JKL Collective is a Chicago based artist group exploring the intersections between movement, words & visual media.

12/17- JWM
Looking at the physicality of the writing.
Mine- letters are long, smooth lines. Taller than they are wide

Lauren- compacted, less space between letters, inconsistent stroke. Holds energy in letters

Kirsten- round, loops on the q and the y and the g. Most of the letters connect- punctuated smooth

I was moving very slow today- the beginning is always hard to start. I made a lot and threw a lot out- I wanted to stay away from the very literal and looked at the shape of the words that we all wrote and the differences between the three. They all have very different qualities, and while working with each of the three, I found mine to be the easiest to choreograph based on that quality.

12/23 - LZ
in response to jill - thinking about movement

i became interested in the way our hands move, and how our hands move differently when doing different things. i wrote the same thing twice, once typing it on the computer and once writing it in my notebook with a pen. (is the writing relevant?)

the movement of my hands created two different results of recording my thoughts which i recorded on video using my phone.

watching my hands move through different motions makes me feel grounded and aware of myself and how i occupy space- i then went through my recent photo archive and found images i made when i felt especially grounded/whole/a sense of clarity. (this may be a different tangent, but maybe important)

i am interested in the connection between using words to record moments of clarity (journal) and using photography in a similar way (visual journal).

12/27 - Kirsten
After watching Lauren’s films and looking at her photographs, I made notes on my first thoughts, the first ideas and things that came into my head and when I was done I went back and highlighted the phrases that stuck with me:

• the marks we leave on someone/something
• Prints, imprints, scars, marks but these marks have meaning
• Something else about control

Funny thing that happened while I was doing this - outside the window, there was this weird leaf that hung down attached to something. A spider web I think. It was making small little jerky movements, reminded me so much of Lauren's hand close up when she was writing. I went outside to film it.

I wasn't sure yet if I wanted to write fiction or nonfiction, but I knew that with a fiction piece, I would place little moments in the story that connected to the notes I'd taken and referenced Lauren’s images.

Before writing, I made a few more notes, little inklings of ideas, these notes had a lot to do with the relationship between my body and my mind. A few that informed some moments in the story:

• when language is not involved, communication between your body and brain, sometimes seems like it doesn't exist because there is no need for communication, your body is just doing it
• Small liberations from thought
• The little details that my body acts out on its own

As of now, I don't know what is going to happen in this story, but I know what I want it to be about or to involve: control (self-control and control over others and events) the feeling of regret, marks that are left on people and things by people and things, the relationship between your body and your mind

Moving forward: I want to work on character, really focus on the complexities of a human and show these in small moments. Choices - characters need to make clashing choices, one is selfish. Consciousness. I want to be deliberate with language.

JKL is reframing the idea that produced work needs to be finished. Since our work is process orientated, we continue to reference the process as we create different iterations of "The Back of It". We are not working toward an endpoint, we are just working. There is a point when the work feels ready to present and produce in a coherent way, but without an outside imposed deadline, the work could, and will, continue to evolve. Our work has thus far been extremely site-specific- our first presentation was in an art gallery, our second in a theater, and we are now re-curating for this website. The implications of this for the work also allow exploration as it must be modified to each space, and what that means for audience perception of the piece. This adjustment for space and process orientations means that the piece is never able to be exactly replicated. Working in a collective also means that the artists can be working at different paces which affects the evolution of the piece. As we move forward, the "moving parts" of the piece are aligned differently each iteration- and because we draw inspiration from each other, the work is constantly in the state of being questioned and answered.

Our model invites responses to art to become the inspiration and foundation for the next step of producing work. We see this process as adaptable in educational settings as a way to take diverse experiences and perspectives and integrate them into a comprehensive work. A Jenga model, where each block is an artist's contribution- you need all the blocks for the piece to be stable, but you can use other pieces to build up, and you always have the bottom blocks as a base. Throughout this process, the question of "Should I move this block" is driving the growth and development of the piece- taking a risk on a tenuous work. People respond differently to different types of media, and this system invites communities to respond to art, not just in the traditional expression of opinions through words, but also in the media in which they feel suits the response.