Breathing Backwards (Breath Score) is an investigation into the reciprocal relationship between body and space; a gentle meditation on the ways in which breath may deepen our understanding of the external world.

The performance is an activation of, and conversation with space; movement of breath drawing on, in and with air. Formal and rhythmic qualities of breath reveal internal spaces – both physical and emotional – and reflect external, environmental influences.

The score emerged from a compositional process that was primarily visual, gestural and embodied. Research into wind patterns and observations of birdcalls inspired a series of drawings, which were then translated into rhythm. A bodily archive of breath techniques served as a palette with which to draw a sensorial image. Techniques vary in formal and affective qualities, altering the performer’s experience of their surroundings.

The positioning of breathing-bodies within space was an essential consideration - each body a point from which force erupts; each breath an emerging line, mark-making with/in air. The three-dimensionality of the piece is pronounced by its application to multi-level site; drawing (with) breath, becomes sculpting (with) breath. This invisible movement of breath-air is sensorially representational of environmental happenings.

With an understanding of breath as a constant process of (internal, lung-located) negotiation of the body-self-beyond boundary, this work seeks to challenge our humanistic perspective by revealing intangible intra-connections with environment.