Stephanie Mainoo, 12271039, Final Blog-Dispersion

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Dispersion

Framing Statement

At the beginning of my group’s performance process, we were thinking about the ideas in which we were introduced to in our seminars, as we were to perform in a shop, based in The George Centre, Grantham. For instance, our initial idea was focused on the use of space and how you can make the most of it within the site. ‘If a place can be defined as relational, historical and concerned with identity, then a space which cannot be defined as relational, or historical, or concerned with identity will be a non-place’ (Auge, 1995, 78). The space of which the performance was to be presented in has a historical background based on the influence of the ‘father of modern scientific thought’ (Djerassi and Pinner, 2003, 1), Isaac Newton and his theories. Therefore the space of the shop can be seen to be a ‘place’ instead of a ‘non-place’. I was interested in the scientific ideas of light and sound, as were three other students in the class which led us to form a group. ‘I took so soon the colour’ (Djerassi and Pinner, 2003, 5), of light as did Newton, and how light travels in order for people to see objects. His ‘research starting around 1670 on light and color’ (Djerassi and Pinner, 2003, 1) influenced my group to practice what he had himself practiced, to discover the beautiful colours on earth. Isaac Newton was born in Woolsthorpe which is in Lincolnshire, near Grantham.

A few weeks before our final assessed performance we were informed that our performance ‘place’ had been relocated to the Lincoln Performing Arts Centre (LPAC) at the University of Lincoln, on Saturday 10th May. Therefore, this meant that the performance, Dispersion, lasted longer than it originally did. It went from being three hours to four hours, as a durational piece. As a group, we aimed our performance at individuals of any age, and decided that they were to visit and leave as they pleased. My idea of what we wanted the audience to gain from the performance was to develop a clearer understanding of what Newton’s theory of light was explaining ‘I procured me a triangular glasse Prisme to try therewith the celebrated phænomena of colours’ (Newton, 2003) was a sentence written by Isaac Newton himself describing how he used a glass prism to be able to visualise the colours of the spectrum.

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 Newton Papers from University of Cambridge (2011-2013)

With this, the audience would instantly know that it is a performance based on Newton’s theory. Bedwyr Lewis Jones suggests that ‘land and language are two strands that tie the…speaker to his cynefin or locale’ (Pearson, 2010, 19) and in this case Newton’s language of science linked in with the Grantham site as it is in an area of which Newton grew up. However the language could also tie in with the LPAC as we transformed the studio into a space of light relating to the text.

‘Site-specific performance involves an activity, an audience, and a place, then creative opportunities reside in the multiple creative articulations of us, them and there.’ (Pearson, 2010, 19)

 

Process

As our performance was based on light and sound we began to research the different activities concerning them and the different sources that make light. For instance, I experimented with a match to see what brought about the light of fire produced and ‘a mixture of potassium chlorate (oxidizer), sulfur (igniter) and phosphorus (fuel) designed to burn when ignited’ (Mohamed, Sivapirakasam and Surianaravanan, 2013, 343) were the materials that caused the fire. I made various notes on what I thought we could include in our performance ranging from indoor activities to interact with the audience, to having a silent disco, all to demonstrate the link between light and sound.

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Notes from the notebook, Mainoo, S, (2014)

 

In the seminar on Monday 10th February, there were various site specific performances shown to the class in the format of pre performance, performance and post performance. In the section of ‘performance’ the Radio Ballet performance caught my attention as it linked in with my groups’ idea of how sound/directions from the headphones could be interpreted differently by the participants we engage with. My groups’ idea was to also use sound in this way to find out if the participants register the same kind of concept as each other with the use of their movement/body language just by hearing the instructions from the headphones. These ‘people with their radios suddenly stopped at the same time and then, after a moment’s hesitation, began performing certain movements… which each of the radio listeners followed individually in their respective places’ (Eikels, 2008, 85). Also, their performance is based in public places such as shopping centres, and this builds a correlation with the performance we initially wanted to achieve as it will also be in a shopping centre for the Gravity Fields Festival in September. The idea was for the public of Grantham to take part if they had wished to. Space was dealt with within the Radio Ballet performance as it ‘can be regarded as a site in which forms of identification and alienation are performed and where the production of social and power relations are revealed, reproduced and maintained’ (Rugg, 2010, 53). The dispersion of their participants and the fact that each participant had their own headphones allowed the public to be entertained as well as isolating the people involved; allowing them to identify themselves in their own space (i-space) and their movements being original. This is what my group aimed to do as it focused on sound, portraying that not everyone hears the same thing. The participants realise the ‘disjunction between the reading of space and the experience of space’ (Kaye, 2000, 41) in this context, as they read the history of the space and are also performing in the space.

My group then began to stray away from the idea of the headphones as we soon realised it may not be possible to progress with this as there would be various technical difficulties. We focused precisely on the science behind light and reflection through mirrors. We started by rehearsing different, subtle movements with the use of our bodies, facing a mirror as we were thinking to perform this in Grantham.

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 Mirrors in the Grantham shop, Mainoo, S. (2014)

 

As soon as my group entered this shop we knew it was perfect in relation to our subject area. There were plenty of mirrors positioned in various areas of the room, and this was the idea we had portrayed in our minds. This space in particular allows our idea of self reflection come into play as we liked the idea of our participants, with the use of lighting, to explore the different ways in which lighting creates a mood. This space was ideal as it is its own space which can be closed off from the rest of the room, allowing the participant to focus on what they are doing, away from the rest of the activities happening in the shop.

I was influenced by Michel de Certeau in his chapter ‘Walking in the City’. ‘The spectator can read in it a universe that is constantly exploding’ (de Certeau, 1984), as the spectator is on the 110th floor of the building looking down on the world as a God like figure. Imagination and technical semiotics are presented to the spectator when they view the patterns of everyday life within a ‘larger power-structure’ (de Certeau, 1984). Therefore the spectator who is above those below could be seen to have more power and dominance over the people who are not on the ‘110th floor’ (de Certeau, 1984).

As my groups’ performance was partially based around the theme of light, the ‘Walking in the City’ text relates to our performance as light can be seen to be a powerful aspect in the world. Light is essential to humans and animals in the world to live their life, as it is used in order for people to see. When light hits and then reflects of an object, for instance a mirror, the light rays travel in a linear line into our eyes in order for us to see the object. Therefore, light can be seen to be on the ‘110th floor’ (de Certeau, 1984), just like the spectator, as light is above us all and surrounding us proving its power.

Some may say that Scientists view situations in the world completely different to how others view the world, and in this case they would have the power. This may be because they have been educated with the ideal perspective of the world in which others have not, and knowledge therefore gives them the power. We as a group were the scientists in this case as we have power over the audience. We have learnt the facts about light and sound (we have the knowledge), and then will hopefully present what we know to the audience and then they will hopefully learn something new.

Individuals walking past each other in the city are like a piece of ‘text’ in which we can ‘read’ their movements. As they walk around the city it is as if they are weaving places/buildings together with their footsteps, and therefore creating a unique pattern of their own. This relates to my groups original idea of the chain reaction line in which we were weaving in and out of the space we were in, fast paced and slow paced to signify light rays, in order to create a pattern. This pattern was created with our footsteps and our physical movement with the body. We also had created a musical pattern with wooden spoons in order to listen to the sound of the beat being performed, and for the audience to eventually see a pattern forming.

Our influence was also based on the work of the company TEDx who presented science topics with the use of movement and speech. ‘The idea of space as defining the limits in which performances of the everyday are inscribed and contained…expressions of community are articulated, are investigated through consideration of a range of artworks’ (Rugg, 2010, 53). Science was produced in our movement with fast paced running to present the light rays being turned on and a chain reaction presenting the sound waves and the frequencies of both light and sound.

(TEDx, 2011)

George Seurat’s ‘A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte’ image influenced my group as the use of colours he uses in his painting presents a different colour that we see from a distance. Cathy Berberian’s Stripsody Score influenced my groups idea of using our voices to pronounce words in various ways to present how our vocals can make high and low pitch sounds. My group made a performance based on movement representing light and sound for the audience to visualise, however we progressed into making a ‘simple’ performance.

We went for a more minimalistic performance as we wanted our audience to focus on specific actions taking place in the room and for them to think about what we were presenting. We researched minimalistic music which we thought could be incorporated into our performance seeing as we wanted our staging to be minimalistic also. We ‘utilized the anti-spectacle to propose an alternative perception of space’ (Rugg, 2010, 64) in this sense we used a non striking performance to let the audience focus on the striking space.

Our performance included ‘manipulation of the material landscape in its own right, the artist adding, removing or displacing materials…to create sculpture, drawing out the relationships between existing characteristics of site and evidence of human intervention’(Pearson, 2010, 33). We used materials in the landscape such as lighting on the ceiling which reacts to the sound of our voices as we read the Newton, ‘Theory of Light’ text. This light changed colour to the sound of our voices. The use of a prism was presented to the audience, showing the colours of the spectrum on our bodies. As a group we decided to experiment, combining light and the body to see how different colours of light can affect the way the bodily features are presented. We shined light from different angles and directions and used body parts from head to feet to explore this idea. We also experimented with different colours of light shining through the prism to see if that would make any difference to just white lighting going through it to make various colours. ‘Prism separates the sunbeam’s rays into a myriad of colours and each colour is the property of a specific ray that has a specific velocity’ (Djerassi and Pinner, 2003, 23) like a rainbow. A member of the group would be sitting in front of the television watching a video my group produced for a period of thirty minutes, as we rotated in activity after this duration of time. The audience ‘may leave with different versions of the event, having chosen what is significant and why, from a field of activity and information’ (Pearson, 2010, 37). They may not be interested in everything we had presented, however they will take at least one thing from it that they didn’t know, for example the ideas Newton had in order to gain the colours of the spectrum.‘Local speech is a treasury of sensitive response to a total environment of land…and human behaviour’ (Pearson, 2010, 102). This is what Newton’s text gave to the performance and it influenced our behaviour when performing, as we were so engaged in the lighting, that when the audience came in we did not react to them and kept our focus. We sectioned the studio into two sections, one of which had the television and prism activity in and the other the newton text being read. When speaking into the microphone, we presented sound waves on a projector at the back of the stage to give the audience a sense of how high and low our voices were going. ‘The public is an active agent and theatre doesn’t exist until it/they is/are engaged’ (Pearson, 2010, 37).

(Dispersion, 2014)

Our space was blacked out as there has to be darkness to therefore present light. The only light produced was the light above us which would change colour, the over head projector light used with the prisms to produce colour and the television.

 

Performance Evaluation

Overall we had about twenty-five people who visited our performance. The lighting that changed to the sound of our voices worked well in our performance as it showed the link we wanted between light and sound. Our dispersion video also worked well as it presented some of the work we did in rehearsal and the beautiful colours produced from the prism and the light that changes colour. However, to improve the performance the video could have lasted longer as there was so much more striking video’s and pictures we had produced. The text being read also worked well as the audience would listen to the theory of light and at the same time see the theory of light. If I was to read the text again I would analyse the text more closely, knowing the definition to every word I had originally not know. I would also read at a slower pace for the audience to be able to precisely understand what I was reading. The sound waves were powerful as they were projected high up where people would be able to view as soon as they went into the second room.

The final performance made me think about using various televisions in a room with our Dispersion video playing over and over again, with the inspiration of Kutlug Ataman’s ‘Kuba’ performance (Rugg, 2010, 61). In the LPAC I thought about the idea of having various colours of light spinning around the room as a light show as this would be extremely striking for the audience. If we could afford it, next time I would get a strong laser and see how defined the colours of the spectrum are presented.

I would also contain the audience within the room for a certain amount of time as I felt that some people came in and then left without taking much thought to what was happening and therefore missing ideal bits in the performance. Also instead of having the performer siting watching the television for thirty minutes, we could try them reacting to what is happening on the screen or even mimic what is happening with a member of the audience (including a prism) for audience interaction.

Site specific performance has helped me have a more advanced understanding of how anything can be a performance as long as it is justified. As we performed in LPAC, it was a venue that is well known to us; however it is a site that is specific to our performance in the way that it was a blacked out space of which we needed.

The final performance of ‘Dispersion’ went well. The staging was of a simple layout and my group did not want to complicate the performance as there was beauty in the simplicity.

Dispersion spoke to the audience in our performance as there was Dispersion of images on the video, Dispersion of voice through the microphone, Dispersion of sound waves on the projector, which eventually all linked to the dispersion of light and colours being provided in the performance room itself.

Site can be conceived in a number of different ways. This performance can be placed in any space, because ‘space is a practised place’ (Govan et al, 2007, 104).

 

Works Cited

Pearson, M. (2010) Site-Specific Performance. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Govan, E., Nicholson, H. and Normington, K. (2007) Making a Performance Devising Histories and Contemporary Practices. New York: Routledge.

Rugg, J. (2010) Exploring Site-Specific Art Issues of Space and Internationalism. New York: I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd.

Djerassi, C. and Pinner, D. (2003) Newton’s Darkness Two Dramatic Views. London: Imperial College Press.

Kaye, R. (2000) site-specific art performance, place and documentation. New York: Routledge.

Auge, M. (1995) non-places introduction to an anthropology of super modernity. London: Verso.

Newton, I. (2003) Draft of ‘A Theory Concerning Light and Colors’. Cambridge: Cambridge University Library. Available from: http://www.newtonproject.sussex.ac.uk/view/texts/normalized/NATP00003 [Accessed 5 May 2014].

Nalla Mohamed, M. Sivapirakasam, S.P. and Surianaravanan, M. (2013) Experimental investigation on the impact sensitivity of a match head composition influenced by the surface roughness of in-process contact materials. Process Safety and Environmental Protection, 91(5) 343-350.

Van Eikels, Kai. (2008) This Side of the Gathering: The Movement of Acting Collectively: Ligna’s Radioballett. International Bibliography of Theatre & Dance with Full Text, 13 (1) 85-98.

de Certeau, Michel. (1984) The Practice of Everyday Life, trans. Steven Rendall. University of California Press: Berkeley.

TEDx (2011) Dance your PhD: John Bohannon & Black Label Movement at TEDxBrussels [online video] Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=UlDWRZ7IYqw [Accessed 6 March 2014]

Mainoo, S (2014) Dispersion [online video] Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ptHrQfdaR4 [Accessed 7 May 2014]

Final Blog

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101 things to do with an apple

 

What can be done with apples? A question rooted in the heart of our performance as we endeavoured on a process to illustrate 101 of these things to an audience over a period of time. Originally going to be showcased in the disused shops of Grantham but was later moved to the Lincoln performing arts centre (Lpac) due to transport issues. This development process saw us researching site specific performances, science, theory and a hell of a lot about apples!

Our key principles of methodology were the festival, Grantham and the module itself. Using these we came up with a performance called ‘101 things to do with an apple.’ Taking inspiration from the location, where Isaac Newton is said to have lived and subsequently the place where Newton is thought to have discovered gravity after being hit by an apple. The Festival, where science and Newton’s theories undeniably play a key role. Lastly the module, where we learnt about what it means to put on a site specific performance and what key components are. Upon research we found out that the festival is “a festival creatively exploring the physical sciences and celebrating one of the world’s greatest thinkers, Sir Isaac Newton.” (Gravity Fields) From this it led us to create a performance inspired by Newton and Grantham but not entirely based around science. And so ‘101 things to do with an apple was born.’ This catchy name acted as the foundations to build and develop our work. When finished the performance took place on Saturday 10th of May, starting at 2:30pm and finishing around 7, with a break in the middle.

 

Our performance did exactly what it said on the tin and literally showcased ‘101 things to do with apples.’ It was set up so that the audience would collect a sheet displaying 101 things to do with an apple. Their objective was to see how many of those things on the list could be accounted for before they left. The aim for us being to try and showcase them all in the time and also keep the audience engaged. This meant our audience was able to play a role and participate within our performance, something we were keen to employ from the development process. The stage was cluttered with boxes, apples, chairs and a wide range of apple related products. There was a projection at the back of the set playing looped footage of numerous different ways apples could be destroyed. For example, a car running over an apple or an apple being shot. A whiteboard also sat on set that would act as a note to us and the audience. We used the whiteboard to show what we were doing with the apples at that moment in time. For example if I was inside the set juggling and everyone else was sitting, then the whiteboard would say “juggling (1)” The numbers representing the actors who would take part in that exercise. The sound of a small bell being tapped at the front of our set was our key to move into the next exercise. For example if I was juggling for 10 minutes it would be up to another member of the group to press the bell which would signal me to stop and move off the set.  They would then write the next exercise up on the whiteboard, upon seeing that the required number of  people are ready to take part they would press the bell again signalling the start of the next exercise. This was the way in which our performance was structured.

 

It all starts with apples:

Once we had come up with the name for our piece, we began our research process. Initially we started researching apples. The aim of this was to be able to fully understand what an apple is and does, in order to benefit the development of our performance. We conducted historical research about apples, for example the legend of William Tell, a skilled marksman who, legend has it, shot an apple off his own child’s head in order to secure his freedom. This comes from an illustrated Swiss chronicle created by the old Swiss confederation in the 15th century. Historical research within this task proved to be useful as we were setting it in Grantham, a place rooted within British history. Our research also contained scientific information about apples. Some of which accommodated a nutritional breakdown of an apple. Revealing its nutritional components, for example; Apples contain Protein (0.3g) Carbohydrate (10.2g) Sugar (10.2g) Pectin (0.5g.) (Online source 1) There was also research into the different types of apples and their popularity. We discovered that the most popular apples are; Pink ladies, Cox’s orange pippin and the Honey-crisp Apple. (Online source 2) This research helped us to gauge a better understanding of what we working with and initiated the development of our performance.

During the development our initial ideas were to create something that would play to our strengths as actors rather than be a site specific performance. We experimented with sketches about Isaac Newtown’s discovery and the legend of William Tell. Played with a circus themed performance, in which we would all be carnival like vendors with different games and things to show the audience. Then we thought about targeting it specifically for children. Giving us room to add educational facts and figures. After thinking about these, we concluded that our target audience would be universal. We liked the idea of having a performance that was going to be engaging and fun for everyone, regardless of their age. It was this decision that led us away from the circus or children’s entertainment theme. Instead we decided on incorporating parts of these into our performance.

Originally we planned to have a ‘museum’ like set, with instillations everywhere representing the different things you can do with apples. For example some of these could be apples rotting in different liquids inside jars, creations made from apples and apple related things. We as actors would then perform different things with apples. This is when we started compiling a ‘list’ of 101 things to do with apples, one of the key parts of our development. As the audience would travel through we would then ‘flash-mob’ this set with improvised performances containing the ‘apple circus,’ a sketch about Isaac Newtown an apple song and more. However in a rehearsal where we decided to show something as simple as cutting up apples in a line, we ended up getting positive feedback which lead us to rethink our performance. This is what got us thinking back to the initial 101 things to do with an apple and inspired us to simplify our work. It was then that we realised that by stripping the work down and keeping it simple we had the potential to create something really special.

Conducted research into ‘site specific’ helped us adapt our performance to meet the requirements of a site specific piece. Becoming increasingly popular in the world of contemporary theatre there are many different terms have come from ‘site-specific’ performance; “’site-determined’, ‘site-referenced’, ‘site-conscious’, ‘site-responsive’ and ‘context-specific’ (Pearson, M) this showcases the wide variety of what site specific envelopes. Using your space well is essential as John Gleave comments “It is the relationship with the site that makes site specific performance so unique.”(Gleave, J) Our space was going to occupy the front of a shop window, on Grantham’s high street. However this was changed to the Lpac, allowing us to ‘transform’ our space and make it into a stage. Peter Brook said that he can “take any empty space and call it a stage” (Brook, P) understanding this statement is key in understanding site specific performance. While Brook does not mean literally the space becomes a stage, he is saying it’s about what is done within the space that makes it a stage. Brook is clearly concerned about perspective and challenging the normal outlook of things. Subsequently perspective was something that we were keen to utilise in our performance.

An understanding of perspective is an essential part to ant site specific performance. Our aim was to challenge the audience, finding out what they perceived about our performance and also employing a sense of perspective into them, making them think for themselves. Audience participation had been something we were all positive about doing from the start. This was because, when given the chance to compensate for audience participation it is usually beneficial for the performance. In our case we allowed the audience to move in and around our space and encouraged them to fill in the check lists they collected on arrival. This made the audience engage with our piece as they wanted to note the things on the list. We employed perspective into the audience using the space as a means to do so. Cluttering the set with boxes, apples and a range of apple products the audience were left to think for themselves about what they meant and why they were there, thus incorporating perspective.

Continuing with the development of our piece we stripped it down of all ‘acting’ and therefore used ourselves as ‘performing bodies’ rather than ‘actors.’ This meant that the focal point could remain on the apples, instead of us. What we were left with was basing a performance simply around the five members Kate, Claudia, Nathan, Phil and Connor showcasing a variety of things to do with apples, in a transformed space.

Now Were Getting Somewhere

Once we had decided against the idea of having performance based sketches and an audience involved circus we turned our heads back toward our initial ‘101 things’ list that had been growing over the process. We dissected the list, dropping activities that we had initially thought of, for example ‘shadow puppets’ using apples. It was then decided that along with the five of us showing these exercises we would compile a video containing a variety of different ways apple can be destroyed. This video was in place to support the performance, providing a visual aid for when little was happening but also to showcase more creative and destructive things that would have been impossible indoors. For example, running an apple over with a car. This video was edited to be in black and white, making it visually engaging. We also decided that it would be effective to occupy the space with several boxes and apple related products to transform the space we had. Alongside our black costume and paired with the removal of speech, this all added to the atmosphere of the piece.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A lot was taken into consideration when deciding what the exercises with apples would be. With ‘simple’ as the thought in mind and with feedback from lecturers, we decided on doing normal ‘everyday’ actions but im different ways. For example one of the exercises was the deconstruction of the apple. This is what we showed the lecturers when they gave us positive feedback about the simplicity of our work. When developing this process, thought was concerned with how an apple is deconstructed on a conveyer belt in a factory. As ‘performing bodies’ we attempted to recreate the conveyer belt, deconstructing our own apples by peeling, chopping, dicing and mashing the remains into juice. The thoughts were that by showing the physical ‘deconstruction’ of an apple, the audience would become engaged and interested in the performance, making them want to stay.

With the simplicity of this ‘deconstruction’ in mind we revised our list to contain a number of different things to do with apples. Some ordinary like ‘peeling’ and others more abstract like ‘painting an apple’ or ‘puncturing an apple.’ These exercises were all simple and did not require much ‘rehearsal’ from the group which worked as a bonus for us as it was difficult to rehearse without the apples with us.

 

Once a list was made we became worried that our piece would be underdeveloped if we did not practice or come up with some sort of structure for the day. Towards the end of this process, problems ensued as it was becoming increasingly difficult to have a meeting with all members present. This is when the performance was revised to compensate for a group member not turning up. A structure was implanted that would see only two performers on set at any one time. These performers would show their exercises, taken from the list, then swap again with another two performers. An example of this structure is as follows; All start on stage- ‘deconstruction of an apple’ then Connor and Claudia, Connor juggling, Claudia stacking apples. A time limit was not implanted on these exercises and so they would run on for as long as they had too. Something that did not impose a problem as we had the space for so long and were keen to adapt it. As Miwon Kwon agrees, when presenting a site piece “The project will likely be time-consuming and in the end will have engaged the ‘site’ in a multiple of ways” (Kwon, M) though this structure was not used in the ‘final piece’ it was one of the key stages of development. We fully understood what we wanted to do, now it was just a question as to how we would do it.

After an invaluable meeting with lectures we revised this ‘structure’ and decided to replace it with a blackboard. This decision was made because initially we thought about memorising the structure, to add flow to the piece. However once talked through with Dominic, it was clear that using a ‘blackboard’ as a signal to the audience and to ourselves as to what we were doing, would be unique and simple. Memorising a ‘set’ order of things would also bring our piece back towards an ‘acted’ piece, something that by this point we were ardent not let happen. As Dennis Oppenheim suggests site specific is about “creating a system that allows the artist to become the material, to consider himself the sole vehicle of the art.” (Sharp) We would use the blackboard as a way of ‘communicating’ to each other as to what exercise we were doing next. This worked by having one member of the group writing an exercise and a number on the blackboard. The number correlated with the amount of participants from the entire group that were needed. Once viewed the number of members needed would then stand up and prepare to enter the space, having just read what they were doing. This way we were not to be implementing too much ‘performance’ into our work and let the naturalistic atmosphere take hold. There was only one thing missing. A signal, a key, something to let us know exactly when to enter the space and when to exit, needed so the piece did not look messy. A ‘hotel’ style bell was used as it was an effective way of signalling everyone. This bell was placed at the front of the set as this was the easiest place for everyone to reach it when required.

When thinking about what products would be used on set, we discussed what would be useful and what would not work. Creating the ‘smell’ of apples was a keen aspect when discussing the products, as the fragrant scent would give our performance more roots within its space by transforming the space further. Candles were thought about but ended up being a risky process we didn’t want to get involved in and so apple potpourri was used in the final piece. Anything with apples on, or apple related was considered to be useful as it all envelopes what can be done with apples. This was the main reason for the ‘installation’ of all these products, making the audience think about a wider range of uses for apples. Something we undoubtabley achieved.

On the Night (during the day)

Once the space had been set up, we were ready to begin. We began our piece with a homage to our development process and started off with the synchronised eating of an apple, something that received positive feedback in development. Then continued on using the bell and blackboard as signals to start and stop exercises. Audience members were interesting to observe whilst in the space. The reactions displayed were varied. Some members would walk right in examining the set and taking a good look at the video, to the extremes of one member actually sitting on a chair inside the set. While others would simply come inside and stand right by the corner until they left again. Thinking about the way the different ways in which the audience reacted proved interesting. I believe that audience members who are ‘hands on’ enjoyed the fact they could walk round and examine parts of the set without feeling uncomfortable. Also having the opportunity to involve themselves, as one member did when they rang the bell signalling us to stop. Whilst more ‘retracted’ people wanted to employee a sense of normality, in the way that they were the audience and we were performers. Nonetheless it is interesting to comment upon how the different members reacted contrastingly. I believe that overall the performance went well, the strongest parts being the ‘group participated’ exercises e.g. Newton’s cradle, deconstructing the apple. And the video showcasing numerous ways apples can be used. The performance was let down in its set and it’s something that if performed again I would consider revising. The problems were not with the products or facts that were in place. Rather some of the boxes used were broken, having to be taped shut giving it a messy ‘unprofessional’ look. However if the set was revised I would consider changing the cardboard boxes and trying to source some wooden ‘grocers’ type box. Linking it in with the theme of apples. This development process leading up to and including the performance has been challenging but fun. Questions were raised after the performance about what happens if someone enters the performance, something that we had not questioned, and happened. We then had more ideas about how to use the space we were occupying proving there is no limit to any ‘site specific’ performance.

 

 

 

Bibliography

Works cited

Books

Brook, Peter (1996) The Empty Space. New York: Touchstone.

Kwon, Miwon (2002). One place after another Site specific art and locational identity. London: The MIT press. 42.

Pearson, Mike (2010). Site specific performance London : Macmillan. p.8

Articles

‘Dennis Oppenheim Interviewed by Willoughby Sharp’, (1971) 183, 938: 186–93.

Gleave,J. (2011). “SITE-SPECIFIC PERFORMANCE EXISTS WITHIN A PLETHORA OF PHENOMENA, ALL COMPETING FOR ATTENTION, ALL POTENTIALLY MEANINGFUL: A CONCATENATION OF THAT AT SITE AND THAT BROUGHT TO THE SITE”. THE RECIPROCAL PROCESS OF THE SITE AND THE SUBJECT IN DIVISIG SITE-SPECIFIC PERFORMANCE . 1 (1), p1

Online Sources

1. (2014). Top Varieties. Available: http://www.orangepippin.com/topvarieties.aspx. Last accessed 16 May 2014

2. (2012). Nutritional Composition Available: http://www.englishapplesandpears.co.uk/apples_nutritional_composition.php. Last accessed 16 May 2014.

 

Final Entry

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Untitled-1

seed

 

Site specific drama challenges the performer to take the performance out of the confines of the ‘black box’ performance space to create new, unique and innovative theatre We, as a group, decided to take this one step further and challenge what we as performers and people think about the pre-written concepts of objects as well as the space itself. It is a widely discussed debate to argue the concept of nature verses nurture in human development – whether we behave as we are due to genetics or learned behaviour, and this can also be applied to space and objects in the world around us. As well as re-writing the already specified ‘script’ of an empty shop which was our assigned performance space, our piece will eventually be a part of the Gravity Fields Festival in Grantham, so the stimuli for our performance was to delve into the theme of science – however that may be interpreted. Being heavily influenced by both the concept of using a shop window as our performance area as well as Grantham’s great myth of the apple falling on Isaac Newton’s head, we decided to base our performance on the quite literal ‘101 things to do with an apple’. Right from the start, we knew that this idea would have the freedom and the capacity to explore our ideas and challenge ourselves with thinking outside of the box and pre-existing behaviours outlined for us as individuals within a society where everything has its own function. We wanted to share our experiences with an audience using a mix of continuous live performance, media and installation pieces as a showcase of all our work through the devising process.

growing

As a newly formed production team within our group, we were quick to land on our initial idea, as it was one that we were all interested in and believed that we could each have a lot to offer both practically and theoretically into the final performance. We knew that we wanted to include media into our performance to add another dimension to the piece without being strictly restricted to the space of the shop, which would allow us to tackle visually stimulating tasks we would otherwise not be able to do live – such as long term apple rotting. Instead of taking a scientific subject, such as an exploration between the differences in speed of light and sound, which was our other original concept of the ‘Light and Sound Olympics’, we decided to instead apply science onto our apple idea. We believed that this way, we could create a piece that could accommodate many particular tastes, including families, and yet still be relevant for the Gravity Fields Festival. Not only did we believe that we could use our given site and scientific aim to our potential, but we wanted to make it interesting and fun to the wide range of the general public, who were our desired audience, as our shop was situated in the middle of the high street.

(Fig.1. The Newton’s Apple Cradle trial run)

As a starting position, we drafted an initial lift of 101 different things we could possibly do with apples. Not only did we include domestic uses for apples – such as cooking, cutting and eating, but we were most interested in listing a large number that would serve as a way to attract an audience through unique and innovative ideas such as making a Newton’s Cradle out of apples. Early on, we decided that we were not going to show all 101 (or more) tasks through live action and were going to be using pre filmed media and installation. As we were going to be performing in a shop, using the space to display our collections and creations seemed like the perfect idea. It was at this stage where we were toying with the idea to provide the audience with either a checklist to mark off the ways of using apples as they saw them or a blank list in which they were to write the ways that they saw as individuals. As our piece was very much in the early stages, we decided to save our decision to a later date rather than basing our piece around it. We wanted as blank of a canvas as possible to approach the piece with an open mind.

master

(Fig.2. The Apple Masterlist)

Through discussions in class, the nature verses nurture discussions and how we, as human beings, deal with the idea of pre-taught behaviours was definitely a huge inspiration for our performance. In his chapter ‘Walking in the City ‘ within his influential book ‘The Practice of Everyday Life’, De Certeau paints the picture of standing on top of the World Trade Centre in New York and using it as a vantage point in order to view the city and it’s commotion as people go about their everyday lives below. By taking one’s self out of the situation and not having to abide by the written ‘laws’ and pre-taught behaviour of being on street level with the ‘walkers’, it allows the viewer to then study behaviour at a god-like vantage point using the power of omniscience. In many ways, the city could have been seen as a site specific piece and people are to follow the script of the city, performing their everyday tasks, which sits alongside the theory that everything we do is a performance. Thinking on psychological terms, this supports that we, as humans, perform through learned behaviour (or nurture) and as we grow, we add to our life script through our experiences.

Taking this into account, we wanted to step back from the pre-written ideas and structures of the apple as an everyday object and treat it as though it (and we) were a blank canvas. Instead of viewing the fruit as something that we eat, we wanted to utilise everything it was capable of doing and being used for – such as a paintbrush, colouring and an aid to exercise training. We knew that our audience might find some of our uses and methods strange, but we hoped that this would get them to question their own nurture and realise that thinking along those lines meant that they were stuck in the confines of their learned behaviour and projecting that onto an object instead of opening their mind to new things.

(Fig.3 The Rotting Apple)

The use of multimedia does not change the site, but can greatly enhance the way in which the site is used by adding another dimension outside of the performance space and the performance time which would recontextualize the entire performance. Extending our performance with film was definitely something that we wanted to do to include those tasks which would have been impractical or dangerous to take place in the time and place of our site. By adding this further dimension, we knew we would be expanding the parameters for what ‘site’ meant, as well as giving our piece a surreal and modern twist which we hoped would contrast other displays shown at the Gravity Fields Festival. In terms of what we wanted to challenge our audience both psychologically and theoretically, it was our want to make ourselves memorable. If our audience members left our performance space entertained, reeling over their individual thoughts or both, we knew we would have succeeded in performance.

During our initial filming process, both as a group and me by myself as the multimedia side was mainly my input into the performance preparation, we tried to stick to our original 101 ideas but came across new ideas in the journey to our final performance. As we researched more around the topic, we learned of uses of apples we hadn’t thought of. These both included the use of popular culture such as YouTube and apples within games console games which emerged at a later date and added to the video as well as more epic uses that would serve well in a multimedia presentation. These included our Apple Chainsaw Massacre and Car verses Apple which we hoped would be an audience attraction.

(Fig.4 Car Vs Apple)

The structure of our piece was the last element we decided to focus on. For most of our devising process, we were going to fill our performance space with installation displays and scientific experiments involving apples, guide our audience through as the moderators and have scheduled performance breaks that we could advertise and attract audiences at different points. Doing this meant that we would be able to utilise the site of the shop with smaller storerooms for performance as well as the large outside space on the street and the shop window itself for the public to be an outside eye looking in – much like the omniscient eye or the ‘spectator’. These breaks into ‘flash mob’ performance would have been epic in theory and we experimented with a few. These included our comedy sketch of the story of Isaac Newton and a rehearsed and structured ‘Apple Circus’. Though these short performances worked in theory when performed for a class of our peers, we decided that it wasn’t right for the performance we wanted to convey – especially due to the fact our site was changed to the studios of the LPAC for our examinations instead and wouldn’t be moved to the shop site until the Gravity Fields Festival during the last few weeks of performance preparation. With this in mind, we then had to adapt our piece to be able to fit two different sites.

Changing our structure, we decided to perform continuously, with the audience able to move around the space freely and un-controlled by the usual boundaries of the everyday auditorium style of theatre. With our mechanical-like structure of the starting and stopping of silent tasks of varying length using the bell, our performance could be described as being very Brechtian. We took our performance back to the bare basics, much like throughout our development and theoretical/psychological process, and included no actors, no characters and no scripting. We were black canvasses that added to the elements of the performance, much like the apples themselves. With this in mind, we believed that we could challenge the audience deeper into that thoughtful state by creating a space where, as quoted by Brecht himself – ‘things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are’. (The Book of Positive Quotations (2007) by John Cook, p. 390)

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(Fig.5. The set after performance day in state of decay)

Coming to the day of the performance and our final rehearsals, we got to put all of our ideas into practice. After collecting apple related products, 300 apples, grocery boxes and items that we had crafted ourselves, we got the opportunity to construct our set for the first time. Much like what we had practiced with theories previously, we wanted to use the boxes and apples in ways different than what they were originally intended – as furniture and decoration. To combat our very structured performance style, it was important to us that our set looked like ‘organised chaos’. Everything we needed for performing was to be within the space in which the set was positioned and would all, in one way or another, be used in performance and even added to as we made and destroyed apple products through performance. This chaotic appearance was also filled with apple items on the list to find, meaning that the audience had to move around the space and examine our installation.

 

 

From start to finish, I believe that our final performance ran very smoothly. The use of the bell to signify the start and finish of a particular live element gave the piece a clockwork-like professional feel. With the use of the whiteboard to actively write whatever live element that whichever member of the group decided to right the bell and move the piece forward and the people who wish to perform live stand up went as smooth as we expected. Doing it this was, as opposed to having a written structure and timings made the piece spontaneous for us as well as the audience. This way, we were simply carrying out tasks in a naturalistic way as opposed to taking on the role of the performer.

As far as the audience were concerned, we received a steady amount throughout the day. Some filled out the tick sheets and others preferred to just view our piece on its own. It was interesting to watch the behaviour of the audience during particular acts. Some embraced the performance space and respected the boundaries between viewing space and the installation, walking around the space and actively searching out and trying to pick out as much as they could from the piece. Looking at the collected sheets at the end of the performance day after two non-stop sessions of performance, we found that quite a few people found a great number of the things on the checklist which must have meant that they stayed to view the performance for quite some time as the full length of the film lasted 40 minutes and must have spent time walking around the set and viewing live activities. This was very different from others who kept their distance, only viewing the live art instead of searching around the space and there were even two individuals who sat in the doorway, obviously overwhelmed by what they had to do with the strange, intimate space. On a few occasions, the audience decided to take full use of the mechanics of our performance and step forward to ring the bell to end a certain activity. Initially, the bell was just to be used to communicate through our silent atmosphere as the only sounds we wanted were from the tasks, but I believe that the small audience participation was very effective, though it was not expected. When we re-perform the piece in the Gravity Fields Festival, audience participation will definitely be more actively involved by making the bell assessable. As far as the set was concerned, our performance was very messy at times which caused the set to decrease in quality. Although the set itself was extremely effective and interesting from the feedback we have heard from the audience, it would be an idea to take some time in the middle of the performances to re-set the stage to provide some, but not too much set decay.

(Fig.6. An apple.. Is an apple.. Is an apple.)

bib

Birch, A & Tompkins, J (10 Oct 2012). Performing Site-Specific Theatre: Politics, Place, Practice (Performance Interventions). Palgrave Macmillan

 

Cook, J (2007). The Book of Positive Quotations. 2nd ed. Fairview Press. p. 390.

 

De Certeau, Michel. The Practice of Everyday Life, trans. Steven Rendall, University of California Press, Berkeley 1984

 

Pearson, M (2010) Site-Specific Performance, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.

 

Wilkie, F. (June 2004). Out Of Place. The Negotiation of Space in Site-Specific Performance.

Final Blog Submission- Defying Gravity

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Final Blog Submission

Defying Gravity
Framing Statement
In order to perform a piece of site specific theatre, one must first examine what is meant by the term ‘site specific’? Patrice Pavis proposed in 1998 that a play-as-event belongs to the space. The observations relate it to practices originating in theatre. He dismisses distinguishing common features, focusing upon process rather than object. On the other hand, Fiona Wilke argues that the performance is a reaction against the site, instead of being comfortable merging with the resonances of the site. Essentially she is saying instead of performing something fitting with the setting (a religious play in a church) one should consider performing something contrasting (sci-fi in a church).
The original site was a shopping centre in Grantham, resulting in retail themed ideas. Having failed to establish any thoughts on shopping, Grantham itself became the centre of focus. Ideas on science and politics were considered, due to Grantham’s rich tapestry of history. Gravity Fields Festival became involved in the process giving a clear direction towards a science based piece, as the Festival is a Grantham based festival created to celebrate the site and appreciate its history.

Taking this into consideration, the retail theme becomes less challenging. Integrating ideas relating to science, specifically physics, into a performance becomes easier to comprehend once an understanding of site is achieved. Therefore, an idea was born from the simple concept of breaking the rules of gravity. Initial thoughts were primarily, to exercise our bodies, pushing them to their limits, against gravity, or perhaps ever bending the illusion of gravity i.e. attaching furniture to the wall. The main foundation for our piece revolves around limits. Something often tested by site specific. However, instead of testing the limits of the space, the focus is on the performer’s personal limits, and their bodies in the space. The performance is outlined in its stance, attitude and presupposition as ‘walker: sauntering- ‘equally at home everywhere’ (Thoreau, H. 1862, 71-72),’ ‘validated by its effects on the body- from sweat to heart rate to muscle stretching.’ (Thrift, N. 2008, 68). The piece’s main focus shall be the deterioration of the human body, battling against gravity. As it evolved the performance becomes an experiment, timing each of the participants. Grotowski’s laboratory theatre was explored as a result.
‘Performance exists in and through time. It is usually scheduled, of certain duration, with beginning and end to its parenthesis. As a ‘time based’ art, it demonstrates its nature by playing with time: slowing down, speeding up, attenuating and intensifying the norms of social practice, in combinations of simultaneous, sequential, folded, suspended and discontinuous activity.’
(Pearson, M. 2010, 159)
The piece is not bound by the constraints of time, as there is no way to predict the length of each performance. The stamina of the players may fall, or the strength may build. The eventuality of gravity’s victory is inevitable, however, it is this decay, not time itself, that determines the piece’s length.
Due to unfortunate circumstances, the actual performance took place in the LPAC building, on the university campus. As a result both sites will be examined in terms of space and site.
Analysis Of Process
Some Inspiration and Another Point of View
A variety of themes came out of the work, both during the rehearsal process and for the final piece. As site specific theatre concentrates on the space, the set out and design became imperative. The institutional fixates and sureties of the auditorium are absent at site. Other displacements of, and relationships with, audience become feasible. Conventions of theatrical prudence and decorum may not apply. As the performance developed it became clear the audience would be viewing an experiment. The idea was born out of the simplification of previous thoughts. Previous rehearsals had a focus of defying gravity. Trying to defy gravity physically is exhausting, but faking it using visual techniques would be both interesting and attainable. Inspiration was pulled from varying sources including ‘Fighting Gravity’ who appeared on America’s got talent. Fighting Gravity used glow in the dark balls to create a routine, however paint became a more appealing option. The space then evolves into an entirely new area for performance. Ideally it would be held in an entirely blacked out room, with glow in the dark paint, and a sheet of Perspex through the centre, separating performer from audience. Not only will this be visually stimulating, but it challenges the proxemics of the performance. Standard site performances are usually ‘thrown together in sociopetal arenas, sites where the audience is thrown into proximity.’ (Pearson, M. 175). The audience will feel close to the performers; however there will still be a barrier. Although, as only two out of the four performers would be behind the Perspex at any time, the others shall integrate into the audience, becoming both a performer and observer. Performing behind the Perspex adds another layer as an’ auditorium often locates a performance as ‘over there’, necessitating projection and a particular economy of physical and vocal rhetoric, site-specific performers may be ‘just here’, ‘up close’.’ (Pearson, M. 176). In conceiving the actor-spectator relationship, it was decided that there would be no direct participation from the audience. There would be two ensembles: actors, spectators, in two precise roles. This ‘behind the glass’ effect also conjures thoughts of mannequins behind a shop window, relating directly to the retail aspect of the site. The direct response to music became the focal point for the performance as synaesthesia. Research into Cathy Berberian’s performance of ‘Stripsody’ was carried out looking at how a musical score can be created out of anything. Henri Lefebvre explores that anything can have a rhythm .We train ourselves, and are trained, to behave in a number of ways. Everybody has their own individual rhythms. The idea of responding to conventional music became redundant as other avenues were explored. The use of colour was important too as various colours represent different emotions according to the chakra. A small performance was devised using sounds of emotions and assigning them to colours. The performance itself threw up many issues. As it involved paint, it had to be outside, causing problems with the weather. Another attempt used glow sticks in an improvised routine.
Let’s Get Physical
Unfortunately, with the sites relocation, and the nature of the project, it soon became obvious that this performance was not going to work. However, during the process a lot of attention was paid to the movement work and particular focus on choreography and the way one presents oneself. The physicality of the piece was key to its success; therefore a great deal of research was carried out on various types of physical theatre. Two stood out particularly; Pina Bausch and Vsevold Meyerhold. Both styles resonated well with the group, especially the work with physical lifts. Having practised lots of physical work the idea of resisting gravity was born. The simplicity of the idea became a focal point. Varying exercises in stamina and strength were explored using Pilates to increase both. By repeating these exercises we decided to conduct our performance as an experiment. With this in mind, an exploration of Grotowski’s laboratory theatre occurred. To begin with, the space had to be immaculate. This idea emphasized the essential element of any theatre event: the intensified participation of actors and spectators in a shared space. This clinical feel removes any distractions from the audience, enabling them to focus solely on the performance. The experiment is also relevant to the science festival, which was our original site. Luckily, our performance wasn’t uncompromising in its need for space. ‘Emptiness is an illusionary category and performance may have to work hard to assert itself’ (Pearson, M. 156). Although the space was clear and uncluttered, the nature of the piece meant it still commanded attention, and the players all asserted their presence. Incorporating bright orange yoga mats into an entirely blacked out space provided the audience with an obvious focal point and also linked back to our glow in the dark idea.
The Illusion of Time
One of the most interesting elements of our piece was the use of time. Unlike conventional theatre, which runs on event time, we had no specified performance time; it was all based on our own physical capabilities. Generally in theatre it is all achieved in narrative order, until the story is told. It can also include symbolic time, e.g. 3 days can pass. In site specific theatre, time can also function as an organising principle and structuring device. Because of the lack of narrative, the entire piece we’d created ran in real time. The original piece would have run according to the music. Again however, because there was no story to be told the audience receive a different perception of time. Cliff Mclucan explores the audience’s perception of time within site, ‘they just stand in the same room as you and share ‘plain time’ with you’ (Mclucan quoted in Pearson and McLucas, no date, 14). The piece however was unique in other elements of time, as the neither the audience, nor the performer could see the timer. During the performance no one knew how long each time they had set was. Because of the strenuous nature of the exercises the actor felt as if time was going a lot faster than it was e.g. 45 seconds felt like 2 minutes etc. It became ‘A time that forgets time, during which time no longer counts (and is no longer counted) […..]. This is in time: it is a time, but does not reflect on it.’ (Lefebvre, H. 2004, 76-7).
The lack of narrative also opened up many other themes within the piece. None of our ideas had a story incorporated into it. The paint performance would have existed as a string or pattern of events and singular occurrences. This simple idea was transferred to the piece using overlapping frames in which one activity did not illustrate, nor allude to another.
Rarely does site specific focus solely upon, or proceed at the pace of, that form of dramatic dialogue in which characters talk face to face, exchange information and their feelings about things, and constantly refer to events off stage, elsewhere, in the real world. (Pearson, M.167)
The research suggested that physical action, without a story, becomes schematic and non-illustrative; from technical task to rule based engagements, the participants would not speak to each other, or the audience. In the shop, two performers would be within the audience, ready to welcome them, but otherwise silence would be attained. During the piece we performed, one player opens the door to audience to encourage them in, but again silence was mandatory. The silence also encouraged intensity within the piece. Acceptance of this silence can be a major catalyst toward transformation. Just as the exterior space must be free of clutter, so, too, the actors interior space must be empty itself of trivialities. Using Grotowski’s rehearsal techniques, several rules were implemented during the rehearsal process: maintain silence even during breaks or pauses: curtail any discussion among observers. Silence is a principle that appears throughout all the different phases of Grotowski’s research. He often measured the quality of work by the quality of silence attained. During the Pilates rehearsal, our instructor took this outlook too, as Grotowski states ‘that a bad instructor talks a lot and tries to describe the results of the exercises.’ (Slowiak, J. Cuesta, J. 2007, 121) The silence encouraged focus within in the exercises, both for the performer and spectator.
Knowing the Body
It was absolutely imperative that one became physically fit for the performance. One must determine how the actor relates to his/her own body. In order to eliminate the bodies’ resistances, “the actor should be able to decipher all the problems of his body which are accessible to him.” (Grotowski, J. 2002,35) the exercises of the Polish Laboratory Theatre described in Towards a Poor Theatre were developed more than thirty years ago, by a specific group of actors, from a specific culture, and in a specific time and place. Since Grotowski’s initial research knowledge of the human body has changed, but the concepts are the same. The physicality of the rehearsals demanded an intimacy with oneself. Very often the imagination we have of our bodies has little to do with the reality of our anatomy. These misconceptions can create physical habits that prevent us from maintaining ‘a state of idol readiness, passive ability, which makes it possible for an active acting score’ (Grotowski, J. 37). Using Grotowski’s body mapping to establish knowledge of ones physicality, and each others, the various lifts were established. A sense of trust had to be present also, to allow someone to lift and hold you for as long as they can physically handle. Grotowski understood that actors have many blocks, not only physical blocks, but also in terms of their attitude toward their own bodies. Being ashamed of your body or narcissistic toward it both indicate a lack of acceptance of your body. You divide yourself into “me” and “my body” and this attitude creates a feeling of insecurity, a lack of trust in the body, and, therefore, a lack of trust in one’s self. By spending time mapping the body and awakening an active attention, the actor begins to know her body and accept herself. “not trusting your body means not having confidence in yourself; to be divided. Not to be divided; is not just the actors seed of creativity, but is also the seed of life of the possible whole” (that blog). Most of the work became very solitary, working ‘alone together,’ and in relationship with the environment.
Enter Grotowski
Grotowski influenced the work very heavily. His ideals on how theatre should strive to be different from other categories of performance urged the piece to be stripped of spectacle, makeup and superfluous decoration. The core of the performance was the exercises. Everything else would have served as a distraction. It was important to devise a piece without makeup, autonomic costumes and scenography. We did want a separate performance area, but one with close proxemics between the performer and audience. The actor-spectator relationship remained direct. This art of ‘not pretending’ was important throughout the whole process. The aspect of not-pretending meant themes of personal honesty became palpable in the theatre space and a new relationship between actor and spectator was born. Our piece was always about action rather than acting. Grotowski believed that human beings play so many roles in their daily lives that the theatre should be a place where the actor does not play a character, but tries to seek a more authentic self. During the process, we had looked at chair duets. Beginning with areas each individual is uncomfortable being touched in; the players would attempt to displace each other. This illustrates natural impulses, which were something that needed eliminating. The result is freedom from the time-lapse between inner impulse and outer reaction in such a way that the impulse is already an outer reaction. Impulse and action are concurrent: the body vanishes, burns, and the spectator sees only a series of visible impulses. Repeated manipulation of each others impulses resulted in eventual desensitisation, removing the problem of the internal becoming external.
Performance Evaluation
The performance itself was very successful. A primary concern was the audience’s reaction and understanding. On the whole the feedback was positive. Our aims were simple and clear, therefore easily understandable. The gradual detrition of each performer throughout the exercises, and during the day, proved very interesting to spectators. The performance had a strong, definitive structure, using repetition throughout. It was important, due to the experimental nature of the piece, to keep as many variables constant as possible. The method of timing remained constant, the exercises were run on cycles and breaks were not scheduled. The performance space itself looked fantastic. The professional, clean, clinical atmosphere was easily conveyed to the audience, and using Grotowski inspired much of the layout. In depth research into extentialism revealed many similarities between the piece and Grotowski’s production of The Woman is a Devil. Both include a quartet of actors against a backdrop of black curtains. The minimalistic environment emphasises the individual’s isolation, developing the existentialism of the piece.
Although the piece was highly successful, it could be developed in many further ways. Although the performers worked incredibly hard during the rehearsal process to develop core strength and stamina, the physical fitness was still an issue. Having only the last two month of the process to train, the levels of fitness were not at their peak. Never-the-less, this then provided the audience with a better visual representation of the body’s collapse. Shaking and sweating were visible side effects, along with breathlessness.
Another development could be integrating the audience. There were a large number of spectators on the day, yet there was absolutely no interaction. The silence was an important aspect for this performance, but when taking it to Grantham it would perhaps be more prudent to invite the audience to join in and compete in various challenges.
Due to the change in site, certain spaces were not utilised. Having the entire floor, the group could have split up the performance in various areas. The lift for example would have provided a wonderful space, using movement of the space, and the actor. Another example is the disabled toilet, or even the corridor itself. Given the opportunity again, these areas would have been used as their potential is now obvious.
Another idea was to introduce the piece. Not vocally, but by printing pamphlets or information on the theories and definitions behind our piece. Having spent a lot of time researching the Newton and gravity, it was a little disappointing to not include it in the piece.
This process has been difficult, confusing and very stressful at times. The major issues were grasping the concept of site, then catering to the festival’s requirements and having to cope with the shift in site. After grasping the concept, the devising itself became very problematic, but by research and simplification the performance was achieved. Although physically strenuous, the performance itself worked very well and was as effective as we had hoped.

Bibliography

Cathy Berbain (1971) Stripsody. [download track] 4 mins 34 secs. MagnifiCathy – The Many Voices of Cathy Berbain. London: Wergo. Available from https://itunes.apple.com/gb/artist/cathy-berberian/id45526703 [Accessed 1 April]

Cuesta, J. Slowiak, J. (2007). Jerzy Grotowski. Wiltshire: Routledge.

Grotowski, J. (2002). Towards Poor Theatre. Wiltshire: Routledge

Lefebvre, H. (2004). Rhythmanalysis: Space, Time and Everyday Life. London. Bloomsbury Publishing

operascenes’s channel. (2011) Stravinsky- Rite of Spring “Sacrificial Dance”. [online video] Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7pV2cX0qxs [Accessed 17 Feb]

RacconPolice (2010) Fighting Gravity- All Performances. [online video] Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-RXohKepp4 [Accessed 3 March 2014]

RoutledgeTextbooks (2009) Frantic Assembly Book of Devising Theatre – Chair Duets. [online video] Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LC-dkYZOUVo [Accessed 17 Feb]

Pearson, M. (2010). Site Specific Performance .Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Quicksand (2013) Statement of Principles – Jerzy Grotowski. [blog entry] 10 June. Available from http://fiction-worthy-wind.tumblr.com/post/52653579618/statement-of-principles-jerzy-grotowski [Accessed 14 May 2014]

Simpson, C. (2014) Audience Behind the Glass. [blog entry] 25 March. Lincoln: Retail Therapy. Available from https://sitespecific2014dsy.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/wp-admin/post.php?post=450&action=edit [Accessed 15 May 2014]

Thrift, N. (2008). Non-representational Theory: Space, Politics, Affect. New York: Routledge

Thoreau, H. (1862). Walking. Atlantic Monthly. 71-72.

 

 



 

Dispersion the final performance.

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Our final performance was named Dispersion; this means “the separation of white light into colours or of any radiation according to wavelength.” (Oxford English Dictionary, 2012, 204) Which takes the form of the Newtonian theories that we are focusing on during our performance, but our piece as a whole also lets the audience disperse as they please, whether that be around the room, or to come and go. But also the light used in our performance, leaving the staging simple meant that some areas of the performance space were left in complete darkness, whilst others were filled with overspill light or direct light. Dispersion took place in the LPAC, but will also feature at The Gravity Fields festival 2014. The performance took place on the 10th May 2014, and lasted for three and a half hours, the durational piece allowed the audience to come and go as they please, and the room was split into two sections to give the audience a sense of exploration when moving through our performance, as there was no one to guide them around, they explored for themselves.

Our performance was originally based around the ideas of retail, we were given the site of four disused shops in Grantham, we explored shops and focused on the things you do not normally observe when shopping, this lead us into exploring the use of light. As part of our brief for gravity field’s festival we were given different topics that we could focus on, these topics focused on science and so our ideas adapted to a more scientific based performance. These topics featured around the ideas of Isaac Newton, one of the world’s most famous scientists born and raised in Grantham. The topic we chose to focus on featured the ideas of light, optics and electricity.
Our performance developed into a physical performance of light and sound, after the feedback we were given on our performance, we took it back to the roots of light and sound and the body, exploring the ideas of the connection between light and sound, how light reacts to sound, using research we collected about notes of the scale correlating with the colours of the rainbow. The main concept of our performance was the idea of the light on the body; show how light interacts with the body and changes it. Our final performance venue was changed to the LPAC, and it was from then on that the views of our performance changed, our work was no longer site specific, but instead site sensitive.

The research that guided us through our performance, was a mixture of scientific research and site specific theory, paying close attention the ideas of the difference between what performance and acting are, and also experimenting with performance, experimenting with the ideas between space and time in ways that are both site specific and scientific, the main interest behind our work was linking both science and site specific theory together.


What is site specific?

Our process started with understanding what site specific meant, we began by getting to grips with the two key words performance and site, performance means “the action or process of performing a task or function” (Oxford English Dictionary, 2012, 556) The idea of performance is that anything is a performance, reading, watching TV, all the things that we as humans think of as everything day activities are performing. Site however is a more complicated word according to the OED “site” means “an area of ground on which a town, building, or monument is constructed” (Oxford English Dictionary, 2012, 679) This definition understands that a site exemplifies the idea that there has to be something physical, however this form of definition lacks other meanings, for example what is a website, this has no physical space where something is built upon it. These definitions lead to the idea that the site is more than just a physical space there are other factors that define it as well.
This lead to the understanding of the difference between performance and site-specific performance, Fiona Wilkie talks of the different types of performance, she breaks performance down into 5 different sections, In Theatre performance, Outside performance (Play in the park), site sympathetic (Text physicalized at a site), site generic (performed for a series of like sites i.e.: car parks, and site specific (a performance specifically generated for one site). When we think of site specific there are many factors that influence a performance, Wilkie suggests “historical documentation, site usage…” These factors play a big part in site-specific performance. (Wilkie, 2002, 150)


Retail with a new perspective

Our original site was focused on four disused shops in Grantham, it was difficult for us to see how we could make the link between the retail world and the scientific, we were set the task of going around the shops with a different perspective, viewing things from different angles. We came back with a different view of retail. Much like Wilkie mentions above that we must think about the sites usage when we are creating our performance, it was important for our performance that we understood how the staff of the shop worked and the building as a shop worked. It quickly came to our attention that there was no sunlight in the shop at all and that all of the lighting was artificial. This brings the ideas of what we want our audience to get from this performance; the initial route I thought of was the way that lighting changes the audience’s emotions, as well as the shoppers. The space changes the performances, it places boundaries on the performance, a shop has a door that the audience walks through, it has shop windows, and the audience will get a completely different experience if they are viewing the performance from outside the shop as opposed to inside it. Pearson talks of space as an “organizing principle” he asks “Where is the audience positioned, and what viewpoints or modes of apprehension are thus conspired?” (Pearson, 2010, 156) How does the performance effect the audience, does this change if they are stood elsewhere? He also asks the question “How does it disperse itself within and in relation to a particular architecture or environment?” (Pearson, 2010, 156) Pearson questions not only that they audience change their reactions in according to where they are placed, but that the performances also changes and moulds in accordance to the space.
In Dispersion, our final piece was set in a minimalist blacked out space, providing a space where the boundaries almost lost existence; we felt that we could do anything with the space, as it was so simplistic. This meant that the audience was not focused on themselves, but what was physically in front of them, and around them. “… minimalism blurred the boundaries of the work in the evacuated, space of the White-Cube gallery…Rather than deflect attention back toward the viewer’s physical occupation of the gallery space.” (Kaye, 2006, 156). It made the audience think, they were encouraged to give their own opinions, as the space was simplistic, it provided no distraction for this to happen.

Time as an organizing principle

When we were in our seminar, a question was posed as to the link between time and space, this got me thinking into how a performance can be organised by means of time, I have already spoken about space as an organising principle, but I have often neglected to see that time too, can have an effect on a performance.
The definition of time is quite complex, it is seen as “the indefinite continued progress of existence and events in the past, present, and future regarded as a whole.” (Oxford English Dictionary, 2012, 1509) This definition assumes the idea that time is fixed it has either happened or is happening or will happen. When we think of time in terms of performance however, this is not necessarily the case. In performance the way we measure time is not a fixed construct. Instead Pearson explains how we warp time. “by playing with time: slowing down, speeding up” (Pearson, 2010, 159) we defy the conventions of what we assume to be “normal” time.

When we think of using time in performance, Scheckner provides us with a better understanding of how this may be split into three different categories. The first of which is event time, “In event time the activity takes as long as it is required for completion: application without fixed duration.”(Pearson, 2010, 160) By this he means if it takes half an hour to thread a needle then the performance will last half an hour. The amount of time taken for the completion of the activity is how long the performance lasts.

The second is set time, “In set time all the activity has to be completed in a given time: a fixed duration that may lead to a sense of urgency and quality of energetic engagement.” (Pearson, 2010, 160) If it takes someone half an hour to thread a needle, but they only have 10 minutes then this creates the urgency and energy in the performance that Scheckner is speaking about.

The third is symbolic time, “in symbolic time one span represents another duration” (Pearson, 2010, 160) For example one hour could represent a whole day. The whole performance that takes three hours could actually represent three days of activity which is being represented on stage.
Time is linked with the idea of sequence, mostly in conventional theatre time runs in a linear sequence with the action that happens on stage. There are times however when time does not. In flashback scenes the performance goes back to a date in time which is before the scene which is being portrayed on stage now. This temporal shift may be used as the sequencing for the performance, instead of following a linear sequence where events happen one after the other, the sequence in the play may be deemed as following temporal organisation.
Dispersion took place under event time, there were moments when things were repeated, a video that looped every five minutes, the time it took to read the text before we started again, the amount of experiments you could do with the prism before you went back to the same one again. This provided our piece with a looping feel, as if time was looped in the space of half an hour then changed when the space changed as we rotated around the room.


Creating a performance about science

When Jeremy the co-ordinator of gravity fields gave more detail of the event we realised that we needed to think about our performance with the Gravity fields festival in mind, no longer was the shop the main feature. Instead we needed to focus our performance on science. Following the presentation Jeremy gave, we decided as a group which topic we would be interested in focusing on, we decided on Light, Optics and Electricity. Gravity fields is a festival combining both the Arts and Science, and our performance needed to combine both of these features together, the theme of the festival is based around Sir Isaac Newton, a famous scientist who studied into depth the physics behind optics and Light. We started researching the science of how light and sound work, how a prism is split by refraction, and the link between light and sound. The link provided us with the basis for a performance, an interactive performance where the audience could join in. The difficulty in doing all this research was that the project was not developing; we had a lot of research and ideas, but had so far not performed/rehearsed anything. This led to the idea of creating a physical piece of work, being influenced by TEDS dance your PHD.

(TEDx Talks, 2011)

We discovered that by creating a performance that physicalized the science, we were able to leave the performance more open to interpretation.

Mapping a performance

We came to realise that our performance was focusing too much on light and how it moves, and we were neglecting the ideas of sound, this lead to us to further incorporating sound, by experimenting, we began by thinking of different types of scripts that we could use, we came across the idea of the Cathy Barbarian Stripsody score.

stripsody

(Stripsody, 2012)
This took music was out of ordinary concepts for us, we experimented with creating our own scripts, using scientific words to create a script and performing them using experimentation of voice. However we felt that this was lacking meaning, we took on a different approach, creating a piece which relied on the audience, making them feel as though they were a part of the performance. We were influenced by cages 4:33, using the audience around us as the sound in the silence, we created a performance where we would mimic the audiences sounds.


Re-creating our performance

After receiving feedback on our performance, it became evident that we had over complicated things; we took our initial ideas and turned them into a performance where we were acting. This idea led to the understanding of the difference between performance and acting, “Rarely does site-specific performance focus solely upon, or proceed at the pace of, that form of dramatic dialogue in which characters talk face-to-face, exchange information and their feelings about things, and constantly refer to events off-stage, elsewhere in the real world.” (Pearson, 2010, 167) We began to understand that our work was showing science, but became hard to understand; instead we were lead to take the performance back to its roots and focus on our initial ideas, focusing on light and its effect on the body. It reminded me of light and an influence that we had right at the beginning of our process, the light installation that we saw pictures of from Light show at the Haywood gallery, he used simple images, by creating a room with different coloured walls.
(Chromostaturation, 2008)
We began to understand that our performance didn’t have to be complicated. We went into a darkened room and played with the idea of light on the body. We were experimenting with Newton’s ideas of light, the way it travels, but we then added an extra layer by casting light onto the body.

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(Hanging upside down, 2014)


Taking our performance to the next level

We decided that we wanted to focus on a different theory that Newton had discovered the means of taking a prism and placing it under a light source to create a dispersion of colours (a rainbow). When we first tried creating the rainbow, it was evident that the colours were splitting but the result was not bright enough, we decided to take the prism and put in on an overhead projector, what we ended up with was a powerful rainbow that we could use in our performance, an audience member suggested the idea that we should use the rainbow as a way of scanning the body, casting the effects made by the prism onto each other.

naomi light rainbow

(Rainbow of Light, 2014)


The Link between sound and light

Whilst creating our performance we realised that we were ignoring the use of sound in our performance, the idea we initially decided on was based on Newton’s understanding of the correlation between light and sound. We wanted to create a visual that let the audience see what we were saying. We found software called (Magic) which when programmed that gives a visual for an imputed sound. However the original visual that came already programmed featured a radial wave (a beam of light which move across the screen in accordance to the imputed sound). However we found this to be too distant from when the science was originally founded, we wanted to create a balance between the 21st and 17th century, I came up with the idea of creating a three wave oscilloscope that reacted to the sound at different frequencies.

waveform picture

(Oscilloscope, 2014)


Layers

Our performance was coming together but we were stuck as a group with how to create the sound that the oscilloscope would react too. Originally our main idea came from using minimalist music, as many minimalist composers, believe that colour and sound are linked.

Synesthetes are famed for their ability to “hear” colors or “see” sound. However, the widespread use of such colorful phrases as “white noise” and “the blues” suggests that ordinary people, too, perceive relationships between sound and color. Most individuals understand what it means for a color or a sound to be “bright” or “dark” or to have a “warm” tone versus a “cool” one…minimalism, has led some to posit perceptual relations between the experiences of color and music. (Tsang and Schloss, 2010, 83)

After deliberating for a while an audience member suggested to us that we instead try to think of a more Newtonian way to create sound by speaking, through the use of Newtonian theory. We searched for a while and found an original document written by Newton, during his experiments into how a prism separates light. The piece of text: “http://www.newtonproject.sussex.ac.uk/view/texts/normalized/NATP00003” (Newton, 2003) added another layer to our performance, the audience could now see not only the prism splitting light live during the performance, but they could also hear how this was done through the use of the Newtonian text. This was then further visualised by the oscilloscope in the background during the performance.


Performance evaluation

Our final performance took place on the 10th May in Studio 2 in the LPAC. The first half of our performance lacked an audience, as only 3 small groups of people turned up. This was due to the lack of advertising that we created at the venue, this was rectified in the second half as a sign was placed on the window, letting the audience members know that they can come and go as they please .The amount of audience improved in the second half due to this.
The audience explored the room and the space, they seemed to enjoy the performance and some offered constructive criticism for the next time we perform our piece. For example: The video should be played on a projector as opposed to a TV screen. It was interesting for the audience to stand in a room and listen to Newtonian theory being read, whilst seeing it visualised.

We realised our performance was repetitive in particular the video and the prism section, we realised that by documenting the performance throughout, through the use of photographs it would give the audience a different experience every time they returned, they would discover something new. The visualisation of the sound also worked particularly well, especially through reading the Newtonian text it added another layer to the performance which would have been missed by reading another piece of text.

The piece could have been improved with a more rehearsed reading of the text, by understanding the text in more detail it would have made the performance flow better, the tone of voice during this part of the performance could have also changed to make the performance sound less harsh, this was also due to us reading the text too quickly. By changing this part of our performance, we would encourage the audience to stay for longer durations of time; the audience would also be able to understand the text more clearly.

My engagement with site-specific theory has allowed me to view performance in a different way, by reading the text we are still performing, the biggest learning curve has been the difference between performance and acting. Responding to the space that we have been given, our site was Grantham and the theory helped us understand that even though we were not performing in Grantham, our site was really the Newtonian science behind it, our performance was site sensitive.


Works cited

Chromosaturation. (2008) [online photo] Avaiable from: http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Arts/Arts_/Pictures/2013/1/28/1359394776222/Light-Show-at-the-Hayward-010.jpg.

Hanging upside down (2014) [original photo] copyright of Holly Hutchinson.

Kaye, N. (2000) site-specific art: performance, place and documentation. London: Routledge.

Newton, I. (2003) Draft of ‘A Theory Concerning Light and Colors’. [online] Sussex: Newton Project. Available at: http://www.newtonproject.sussex.ac.uk/view/texts/normalized/NATP00003 [Accessed 31 March 2014].

Oscilloscope (2014) [original photo] copyright of Holly Hutchinson.

Oxford English Dictionary. (2012) The Oxford English Dictionary. 7th edition. London: Oxford University Press.

Pearson, M. (2010) Site Specific Performance. London: Palgrave Macmillian.

Rainbow of light (2014) [original photo] copyright of Holly Hutchinson.

Stripsody. (2012) [online photo] Available from http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mHhqMguz93g/T9-ydZ1TrlI/AAAAAAAAEkw/JnQRfx64lU8/s1600/stripsody.jpg.

TEDx Talks. (2011) Dance your PhD: John Bohannon & Black Label Movement at TEDxBrussels. [online video] Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlDWRZ7IYqw [Accessed March 11 2014].

Tsang, T and Schloss, K. (2010) Associations between Color and Music are Mediated by Emotion and Influenced by

Tempo. The Yale Review of Undergraduate Research in Psychology, 1 (1) 82-93.

Wilkie, F. (2002) Mapping the terrain: a Survey of Site-Specific performance in Britain. New Theatre Quarterly, 18 (2) 140-160.