Nodar Audio-visual Plateaus<\/strong><\/p>\n Our first experience of Nodar was total darkness, the smell of mint and grilled meat. We arrived in the evening, and the next morning all we could hear were goats\u2019 bells and the ever-present sound of the Paiva river. A very different place to where we had just come from but familiar in that we were both brought up in similarly rural places.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n From the outset, rather than look from the perspective of complete strangers and focus on that kind of experience we decided to explore the place from the perspective of local people\u2013we wanted to talk to them and see Nodar and its neighbours through their eyes. Our decision to focus on old stories wasn\u2019t accidental either\u2013the essence of a place, to us, lies in its history as told by the people who live there.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n What we wanted to create, as artists in residence, was an impressionistic reaction to this \u201cpeople\u2019s mythology\u201d. We collected our data in the form of recorded stories and recollections. The response was a sound-film\/poem or series of audio-visual plateaus.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The visual aesthetic of \u201cContos do Paiva\u201d was inspired by \u201cTheColour of Pomegranates\u201d\u2013a film by Sergei Parajanov. His use of visual interpretations of the poet Sayat Nova\u2019s life and works resonated with our desire to interact artistically with the area and its people.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In terms of content, the work reflects our respective backgrounds in cultural anthropology, collaborative arts practice, phonography and film making. Sonically, the desire was to do more than simplyenhance the visual aspect of the work. The black screen during the interviews served to highlight this thinking\u2013as we wanted to force concentration on the stories themselves.<\/p>\n Martin Clarke is a sound artist, recordist and filmmaker, based in Birmingham since 2003. His work makes use of environmental material to create semi abstract non-representational spaces where sounds are treated as though filmed,with varying depths of field and images are treated as sounds, layered and composed. Recent projects include participation in The Sound of Snow and Ice for Gruenrekorder, The Urban Lighthouse for Architecture Week 2006, and Voyager, a large-scale sound and video work.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Alicja Rogalska is an artist from Poland, based in the UK since 2006. Her work utilises participation, photography and installation but she is currently planning projects that involve use of performance and video.Alicja has been working internationally for a number of years, managing and delivering arts projects in Poland,Sweden and the UK. One of her current projects includes collaborations with women from diverse backgrounds across the West Midlands to create self-portraits.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div> ARTISTIC WORKS<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>