This morning we experimented two of our stations, to be honest, I wasn’t really sure how it was going to go. It was interesting to hear some of the feedback we got from members of our class who participated in our two little experiments.

Hugging

Hugging is one of our stations because we wanted to explore this idea of intimacy through touch. This idea of being hugged is normal to most people because it is normal to hug friends, family and partners as a friendly gesture. Exploring this idea of hugging is relating back to our idea of a ‘safety blanket’. Our initial idea was to hug for 10 minutes in a position of which was comfortable. So today we explored this experiment with 3 actors and 3 participants at a time for 5 minutes. In the actual performance it will just be a one on one performance in a station in which noone else can see.
When discussing the position of which the hug should take place, it was agreed by the people who took part that it should possibly be standing up. The reason behind this is that it is less sexual and there is no undercurrent as to where to hug could possibly go. As a group we always thought that we would do the hugging section under a blanket as it created a greater sense of intimacy however after receiving this feedback it might be reasonable to evaluate our thinking and maybe explore this idea of standing up instead.

Personally, I think standing up could have a greater effect if we are prepared to be the dominant hugger. There was a comment that was said throughout the discussion afterwards which has really stuck with me. “You can hold me back or just be held”. This has really stuck with me because it highlights our concept so much and if we can get it to the point where the audience feels comfortable enough just to be held then I personally think we have succeeded. Another thing that was suggested was the use of smell and touch. These are said to be able to heighten the participants experience.

Chatting

We are experimenting with use of chatting over the internet. We are placing a laptop in the station and they won’t be able to see the person they are speaking to (one of our group). We are seeing how much more intimate people are willing to go when they are seen as being anonymous.

Only a few of the class got to try this experiment so the feedback wasn’t as detailed as the hugging however, it seemed to generate a positive response. In discussion it was seen as a positive thing that the participant didn’t know who the typist was. I think this led us to thinking about where the typist would be positioned in the room, initially it was thought that we would just put up a partition between the two laptops. However, we felt that this would no longer work because it wouldn’t feel as intimate if it felt like there was a chance you could figure out who you were speaking to. This is how we came up with the idea to make the typist in a remote location that is unknown to any of the participants.

There was a lot of positive feedback with this experiment. The questions asked from the typist were said to be thoughtful and smart, they were questions which were general but made the participant feel like they were wanting to speak to them. The typist was congratulated on making the participant feel like what they were saying was interesting, for instance, there was one occasion when the participant made a comment in the experiment such as,  ‘gosh that sounds boring’ to which the typist turned this around and made them sound like what they were saying was really interesting and they would like to hear more. I think the key to this experiment is to get the participant to feel wanted so that they are more willing to answer the kind of questions we really want to ask. It is about getting the participant comfortable enough to share intimate details with you and for us as typists to be willing to push the participant as far as we feel necessary.

Overall the work in progress was a positive experience and now it is about developing the connections between the stations and making sure each actor knows each station well enough even if it is not considered their main station. I think focus needs to be on exploring the depth which the stations could possibly go, any issues that could arise throughout performance and how we are going to set the piece up as a whole, what is it going to look like?