Territory Expansion

Here's an item I've been meaning to post. Chasing Ruins: An Interview with Tim Etchells. An old interview I think. Relevant to me in much the same way as the Version 1.0 Micro-Lecture. It speaks to working together as an ensemble, or as a company, and finally why one is working at all. Three quotes describe my thought in regards to work at the moment.

From Chasing Ruins:

...this really is a group of people that has a conversation it needs to have, a set of topics and themes and concerns we need to keep discussing together...

I think the best decision we ever made was that we weren't interested in being a successful theatre company. I think it took us ten years to realise that fully—that the ladder one was meant or expected to climb in the UK—was of no interest to us. I think from that point on we were confident that expansion sideways into installation projects, new media, video and so on, were of more interest to us than trying to forge relations with the mainstream theater venues. It's a very liberating moment when you admit that you aren't even tied to particular forms or strategies...

From Version 1.0:

...what would be the shakiest premise for being together in the studio...

Exploring this territory is pretty lonely work. I don't mind being alone actually. I'm at the point where it's liberating. It's changed my conditions for working with other people - the how, the why, the where. It's changed my conditions for the work I'm creating. It's not that these are new ideas for me because I've held them for quite some time. It's finally insisting that these are the conditions for work and that settling for less is unteneable. Impractical? Idealistic? Sure. The results are inconclusive at this point, but the work and the direction I'm moving slowly, ever so slowly are right on target.