Mapping the creative process

As the rubberbodies collective push boundaries and expand their network through their performance art projects, they aim to ground themselves to the community and this time they are offering a resource which supports and develops Malta art’s education.

This is their first publication which presents the methodologies, devising techniques and the notation used to create a performance within the artist collective. This common creative process which the collective calls ‘the storyboard process’ has been used to create the performances Grace u Rofflu (2009) and 100 (2010).

Through the breakdown of the performance structure and analysis of how different disciplines interweave during the creation, the collective defines its emerging force of contemporary art from Malta. This publication documents the continuing trajectory of the collective.

The idea of creating a collective emerged from the opportunity and the challenge to commit to a process of research where an aesthetic vision, the choreographic craft, visual inventions and musical composition would be examined, moved and pushed to new directions, towards new possibilities of performance.

As the book represents the collective, it was also created collaboratively by the core members Jimmy Grima, Rebecca Camilleri, Matthew Pandolfino and Ira Melkonyan and edited by Emma Mattei. Included in the book are photographs by Darrin Zammit Lupi, Augistin Le Gall and Gilbert Calleja and an essay by Caldon Mercieca.

Through an artistic investigation the collective attempts to capture the working process, tasks, habitual practices, feedback structures and critical stages of its work; articulate the artistic process and publish this documentation as a book.

With this publication, the rubberbodies collective aspires to offer fresh insights into the intricacy and dynamics of devising, the inspirations and challenges of collaboration, the elements of performance and what defines and refines the work. The collective adopts the same openness when putting together this book in the hope of giving an intimate understanding of their processes, as well as to document contemporary physical theatre in Malta.