Tea Parties...

… an event that is constructed through process, ritual, and etiquette. This maybe an odd thing to be trying to construct a performance about, but I have been thinking a lot about tea!

As you know I have recently changed my research paper… so where does this leave my practical work??? The main premise of my research is investigating and analysing everything that I believe theatre should be, which as you know from my previous post, is a highly process driven theatre that responds to site, audience, its previous performances, its performers, and a theatre that outs its own construction. I want to try and begin to work this into the Space-In-Between Project.

The first section of the performance, I feel, already addresses a great deal of the above points. The performance is constructed in front of the audience and in conjunction with them. It therefore, outs it own construction by being about process, and will be different every time as it responds directly to each individual audience member. The performance has already taken place once (Harriet’s (In)Visible piece) and is now organically changing to respond to the site (55 Leroy Street) and its performers (i.e. my inclusion into it). For those of you who don’t know about Harriet’s (In)Visible performance, I will post a link to Harriet’s blog in case you want to look it up. I have to say that it has been really interesting for me to be part of this process and see a performance develop in this way; especially since I was involved in the first trial of the performance structure during our first assessments.

The second part of the performance is where we want to try and test the water with a few more of my ideas. Harriet and I have both been looking at projections in terms of how they can be used in a performance and why they would be used. I like them because I think that they out their own construction in a lot of ways. As they are projected onto surfaces they also allow you to simultaneously view the texture of the surface underneath the image, hence, it doesn’t allow you to think you are anywhere other than the room you are in! As with so much theatre it is literally projecting into a space (as I have said before).

What we are thinking with section two of the performance, is that it would be nice to project ourselves on top of our live selves – but doing the reverse actions. This is (hopefully) to highlight the rehearsal process that goes into a performance and allow it to become embedded into the actual work. We have already decided that the performance is going to be based on, and structured by, repetition. There are a number of reasons for this decision and we are hoping that the projection will help us express some of them (of course there is no sure way of knowing until we have performed it).

So… back to tea. Last rehearsal I was really beginning to think about domestic habit since Harriet had found an article about the poor housing conditions of Leroy Street inhabitants in the 60s, and the building is now about to be turned into luxury apartments. The one thing that I could really see as connecting the past, present, and future histories of 55 Leroy Street was tea! It was even once a base for London Tea Stores! The area that we are going to be performing in has tea written all over the wall from a previous work of art… so tea it is! 

The more I thought about tea the more bizzar it became. I have begun researching into tea parties and etiquette and it appears to fit my research well (for now at least). Tea parties are very much about process, and one of the best things about them is that they (I believe anyway) are historically appropriated. Although the nature of the tea party may not differ too much the reason for having them does. Historically they were very much about community and introducing a new neighbour. They were high society events. However, one of the websites that I am looking at argues that in today’s society, as life rushes past, we have lost the ability to stop and appreciate the small things in life. Tea Parties are about live, human interaction – a reason to take tea and socialise! Not far off my beliefs about theatre!

You have to check out the website I am using I think it is hilarious. I am hoping that as Harriet and I unpack and take tea and repack over and over again with the projections continually doing the reverse it will become an even more absurd concept. I am loving the idea of the panels obstructing the audiences view that can capture the projcetions as Harriet has discussed on her blog: there is a good chance that Harriet’s image will be projected on to me and vice versa. We are also wanting to try things out such as flurring out the table cloth to catch images. These are both ways of Harriet and I playing around with vision and perception without using any ‘trickery’. I want everything to be on display for all to see.

Hahaha...

... because everyone should know that Harriet loved the steroscopic mexican wave as much as I did!

I'm Getting by With a Little Help From My Friends

I have been thinking a lot recently about the questions that I have been asking myself so far this year, and have come to the conclusion that they have been the wrong ones but in the right area.

What I really want to do is write a type of manifesto. I have needed to work out where I situate my practice (which believe it or not I have done), and then use it to structure my own work with. I want to be able to outline what I think theatre should be, what quantifies it, and then investigate how and why it works in contemporary society. In striving to do this I think that I have identified a type of theatre that encompasses everything I believe is integral to it as an art form.

Of course I know what liveness is… more to the point I’m dam sure I know what theatre is (it’s a lesson to us all kids – don’t read too many books they fry your brain and you will forget even your name)! And to be honest am not all that interested in deconstructing the relationship between the mediatized and the live (Philip Auslander has already done it far better than I ever will); but what I am interested in is theatre's response to the current contemporary context, of a media, product driven society.

… introducing “Organic Theatre”! I am not loving the term organic here – but it most aptly describes the strain of theatre I am investigating and try as I might I haven’t found a term for it on the internet or in my books yet. (If anybody reading this can identify the type of theatre I am talking about with a more apt name please hurry and let me know).

Organic Theatre is a type of theatre that is unique every time you witness it – you will never witness the same performance twice (and I don’t mean in the obvious sense of context and the linear flow of time – theatre is pushing past that and taking it (and liveness with it) to the extreme). It is the hand-crafted vs Ikea. It evolves and grows the more it is performed. It responds to site, audience, and indeed it own performers and their personal histories. The construction of theatre is made more than visible – it is commented on during the performance and often in the form of dual narrative. Organic Theatre outs its own construction time and time again. Process can be performance.

Tim Crouch in general, but more specifically in ‘An Oak Tree’ is the perfect example of an Organic Theatre maker. He never works with the same actor twice, so you will never see it performed in the same way. The audience are constantly told and informed ‘how this piece is being made, in front of the audience and in conjunction with them, now, live, never to be repeated again’.

Nic Green is another performer who I would classify as working with Organic Theatre. During her performance ‘Cloud Piece’ she not only told her story of the fear of loosing her imagination and her journey to try and get it back, but she also told the audience how this piece was created. She reenacted previous performances, their developments, which sections she omitted from this performance and why. Green explains where the concept for the performance came from and then details her difficulties in working due to the fact that her Grandfather died; she explains that this changed the piece. Green performs with an 11 year old girl in ‘Cloud Piece’ and also incorporates her personal history into the work.

As an audience member I felt present during Greens performance. You feel as though you are witnessing the creation of something (in fact you are practically told that that is what is happening). It was well worth being in the theatre and not in the cinema!

Caroline Smith’s ‘Spank’ also grows and responds to site and personal history each time it is performed.

Part of the charm of these performances, is that as an audience member, you can almost collect them and have input into, or at least feel present in their development – something, which, as a society we are accustomed to in other areas but not yet in theatre. This can be from the sidelines as in ‘I was there’ or actively in feed back sessions. No matter how many times you go to see a performance they will always be different, a series to be collected, distinguished between, and viewed as part of an unobtainable whole.

I am going to leave it soon… as this is my longest blog ever! But BAC scratch nights are another phenomena that has identified not only the need of performers to obtain feed back on work – but also the desire of an audience to be part of a process. I would like to note here though that Organic Theatre is not a ‘work in progress’ performance (as in unfinished). Each performance is a complete work, it will simply naturally change and evolve next time it is performed.

Phew – there is so much more I want to rant on about but have just written over 800 words!

Let me know what you think, questions, references – a better term than Organic Theatre!

Devising in Leroy Street

Ok - so you all know how much I love technology... this has been a pain in the bum to upload. I can't figure out You Tube for the life of me so I'm sorry if this video is hard to see... but tough! haha

Anyway, this is an extract of what Harriet and I were testing out today in the space. We have been playing around with the projection being a ghosting of the live self. This is for the second section of the performance. We are beginning to look at process in performance  as performance here. 

There is much more for me to say and to come! I am changing my research proposal at the moment so am just getting a few things straight in my head before I blog it!

Brain Splat and a Request for Help!

Oh dear! She cried, as she once again hit the theory books!

If this makes any sense to anyone and they think that they can help me pick apart the issues here for my essay PLEASE help!

Considering my essay - I decided to deconstruct liveness and mediatization in theatre by placing them in binary opposition. I then wanted to deconstruct this binary to show that (as Auslander does say - in a way I am not always too fond of) there is no (or hardly any) ontological difference left between them! So... do I go about deconstructing and see where my merry little findings take me... or do I change my research question and ask;

"In the face of a decentred notion of liveness, where does this leave theatre? How can we define theatre? What even IS theatre?!?"

More importantly "What has Auslander done to theatre!?" 

Am I setting myself a really stupid challenge by trying to define theatre in light of its ontological displacement? Has it already been done and I am wasting my time - does somebody already have the answer for me? 

AAAHHHHHH!

Some Initial Thoughts On The Project

Harriet and I managed to get in the space this

 week to do some devising and thrash out some ideas for the project. Although it was freezing it was great fun to be finally in a space where we can devise practical work.

We are looking at doing the project

 in three parts

 in order to enable us b

oth to work in our research areas and try out ideas (although to be fair there are a lot of cr

oss overs in our chosen areas anyway). The first part is going to be an exchange based on the '(in)visible exchange' that Harriet did for the Nunnery (but obviously an expansion of it); and also to maybe try out creating some narratives. The second part is to try out some of the ideas that I have been having around the past and present and using projections. It is really good as I feel that trying out different ways of working in

 the same project is really helping me get lots of inspiration at the moment. 

Below are a few pictures that we took whilst trying out some ideas;

I really like the projections as I think that they work on a number of different levels (although these are not the projections that we will use they were good to have a play around with).

 I think that it is funny to project nice brand-spanking new furnishings and equipment into such a dilapidated space, especially since once-upon-a-time it was used in the way that we are referencing. The fact that they are disfunctional, and we are simultaneously in the space and are not - says a lot about the current occupation and usage of the space.

I kind of feel like the projections also reference how we ourselves project into a space and imagination working and I started making up narratives for what may have happened in there in the past, who might live there in the future, what it might have and still could look like. I project all this onto a derelict surface as does a projector.

Putting my live body next to a still, projected, image was interesting. The cracks and surfaces show though the projection and I like this layered scenery a lot. My live self felt more present as the projection had a ghostly feel and effect to it. I really felt as if it referenced a past much more effectively (if not a little literal) than my present self ever could using dialogue.

Seeing this working practically has really started me thinking about how my live self occupies a space and the history of creating a performance. Perhaps a next step for me (after this project) will be to film rehearsals and project them back on top of a live performance. Process in performance is as interesting to me as the finished product and my 'past rehearsing self' is as much as part of a performance as my 'present live self'... does that make sense or am I rambling??? 

I think the next step for this project is working out the specifics of the performance, its content, and playing around with some more ideas. Interacting with projections is a great stepping stone for me and having to exhibit it at a set date publicly is just the push I needed.

I feel much better working for this exhibition than I did when I was contemplating the Nunnery. Maybe it is that the context is different, or maybe I am just in a better place. The exhibition is framed as a work in progress to try out new ideas which makes me feel a lot more comfortable.

The-Space-In-Between Project

As Harriet has been writing about on her blog, there is an art project going on in an old factory, in Elephant and Castle, that is about to be converted into apartments. We heard about the project through the Crystal Palace Artists.

The project has been set up by Linda Duffy and she is keen for artist to be able to use the space to experiment with their own work whilst simultaneously responding to the site.

When I first went to the private view of Forensic (the first exhibition there) with Harriet I loved the site. It is the type of space that I love working with and that instantly captures your imagination; it has wallpaper peeling off to reveal grotesque 70's patterned wallpaper underneath, dusty floors, and forgotten corners. However, at the time I had no idea what I would do in the space were I to utilise it or how my practice would fit in to it.

After doing some practical work at the end of term (Practical Work Ahoy indeed!), and chatting to Harriet, I have decided to take the bull by the horns and put something out there; whether it is using part of the time that harriet has been given in the space to try something out on my own, or to collaborate with her.

It is a short sharp project with not much time to prepare (aka obsess, panic, and over think things), and it is for experimenting which I think is fantastic. It really is a great space and am looking forward to trying something out outside of college just for the sake of working.

Just a bit of a brainstorm about some of the things that have been springing to mind and have been chatting to Harry about:

* Using a projected backdrop of an office background. It is to create a ghosted effect, a trace of things that have (or may have) gone before, forever present in the history but intangible and constantly being broken and interfered with by the current activities.

* Creating a fake factory where photograms are the product. This could possibly further highlight the process of photography and relate to the history of the space.

* Using the picking apart of flowers performance, that I did for David Gale's workshop as a springboard; looking at subverting the factory process and deconstructing products.

* I love the idea (as always) of forgotten factory workers that have become stuck in the factory office repeating the same set of actions until they have lost all meaning.

* Once all of the activities/performances are over in the closet leaving it as an installation. A relic, an evidence of an action, that (like everything that has gone before it) has now become ingrained into the history of the site.

Adding a new history to a space-in-between is really exciting to me.

Quick Note

Just found this really good website whilst doing a bit of research; it's called The Presence Project. 

I am only about half way through looking at it but thought that it might also be useful to some of you (esp Harriet and Lena).

I found this quote on part of the website,

Steve Dixon

(...) Reduced to its essence, presence is about interest and command of attention, not space or liveness. (...) Let us consider a hypothetical live performer standing next to an exactly life-size, recorded, two-dimensional projection of herself (...). If both figures are still and neutral, one might agree that the live performer has more presence (by virtue her solidity, her liveness). But once either of the figures engages in activity (including concentrated thought) it will pull focus to it, gain attention, and assert its presence over the other. When both become active, the one we watch more (our attention will always flit between them), the one with the most presence, is the one engaged in what we find personally the more interesting or emotive activity. In this sense, presence in relation to audience engagement and attention is dependent on the compulsion of the audiovisual activity, not on liveness or corporeal three-dimensionality.' (Dixon, 2007: 132)

I think that this is especially applicable to my workshop as we were conversing with projections of ourselves; and as Doug pointed out during Lena's performance, we all watched the projection more than we did the live Lena. Why is this? Is it because we are now more practised in viewing a 2D image? It isn't as if we could argue that the quality of the image was entrancing. It was a poor quality image, that was faint because there was too much light in the room!?!

 I also find it interesting that Dixon separates presence and liveness. I can't separate the two at all in my head, but can really see what the quote is getting at.  Still leaves me begging the question of how to define liveness... made even more difficult if presence is taken out of the equation! 

Let me know any thoughts!

Practical Work Ahoy!

I have notes upon notes upon notes! For those of you who know me I'm sure you are not surprised! Haha!

Term has ended and wanted to take the chance to do a quick update as to what I'm thinking and where I'm at. 

The last couple of weeks before the end of term were hectic, but really great as I now feel set to organise myself over the break and hit the ground running next term... with more practical work and not so many notes! 

Starting with David Gale's workshops; it was fantastic to do some practical work, no matter how quickly put together. I realised that I had had enough of talking and thinking about my practice and am set on getting it off the ground ( about bloody time I hear my tutor and class cry!). 

With this notion in mind I set out on my practical workshop with my class. As I am investigating Liveness in Performance I have decided that I want to start working with projections of myself. Taking inspiration from Caroline Smith's Spank I want to investigate what happens when I converse with myself in the form of projections. What is this doing to time and space in performance? What is this doing to the live body on stage? Is the live aspect highlighted and made more explicit due to the fact my own mediated body is next to me creating a dialogue between me and myself? The latter question is really where my focus is at the moment. 

The workshop that I did with my class was fantastic as I not only learnt how to use and technology needed to achieve what I wanted, but saw and felt what it was like to have a dialogue with a projection of myself... which I have to say was strange. I am used to working with live actors and being able to bounce off each other - no such luck with a pre-recorded projection! I realised that the practicalities and techniques needed in order to make this a great show will be tough, but looking forward to learning them. 

So what now? Keep on the practical front! During the break Harriet will be helping me to redo one of my previous pieces of work that was a collaboration with Lucy Taylor. In the previous work there were two of us on stage swapping identities.  I am now going to see what happens when I play both of the parts, one live and one as a pre-recorded projection.  As it was a collaborative work I have no intention of using it publically, however, will post it on the blog so you can all help me to unpick some of the issues that I am thinking about.

Oh yeah - and I don't know whether any of you have guessed, but working with different projections of myself has brought back my love in identity politics! Whoop!