Monthly Archives: October 2013

My Thought Process Part III – The Use Of Media In Performance

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In today’s Contemporary Experimental Performance class we explored how a performer might choose to use media in performance. To do this Shellie and I put on a set of headphones each and went outside the building. The headphones were wireless and gave us complete freedom of movement as long as we stayed within the wireless range, which we did. This was the first lesson I learned today, that although technology can give you freedom that freedom has limits. In this case, the limits were the range of the wireless headphones. Once we were outside we were then given instructions by Gabriel to perform.

This style of performance is called Task Based performance. It is achieved through the performer doing either specific or random tasks and the process of performing and completing the tasks is in itself the performance. The tasks related to the question the performer(s) are trying to explore.

The fact that we didn’t have any knowledge of what Gabriel was going to tell us to perform at any moment was both liberating and terrifying. To not be responsible for your actions because you are just following orders is a wonderful feeling. On the other hand, you could be asked to perform anything and you might not be comfortable doing a specific task, in which case you then experience a conflict between performing a task and your own comfort zone. This relates back to my previous post about the body being a meeting place for different worlds. Anything you do while experiencing this internal conflict is in itself a performance devised from the meeting of the different worlds within the body – in this instance those worlds would be fear and being told what to do.

I would like us to experiment with using technology and media in our performance as a way of giving the audience members the experience of both the freedom and limitations that these two bring with them. As of yet, I am not sure how this could be incorporated into my previous idea of durational one-to-one performance.

My Thought Process Part II – All We Have Is Our Body

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In my most recent Contemporary Experimental Performance class, we explored a performance of both durational and one-to-one live art. The task was quite simple, and yet within that simplicity was one of the hardest challenges I’ve yet to come across as a performer. The instructions were to sit in a chair opposite another member of the class and to do nothing but look at them until our teacher told us it was time to finish.

It was one of the deepest and most interesting internal journeys I have ever experienced. One of the lessons I learned from this is that when we’re told to do nothing and we begin to try our hardest to do nothing, we suddenly become aware of our body as it performs. We notice every single micro muscle twitch our bodies perform. We notice the rhythms of our breathing and the changes of those rhythms that our bodies are performing. We become aware of the look on our face that our bodies are performing. The dance that our eyes are performing. The shifts in posture our bodies perform. This exploration lasted an hour and forty minutes. For those who are not aware, this would be the beginnings of what would be called a durational performance.

These miniature performances that our bodies create are for the most part unnoticed by us in our everyday life. However, when we are put in the context of a durational performance we suddenly become aware of every Lilliputian detail of our bodies and exactly what they are doing.

This reminds me of the following reading –

“This physical body is the meeting place of worlds. Spiritual, social, political, emotional, intellectual worlds are all interpreted through this physical body. When we work with our hands and body to create art or simply to project an idea from within, we imprint the product with a sweat signature, the glisten and odor which only the physical body can produce. These are the by-products of the meeting of worlds through the physical body. It is visible evidence of the work and effort to move from conception to production. Our bodies are both art elements and tools that communicate intuitively.” (Goat Island. Letter to a Young Practitioner. [online] Available from http://www.goatislandperformance.org/writing_L2YP.htm [Accessed 07 October 2013])

As this reading suggests, the body is an in-between space. It does not exist in it’s own space but instead it operates from within the spaces between the “Spiritual, social, political, emotional, intellectual worlds…” (ibid) This can be confirmed by the fact that our bodies are affected by external stimuli. If it is cold outside, we feel the cold and our body temperature begins to lower. If the body existed in it’s own space, then the cold wouldn’t affect us because the body would be reliant on it’s own space and therefore it’s own temperature. When we begin to see the body as a meeting hub for these different worlds we can begin to ask the question of ‘When my body creates these micro performances, does that happen when part of the worlds meeting within my body are leaked out?’ and ‘If this is the case, then what world is each of these performances coming from?’

I feel that these questions can only come from exploring durational performance in a one-to-one setting. Because of all of the questions that this has created within me, I would like to incorporate one-to-one durational performance within the group performance we will create for this module. I feel that performing in this style will allow us to really push ourselves not only as performers but as people too.

To see the powerful journey a performance such as sitting opposite someone and simply being present for them can take you on, please watch the video below. The emotion that Marina Abramovic is performing cannot be faked, it cannot be acted. It can only be performed when we allow ourselves to explore the worlds meeting within our body.

My Thought Process Part I – Formulating An Idea

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The concept of performance is incredibly broad. To try to confine the word to one simple meaning would be to misunderstand the nature of performance. My thought process has begun with researching into ideologies with regards to when does one perform. Is it simply a matter of getting onto a stage and reciting lines? Or am I performing when I brush my teeth in the morning and only I experience that act? What happens if everyone in the United Kingdom were to brush their teeth at the same time? Would we then experience a collective performance?

To enlighten me on the subject of ‘when’ is one performing I turned to Richard Schechner’s Performance Studies: An Introduction [Third Edition]. Schechner addressed the differences behind the idea of performing in everyday life as opposed to performing in a show.

“In business, sports, and sex, “to perform” is to do something up to a standard – to succeed, to excel. In the arts, “to perform” is to put on a show, a play, a dance, a concert. In everyday life “to perform” is to show off, to go to extremes, to underline an action for those who are watching. In the twenty-first century, people as never before live by means of performance. “To perform” can also be understood in relation to: Being, Doing, Showing Doing and Explaining “showing doing.” “Being” is existence itself. “Doing” is the activity of all that exists, from quarks to sentient beings to supergalactic strings. “Showing doing” is performing: pointing to, underlining, and displaying doing. “Explaining ‘showing doing'” is performance studies.” (Schechner, R (2013) Performance Studies: An Introduction. Third Edition. Oxon: Routledge)

This ideology is related to the notion of “Is Performance” and “As Performance.”

The idea is that something either IS a performance or something can be seen AS a performance. To relate it back to the idea of brushing your teeth, if you are in your bathroom alone and are brushing your teeth it could be seen AS a performance, it’s not quite a performance in the traditional sense but it could be seen AS a task based performance. However, if you were to bring in spectators to watch you brush your teeth then brushing your teeth IS a performance.

The concept that something that is seen AS a performance can transform into something which IS a performance is an idea I would like to expand upon further and I will be researching this topic in more detail.