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An Avaloch Farm Photo Diary
xo
K A T E S
A beautiful place to have thoughts, especially out in the middle.
We <3 clicky lights
Outstanding in her field - dancing among sound boxes provided by our friends Danny Clay, Peter Ferry, and Amy Zhang, also in residence
Rhythms and clicky lights
The aforementioned rhythms
It's almost time! Next month we're packing our bags and heading to Avaloch Farm for a weeklong residency that will be ALL MAGPIE, ALL THE TIME. Our agenda is below:
Monday: Arrive at Avaloch, then MAGPIE
Tuesday: MAGPIE
Wednesday: MAGPIE
Thursday: MAGPIE
Friday: MAGPIE
Saturday: MAGPIE
Sunday: MAGPIE
Monday: MAGPIE then depart
xo
K A T E S
Less about the process, more just shamelessly sharing photos we took in the woods :)
All photos by Kate Campbell except the last one, which is a selfie by Katelyn ;)
More about our Hambidge residency, and finding new materials...
It's easy to plan for what you know, like we know we will be in residence for two weeks with a piano and we know we have a great collection of musical material. We know we want to make something very cool, very beautiful, and very integrated.
Of course, it's the things you can't know or plan for ahead of time that really make it interesting. For example, we didn't know how taken we would be by the red dirt and hiking trails...
...or how the elemental, earthiness of place would influence the materials we chose to work with. In the course of our days, we gathered a set of basic white materials -- flour, paper, cheese cloth -- and began to put them in conversation with our music, movement, space, and each other.
...Sometimes more elegantly than others...
Friends, we have been to the hills of Northern Georgia and we are here to reply to our own wonderings from back in November. It looked like this:
and from our window like this:
and also sometimes like this:
Not too shabby. We should say, we did do some work over our two weeks, too. More on that later.
xo
K A T E S
Our residency at the Hambidge Center begins later this month, and it's fair to say that our recent conversations have fixated on the trip. It's our first formal K A T E S residency, which is wonderful, and it will be the longest, most concentrated time we have yet apportioned for a K A T E S project.
We're structure people, so we're thinking a lot about how to organize our time and what exactly we are hoping to walk away with. (We're also trying to maintain a healthy respect for the unknown.) Internet and cell service are spotty out where we'll be in nature, so that's a factor. Plus, we're both flying in from far away and need to manage what to bring, like, not all of the art supplies our hearts desire.
Kate has been doing tons of research on the residency itself, and is reminding Katelyn of things like bringing a flashlight. Katelyn is helpfully checking out local restaurants on Trip Advisor. Both of us may be daydreaming about popping up to Asheville and riding the Blue Ridge Parkway.
xo
K A T E S
Happy new year from K A T E S! Magpie continues!
Not too long ago we realized that our creative work would be richer and deeper if we each spent a little extra time in the other Kate's discipline. After one of our video chats, we designed and assigned each other three short explorations: listening and music for Katelyn, and movement and choreography for Kate.
Katelyn ended up creating a visual score, writing a short piece of music for tuned crochet hooks, and doing some deep listening. Kate tracked movement impulses, found a dozen ways to move in and out of the floor, and choreographed a gesture phrase.
To new things in a new year!
xo
K A T E S
Making Project Magpie is a big (and exciting) endeavor, and we're going to share a little about how we're doing it. Exhibit A - weekly video conferences:
We started these calls back in October, and so far we've used them to discuss all the great stuff we've been gifted, develop a working analogy of project-as-quilt, book travel, and set individual action items. Plus, a weekly deadline is no small thing when you're collaborating on a beautiful amorphous project across the continent.
xo
K A T E S
Hey everybody! We've got ourselves a residency for Project Magpie! For two weeks in mid-February Kate and I are holing up at the Hambidge Center in northern Georgia, where we will do some serious nest-building with all your glorious scraps. We hope it will look like this:
Or maybe this:
One more important thing - thank you to everyone who has contributed! We are still collecting, so send us something if you're keen.
Fragments, snippets, scraps, sketches, musings, phrases, and food for thought are the makings of our latest venture, Project Magpie. With the help of our friends who make music and dances (and writings and other art work), we are gathering odds and ends to fashion into a K A T E S-ian evening of performance. Won't you join us? There's more information right over here.
xo
K A T E S
I'm just getting home after my second year performing K A T E S work at Omaha Under the Radar, and I'm really stinking happy that I was there. Of course, we loved performing Two Voices for everyone (which we did at Project Project on opening night - photo by Aleks Karjaka below!), but the real joy is in the exchange - seeing other artists do their thing, chatting people up, and getting to know the city of Omaha. If you get the chance to attend this festival, I hope you'll take it... and I hope I'll see you there!
-Katelyn
"Two Voices" is a new work of speech and music written for K A T E S! Constructed with fragmented, slippery dialogue and rhythmic rhetorical volleys, it tells the story of old friends reunited after a long time apart - what they remember, what they don't, and what to do next. Text by Katelyn Halpern, music by Leila Adu. Come see it at Omaha Under the Radar 2016!
And now we've played the West Coast! Hurray! Thanks to Switchboard Presents for hosting us, the Center for New Music for helping with All The Gear, and everyone for coming out last night - we had a blast. <3
Friday, April 8, 7:30p
Center for New Music, San Francisco
love,
Kate, Andie, Katelyn, and James
K A T E S w/James Moore & Andie Springer
Thursday, March 24, 2016 - 7:30 p.m.
$10 at the door
Firehouse Space, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
New work written by Katelyn Halpern with music by Leila Adu, plus old K A T E S favorites
Book your flights - this summer we'll be back in the midwest for the 2016 Omaha Under the Radar festival (!!) with some very new, very different material. Get excited. See you there. <3
K A T E S at Omaha Under the Radar (2015). Photo by Aleks Karjaka.
Look at these fine people! It's James Moore and Andie Springer, who play fine, fine music together on the resonator guitar and violin. Just look at 'em! Better yet, look at 'em on March 24 when they join us for a split bill performance at Firehouse Space. Check out their new record here.
Yes! Not only are we doing our thing in San Francisco in April, K A T E S is performing in New York! Come see us Thursday, March 24, 2016 at the Firehouse Space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
More details to come!
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