An Interview by FAA TV students with me at the Displacement & Misplacement exhibition in Mahidol University 15th - 17th December 2012

http://youtu.be/umCpw4SgNFo

Displacement & Misplacement in Ayutthaya National Art Museum

 The poster

The workshops 

 

The invitation

Displacement & Misplacement: Exhibition @Learning Resource Centre, Mahidol University

The poster for the show with Plai Wang

The invitation to the opening

 The brochure in  English and Thai

 The poster for the screening of 'Return to the Forest'

more info about the film on www.worldelephantday.org

Here is a link to the photos from the event which had over 600 visitors and raised 5500baht for the Elephant Reintroduction Foundation

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151109238467400.426469.596477399&type=1

A simplified abstract for the Memory Machine

The Memory Machine

Abstract

This paper aims to explore mechanisms employed in recording and interpreting oral narratives and memory through the analysis of selected animated documentary texts of a biographical nature. Then from the analysis suggest possible methodologies which can work in constructing new animated documentaries, both for my own work developed from ideas inspired during the floods in Thailand 2011 and that can be used by my students.

It will explore issues of:

i)               materiality in terms of personal oral history with regard to memory, authentic representation and accountability.

ii)             materiality – with regard to issues of actual material loss and memorial loss caused by traumatic events

iii)            materiality - with regard to the construction medium chosen in representation of the message

iv)            the mechanics of creating a narrative from memories

As the nature of animated documentaries is so broad I have, for this paper, narrowed it to the sub category that most informs the work I am proposing for my own production. The texts selected for this analysis are subjective auto biographical and biographical works that encapsulate personal oral narratives from memories. This category offers an abundant choice of works to analyse as it is particularly suited to the animated form. For clarity in the analysis I have further sub-categorised it to Traumatic Memories (in terms of the retelling of a collectively experienced historic traumatic event from a personal perspective): Waltz with Bashir by Ari Folman and Silence by Orly Yadin and Sylvie Bringass.

Theory, Process and Practice - Nam Tuam

The after math of the flood (Nam Tuam) has left much catching up to do, but gradually I am starting to form a structure for this study. During the flood time itself I started many drawings and sketches and I took many photos, which I will begin to collate here.
These were initially recording ideas spun from the events as they unfolded, but soon became a much needed distraction to keep busy and not dwell on the circumstances too much. Eventually I have started to collate the thoughts ideas and images into three areas:
1  Characters and Short stories inspired by monitor lizards in the flood - TingTong the Monitor Lizard
     Initially the flood at my house was within the previous levels experienced so I had decided to stay put in the house. Due to the rise in the water levels the large monitor lizard that is resident in the nearby woods began to appear much closer to the house...
First in the broken boat... then he emerged from under the pick up truck....

 These were the initial drawings based on the sightings. The character is a much maligned creature of the DtuaNuengDtuaThong, being a creature whose previous Thai name caused such offense (being a derogatory slang term against your mother) that they have been renamed 'Silver and Gold' and sightings are believed to bring good luck. This change of fortune is still a transition so many of his activities are misread as opportunistic misbehaviour rather than the altruistic activity of his intention. Therefore the apparent stealing of the car, is actually him moving it to higher ground for safety during the flood. And the stealing of the boat was him preparing the evacuation vehicle!
Later, when at Ban Phe I drew a few more images of him. The stories are developing... with some hep from my friends.

2  Portraits of the elephants from camping at Wat Phu Khao Thong. This started as sketches from 'life' at the time. Iwas camped for 5 weeks with 70 elephants all around me.

 And as time went on I started to paint there.

And since my return home is developing into a series of paintings which are in the process of being painted. I am experimenting with working on a number at the same time to build up  a series for exhibition. these are work in progress - the first 'layer' in in Paynes gray -

The common theme is the elephants with man made environment intruding into their world, the presence of Wat Phu Khao Thong, the overhead electrical wires or rubbish...
Two have been completed:

Peter's laughing shadow

Plai Wang's Post

3  The main events - collated initially in a graphic novel form - with a view to a animation at a later date.
This section will be the main area of the academic research. I aim to link my development and recording of this experience and research with the analysis, theories of Dr Paul Well's on narrative strategies and link ideas to the animated works of  Marjane Satrapi's 'Persopolis'

and with the 'Waltz with Bashir' by Ari Folman.

Both are exploring aspects of oral history, memory and representation. Both are recording experiences that deal with trauma and it's affects on our perception. The Nam Tuam was a collective experience of displacement and psychosis; a kind of madness in a surreal emotional and  physical dimension where absurdity became normality; this research is in some ways a process of retrieving some kind of sanity from the debris of the nam tuam. In trying to collect my thoughts I have started to unravel events in a visual narrative that is (at the moment anyway) appearing like a graphic novel. I had thought earlier this would be in the words of others... but my own experience has at this stage taken over as the narrator. This may develop or change as the story unfolds.

New project - Memories awash - Nam Tuam

This year saw the worst flooding in Thailand for at least 50 years. Unavoidably in it's path, my house too was flooded and I was displaced for 3 months. Initially I stayed home and commuted by boat, but on leaving the country for 10 days I returned to my 2 metre high stilted house inundated with a further meter of water inside, the first time this has ever happened in the 100 years of the house's history. The dramas, traumas, pain and laughter that unfolded were life changing, and as yet not over. I stayed at a friends for one night but was woken at 5 to the call of 'the dykes have broken, the water is coming'; I had to race to get off the fast filling island of Ayutthaya through over 5 miles of nearly metre deep fast flowing water. After three days I finally had the reassurance that all whom I had been forced to eave behind were safe... After 10 days my work was closed , the area I was in ordered to evacuate. I drove to Ban Phe and spent the next week in a state of perpetual news gathering and anxiety as the water continues to flow. I returned to Ayutthaya after a week to deliver 'care' packages to those who were unable to leave due to  work or responsibilities. The experience was surrreal. The river was swollen so high that even the swells were a metre high, my house now swimming over a metre deep was in an endless river; there seemed no end to it.
My cat joined me, on the encouragement of Yancey, after 3 weeks on her own with food visits every 2 days from Jo and Jong in a tiny two man boat. After a further week I had no choice and returned to Ayutthaya, to  two man tent with my partner, Fon and his family, they had been there for 2 months along with 70 elephants, cows, goats, buffalo and hundreds of people. They were suffering depression, anxiety and naturally, displacement.

Five weeks later we all returned to our homes, those of us lucky enough to have houses that stood up to the onslaught. Many of my friends and families homes were damaged beyond recognition. There have been great losses, most significantly Diane, who could no longer stand the stress as all around her her family were breaking under the strain; arguing and fighting and loosing sight of hope, she made the most painful choice and left us all behind. The shock and pain of this has ironically brought her family, part of my extended family, back together. The funeral rites a mixture of Buddhism and animism had a cathartic effect. And involved fascinating ceremonial rites from the Kuay tradition. Now  gradually we are all piecing our lives together, relocating and salvaging what we can. Washing away the endless mud and finding a new normality. It's amazing what can become normal.

The experience has had a huge affect on my life and those around me. Some of which is irreversible. All of which has now become memory. I recorded the experience in photos, paintings, sketches and words at the time and I will be using these to piece together a narrative, with the help of those with whom I shared this experience. The collection of thoughts, memories and experience will I hope help salve some of our wounds. The story is personal, but the it reality is as global warming creates changes in the climate and environment never before seen that this or something like this could happen to anyone. One resounding truth came from this - water is the leveller, no one escapes.

The Memory Machine

This Abstract aims to explore the mechanisms employed in recording and collating stories from material gathered during the floods in Thailand 2011 and the processes used to create an animated documentary piece.

It will explore issues of:

i)              materiality in terms of personal oral history with regard to memory, authentic representation and accountability.

ii)             materiality – with regard to issues of actual material loss and memorial loss caused by the events

iii)           materiality - and the regard of construction medium being representative of the message

iv)           the mechanics of creating a narrative from memories

Oral History, and History itself, is merely a selective interpretation of factual events reproduced with a bias. Oral history is conventionally the domain of the poor, often illiterate and uneducated. Their personal experiences, which often are shaped by the factual historical events, are often not considered or attractive in the conventional Historical account.

Thailand’s annual monsoon floods in 2011 created an unprecedented disaster with an estimated 800 million cubic metres of flood-water displacing millions of people. The events unfolded over three months, yet the media focus only brought attention to it when the capital itself was inundated. The recorded history will no doubt focus on the mismanagement of the water flow through Bangkok, as well the political repercussions resulting from this.

I too was displaced and ended up camping in Ayutthaya with 70 elephants and mahouts and their families. Their personal experiences are both epic and exhausting, as well as inventive and enduring. A microcosm of the macro events. 

Dialogic Photos from the 21st