we are all made of stars is the working title of a new performance project exploring the human body and its relationship to the material world. The project is inspired by recent movements such as The New Materialism (www.thenewmaterialism.org) which aim to change our relationship to things and objects, encouraging us to see the material world differently and develop a more responsible and sustainable politics. Jane Bennett’s book Vibrant Matter is a key source for New Materialism and an inspiration for this project. The book explores the idea of a ‘vital force’ than runs through all things – human, animal and object.

we are all made of stars will use these texts as inspiration to create a collage of video fragments of natural phenomena, which will be projected onto my body. The performance will use my body as a surface, moving in a slow choreography underneath the projections. It will begin with a dark space. The images will start small, illuminating only fragments of my body, and grow in size until they reveal my whole body and begin to escape onto the walls behind, blurring the edges of my body into the space.

The technique of projecting on the body is being developed from another project, Selves Portrait, which uses a mini projector to project onto my face. Images of Selves Portrait are available on my Portfolio here: http://eleanorfogg.ideastap.com/Project/3255df03-da63-4d3d-8d97-a3fd018b7ef6/performance and a documentation video is available here: http://vimeo.com/110427159 (password is ‘selves’ all lower case). This technique enables the body to become a surface for an ever-shifting image, creating hallucinogenic images which blur the line between fantasy and reality. Audience members have described Selves Portrait as ‘mesmerising’, ‘stunning and super weird’ and ‘like being inside a music video’. I haven’t seen this technique used in performance in this way before, and I’m keen to develop it further. Using the whole body as a surface will enable me to work with more ambitious ideas, to bring more movement into the work, and to address broader issues.

The video material for we are all made of stars will be sourced from Youtube clips (either those with a Creative Commons license or with permission from the owner), using the technological ecology of the internet to feed this work about the material ecology of the world around us. I will use the sound from those clips to create a gently building electronic soundtrack which gives shape to the experience and draws the spectator in (for an example of this technique for creating a sound score, see an earlier video work at http://vimeo.com/100819899). I have camera equipment, sound and video editing software and will edit all the material for the project myself.

we are all made of stars will be a creatively ambitious spectacle, but in practical terms incredibly portable. The project draws on the flickering video imagery and immersive sound of current pop culture, whilst exploring an important political and social issue. Its portable nature and accessible aesthetic will allow it to cross boundaries between ‘art’ and ‘non-art’ spaces, making it suitable to tour live art programmes, festivals, club nights and everything in between. Since my body is effectively the screen, the largest piece of kit will be the projector, so it will be feasible to tour this work with just a suitcase. I want this work to reach many diverse audiences and will ensure that the project’s ethos and process remains sustainable whilst making it compact and portable.