10-13th May 2013

Although this didn't end up being a collaboration destination for one of the Fields of Possibility pieces, it was still a source of inspiration for several solo improvisations, and was the site of many other forms of collaboration and creative dialogue including improvised percussion, spoken word, and traditional Hawaiian song.
I spent much time here exploring around the river, through the trees on the banks where it forks in two.
Sitting in a tree - just large enough to support my weight - I recorded the sound of the water. There was a busy main road close by, but the riverbank was steep and tall enough here to absorb much traffic noise.
I took many photos and made many recordings of birds, water, wind and my own voice. It was a strange feeling of being enveloped by nature, but knowing that the busy city was right over there.
When I returned to my lodgings that afternoon, I sat on my bed and unwound. Suddenly a vision of the trees and vales I'd been picking my way through came into the room, not just into my imagination, but seemingly quite literally into the room, into my sense.
In the story Where the Wild Things Are I especially loved as a child the passage where the forest gradually became part of Max's room, until it was completely transformed (see below).
That's what my vision was like - there was no separation between the trees and the room, in my mind I brought the trees and the vale right there into the room with me, if only for a moment.
Earlier that day, there had been much talk of mana - letting go, making right, and receiving the mana of nature.
This was the inspiration for Where the Mana Things Are.

Dan spoke about how he often considers his own software as "rooms" - fixed structures with recognizable characteristics of audio behaviour.
This reminded me of Nia's take on the nature of "place", and the timeless energy of any particular place - although the true nature of a place can be distorted, it seems to have a set of characteristics - an essential, unchanging core.
Side by side, these viewpoints are so valuable. Nia's life and research are deeply intertwined with the land, while Dan described himself as being uncomfortable in the country. I feel there is a great truth both in the essential nature of the land, and in the fact that most of the time, as human beings, we inhabit rooms or buildings that may have their own characteristics, that may be completely incongruous with the land they're on.
A synthesis of these ideas brings me to the allegory of Where the Wild Things are, where Max's room gradually transforms into a forest. When I undertake any creative work there is some kind of inner vision that guides me, that allows me to intuit a way forward. This is like the forest - brimming with natural life and not denying the shadows.
Nonetheless, I always start where I am - in my room, in my body, in the world, however that needs to be. If I have escaped to the forest, if I have retreated from the world, I am absent, the physical aspect is lacking. If the forest is with me where I am, I am present, and the vision is clear. This is the middle-ground, the in-between stage, where Max is at once both in his room, and in the forest.