THE OVERLOAD PROJECT
The Nest
During Autumn 2023, I was a part of The Nest residency with Magic Acorns. The residency invited a group of 13 artists to delve into movement, sound, making, interaction, imagery and projections to explore creating family encounters both at the beach and through an indoor sensory space.
Connected to the residency, I had the opportunity to engage in creative development days both with Magic Acorns and externally with Helena Rodrigues and Jorge Graça of Companhia de Musica Teatral.
3 words a day
Sensory space,
The Nest,
2023
Day 1 : bubbling, calm, awareness
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Day 2 : hum, ticking, rumble
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Day 3 : squeezed, rustle, loop
Day 4 : shiny, reflective, shatter
Day 5 : Mutually, silently, shifted
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Day 6 : tranquility, realisation, exhaustion
Day 7 : self-exploring, self-awareness, self-questioning
Day 8 : Physical, improvisation, structure
Day 9 : Contentment, belonging, excitement
As part of The Nest residency, I explored creating interactive sound objects or 'Sonic blobs' for very young children.
Residency diary extract
Day 9
In the morning, half of us set up for the final sensory space and half headed to the beach for the final tiny promenade and first rainy beach day of the residency!
The sensory space was similar to the previous set ups with the addition of some blue hanging fabric weaved across the ceiling and the paper nests had a refresh with a few extra added. We also changed the score slightly adding softer, more ambient sounds to the conductive shapes and shruti box, ukulele and vocalisations accompanied the session throughout.
A wonderful last session with lots of chime bar hits, showers of shredded paper, flying conductive shape games and noisy bubble popping! The shruti provided a very calming background drone that felt like it maintained the energy of the space well and allowed for a natural fade in and out of the conch song.
The afternoon involved some reflections and a brew followed by a big collaborative pack down and hanging the beach team’s flags to dry. Lots of laughter. Pigs oinking. A final conch song and bowl band recording.
'Bowl band' resting,
The beach,
The Nest,
2023
And that’s The Nest!
13 artists. 4 days of play, deep listening and development. 5 days with babies, toddlers and their families delivering 8 happenings on the beach and 5 indoor sensory play sessions.
As a creative who doesn’t consider themselves a dance artist or musician and who is relatively new to working with early years, I would have expected to feel more outside of my comfort zone, however it all felt so natural and easy, yet I was delving into a new way of working within a team whom most of which I had only met once or twice. I think this is predominantly if not solely down to the team of creatives and the safe environment they provided from the beginning. I feel this base from which to explore really allowed me to embrace the new, forget what you are and what you are not considered to be and do outside of the residency space and explore wholeheartedly. I have never experienced anything quite like it and the new perspectives it has given me within my practice.
