Reporting to Kayla

Kayla McClellan and I met next to an algae filled lake in the South-West of the Netherlands. We were there to explore the compromised area of the Oosterschelde – as part of the residency Cartographies of the Vanishing Now – and spoke briefly amidst grass and windmills: sharing an interest in using our bodies as a way to sense a place and map our surroundings. At the time of our meeting, Kayla was finishing up her path in the academic world – combining her background as dancer with a Dance Science theoretical framework, which she has since then finished.

Over the course of the week, we expressed the willingness to collaboratively explore some of the drawn scores that I created, via improvisational movement. But time – of which there is never enough during these kinds of pressure cookers – decided otherwise. 

It was a small Instagram post that led me to reach out to Kayla again. I had been meaning to start a durational site-specific walking project and her post that mentioned having an ‘accountability partner’ was fitting to my experience whilst working on an earlier project.

I’ve come to learn that I find great solace in making work whilst being ‘in the presence’ of the other. This act of ‘being seen’ without our physical bodies meeting serves as ground upon which the work is being made/done.

In the example of Kayla’s shared Instagram account – she and her fellow friend Rebecca Fitton – hold each other ‘accountable’ by continuously sharing their lives in a way that supports their movement practices. Accountability here does not mean obligation per se – but serves more as a soft agreement where both invite each other to keep on moving and making. A slow ping-pong of interchange and connection – via the medium of a non-physical space. 

Here, the distance is real because they live in different countries, but it is also non-existent. And, due to the constraints of the digital medium, this coming together takes the shape of a coming of one after another. Never being able to be in this ‘live’ digital realm at the same moment in time.

This brings up interesting questions. What happens then with the time ‘in between.’ Are you together? Are you not? How does this play with your experience of friendship, collaboration, shared effort, responsibility?

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Taking inspiration from their collaboration, I reached out to Kayla and asked her to be my accountability partner for ‘Piece for weather, climate and person’ – where she was on the receiving end of my daily walks via a short registered time-stamp. A very minimal but intimate moment in uncertain times. To be acknowledged in the making. And seen – if only via the ‘seen’ symbol underneath a simple Instagram DM.

Some takeaways on ‘Piece for weather, climate and person.’

Walking the weather is a as much a walking with the weather as it is a walking with your inner weather. / Walking is a protest, a march, a reckoning, a meeting, a seeing, a running a way from, an admiration. / Having someone else on the other side heightens the sense of, and wishing well for, the other. / Walking the weather becomes a walking wíth weather. Ephemeral companionship. A befriending of the elements. / The opening of eyes is a seeing anew. Powerful. Unnerving at times. / The sensations of the elements - eyes closed - the body still swaying due to the cyclical nature of the score ~ wind, wind, wind, wind, wind, a brush, the skin, enclosing. / Having an intention does not prerequisite attention. Expanding the body to meet the sensorial does. / but how does one ‘do’ without ‘doing it’..?

Location:
‘Kop’ van het Java-Eiland, Amsterdam.

Original Score:
Walk counterclockwise in several circles until you reach the middle. Stop. Close your eyes. Breath. Open your eyes and use your finger to draw a symbol in the palm of your hand.

Original means of registration:
~ Symbol drawn on hand with hand
~ Sharing of time stamp [Date - Begin Time - End time] with Kayla

Additional means of registration:
~ Experiential drawing of the experience, A4 Paper, crayons, pencils, markers
~ Video reflection - including the original hand-drawn symbol.

Gift:
Kayla created an illustration depicting her idea of my area - which was based on my verbal account of the location. And, by way of a daily mini-meditation-doodle, included the start- and end-times within the frame. An effort made tiny and appreciated.

Do also check out her patreon - and sign up for a monthly dose of improvisational movement tools, writings and more.

Weather drawings - Rosalie Bak

Illustration by Kayla McClellan