Merging-Emerging

part 7 of The Creation Cycle
1978, 14 minutes

Merging-Emerging, the seventh and culminating part of The Creation Cycle is an allegory of cosmic creation itself and the place of humanity within it. The work references the place of male and female energies within a broader primal cosmic energy matrix. Although feeling very fluid and improvisatory, it also synthesises my interests in western cosmology and eastern metaphysics

It was recorded in real-time with no subsequent editing and is a very visually and aurally complex participation between five performers – myself on video, Simon Desorgher on flute and electronics, a violinist and two dancers. All had visual and aural feedback of the whole piece as it unfolds and they adapted and improvised within my general defined meaning and structure.

It was the first of my videos to use my Videokalos Colour Synthesiser combined with the Royal College of Art’s multi-camera colour studio, where I had developed so many of my techniques. This combination gave unparalleled control over the colour compared to earlier pieces in the Cycle, and allowed the combining of a multiplicity of analogue equipment and techniques.

Merging-Emerging was, unusually, self-funded.