Category: Performance process

Liminal, Compact and Ignored Spaces

Faye Rose Mcdool / / Performance process

From placing my Mosaic image of my body back into the space it was taken, wasn’t clear enough due to the dark clothing and the awkward positioning of the cupboard. So I decided to explore the house more and change my costume to beige, flesh coloured clothing which also blended into the walls of the house due to the cream walls. Exploring more of the house and the tight spaces it offers was interesting to know how and various ways to adjust my body into the compact spaces.

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Photo Taken By Jozey Wade. Edited By Faye Rose McDool

“As you gain a greater awareness of your body, it preferences, and begin noticing how even tiny physical changes can affect your inner state. You start to really inhabit your body and see how the subtest in your body affects your inner landscapes” ((Oida, Yoshi & Marshall, Lorna 1997, The Invisible Actor, Cox & Wyman, Reading, Berkshire p35))
With the new images I have taken, I have edited them, layering the images to make my body look fixed in that environment and into the photo. This will also get the sense of my body inhabiting the space, just like Eve Dent and Willie Dorner creations. This also will draw the audience attention to the ignored spaces in the house and show their possibilities. “Responding to the site and creating a new set of questions” ((Weileder, Wolfgang 2005, House Projects, Birmingham p25))

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Emma Hack ((Emma Hack, Utopia: Oriental Bouquet Cradled Ringneck, Accessed 26/03/2013 http://www.emmahackartist.com.au/emma_art/emma_utopia.html#.UVGPXByeNTk))

After I edited my photos, I saw a  resemblance to Emma Hacks work. She is an body artist who paints bodies the same pattern as the background to make them blend into that environment.

My idea of become part of the House is also going to be reflected as to where I am going to place my images. They are going to be scattered around the house in family photo frames with each image appropriate room, as to where the photo was taken, placed on window ledges and shelf’s  This gives the sense of the images of becoming part of the family home as well as the images them self of me becoming the building.

 

 

Becoming Invisible: CCTV but in a new light

Faye Rose Mcdool / / CCTV, Performance process, Research

We enjoyed the idea of revealing a message, however, we thought we could be more creative with this take more advantage of using the CCTV during different times during the day. The title of the Site Specific piece is ‘Safe House’ so we began to question two people where they are most comfortable in their house/flat student accommodation.

We questioned this because, like in the Safe House, we are not permanent residents but we are simply there temporarily and can get attached to one room. Like the two on the video getting attached with their bedrooms, we are most comfortable in the CCTV room as that is where we spend most of our time during rehearsals.

From getting this information, we wanted to challenge the meaning of Safe House and making the audience feel uncomfortable when watching our pre-recorded footage. The definition of Safe House is “a dwelling or building whose conventional appearance makes it a safe or inconspicuous place for hiding, taking refuge, or carrying on clandestine activities.” ((Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineer IEEE: Dictionary.com, “safe house,” in Collins English Dictionary – Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition. Source location: HarperCollins Publishers.http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/safe house. Available:http://dictionary.reference.com. Accessed: March 26, 2013)) . We wanted to take the aspect of hiding in the house so we have played around with using darkness with the CCTV. To do this, we film inside the house at night time. Doing this was interesting because we all of a sudden felt a sense of fear of going through the house just because of the darkness and due to being unfamiliar with the other rooms. Over the top of the recordings, we have found quotes for various books to describe the thoughts and feeling of being invisible in the darkness.

We looked at “The Invisible Man” By Ralph Ellison which expresses the thoughts and feelings of an African man in society and how he feels invisible compared to the rest of his society in the twentieth century.  “I am a man of substance of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids” ((Ellison, Ralph, 1947 The Invisible Man,  Penguin Books, New York p7)) . Using this would link wonderfully without CCTV recordings as you can see a silhouette of a body during the footage but only when the body is moving or light shone on them you notive there is a human there. We looked at other books to find this sense of hiding and invisibility:

  • The Invisible actor By Yoshi Oida & Lorna Marshall ((Oida, Yoshi. Marshall, Lorna 1997, The Invisible Actor. Cox & Wyman, Reading Berkshire))
  • How I Became Invisible By David Rattray ((Rattray, David 1993 How I Became Invisible , Semiotext,U.S.: Central Bks))

Among quotes from these texts, we created our own words to record and say over the footage for the final edit for the video to create a narrative. We edited the text also to focus it on feminist views instead so we could connect more with the text we had found and going to write.

When creating this, I also realised how much in common it has with my own work of Liminal, Compact and Ignored spaces and the sense of hiding but wanted to be seen in the space. Because of this, I have decided to place some of this work in the CCTV room on the cord board along with the pre-recorded CCTV video.

The Difficulty of Fiction

Samuel Mant / / Performance process, Research

So here I stand, in my gallery (well, that’s a lie, here I sit at a computer screen in the library, but since my piece is based around the idea of perpetuating the fiction of what things are not, then this is fairly appropriate. Let’s close our eyes and imagine I’m in my gallery. Then open them again so that you can read this post. There, that’s better).

Before me lie quite a few things – mundane things, everyday, if we look at them with our eyes. Here’s one now:

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‘Isolation and immobility, then, are the two conditions the imagination requires if it is to be preserved from the ruinous distractions or ‘invasions’ of reality.’ (1977, pp., 41)

Certainly, this applies in the creation of my mythologies, if I write within the gallery, in a place I have re-appropriated as an escapist sanctuary for the purposes of performance anyway, my work is generally more productive, though sometimes the sheer banality of the place works against me. Immobility, too, helps the imagination – my imagination anyway. Blindfolded and tucked away into my little sleeping-ledge it is sometimes easier to let my mind drift and adapt pre-existing pieces of narrative. Isolation though, works not only for me, but for the audience of my piece – the last thing I want in my gallery are the ‘invasions of reality’ as Sturrock puts it. While it helps that the living room tends to be silent as the grave, the space itself has a Spartan cell-like feel to it (indeed, one of my first ideas for performance in there was of me portraying a prisoner within these monastic confines, but the rationale was never truly there) which can only accentuate feelings of isolation from reality. The grate down near the floor that allows a link to reality outside the house seems only to increase feelings of isolation, since even though you have a link to the outside, you feel even more withdrawn from it somehow.

Currently, I still have a couple more narratives to write fully but I have forsaken some last sessions within the gallery to visit home (ridiculous, I know!). I wonder if I will still be able to create absorbing legends when I don’t have access to the isolation and immobility the gallery can provide to me. I worry that my current narratives will deteriorate over time and not cling to the meaning they once held, or never held at all. I wrestle with the idea that meaning is fluid or completely unnecessary and that all I provide as the blind curator is an alternative viewing of the real, wrapping it in the fictional, the escapist. However, in the end, it may just be out of control – reading Borges own works of fiction, I am struck by this particular passage from The Library of Babel in relation to my own worries about the contents of my gallery:

‘Man, the imperfect librarian, may be the product of chance or of malevolent demiurgi; the universe, with its elegant endowment of shelves, of enigmatical volumes of inexhaustible stairways for the traveller and latrines for the seated librarian, can only be the work of a god.’ (1964, pp., 79)

Now, I cannot knowingly cite my gallery as the work of a divine entity, but this passage shows me that ownership of the gallery is not mine, not even close – it exists ab aeterno and will show me in time what it wants to say.

References:

Borges, J. L., 1964. Labyrinths. Middlesex: Penguin Books Ltd.

Sturrock, J., 1977. Paper Tigers: The ideal fictions of Jorge Luis Borges. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

She Looks Back.

Lauren Bethany Elouise Watson / / Documentation, Performance process, Research, Rooms

“As in life, actors need to be aware when staring at others is and is not appropriate” ((Schiffman, Jean (2005) ‘Eye to Eye’, Back Stage West, XII (22), 1531572X, May: N.P.)).

Eye contact in performance is vital. It establishes relationships between performers whilst also forming a relationship between the audience and performer/s. But what happens when this eye contact deconstructs or challenges a pre-established relationship? Forced or prolonged eye contact alters the dynamics of a performance, often leaving either recipient or instigator feeling uncomfortable, scrutinised or even exposed.

In our performance, it this surprisingly, usually easy and expected convention of the theatre that is  becoming our biggest fear and ask.

“In the theatre, gesture appears typically in conjunction with spoken text, underlining, undermining or counterpointing it” ((Scolnicov, Hanna (2010) ‘Stripping as Gesture’, ASSAPH: Section C: Studies in the Theatre, XXIV, pp. 139-152, p. 140.)), however, in our performance we are playing with this convention. Subverting it, almost. The eye contact happens in silence. The performer is unable to speak, yet the eye contact becomes justified and essential. To hold eye contact is to hold the power within the scene or scenario. But when this scene is subverted, the eye contact becomes a challenge in itself. To create power where there was none through eye contact is an intimidating task, and to subvert a strong, dominating relationship through eye contact alone is empowering.

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Witness, UCLA (2011). Counesy of Allison Wyper.’Witness: Notes from the Artist’, Platform, VI (1), pp. 57-76, p.62.

When we are hidden behind the blindfold, we become an object to be viewed. Aspects of the ‘actor’ are stripped away, and we become a possession, as “beneath the mask the actor hides not merely his face but also his identity” ((Scolnicov, Hanna (2010) ‘Stripping as Gesture’, ASSAPH: Section C: Studies in the Theatre, XXIV, pp. 139-152, p. 142.)). The audience  knows us on merely an aesthetic level. A possession to be viewed. Although the identity of the performer is not known, the scene presented to the audience is still an intimate one. “Looking at someone is almost like touching them” ((Schiffman, Jean (2005) ‘Eye to Eye’, Back Stage West, XII (22), 1531572X, May: N.P.)), and when that person has no power to look back, this notion of touching them is heightened.

To subvert this power balance without the use of direct address is really an electric moment. “To deconstruct language is to deconstruct gender; to subvert the symbolic order is to subvert sexual difference” ((Showalter, Elaine (1989) Speaking of Gender, London and New York: Routledge, p. 3.)). Suddenly, through the abandon of language, our sexual difference has been subverted, with all the power handed over to us, the exposed performer. This “female self-unveiling substitutes power for castration” ((Showalter, Elaine (1992) Sexual Anarchy: Gender and Culture at the Fin de Siecle London: Virago Press, p. 156.)), castrating the voyeur (if male), removing all previous power he held. When we remove our blindfold, the male gaze becomes scrutinised and challenged and abhorred.

This transference of power, and a ‘one-on-one’ audience/performer situation is similar to Allison Wyper’s Witness (2010-2011). Witness is a “participatory performance for one audience member at a time in which the viewer is configured as accomplice to the performance event, a ritual in which power is borrowed, trafficked, and stolen” ((Wyper, Allison (2011) ‘Witness: Notes from the Artist’, Platform, VI (1), pp. 57-76, p.57.)). By participating in this transition of power and status, we make ourselves vulnerable, and question where we stand within the performance.

 “As we watch others we are also conscious of being watched” ((Wyper, Allison (2011) ‘Witness: Notes from the Artist’, Platform, VI (1), pp. 57-76, p.62.)).

The behaviour of both performer and voyeur changes throughout the performance. Although first making eye contact is intimidating and scary, once our gaze restored, the power balance shifts. Suddenly, the object looks back and takes on a persona. Challenging the roaming gaze of the voyeur. In our practical sessions, the voyeur has held our gaze. This is either out of respect or fear. Fear to be seen looking at you naked and totally exposed, but also because you are owed respect.

Unsettling environments

Andrew Tinley / / Music / Sound, Performance process, Rooms

What makes a home different?

At home you are generally safe, comfortable and mostly in control of what comes in and out. You feel guarded somehow from the outside world right? I find the places and sites where we spend most of our lives begin to build up a barrier of familiarity, and a sense of understanding. You become well acquainted with the place, whether it be because of its furnishings or maybe even its inhabitants.

So the real question here is ‘What makes a familiar place unfamiliar’? Is it something to do with space, its temperature, its contents? All these things make your home special and unique to you. So I’ve decided to make the kitchen, probably one of the most lived in spaces of the house, different. I feel as though if audience members don’t feel comfortable in an environment their actions and opinions may be more interesting to explore during the performance. The various sounds of a kitchen, which I’ve been experimenting with, will certainly add to that unfamiliarity if edited and manipulated correctly. I find myself editing sounds constantly and changing the way they almost speak to an audience member. What happens when you’re trying to have a conversation with someone who speaks a different language – It all sounds like unknown noise and it’s difficult to communication and understand what is going on.
[peekaboo_link start=”visible”] Warning! Contains Performance Spoliers [/peekaboo_link][peekaboo_content name=”Spoilers” start=”hidden”]

Messing with people’s perceptions about what to expect is what Daniel Kurkakovic’s sound project called Other Rooms, Other Voices is linked to. Firstly his title, “I hoped there would be the recognition of something familiar, but on the other, I intended the inversion would cause a certain confusion” ((Weiner, Lawerence et al (1998) other rooms other voices Switzerland: Memory cage editions. ) )). Firstly the word “other” is very vague and could have a large scope of different meanings. This gap between familiarity and unfamiliarity could be potentially quite small. This is the place where I would like my audience to settle in during the performance, to know that they are familiar with certain aspects of the performance but not fully in control due to the changing soundscape and environment.

Kurkakovic states

“I am interested in the association, which can awaken a very personal story or anecdote of the listener…the tension may then lead to the following questions: Where is my voice? Where is my own perceptual ability?” ((Weiner, Lawerence et al (1998) other rooms other voices Switzerland: Memory cage editions. )  )) Audience questioning is a heavy part of my performance and the ability to access those thoughts will be crucial to the individual unique performative experience.

(Weiner, Lawerence et al (1998) other rooms other voices Switzerland: Memory cage editions)
“Beescope uses the main medium of radio: language. In itself, language does not have any meaning. It generates meaning depending on how it is used” ((Weiner, Lawerence et al (1998) other rooms other voices Switzerland: Memory cage editions. )  )) Recording and importing kitchen sounds on their own sound like random noises collaborated together, but I do believe the interpretation and manipulation creates its own voice. This therefore enables audience members to have the scope to explore and discover ideas and thoughts for themselves throughout the soundscape.

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(Images taken by myself Tuesday 12th March 2013 source: Flickr)

This feeling of unsettlement and unknowing is exactly how I want my audience to feel, to undergo a journey of their own personal discovery through the connotations which the soundscape ignite for them. To enhance this experience I have decided to make the room red. The colour red has many contrasting and different connotations which will hopefully add to the confusion and uncertainty. I will also be adding several heaters to the environment to make it quite warm, stuffy and claustrophobic this should hopefully make the environment quite unsettling and unfamiliar. Making the audience listen to the soundscape in this stationary environment may make the headphones seem safe. This may force the audience to keep listening and therefore continue the performance. The fact that the environment is so still may add to the tension and the nervousness created by the soundscape.

Overall I aim for the audience to feel unsettled in this room and so hopefully their own experiences can be delved in to, therefore producing an individual, unique personal experience for everyone involved. [/peekaboo_content]