This project is about a whim. About building a cloud; building something that shouldn't and can't be built. It's about escaping architecture and about producing a space that can only be truly understood as a happenstance of circumstance, an instant, a moment in time. It is also a project about a new way of thinking. Architecture as an envelope. Architecture as a circumstance. Architecture as an order that emerges from complexity. Architecture as field. Architecture that is of a non-geometrical order, that is ephemeral. A whimsical order. As an experimental dance theatre, it is a project that begs the question, in what new ways can our bodies engage with spaces that are influenced by the contemporary condition.

Clouds and Fields: This building forms itself as though it were a cloud. A cloud is a field: a whimsical, ephemeral, system of balances. It is an envelope or zone in which the possibility of "cloud" emerges. Clouds are a condition that can be understood as an object; But a false object at that, because really, it is a system based upon a series of localised relationships between particles of dust and water. It is a happenstance of circumstance that we can recognise and associate with a temporary structure that changes as it blows in the wind.

Fields can be thought of in terms of clouds. They are spaces in which orders arise from a balance of forces to produce a recognisable pattern. Of course field theories and the conditions that they bring to form making, are all motivated from the bottom-up, they are circumstantial to calculations, with no creative act required to define the architectural form. And in that respect there are no overarching geometrical notions or understandings that can be used to come to grips with exactly what the space is about. The spaces can only be understood as a circumstance, or a condition in which something may occur. As within the post-minimalist art movement, the architecture of a field challenges the notion of what is important about the act of creation. It questions the ambition of geometrically ordered form and suggests that the art of form making rests within finding the balance in which conditions of relative stability occur, and it is the challenge of the architect to channel and mould forms within that occurrence. The cloud won't occur outside of the parameters it requires for its survival. When it is within these parameters it can survive, but is moulded and blown by the wind, into an ephemeral, ever changing structure. Hence the emphasis exists not so much within the cloud's form, but rather the notion of how the form has come to exist as a balance of circumstance.

Dancing Across the Sky: They come to being out of environmental conditions at any time, in any place wherever the circumstance provides. They are whimsical, pushing at the limits of their own existence, spinning and weaving and soaring and storming through space. Evaporating; they challenge the boundary of their envelope, pushing perhaps towards the line of an intangible horizon. Clouds are an ideal vessel for experimental dance to occur within. Looking at the way in which the motions and forms of clouds are driven by field conditions, it only stands to reason that the spaces in which performances occur should also be driven by field conditions. The spaces should be like a sky through which the conditions of "dance" emerge.

Dance is ephemeral. Dance comes to being at any time, in any place wherever the circumstance provides. It is at this point that the field conditions inspired by notions of "cloud" touch upon the ideas associated with fields of information. Both fields, that of the information system and the natural form generating system of clouds overlap to produce a rich and challenging space.

Dancing within and through fields exposes experimental dancers to a creative act that is instinctive and ephemeral. Things aren't constant within fields, but rather a shifting balance of free flowing opportunity. Things are spontaneous, and as a performance comes to being, the dancer has the option to move through the space, opening new possibilities for the development of their work. The performance fields within the space are defined by the three complimentary information technology nodes, a lighting node, an acoustic node, and a projection node, each of which have associated fields. The nodes are arranged in a fixed position within the cloud, but their individual fields can vary according to the dancers' choice of perimeters dedicated to each field. Each of the three fields overlap as to produce either a tightly knit or sparse almost non-existent envelope in which the performance may occur. Dancers engage with the fields incorporating elements of projection, lighting or sound into their work as they see fit. Around each performance space, people gather to watch the event take place. The spectators themselves relate to the field of the dance to produce an envelope of spectacle. Yet, because fields change, because they are ephemeral, because they are a balance of circumstance, the audience may unwittingly be challenged by the instinct of the dancer and become a part of from field in which the dance seeks it's inspiration. Audience becomes dance. Everything is spontaneous, forming just as a cloud does within a zone of possibility. The forms that bodies take, become whimsical and dance becomes understood a happening that emerges from an envelope of circumstance.

The beach, the iconic Australian site is a field. It is a place of condition, influenced by the complexities of hydrodynamics. The construction of the beach, its sands and contours is temporary; it is a place of movement and is built according to the constructive and destructive actions of waves. Beaches emerge from the delicate balancing act between environmental conditions, tidal and seasonal variations and the actions of man. It is a place in which people enjoy and appreciate the effect field conditions have upon the Australian landscape. And above these shifting sands, hovering over the delicately balanced landscape, is the sky, dappled with Clouds.