Category: Rooms

With the baby oil handcuffs and gags…do you still want to see me?
I wasn’t expecting this…

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

In my final performance I cried.  I found my way into hysterics. This is because I had female voyeurs in the chair. My friends who know and love me…and who cried first.
When I heard their sobs, it made me realise my situation – that I was actually tied, bound and gagged in a cupboard, naked and completely vulnerable. At first it wasn’t too bad, just a few tears and silent sobs. But by the second female voyeur, we both ended up in hysterical sobs. I had to keep looking at them, the voyeur, my friends in the chair, but it became impossible. By the end of the second female voyeur, I had to cover my face and cry into my hands just as the cupboard doors were closed.

The experience left me shocked, shaken and very emotional. I had never expected to feel like that, I had always expected that the male voyeur would be harder…to look a man in the eye and exert dominance. But to feel empathy from a fellow woman, and to reduce each other to tears is something completely different, unexpected and exceptionally unique and moving. Just like it Marina Abramović’s work, my “audience became genuine co-creators of the performance” ((Freshwater, Helen (2009) Theatre & Audience, London: Palgrave Macmillan, p. 63.)).  The reactions by all voyeurs, male and female, were triggered by me. My body, and my voice. “You are the topic…You are the centre. You are the occasion. You are the reasons why” ((Freshwater, Helen (2009) Theatre & Audience, London: Palgrave Macmillan, p. 1.)), and all these reactions were different. Some men knelt, some studied the pictures around the room with forced intensity, some looked away, others looked confused, sad, and some looked me over.

It was a shame that I couldn’t record the voyeurs reaction to me, my body, my voice. After all, I was getting filmed and observed, so my emotional breakdown was seen not only my the voyeur, but also by the CCTV crew, so it is a shame that the voyeur was in the CCTV blind spot, so only I could see their reactions. I am the only one to see their reactions, and will be the only one. That moment will never be re-shown or re-lived, making it truly a once in a life time experience. The submissive having all the knowledge, and therefore power is honestly an empowering, yet juxtaposed, position.

“When should you be naked and when should you be dressed?
What is performance?
What is the performance body?
…What is your responsibility to your audience?
If the performance is performed again, what are rules?
What is the role of the audience?
Silent voyeur or active participant?
What about reputation?” ((Marina Abramović (2010) ‘Foreword: Unanswered Questions’ in C. Conroy Theatre & the Body, London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. viii-x. Pp. ix-x.)).

These questions caused anxiety, especially in relation to the naked body and reputation. I thought it would most difficult to perform to lecturers and men, as I would have to see them again afterwards, and I was worried about my reputation and the working relationship which had been previously developed would be forced to change. However, on the evenings of performance, these turned out to be the easiest. Although initially scared, I began to enjoy the performance; watching their reactions and their discomfort, and final submission was empowering.

Were the audience “just viewers, or accomplices, witnesses, participants?” ((Freshwater, Helen (2009) Theatre & Audience, London: Palgrave Macmillan, p. 3.)). In relation to our performance in the bedroom and cupboard, the audience can be seen as all four. The house as a whole challenged the audience/performer relationship, and changed the pre-established dynamic. As they entered our performance space, the audience are unknowingly turned into accomplices and witnesses; witnessing the hidden adult world of the bedroom, while also becoming an accomplice to the performer in the bed, viewing and examining the female form in the cupboard. As performers, we knew what relationship we wanted to forge with the audience; “the relationship with the audience provides the performance with its rationale. This relationship is indispensible” ((Freshwater, Helen (2009) Theatre & Audience, London: Palgrave Macmillan, p. 2.)).

Pushing past my personal boundaries, often being pushed rather than walking willingly, while dealing with nudity, the body, and eye contact have definitely shaped me, not only as a performer, but as a person. It’s interesting that at the beginning of this entire adventure I stated that when I was younger, the cupboard was the place which shaped me, and made me grow up faster than I should have done. So to have this experience mirrored is a little disconcerting, but also comforting.  This process, although difficult at times, created a moving and unique performance. Not just in the cupboard, but in the bedroom as a whole. By supporting and pushing each other as performers, we managed to create something which we were incredibly proud of, and something which will never be performed again.

“Presence. Being present, over long stretches of time, Until presence rise and falls, from Material to immaterial, from Form to formless, from Instrumental to mental, from Time to timeless” ((Marina Abramović (2010) ‘Foreword: Unanswered Questions’ in C. Conroy Theatre & the Body, London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. viii-x. P. viii.)).

Although we have left the house, our rooms and our performances, our presence will always be felt in that house on West Parade. How the rooms were transformed and broke away from the conventions of a ‘house’. The cupboard will now always be tainted, at least in my eyes. A place which created its own meaning and now stirs its own memories.

This experience, this journey, and the barriers I have overcome during this process…nothing can compare to it. And I don’t think it ever will.

Brutality through performance.

Andrew Tinley / / Documentation, Performance process, Research, Rooms

Decomposition is regarded as a normal inevitable action in which certain elements can act as catalysts to speed the process along.

In the performance varied jars containing food will populate the space. These jars symbolise the aftermath of consumption. What exactly happens to food when you’ve chewed it, yes it’s been made smaller by your teeth but then what happens on its journey through your body? They’ll be scientists who can analyse the exact transformation but I’m interested in how this can be portrayed and become an integrated performance.

The breakdown of substances in the jar are getting reinforced by the sounds on the soundscape to create a sensory performance outlining the route and transformation of food in an extremely short space of time. The effects that have been added to original sourced sounds make the clips sometimes barely recognisable. As the materials change, whether it is the sound, props or environment, it will signify the constant decay and so representing a constantly changing performance environment. Having barely recognisable sound clips adds to the potential unknowing of the substance in the jar, depending on how long it has been rotting. This sense of the unknowing reinforces the fact that these materials and objects, which are apparent quite significantly in everyday life, can become extremely unfamiliar once transformed. Taking something that we have become comfortable with and then catalysing its transformation in to an unknown or unusual state can increase peoples’ awareness but also makes this performance real. These real and truthful elements of life are touching upon dangerous material which can be left unexplored, yet the exploration of this provides an educative and surreal situation for audience members and so enabling us to explore this material in a safe, controlled and visually simulated environment.

WP_001448 WP_001468

(the photographs above were taken by myself source: flicker)

The images above show the methodology of my approach and so show the transformation of some of the food in the jars. I used catalysts such as fresh air and sunlight to enhance the material and speed the process of decay. Some of them are more advanced them others depending on the dates which are all on the back of the jars. The collaboration of the different levels of deterioration is great to enable the audience to compare and analyse. The strangest thing about these jars is that when fresh food was situated inside it looked quite aesthetically pleasing and created a sense of glory and beauty, but as they started eroding, causing the material from the tops of the jars to crumble, they suddenly became less visually capturing. Concentrating this process allowed me to analyse the destruction on a steady basis enabling me to try and understand the reality of this development.

This cycled performance and overall narrative is the story of food progression. But this process when mixed with performative element creates dilemmas which has made the realistic narrative of this method slightly inaccurate and surreal. As you go through the soundscape a separate story is being expressed visually. This confusion links to the element of control discussed in my earlier posts and so the surreal ambiguity

damien hirst 1 damien hirst 2

(the photographs above were taken from http://miista.com/damien-hirst-putrid-profit/ source: flicker)

A Thousand Years by Damien Hirst he brings together a similar cycle, this time though, of life. He uses a dead cow’s head in a box with an Insect-O-Cutor hanging above. This very literal vision of life and death expresses the cycle so shockingly and again touch upon a familiar issue but the exploration has always been censored and limited by cultural attitudes. Similarly to my performance it includes quite literal material which could come across quite shocking and therefore unsettling. This notion of unsettlement occurs throughout my performance and has been a rooted influence and idea throughout my production process. This evident audience reaction has then been reinforced by the intimate relationship between the audiences and the jars of rotting food, alongside the disjointed and metaphorically ‘decomposing soundscape’.

My room in a nut shell

Angela Michelle Graham / / Rooms

Within a child’s room safety is a key aspect, from the basic necessity of child proofing to protecting them from judgement, this can be seen by the common saying “a face only a mother can love”. Protection can come by trying to shield a child from the world or simply by helping them prepare such as for girls allowing them to play (practice) with make-up so as they understand the world they are going to grow up in. We also prepare them using the tools at are fingertips from books to films and TV allowing that to assist in teaching children what the world is like.

Childhood is all about “ways of moving into something different” ((Certeau, M. D. (1988). The practice of everyday life. Berkeley, University of California Press.)) from child to adult, boy to man, girl to woman and as I discussed in my previous blog this is manipulated by those around us from family to the media.  With the books we read our children at night telling them how prince charming will save the day, “Awareness of the fairy tale as a primary site for asserting and subverting ideologies of gender is evident throughout the genre’s history” ((Haase, D. (2004). Fairy tales and feminism: new approaches. Detroit, Wayne State University Press.)) with everyone from little red riding hood needing the wood cutter to save her from the wolf to sleeping beauty having to wait asleep for a man to simply kiss her and save her kingdom. This is also evident in many children’s films most modelled off these stories, with the women being unable to accomplish anything on their own needing a man to help them.

Nicole Brossard a poet, novelist, essayist and feminist states that “feminism would help us reclaim our stolen humanity” ((Brossard, N., & Forsyth, L. (2005). Nicole Brossard: essays on her works. Toronto, Guernica.)) You may believe this simply relates to actions from centuries ago when men sold women like cattle, but in fact relates to a modern notion that every woman needs a man that is perpetuated by films, in which even the strongest most independent women fail until they have a man by their side. But I am getting off topic, amongst Nicole Brossard’s works was a poem originally in French but translated into English “Typhon Dru” ((Brossard, N., & Bergvall, C. (1997). Typhon dru. London, Reality Street Editions.)) which are essentially very feminine poems, filled with beautiful descriptions “glides joy ribbon” ((Brossard, N., & Bergvall, C. (1997). Typhon dru. London, Reality Street Editions.)) I will be removing any mention of “Typhon Dru” ((Brossard, N., & Bergvall, C. (1997). Typhon dru. London, Reality Street Editions.)) as it makes it less accessible to an audience by giving it specific point of reference. The stanzas are also quite chaotic not quite following an obvious logical narrative as life itself often doesn’t.

I will use this aspect of the poem not necessarily in the order it was written but as I feel it befits the wool I am following at that moment. This will make the poem personal to me and those that choose to view my performance, it will give each audience member a different experience of my room. As while I am wholly concentrating on what I am doing they will be interpreting it in a way that is unique to them. This makes me curious as to whether there is way to have each audience member’s reaction to rooms as an individual kept and stored? Or if they will simply feel what we want them to? Is there a way to discover if they have understood what we were trying to create?

These are the ancestors

Lizzy Hayes / / CCTV, Documentation, Home, Music / Sound, Performance process, Research, Rooms

While the footage on its own had a great aesthetic effect  we decided that a relevant reading played over the top of each video clip would add to it. Each of us took on three rooms for which to find or write a text that we felt connected to the image, or added to or complimented the narrative of the clip. Considering the title of the whole performance was called ‘Safe House’ I looked in U.A. Fanthorpes “Safe As Houses”  (( U.A. Fanthorpe (1995) Safe As Houses: Poems by U.A. Fanthorpe. Cornwall: Peterloo Poets – a book of short poems )) . I found that the first stanza of the poem Haunting connected with mood and movement of the CCTV footage of the landing, discussing shadows and ancestors who just passed through. This coupled with the second stanza of the poem Last House  created a piece that spoke of shadows in three different senses-the darkness that requires light to be present, the ghost or image of a dead person, and the Shakespearean term for an actor.

“These are the ancestors. The shadow people,
who now and then lean softly from the dark
and stroke on chin or thumb the new generation.
This is their last performance. The delegate yaws doubtfully, as audiences do,
wanting the star to fall… but not until the last reel, at sunset, to the right music.” (( An adaptation of two poems by U.A. Fanthorpe (1995) Safe As Houses: Poems by U.A. Fanthorpe. Cornwall: Peterloo Poets ))

Another of my readings was a piece by David Rattray. His piece spoke of the fragility and ambiguity of existence in a way that complimented the brief existence of each of the life forms in every image.

“Life is a fragile hybrid pulsing, instant by instant, between being and nothingness. Even if every person on earth were to vanish suddenly from time and space, the mere fact of the absence would suffice to make humanity remain identical to what it already was. Absent.” (( Rattray, David (1992) How I Became One of The Invisible. USA: Semiotext p. 204 ))

For my final reading I took the lines of Lady Macbeth in Shakespeare’s Macbeth and used them for the kitchen footage. In this stanza the Lady Macbeth discusses the place of women in the house and how strong the female kind are and this felt attuned to the place of the women in the modern day kitchen.

Installation piece-Kitchen. By Lizzy Hayes, Lauren Hughes, Faye Mcdool

(To view all the installation video clips with voice recordings please visit Lauren Hughes YouTube account on http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-d_h3abFFc4K36mLaNFaDw?feature=watch )

This was not the only feminist reading we acquired. For two of the other clips we used lines from H. G Wells’ book The Invisible Man but decided to alter the narrative to make them the voice of a woman. Not only was the text relevant to the clips in the text but also to us as CCTV operatives. We were the people who could see everything whilst remaining unseen.

Each video and sound clip was played off of a different screen, on a loop, in synchronisation and in a darkened room. For me the effect was haunting. To sit in the dark having nine different voices speak or whisper nine different pieces of text from varying points in the room felt like I was sat in the dark the centre of the  mind of a very thoughtful but confused person. Once again, I felt like I had power beyond my status: not only was I hearing the somewhat disjointed thoughts of various writers, poets and even fellow actors, but I still had the power to see the movements of every other person in the house. My way of overcoming the strange feeling? Play with the power.

 

 

Room of Screens

Faye Rose Mcdool / / CCTV, Performance process, Rooms, Technical

We have decided to allocate the CCTV room as the room of screens. In here, we will place all the Night filming footage with the recorded narratives played screens scattered around on the desk, book case and tables with the large TV screen showing the live CCTV  split 9 screen . Each screen will be allocated a different room from the filming with head phones attached to some devices and speakers to others. When the audience enter the room, it shall be blacked out with no natural light leaking in and only the light pollution from the computer, laptop and IPad screens.

For the narratives for the night filming footage, we have decided to base it on feminism and edit the original text which were written in the researched books. I have chosen to write the text for the Bedroom, Cot Room angle 2 and the Waiting Room. However, for the waiting room, as the images is so strong, I have decided to leave it silent without any text but with a strong static sound. The narratives for the other two rooms read:

Bedroom

Lying like this, I felt as if I had become part of the fabric around me, absorbed into the earth like a dead woman I had no individual existence. At that moment, I suddenly felt as if I had connected heaven and earth like a bridge. By trial and error I had found the position that enabled me to exist fully in that particular space. ((original text from: Oida, Yoshi. Marshall, Lorna 1997, The Invisible Actor. Cox & Wyman, Reading Berkshire))

Cot Room 2nd angle/Half and Half Face

Being invisible and without substance, a disembodied voice, as it were, what else could I do? What else but try to tell you what was really happening when your eye was looking through me? And it is this which frightens me as the interior. Who knows but that, on the lower frequencies, I speak for you. ((original text from: Rattray, David 1993 How I Became Invisible , Semiotext,U.S.: Central Bks))

The ordering of the clips depends on the audience and which video/screen they are attracted to first. The sounds on the video will be played into headphones and speakers on which the narrative printed out and placed near the screen so they can read the text also. The audience members will not be able to hear any noise pollution from outside and from the rest of the house.