Body as interlocutor, a catalyst for event : from jewellery practice to participatory installation

This research considers multiple platforms upon which participatory work takes shape, and the proliferating events which it makes possible. It considers the selection, fabrication and composition of materials which becomes the field of the works, the success or failure of the various opportunities which invite audience interaction, the outcome of the constantly renewing opportunity for event, and the resulting reconfiguring of the role of the audience from observer to interlocutor. This practice-led research charts the evolution of my work as a jeweller into the field of installation and interactive art. The work can be identified as a participatory project combining an orchestrated terrain, opportunity for audience interaction, and active engagement of the interlocutor, resulting in endless renewal of the event. The orchestrated terrain is the space I have composed. By determining selection and composition of the terrain I am creating the opportunity for, and solicitation of, audience interaction. Participation of the audience results in multiple and simultaneous shifts of material and the field of the work is activated and enlivened, thus becoming the space of event. The multiple sensory forces which are resultant in the event in the space of the work then re-arrange to create invitation again for a new configuration and the renewal of the opportunity for the moment of participation and consequent event. The contribution of the audience participant and the reciprocated outcomes they experience from the work provoke me to consider the audience not as a passive viewer but as an interlocutor with the work. 5