture, including Bollywood productions[5].

The question remains, in the move to show ever more reality-based material, whose or what reality are we speaking about anyway? What are the dynamics of cultural intervention or intercultural processes? Among the dearth of innumerable possibilities, which/whose story is projected as reality through the filter of the media, production constraints or programming requirements? Whose theoretical analysis is more accurate, descriptive, or provides a workable analysis of cultural mapping? As I write, a few kilometers from the home of Big Brother, an Australian Reality TV show, a principle of physics comes to mind: the observer affects the observed. Similarly, the viewer brings his or her own experience and perception that shape reality. The complexity of human interactions—on the individual, social, cultural, and global levels—and the search for a cause or origin to an action, artistic or otherwise, are impossible to chart or map. The observer participates in the perpetuation of further iterations of the observed-observer relationship and ever more expanding transformations and possibilities.

With Wenders’ age of consumerism—reality TV, drama, documentary, epic dance productions (such as Stephen Petronius’/Sydney Dance Company’s Underland claiming that “death is not the end”)[6] and big films denying knowledge that we need—a group of artists set out on a journey to complete a work of art that used as its basic premise the idea that knowledge in its basic form was “the structure of consciousness”[7]. Described as inherently peaceful, this “structure of pure knowledge”, it has been argued, can be said to be the foundation of peace within the mind, within the body, within society, within environment, within the cosmos[8]. While it was not our mandate to make a work that claimed to create peace, we started from the concept of a condition, state or reality that could sustain peace and was unifying while diverse, self-referral and inherently coherent. Thus, in September 2000, the Australian composer Corrina Bonshek and I, along with initial collaborators of Reverie II, ventured to create a work based on Vedic knowledge—a body of knowledge that apparently lies outside the artist’s cultural sphere or heritage. The idea to make Reverie essentially began with the concept of revelation and the desire to create a multimedia work that was non-confrontational, abstract, cyclical, evolving, settling, and profoundly conceptual in its content.  The idea did not spring from a longing for any reductive neo-modernist ideology nor a naïve fascination with “exotic”, “eastern” spiritualism, but the desire to address the notion of the structure of consciousness itself as defined by Vedic language theory[9]. Recitations, rituals, sacred chants or Indian music or film were not used here. Nor was the work based on intuitive, stream of consciousness, or emotive processes. On the contrary, Reverie II evolved out of a process of exchange on the ideational level among the collaborators and explorations across disciplines. The team included a variety of creative artists—American, African American, English and Australian dancers, composers, visual artists, and filmmakers. Individuals who participated in the project (apart from myself and Corrina) included the dancers Catherine Wells and Vershawn Sanders, filmmaker and digital artist, Roland Wells, production advisor and producer, Lee Fegusson, and instrumentalists: Christine Mitchell, Linda Jelacic and Eleanor Lewis. Those involved in shooting and post-production included Roland Wells, Lee Fergusson, Corrina and myself, sound engineer, Emma Stacker, lighting engineer, Kevin Rechner and multimedia artist and producer, Simon Ward.

Based on the self-referral dynamics of consciousness, Reverie II refers to the description of the sequential unfoldment of consciousness or awareness that is understood to be the structure of “reality”—the basis of all “realities”. With its precise, mathematical analysis, this served as the fundamental framework upon which the work was structured. Given this highly structured theoretical basis, the question arises: Why use “reverie” as the title of the work? While the word “reverie” has several connotations, we explored the idea of reverie as revelation or consciousness knowing itself. Reverie conveys the sense of meditation, musing, fathoming uncharted aspects of the mind, or an abstract preoccupation with levels of thought. It can suggest a revelation, insight, spiritual awareness, a move toward limitlessness or an expanded sense of self.[10] In considering the phenomenon of revelation as an inner state of reverie or an opening up of the mind to the experience of infinity and multiple possibilities, we examined the concept of reverie as the dynamics of awareness. Firstly, it was necessary to clarify what the terms ‘awareness’ and ‘consciousness’ meant in this context. In Vedic theory consciousness is described as having an infinite status and as the most expanded state of individual awareness. Consciousness is commonly discussed in relation to the active thinking mind, where awareness is understood as individualized. There is also the understanding of a collective consciousness or collective awareness that, in a particular era, can define the Zeitgeist or spirit of an age. We were interested specifically in consciousness as abstract, non-individualized, not culturally or historically specific—consciousness by itself, beyond space and time. Because consciousness is awareness, it knows itself; in becoming awake to itself a division is created within this infinite field of consciousness. Consciousness identifies itself as an observer (or knower), and observed (or known) and a process of observation (the process of knowing) within itself; three values are created within one. These three values of consciousness go on to interact with themselves and generate further values of consciousness, becoming increasingly more elaborate and complex. The description of these dynamics became the working material for Reverie II.

It should be noted that Reverie II does not map out these dynamics in a prescribed fashion. Reverie II simply refers to this understanding of consciousness unfolding in a self-referral dynamic in the revelatory experience of the creative mind. We assumed for the purposes of this work, any sense of revelation involves expansion, insight, and a move toward limitlessness or all possibilities, an "ah-hah" experience, so to speak. Reverie II aims to reference this phenomenon.[11] The above understanding of consciousness became the cornerstone for our creative enquiry. At the start of the project, we discussed a performance trajectory and came up with several conceptual diagrams for Reverie II. Through this and additional choreographed explorations with dancer Catherine Wells, a single diagram was charted representing a single, complete performance. This diagram effectively contained all the various elements of the theme we were working with. With its various subsets, this diagram was used in all aspects of the work, from: a) conceptualization and communication, b) spatial mapping in choreography and performance, c) video imagery and audio organizational structures, and d) Flash animations used as motifs in the video composition.

(Figure 2 and Figure 3)

In Figures 2 and 3, diagrams serve as notations for the trace of the performance trajectories and a conceptual map of the work itself. The large external circle and the three internal over-lapping smaller circles represent the three-in-one dynamic of consciousness. The other lines and arrows represent the performer’s movement with respect to these different circles.

(Figure 4)

In Figure 4 the working diagram representing the three circles of transformation within one larger circle serving as the format for the work is drawn in chalk on the floor of the performance space.

Reverie II eventually took the form of a 22-minute, single screen video/audio installation divided temporarily and conceptually into four sections referencing:

1)      Awareness as an unbroken wholeness and the foundation of the four directions in space (this section we referred to as M0);

2)      Three, six-fold, self-referral loops of expansion and contraction of self-referral consciousness (this part became known as M1, M2 and M3);

3)      Eight dynamic phases of perception (called “triangles”, here the performance involved movement along across the diameters of the main circular paths which formed triangular patterns); and

4)      Awareness as wholeness and the dissolution of the four directions in space (this was called M0’—referencing M0 but in a new iteration or mode).

To articulate the notion of knower, process of knowing and known as emergent qualities within consciousness, we developed diagrams that referenced the progression of self-referral awareness from its three-in-one structure to a six-fold self-referral loop. For example, in the description of the reverberation of consciousness from one to three and back to one, according to Vedic Science[12], a move involving three expansionary values of knower, process of knowing and known, is followed by the contraction of these three. This move “in and out”—a simultaneous expansion and contraction—creates a six-fold loop. Indeed, in this infinitely expanding and contracting dynamic, a move from infinity to point and point to infinity is created. This infinite dynamism of self-referral consciousness reverberating within itself contains all possibilities. To convey this, in the development of diagrams during the initial conceptualization of the work, a spiraling movement from a central point (representing a concentrated point of infinity or consciousness) was traced out into a circle. Then, a more expanded trajectory necessitated the generation of more circles. In the move from point to circle, to a new point and new circle, the template for the performance trajectory and one possible notation for the shift within consciousness that creates space, directions, and form, became evident.

(Figure 5 and Figure 6)

Diagrams for Performance Trajectory: The large circle (repeated here 9 times) represents M0. The three sub-circles refer to the move of awareness within itself (knower, process of knowing and known) and are used in the performance and video sequence designated as M1, M2, M3 (labeled above as seq.1). The lines representing the movement across the diameter of the circles in the performance (which we called “triangles”) references the idea of infinite expansion and contraction (seq. 2 & seq. 4).

Performance elements based on this template evolved slightly differently depending upon the individuals involved.

(Figure 7)

Figure 7 shows the performance of MO through M1 (performer: Corrina Bonshek) on the diagram laid out on the floor. This was worked out in a series of meetings exploring possibilities of dance and movement using the circle and point format in different contexts.

 (Figure 8)

In Figure 8, Catherine Wells dances the sequence from the end of M2 to M3. Here, the performance trajectory diagram is not drawn out but the circular format is indicated by several key tape markings placed on the floor.

 (Figure 9)

Figure 9 shows the sequence of M2 in the Port Douglas location in Queensland, Australia. Here the diagram is drawn on the sandy beach and the performance trajectory (this clip shows M2 to M3) is videotaped at 6.00 a.m. with the initial movement (MO through to M1) facing the sun on the eastern horizon coming up over the ocean (performer, Anna Bonshek).

However, the essential trajectory and movement remained consistent. In Australia, there were four locations/performances: two outdoor locations[13] and two Sydney dance studios. In the U.S. further work was videotaped at the Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago with the American dancer, Vershawn Sanders. This last sequence used improvisional work in contrast to the earlier choreographed performances. Throughout, diagrams continued to serve an important role in the communication of the theme, ongoing dialogue, the structure of performances, the development of the musical composition and the final video imagery. The overarching performance trajectory diagram used in the choreography was drawn on the floor in chalk, inscribed into sand, onto rock, in the different locations. This act of drawing, in reiterating the conceptualization of Reverie II’s’ structure, reinforced the visual logic of the piece. The trace of the trajectory became a sign—a sign referencing an initial movement, or ‘reverie’. This theme of ‘impression-making’ would go on, in post-production, to influence the look and feel of the final audio/video installation work.  Signifying different interactions of consciousness as multiple iterations of one underlying dynamic and referencing print media, the video images use colour and repetition in a number of important ways. In the first part of the video, a nine-fold grid was used. The grid structure highlights multiples of three. The grid is important in Vastu vidya. It is often used as the compositional structure for a sculptural work[14]. As Krauss notes, for modernists, the grid became a referent for the origin if art itself; the grid scored surface was “the image of an absolute beginning”[15]. Krauss finds this idea highly problematic, but suggests that the grid, itself, as a figure is “impervious both to time and incident, [it] will not permit the projection of language onto the domain of the visual, and the result is silence.”[16] The critic, Thomas McEvilley discusses the grid (as used in the American painter Agnes Martin’s work) as signifying a Buddhist, transformational realm somewhere between the universal and the particular.[17] In Sthapatya Veda architecture, based on Vedic principles, the grid relates specifically to the four cardinal points and direction, and is used in the design of any city, village, town or habitat. It relates to the structure of the universe and the movement and influence of planets and heavenly bodies. For the collaborators of Reverie II, the grid signifies a transformational or liminal realm—between awareness as unlimited and its more expressed value in terms of structure. The grid as a structure and compositional device can be read as a mandala, progressing clockwise from a central point through different transformations, through to an outer circumference that has become “squared” as a result of being inscribed on the ground, conceptualized in terms of four directions and the flat plane of the video projection field.

For example, in the video Reverie II, at the start, four diagrams occupy the extremities of the grid. They represent east, north, west and south directions. In each of these four diagrams the movement of a point traces a spiral from the center of a circle to the outer circumference; each represents a cardinal direction in terms of a different path from origin to final goal. The diagrams also collectively refer to the first part of the main performance trajectory—redefining the spiral motion of the first movement (M0). This spiral movement is intended to convey the self-referral nature of consciousness, knowing itself. In effect, the four directions and gold water at the start of the video represent the initial stir of consciousness. The grid also allows (later in the work: from M1 to M3) for an interlocking triangular format. Following M0, another sequence appears (called M1). This represents the emergence of the knower value or individuation. In notation, it appears as a new trajectory on the circle diagram. The circle diagram contains three overlapping circles; these represent the three values of consciousness. The trajectory, traced as a dot rotating on the first of the three circles, signifies the subjective aspect of consciousness, or knower, emerging from within an infinite, self-referral ocean of awareness.  The following movements, M2 and M3 continue to develop out in the same way. These diagrams not only became a motif in the video installation but were also an important feature in the series of subsequent prints. As the principal collaborators were initially living in different countries, the diagrams, concepts and temporal structure were discussed via an exchange of faxes, emails, and video and audio files. Meetings took place in Australia and the U.S.A. at critical junctures. In this sense, collaboration worked across disciplines and across the literal space of geographic distance.

In the early stages of planning [Corrina and I]…worked together in Sydney with Catherine Wells, an Australian dancer. To articulate the notion of knower, process of knowing and known as emergence qualities [within consciousness], I began drawing diagrams and we discussed the process or progression of self-referral awareness. As we developed the diagrams, they took on a seemingly logical structure. Circles were created. These resulted from a spiraling movement out from a central point (representing a concentrated point of infinity or consciousness) to a more expanded trajectory. In tracing a move from point to circle to a new point and new circle, we derived a structure that became the template of the performance trajectory and the representation of the shift within consciousness.[18]

The final diagram, built digitally in the programme Flash and used in the video imagery, referenced the four cardinal directions and the trace of the performance movement within space. It was also used as a land art work in a four-metre square, sand drawing (Jimboomba, Queensland) and will be installed at the Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre as part of the exhibition of Project Reverie[19]. The visual motif of the diagram, inscribed on a dance floor, a sandy beach, a rocky outcrop, constructed digitally, or drawn as a component of the floor installation, acts not only as a trace of the performance trajectory but as a conceptual map and record of the evolution of the work. In this way, beginning with a visual idea that fed into a time-based spatial work, the visual concept directly impacted every aspect of the process. The diagram and the performance sequence, around and across it, acted as an organizing principle for the audio and video composition—feeding into the temporal and spatial divisions of the audio/video work. The artists’ dialogue in relation to the diagram generated the section lengths for each part of the sound composition and video sequences. Musically, Reverie II was originally conceived of as a musical score for three viols (which would then be recorded) and would act as the basis for a choreographed work. Initially, the dance concept was to be part of a live performance. However, as the process unfolded, our approach shifted from the live performance context to a video/installation outcome that more effectively dealt with the theme of the trace or impression (derived from sound and light processes) as a record of the transformative dynamics or awareness, rather than actual performed events. For this reason, Corrina decided to use recorded improvised samples that could be layered, manipulated, and digitally processed. The new approach gave increased flexibility in terms of altering the lengths of sections and allowed for a for a ‘mosaic’ effect—the layering of short samples of instrumental sound to create textures and melodies. Another factor that impacted the musical process was the concurrent creation of video and audio. In this and other ways, the work evolved according to the various demands and influences of each of the disciplines, the collaborators’ input and a continual clarification of the meaning and nature of the work. The grid format used became increasingly layered, self-referral and repetitive. Re-iterating the idea of perception and experience as related to the remainder or impressions in the mind, Reverie II uses strong symmetries (with sub-sets of incidental asymmetries) to define its feeling and logic. Every still frame is designed to function as a work in its own right—examples of which became part of another installation work: Reverie II: Image & Trajectory. 

Movement Zero (M0): Part One

In section one (called M0—or “movement zero”) representing pure potentiality, we dealt with the idea of differentiation within wholeness.

The diagrams at the start [of the video] convey the four directions. This is the section [M0] where there are four diagrams alongside images of Corrina moving in a spinning motion on one spot. In each of the diagrams the movement of a point traces a spiral from the centre of a circle to the outer circumference. But the four diagrams show a different direction and path from origin to final goal. These four represent the East, South, West and North directions. They also collectively track the trajectory of the first part of performance in that they define the spiral motion of the first movement. This spiral is intended to convey the self-referral nature of consciousness, knowing itself.[20]

(Figure 1)

Reverie II: M0—The Nine-fold Grid: The four directions are indicated by the four diagrams with their spinning dots at each corner of the nine-fold compositional grid. These diagrams reference the unfolding of MO and the idea of consciousness spiraling on itself. This motion is again referenced in the performer’s (Corrina Bonshek) movement spinning on the spot. This sequence was videotaped at on a rocky outcrop near Shelly Beach, Sydney, Australia at 6.00 a.m.—sunrise. In the final video, the sequence is repeated four times and has been altered visually using video filters in Final Cut Pro.

M0 represents the wholeness of consciousness in its wakeful, pure potentiality, the tendency to be infinitely silent and dynamic simultaneously. As the collaborative process progressed the theme of the spiral continued to be reiterated in the visual and sonic elements of the piece. In the discussions between Corrina and myself a consideration arose as to the relationship of silence and sound, the idea of unmanifest sound, and how to deal with these themes musically.

Corrina: Reading through the notes again… and after talking on the phone, I’ve come up with a few ideas and questions… is it in the dissolution of the first sound that the unmanifest silence is located?

Anna: Silence is the basis of sound. The paradox is that sound and silence are inherent within one another. But if one were more primary, it would be silence…

Corrina: Given that this silence becomes aware of itself, perhaps this silence could be represented musically not by digital silence but either by a constant drone that emerges out of the end of the first sound or by emphasizing the natural decay of a sound by extending the end of a sound as when you pluck a harp string. Much of the sound is in the decay, rather than the attack. This part of the sound could be lengthened….[For Theme One (M0)] I am thinking of a block of sound which might represent silence, consisting of sounds entering and leaving the texture so that there is an interesting sense of motion in this big block, like its vibrating…the music should be subtle, not big and symphonic, though it could be quite rich in sections.[21]

Both sonically and visually, M0 is slow and rhythmic, and deliberately sequential. It initiates the theme of cyclical movement that continues throughout the piece.

M1-M3—The cyclical progression of the subject-object dynamic: Part Two

Following M0, the first section of Reverie II—where the visual images follow a spiraling clockwise movement in a nine-fold grid—emerge the next sections, again progressing clockwise.

Reverie II deals with four themes: wholeness (which we called M0, meaning the movement of wholeness), the subject or knower (referred to as M1, about one minute and 45 seconds long), the relationship between subject and object or process of knowing (called M2, about one minute and 40 seconds long), and the object or knower (referred to as M3, and about one minute and 35 seconds long). M0 is the nine-fold image with the four directions and four repetitions of the spiraling movement in the center of the trajectory. Across the horizontal in the center of the nine-fold grid, M1 uses a progression of six sub-sections that represent another layering or subdivision within the whole: M1(m1), M1(m2), M1(m3), M1(m3)', M1(m2)', M1(m1)'. This conveys the self-referral move outward and back in towards the source of awareness. Across the vertical are continuous shots of Corrina's performance of M1 and the diagram of the trajectory of M1 (i.e.: the trace of the movement of the performer on the diagram used in the performance).

Again across the horizontal in the center of the grid format, M2 similarly is composed of six sub-sections. However, M2 is meant to be more dynamic in nature so it is not entirely symmetrical and involves more layering within it. M2(m1), M2(m2), M2(m3), M2(m3)', M2(m2)', M2(m1)' still maintain an outward and return journey, but M2(m2)' for example is composed of 96 static, still frames or clips superimposed.

(Figure 10)

This still frame of Reverie II, M1, shows an early draft of the final work. The performance trajectory (performer, Corrina Bonshek) is presented across the centre horizontal of the grid and references the movement: M0. The sequence at the centre top of the grid references M1, as does the spiraling dot on the diagram opposite—below centre on the grid. In the final video the blue colour chosen originally for the top and bottom sequences has been changed to a gold tone. The water (centre and at each extremity) represents the infinite, continuous fluctuation of consciousness.

The shot of Corrina performing references the movement M0 and appears across the grid (centre horizontal). The shot at the centre top of the grid references M1, as does the spiraling dot on the diagram opposite (below centre).

(Figure 11)

This sequence (Reverie II, M2—Performers: Corrina Bonshek, Catherine Wells, Vershawn Sanders) gives an indication of the compositional format and logic of section M2. The shot of Corrina’s performance (bottom right on the grid) references M2. Opposite this (across the diagonal) is a diagram with the spiraling dot signifying the performance trajectory of M2. Across the centre horizontal are a series of still frames of the dancers Vershawn and Catherine, superimposed and fading in an out in rapid succession.

The shot of Corrina’s performance, appearing at the bottom right on the nine-fold grid in the video composition, references M2. Opposite this, across the diagonal, is a diagram with the spiraling dot—signifying the performance trajectory of M2. Across the centre horizontal appear a series of still frames superimposed, rapidly fading in an out.

These still frames are from shots of performances by Catherine Wells and Vershawn Sanders. The initial sequence involves 48 stills of Catherine with a still of Vershawn on the second, sixth, twelfth, sixteenth, twentieth and twenty-fourth images. Under these are another 48 stills of Catherine, with Vershawn appearing on the third, seventh, tenth, fourteenth, eighteenth and twenty-second images. In effect, there are twenty-four still frames layered over another twenty-four on either side of the central, unchanging image of water. They effectively create 48 different combinations and progress from a mirrored format across the horizontal, to symmetrical but not mirrored, and then back again to a mirrored format. This progression indicates the idea of shifting from an integrated, unified, coherent image to a more varied one, and then a return to the original format. The sense of rapid movement in this sequence is created through the fast shift of numerous images rather than a seamless, continuous, fluid shot. At the same time as the unfolding of M2(m1), M2(m2), M2(m3), M2(m3)', M2(m2)', M2(m1)' across the horizontal is the continuation of the M1 performance and trajectory, and the introduction of Corrina's M2 performance and the diagrammatic trace of the performance trajectory. These two appear across the diagonal (upper left and lower right in the nine-fold grid). Following this, across the horizontal, M3, as with M1 and M2 has six sub-sections: M3(m1), M3(m2), M3(m3), M3(m3)', M3(m2)', M3(m1)' referencing the repeated move out and in of the earlier sequences. M3 as a total sequence is slightly faster than M2; M2 is faster than M1; in this way the pace of the video increases, but almost imperceptibly. The M3 performance by Corrina now emerges in the lower left corner and the M3 diagram/trajectory in the upper right. The grid is "full" around the unchanging central image, the gold, slow, somewhat monotonous but rhythmic water.[22]

(Figure 12)

Caption for Figure 12: In this clip from Reverie II, M3, there are three main sections referring now to M1, M2 and M3, (Corrina Bonshek’s performance—displayed in the top centre, bottom left and bottom right of the grid—and the three accompanying diagrams tracing her performance trajectory, appearing opposite these three in the video image). ). The three diagrams now have indicated on each a number of rotating dots: one for M1, two for M2 and three for M3. This refers to the inherent layering quality of consciousness as it differentiates new values, constantly creating further iterations of itself. Along with these, across the centre horizontal, appear in sequence: 1) M3’(Anna Bonshek, movement  M0’), 2) M2’ (Catherine Wells, movement M3’ (reverse)), and 3) M1’ (Corrina Bonshek, M0, shadow only). This is the final three shifts in the contraction of M3 to M3’ through the six subsections.

All these sections were storyboarded and carefully considered for their sonic/visual relationship.  Initially, for the musical transition from M0 to M1 through M3, Corrina articulated the idea of a layering of sound that would reference the initial dynamic of consciousness interacting with itself and the subsequent iterations of that dynamic.

[The introduction deals with] the tumultuous uproar of the eternal void as a main inspiration. I am thinking about the percolating texture we discussed ages ago, at a low volume, so it sounds quiet distant. The texture will be made up of motives used in the third section (18 permutations of 3 shades of consciousness) but played in many different keys and registers so that the sound is full and busy. I am thinking of an undulating, organic texture that is constantly moving and changing. This texture will then slowly begin to thin out, eventually leaving only motives in the key of M1, which will become longer notes rather than dynamic motives full of activity.[23]

The 18 permutations of three shades of consciousness refer to triplicate values of six-fold self-referral loops—i.e.: one “knower” self-referral loop, one “process of knowing” self-referral loop and one “known” self-referral loop[24]. The knower value relates to M1, the process of knowing to M2 and the known to M3. In the section called M1, Corrina initially conceived of “diffuse, high-pitched, light, ethereal” qualities. “Light like air; a moving texture which consists of slowly rearticulating sounds which have lots of resonance. M1 has a definite pitch area, key or chord.”[25]  M2 was more “transitional” where the emphasis is on its status as the link between M1 and M3:

M2 contains shorter notes and motives that develop the material of M1 into the material of M3—movement, activity, and energy. It has no definite pitch area, key or chord. It is the transition between two more solid pitch areas.[26]

(Figure 13)

In this black and white clip of the M2 sequence the sound focuses on the transitional; it emphasizes M2’s status as the link or liminal realm between M1 and M3.

As indicated by this discussion on the development of the work, aurally the relationship between the three qualities designated as M1, M2 and M3 began to take shape. For Corrina, musically M3 was “heavier, static, concealing with a tone quality heavier and more present—solid but not strident or loud and with a definite pitch area, key or chord.”[27] The next section, which we called as “triangles”, took on a quite different flavour and feel. Here deliberate symmetries were used and reference was made to eight subdivisions within the self-referral dynamic that give rise to the principles of earth, water, fire, air, space, mind, intellect and ego.

Triangles: Symmetries and colour fields from earth to ego: Part Three

In section three (called “triangles”) visually images begin to disintegrate as the “figure-ground” relationship dissolves into intensified contrasting colours. Rather than a nine-fold grid format, we see a four-fold symmetry repeated intermittently to create eight divisions or four symmetrical, mirrored versions of one sequence overlaid with another group of four versions of another single shot. The music at this point also undergoes a subtle shift.

There are eight divisions with the main section. The first of these is made up of Corrina's performance of the sequence following M3 which we referred to as "triangles"—since it involved a move into and out of the large circle of the entire diagram along the lines that created the two main intersecting triangular elements. The number four refers to the four elements of wholeness, subject, relationship and object. The number three to the elements of subject, relationship and object as individual entities without reference to their unified composition. These three interact within themselves to generate endless multiple values (but, in fact, are never disconnected from the origin, the wholeness, even if perceived as so).

The first of the sequences in this latter section appears in a gold colour. It is four images created from one image mirrored horizontally and vertically. Superimposed over it is a four directions diagram and another iteration of Corrina's performance in a smaller version in the center. …The pattern of the diagrams and the movement now dominates rather than the figure's trajectory. It speaks less as a narrative…and more as a progressive but cyclical movement, generating a visual sense of expansion and contraction. In this way, the idea of a point expanding out to infinity and back to a point is implied. While in the first section there was always a reference to wholeness (the constant, central image of water moving slowly). In this second main section constancy is found in the fourfold by fourfold structure rather than through the earlier figurative theme of water.

(Figure 14)

This clip (Figure 14) shows a section of the first of eight sequences that make up what we referred to loosely as “triangles”. It uses a videotaped sequence of Corrina Bonshek’s performance of the transition from the end of the M3 section to the final “triangles” and M0’ sections. Here the compositional structure is a mirrored four by four format, creating an increasingly more complex, layered and evocative visual progression of the theme.

The second sequence of this section, as with the first and following sequences, uses four images (basically a repetition of one image). Here a performance of the "triangle" movement is repeated across the horizontal and vertical and digitally manipulated to give an overall blue tone with yellow and purple contrast. The color is not naturalistic. We are out of the realm of the observable world even though its trace is evident.

(Figure 15)

The color and digital filters used in Final Cut Pro on this clip make it even harder to “read”; the image is no longer “figure and ground” but has become a field of hybrid colour relationships moving inward and outward. Musically, this section clearly demonstrates its mandalic structure. Small sonic samples of improvised instrumental sounds are digitally manipulated on the computer, through granular synthesis, to create new textures of sound.

Over this is the four directions diagram but the directions have rotated so to speak. They revolve clockwise in each subsequent appearance. The third sequence, repeating the four by four structure depicts Corrina performing a "triangle" and spiral (wholeness) movement. The color and digital filters used on the shot in Final Cut Pro here make it even harder to read the image as a figure and ground. It has become a total field of hybrid colour relationships moving inward and outward.

In this sequence the colour relationships have taken over, visually, from the more tonal definition of space, light, figure and movement depicted in the earlier M1 through M3 sections. The visual field is a seething play of contrasting hues creating a collapsed, more superficial, illusory depth and space.

The fourth sequence does not present the [human] figure at all, only the diagrammatic reference of the ground plane. Here the diagram itself is the subject; its four by four format creates a completely abstract display. Introduced toward the end of this sequence in the center is a shot of Vershawn apparently moving in closer and then far away from the screen [the viewer]. This movement creates another dimension to the depth and repetitive "in and out" theme of this main section. The fifth sequence introduces another version of the gold, Corrina “triangle” shot, but it is very graphic in style. Overlaid on this is a Vershawn sequence. With a graphic appearance and minimal color, the emphasis, connecting back to the first section, is on tonal values and idea of the impression or trace.

Following this, the sixth sequence (much longer in duration) breaks somewhat with the previous sequences.  Introduced is a sixteen-fold grid over the main ‘four by four’ mirrored images. … Vershawn's performance is about light…the play of a single light source on the movement of the body.

(Figure 16)

In this sequence the dancer Vershawn Sanders improvises in relation to light. Superimposed on her mirrored form is a sixteen-fold repeated image from an earlier sequence.

In the edited video sequence, the field around the figure is white; the…figure is metallic. The superimposed smaller image (the sixteen-fold grid) is… used earlier. The grid spirals ‘in and out’ twice. At the end of this, in the center appears a very rich, gold shot of water…This image was used earlier in M2 in the first section. It again connects back to the theme of water and the continuous flow of awareness. The seventh sequence…[uses] an evocative blue color. Over this is superimposed the four directions diagram and in the center the Daintree River and sand diagram. With it appears the four directions diagram, with the trajectories rotated again clockwise.

(Figure 17)

Finally, the third section of the video (triangles) closes with a single figure form earlier sequence. The separate elements have coalesced into individualized values. They continue to appear in reference to the diagrams of the four directions which continue on to the next section, M0’.

Finally the last sequence, sequence eight, breaks out from the multifold mirrored format and presents shots of the "wholeness" trajectories from the four performers. Each of the four shots (Corrina, Vershawn, Catherine, Anna) appears with the ‘four directions’ [diagrams, as shown] at the start of the video. The distinct elements… now appear isolated, not referencing one another spatially, but assuming the entire visual field of the screen. The separate elements have coalesced into… individualized values. However they retain their connection to wholeness as suggested by the color and the enduring, ‘four directions’ diagrams. [28]

Clearly, Reverie II is visually and sonically rich in its multi-layered references and repetitions. Indeed, due to the fact that Reverie II had to be expanded (to incorporate elaborate video sequences referencing themselves), musically, materials had to be extended. Corrina decided to use granular synthesis (a technique that divides a sound into millisecond grains then redistributes them over a time length determined by the composer) to transform sound. This technique allows for the creation of new worlds/textures/timbres out of a single sound event and was used extensively in one of the sections—specifically in concert with the collapse of the figure-ground distinction in the visual images. The frequency spectrum of the piece was also expanded, through pitch shifting sound events up, so they became high and ethereal. Again, granular synthesis was used to create new rhythmic textures out of the beating of overtones in a single note. Whole sections of the work were digitally processed, previously used elements. In this way, wholeness and multiplicity were reflected in the continual repetition, alteration and manipulation of a fixed palate of sound events.  In addition to this, the sense of orientation in space and direction was continually addressed in the performing figure’s relationship to the actual cardinal directions while videotaped. MO starts with a stance directed eastward and, in the outdoor locations, was videotaped at sunrise. The landscape itself is incorporated into the work through references to water, ocean, beaches, and rocky surfaces and the inscription of these either literally or metaphorically through the creative process. The landscape in each case can be interpreted as representing a pristine, non-individualized plane, on which the figure leaves its trace or demarcates a series of erasable, yet recurring, boundaries.

(M0’)—Return to Wholeness: Part IV

The closing sequence and structure of images of Reverie reiterate the beginning: the central theme of gold water; the four directions; the spiraling movement representing wholeness on the move; and the nine-fold grid. This time, however, the figurative elements are now richly colored; a transition has occurred despite the return to wholeness.

(Figure 18)

Here the four direction diagrams reappear against the field of gold water and the sequential emergence of individualized values represented by the figure rotating in space. The colour of the shot of the figure (Corrina Bonshek) is now in contrasting hues and more pixilated or fragmented. Eventually the individualized elements recede, as do the directional diagrams, leaving a visual field of motion.

At the end, a single shot of gold water fades in and then dissolves into a series of contractions into points through color fields. Reverie starts and finishes with awareness, a thought, as a point expanding infinitely into diversity and back to its concentrated point. The move from point to point is a play of the mind and could be conveyed through an infinite range of possibilities. The structure, here, follows a particular logic that is meant to represent the mathematical and orderly flow of consciousness as it entertains all possibilities. [29]

Reverie II has a slow, repetitive visual pace. The intention is to lead the listener/viewer toward a slowing or settling of the mind. In order to appreciate the rhythm and transformations within the piece the mind has to be quieter, less expectant, less apprehensive of rapid change, more peaceful or still. As Nancy Adajania writes on digital, technological, net based art and cultural production:

We have to…understand that telematics, a product of globalisation, is no longer just an option; it is a condition…. Fast-lane art has yet a few things to learn from old-fashioned slow-lane art: the image in the slow-lane, by reason of its slowness, can develop in substance, assert ethical weight and determinacy. Being a physical entity, to be approached in space and time, it provides within itself a pause for reflection, revelation and contemplative attention to the art-object. What it lacks in terms of reflecting the accelerated momentum and dizzying transformations of the telematic age, it makes up for in these ways.[30]

Reverie II uses the medium of ‘fast-lane’ art but, due to its deliberate pace, allows for reflection, revelation, and contemplative attention to its theme. It may not be a physical entity but it has a bearing on the physical. Through its refusal to get swept up in a ‘dizzying momentum’ it anticipates the expectancy of speed associated with video and screen media.

Providing an emotional trajectory, the music of Reverie II gives a sense of climax, tension and release against the highly structured, repetitive and cyclic iterations of the images. Constructed as a mandala—layering small samples over time on the computer—digital manipulations of improvised instrumental sounds (flute, violin, viol de gamba) and granular synthesis create new textures of sound. The last stage of the post-production process involved authoring the entire Project Reverie to DVD. This was completed by Simon Ward of Cheese Multimedia, Australia and became an additional stage in the refinement and completion of Reverie II. Ward also worked on the DVD authoring of Reverie I, an accompanying dual screen, quadraphonic, video installation work which deals with the relationship of consciousness as subject and object[31]. In the process of creating Reverie II, from 2000 to 2002, world events have further alerted musicians, artists, filmmakers and creative producers in all fields not only to the concerns and responsibility of working in our “age of consumerism” but an age of terrorism and conflict. Films may seem to deny the knowledge that we need while television provides ever more iterations of ‘reality’. Australian composers—such as Anne Boyd, Andrew Ford, and Martin Wesley-Smith[32]—, artists, and concerned individuals continue to grapple with the issue of creativity in a time of war. If, as Wenders’ suggests, there is a need to create work that articulates the reality of peace, then Reverie II has already attempted to achieve this end.  While conceptual in its approach, in making reference to the structure of knowledge as the dynamics of consciousness in a state of inner peace, this work aims to present something beyond a critique, confrontation or lament. It aims to celebrate the potential for the revelatory, for human experience to be multifaceted, diversifying and unifying, mindful of reality and the infinite transformations of consciousness. Reverie II is a ‘reverie’ of the mind and hopefully contributes to a phase of creative endeavour and cultural production that is able to constructively address interculturalism while defining and articulating a sense of peace.

References

Adajania, N., 2002, Net Culture: Between the Fast Lane and the Slow, Art India, 7 (1), pp. 26-35.

Bharucha, R., 1999, ‘Interculturalism and Its Discriminations: Shifting the Agendas of the National, Multicultural and the Global’, Third Text, 46.

Boner, A., Sharma, S.R., & Bäumer, B., 1986, Vastusutra Upanishad: The Essence of Form in Sacred Art, Motilal Banarsidass.

Bonshek, A., 2001, Mirror of Consciousness: Art, Creativity and Veda, Motilal Banarsidass.

Bonshek, A, 2001 ‘Reverie—Exploring the Spiritual in Terms of the Mathematical Unfoldment of Creation Within Consciousness: A Collaborative Video Installation’, Paper presented at the Fifteenth Annual National Conference on the Liberal Arts and the Education of Artists, School of the Visual Arts, New York, U.S.A.

 Bonshek, A, 2000, ‘Transformations Within the Gap,’ Body, Space and Technology, 1(1), England.

Bonshek, C., 2002, ‘Between Subject and Object: Multiplicity in Anna and Corrina Bonshek’s Reverie I,’ Paper presented at the School of Contemporary Arts Postgraduate Seminar, University of Western Sydney (Nepean), Australia, August 23.

Krauss, R., 1984, The Originality of the Avant-Garde and Other Modernist Myths, Cambridge Press.

Lutgendorf, P., 1990, Ramayana: The Video, The Drama Review 34 (2).

McEvilley, T., 1987, ‘Grey Geese Descending’, The Art of Agnes Martin, Artforum, XXIV (10), pp. 94-99.

Meyer-Dinkgräfe, D., 1996, Consciousness and the Actor: A Reassessment of Western and Indian Approaches to the Actor’s Emotional Involvement from the Perspective of Vedic Psychology, European University Studies, Series XXX, 67, Peter Lang.

Perry, A, 2003, Queen of Bollywood, Time, 162 (16), pp. 40-47.

Richman, P., (Ed.), 1991, Many Ramayanas: The Diversity of a Narrative Tradition in South Asia, University of California Press.

Thomas, M., 2003, SBS—Inside Australia Initiative, Pacific Film and Television Seminar, Brisbane, Australia, July 15.

Wenders, W., 2003, Keynote Address, Australian International Documentary Conference, Byron Bay, Australia, February 17-20.

University of Western Sydney, 2003, War, Creativity and Communication: An Australian Perspective on East Timor, Symposium, University of Western Sydney, Australia, August 28.