Author: Jake Robinson

Post Performance Evaluation

Jake Robinson / / Performance process

Safehouse as a project has to be considered a success. Each room provided an extremely different experience for each individual audience member, showcasing to them events and actions which many, myself included, would never have expected to find inside a house. Even as a member of Safehouse I found many of the final performances challenging to my perceptions of a house and home.

The process which we have gone through to create this performance was detailed – with a lot of work going into building the experience for the audience in every single room. As my previous blog’s have shown we worked through a number of ideas in the bedroom. Some were discarded through the process and others have been developed fully and further than even we ever thought possible, to build a piece which I would like to think stood tall on its own merits.

Performance Process Photo taken 05/02/2013 by Jozey Wade

I would break the audience we performed to in the bed down into three categories, the first is those audience members who felt very comfortable with the situation they had found themselves and embraced it wholeheartedly. We had one particular audience member who was very comfortable in the bed, snuggling up to the assorted teddy bears which were laid out. With a constant smile on their face throughout the reading of Alice in Wonderland and the personal you narrative. This comfort is something which we aimed for with all audience members who were in the bed. This would mean that there was the biggest contrast between those in the bed and the Voyeur.

The second audience category is the one which the majority of the audience fall into. Those who, at first, were rather cautious and to an extent scared/nervous of what they were about to experience but who over the course of the piece relaxed until towards the end they were comfortable enough to interact with me in the bed.

The third audience category I notice was the audience members who simply did not want to be there. These audience members gave a feeling of being exceptionally awkward and uncomfortable throughout the performance. We had two audience members who, for me, defined this category, both of whom simply did not want to get in the bed. They had a large amount of eye contact with the Voyeur and laughed along with them, in a very awkward manner, unnaturally often. When they were convinced that they would be safe in the environment and did get into the bed they laid as far away from me as was possible. Laying deadly still and not moving or reacting to anything whatsoever, leaving with the utmost urgency when the piece came to its conclusion.

If we were to perform this piece again, I think it would be useful to increase the performance time. This would allow us time to make our audience member feel more comfortable in their surroundings before asking them to get into the bed. We could give them a tour of the room, pointing out certain pictures which have particular meaning and explaining this meaning to the audience. Allowing them to interact with us in a casual friendly way, building their confidence in their surroundings and with us before the performance in the bed begins.

I also think that it would be useful to have more of a summery at the end of the performance. By this I mean an individual discussion with our audience members on their experiences, through this I think that we would be able to improve the experience for our audience and hopefully cut out the awkwardness which was felt by the minority.

The Bed as a performance space

Jake Robinson / / Research

“It all begins on the bed. Perhaps our tenderest and perhaps our most ecstatic moments occur there and, if we’re lucky, perhaps it all ends there too” ((Heathcoat, E (2012) The meaning of home, London: Frances Lincoln p.71)) as this extract explains the bed is a huge part of our lives as human beings. The bed, in its simplest form is the place in which we go to sleep. On average, we as homo-sapien’s , sleep for around a third of our lifetime. This alone proves the importance of the bed on our lives. Due to the large amount of time which we spend in bed it could be surmised that it would be a place where we would feel completely comfortable. However it still comes as a shock to people when they learn that we will be using a bed as our main performance space in Safehouse.

There are few examples of the bed being used as a performance space. Tracey Emin created an instillation piece entitled My bed in 1998, this piece reflected her bed without a live aspect to the performance. However this does not mean that we are unable to take inspiration from this piece. In an interview from 2012 when the piece was being exhibited at Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, which you can see below:

Emin discusses the feelings she has returning to this work fourteen years after it was originally installed. Explaining the changes which have occurred in that time in her life and how that getting back into that bed to make it look correct for exhibition immediately brings back memories of that time. Pearson, in his book Site – Specific Performance takes this idea further, explaining that it not only the creator of the work but also the audience who are “informed by past experiences of how similar and how dissimilar this is to places you have known” ((Pearson, Mike (2010) Site – Specific Performance, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan p.29)) especially when watching a site – specific performances.

[peekaboo_link start=”Jake1″] WARNING – READING MORE OF THIS POST WILL REVEAL PERFORMANCE DETAILS! [/peekaboo_link][peekaboo_content name=”Spoilers” start=”hidden”] [peekaboo_link start=”visible”] Warning! Spoilers! [/peekaboo_link][peekaboo_content name=”Spoilers” start=”hidden”]

With this in mind, the performance we have created in the bed has been designed to inspire the audience to recall events from their own lives. Putting our audience to bed and reading them a story is a very childlike experience through which, we hope, our audience will respond and remember what it was like to actually be put to bed as a child. Later, putting a sleeping  mask on our audience and joining them in bed should inspire more adult memories to surface in their minds. Both of these experiences should allow the audience to recall happy memories of the bedroom. This is a completely different experience to that which the Voyeur will be having at the exact same time.

Although they will be happening simultaneously the two performances in the bedroom are incredibly different. In this sense we have created the bed as a performance of its own, a room of its own perhaps. This idea of the bed being a room of its own is discussed by Heathcoat, speaking about the history of the bedroom, and its uses to Monarch’s of the middle ages, he says that “the only privacy to be had was by turning the bed itself into a room” ((Heathcoat, E (2012) The meaning of home, London: Frances Lincoln p.72)).The audience member, with the sleeping mask on and in bed, has privacy and is in some way in a room of their own, gaining an experience which is solely theirs.

The performance which takes place is the bed will, we hope, bring to the forefront of our audiences minds memories of the bed and bedroom which they have experienced as children and adults. It is an extremely personal moment to get into bed with another person and something which is not a usual occurrence for the majority of people. I think this is why most people will feel somewhat apprehensive when they first encounter our performance. However, audience members seem to settle into the performance quickly and especially in the bed become comfortable through the childlike manner in which they are first treated. [/peekaboo_content]

 

Nudity in Performance

Jake Robinson / / Performance process, Rooms

The extra space which we have in the main bedroom, the huge cupboard, has been a source of much debate in our group.

The houseTaken 01/02/2013 by Jozey Wade

It has been a sticking point for our performance in terms of its best usage. It is a space too powerful to abandon but also very difficult to incorporate into a piece centred in a bedroom. We have recently, however, come upon a use for the space which fits perfectly into our theme of mixing childhood and adulthood. The cupboard will be an ultra sexual space in which there will be a naked female. A submissive female to be more precise. She will be tied up, covered in baby oil and gagged. We hope that the cupboard will show very vividly the sexual nature of the bedroom.

When this idea was first discussed we were unsure, firstly, whether the sex of the submissive would change the way in which our Voyeur reacted to them. And secondly what the differing reactions would entail and whether this would lead our performances in a different direction. Toepfer believes that “even to an entirely female audience, female performers who expose their breasts will appear more “naked” than male performers who expose their bare chests” ((Toepfer, Karl (1996) ‘Nudity and Textuality in Postmodern Performance’, Performing Arts Journal, 18 (3) September: pp.76-91. P.76)) following this believe we thought that it would be best, in the sense of getting a greater reaction from our Voyeur, to have female performers naked in the cupboard.

The idea to have a naked female in the cupboard was always to push boundaries, for an audience to see something out of the ordinary. By no means did we think that an audience would see something completely original as there have been performances such as the work of Carolee Schneemann which have included female nudity. However we did want something which would come as a shock to our Voyeur. Rupert Everett’s statements in an interview for the BBC are therefore quite worrying, he says that “in the old days it (nudity) used to throw an uneasy frost across an auditorium but these days I think people really enjoy it and we got a lot more bums on seats because of the nudity – bums on seats and bums on stage” ((Masters, Tim (2013) Actors reveal challenges of stage nudity, Online: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-21654036 accessed 11 March 2013)) this begs some questions for our piece. Is the nudity going to have the effect which we desire it to? And will our audience be shocked by the nudity or will it simply become something which they would expect when coming to view a bedroom performance?

The nudity that we were showing had to have something which was more than simple just a naked human body. The nakedness had to be just one part of a much larger character which we were building. Returning to Toepfer he says that “the voice is as much a part of the body as any organ, and the capacity of a body to speak means that a completely unclothed body, with genitals exposed, can become more “naked” or signify even greater vulnerability by speech emanating from it, speech addressed to it, or speech about it” ((Toepfer, Karl (1996) ‘Nudity and Textuality in Postmodern Performance’, Performing Arts Journal, 18 (3) September: pp.76-91. P.77)). Using the voice on top of and in relation to the naked human body makes the naked form far more powerful to our Voyeur.

Following this idea we have incorporated a headphone system. The Voyeur will be told to put the headphones on immediately they enter the room and will be read a narrative by the naked woman in the cupboard. It is a narrative which only they will be able to hear. There are two narratives, differing for the sexes. The male narrative is more explicit while the female looks for understanding and sympathy.

The voyeur will have the nakedness of the woman attacking two of their senses simultaneously. They will be completely consumed by the woman in the cupboard, developing emotions towards her, whatever these may be. We hope to make it an extremely personal experience which the Voyeur will be sharing with the naked performer.

Are we ever private?

Jake Robinson / / CCTV, Home, Rooms

Our homes are the most private place which we inhabit. At home we can act as we please without the fear of being watched or judged. But what happens if a house stops being a private space, and becomes a space in which you are watched more than any other. Does it stop being a home? This is what has happened in our house on West Parade. The whole house is fitted with CCTV cameras. From the moment you walk in until the moment you leave you are under surveillance. The house is not private. Is this wrong, are there some places which should not be intruded upon and is a house, a home, one of them?

Perhaps some rooms in a house such as the living room and kitchen are not as personal, not as private as other rooms; such as the bedroom and bathroom. Perhaps it is possible to be under surveillance in the more communal rooms of the house without feeling invaded. Whereas being watched while “you are most vulnerable, asleep and unaware” ((Heathcote, E (2012) The Meaning of Home,London:Frances Lincoln p.71 )) in the bedroom is simply a step too far. There are groups who feel that being under surveillance at all is wrong. The Surveillance Camera players are a group based in New York who believe that surveillance cameras of any kind “violate our constitutional protected right to privacy” ((Surveillance Camera Players (2001) Who We Are & Why We’re Here, online: http://www.notbored.org/generic.jpg (accessed 25/02/2013))). They express these views by carrying out silent performances in front of surveillance cameras. These performances are rehearsed but are not announced or advertised.

The right to privacy which the Surveillance Camera Players talk about is most definitely broken in our house. It is impossible to get away from the surveillance and have a private space. Or is it? There are places which the cameras do not cover. For example both the toilet and the bathroom are not covered by the CCTV cameras. These spaces are ones which you would expect to be completely private, to film these areas of a house would certainly bring up an ethical debate. However there are also other, less obvious, areas which the CCTV cameras do not cover. There are black spots which the cameras do not pick up. For example in the bedroom if you sit or stand directly underneath the camera in the corner of the room the camera does not pick you up.

These areas away from the gaze of the CCTV could be very interesting for us to use in our performance. We may be able to demonstrate to the audience just how much they are being watched, this could make them feel on edge. I do not expect the audience to be pleased about being observed throughout the performance. It may therefore be interesting to introduce them to these places where they are away from the cameras. Whether they would feel more comfortable in areas where they know for definite that they are not being watched by anyone outside of the room they are currently occupying.

We have decided in the bedroom to seat our Voyeur in one of these black spots. They sit directly underneath the CCTV camera – they are therefore seen by nobody. We think this increases the power which the Voyeur holds, they are observing three people in a vunerable situation, two in bed and one in a cupboard and there is no understanding of that shown outside of the room. They are watching but in no way being watched.

Through this process I think they, the audience, will gain a new sense of appreciation for the privacy which we have become accustomed to, and now expect, inside our own homes.

Our House, a Home?

Jake Robinson / / Home

A home, although a simple concept, has many different definitions and connotations. Some which our house on West Parade meets and others which it does not; “a dwelling place” ((Oxford Dictionary)) for example fits our house. A “fixed residence of a family” ((Oxford Dictionary)) however does not. In my opinion, a home is a place of safety, we as humans “feel at ease in this space” ((Bollnow, O.F (2011) Human Space, London: Htyhen Press)), further a home is a place where the inhabitants feel completely safe, therefore our house is not a natural home. It is uninhabited, not a single individual returns to that house of an evening, no one calls it home.  This leaves us in an awkward position, do we want to approach the house simply as a building with no emotional ties or do we want to create a fake home? This choice will greatly affect how our audience feels once inside our house, at ease or on edge, which demonstrates the severity of the decision. Do we want to make our house a home?

The audience will, in the majority of rooms, become a key part of the performance and not just an observer in the style of a traditional audience member. This, I expect, will make the majority of our audience feel, to a greater of lesser extent, uncomfortable. We are here faced with a dilemma, do we want to encourage this feeling of discomfort? In the bedroom we have made decisions unconiously which we expect will encourage the discomfort. We have incorporated constant twists into our performance which ensure that the audience member never settles, never allowing them to feel at ease, causing their discomfort to stay or perhaps increase.

On the other hand, would an audience member who was completely comfortable be more willing to partake in the active, inclusive parts of the performance? This is a question that I doubt we will be able to answer until we have our first audience. It is though a question we can explore, depending on the extent we want the audience to participate. In this sense we can refer to Govern’s idea of who goes; do we, as the performers, choose to take our audience with us. To join us in the performance which we have created along with the house or do we leave them simply to view the piece as outsiders? What if we take half the audience with us and leave half behind?

This is an idea which we are toying with in the bedroom. If the audience enter in pairs we immediately separate them, sitting one in a chair in a corner of the room whilst the other is put to bed. These audience members are bound to have a different experience of the same events. Perhaps one will feel more uncomfortable than the other, but more interestingly perhaps the house will start to become a home for one but still exist only as a stage for the other.

Bollnow says that “it is the family that brings out the homeliness of a dwelling space” ((Bollnow, O.F (2011) Human Space, London: Htyhen Press)), in the case of our house, we as performers are the family. We have the task and/or the opportunity to bring out the homeliness of the house and with this comes the control over the audience’s feelings toward this house.

We may have control over the audience’s reacts toward the house however we do not have control over the house becoming a home. A home is deeply personal with a different meaning to everyone. It is impossible to consciously build a home; a home is created through time as people become increasing at ease in a space. Through this definition it is possible to see our house becoming a form of home. All of us performers are far more at ease in the house now than we were upon our first visit. The house, whether we like it or not, is becoming some form of home to us.

CCTV screen shotPhoto taken 15/03/2013

I wonder whether this is going to change our performance and if it does how, and to what extent. It will be almost impossible for us to have the same emotions towards the house as we did. The unsettling nature of the house has subsided for us, and will undoubtedly be stronger for the audience than us during performance. But do we want to bring back the unsettling feel? I doubt it. I think we can created a very interesting parallel inside the house. A house which is grotty and unpleasant to spend time in filled with people who are comfortable and enjoying their time there will be much more powerful than a grotty house filled with people who do not want to be there.

Our house is becoming a home, whether we like it or not. And I believe this is best to be embraced rather than fought.