Dispersion – My final submission

May 16, 2014 by Michael Aiden Woodhall·0 Comment

Framing statement

Whilst taking part in the Site Specific module, my devising skills have developed and the process leading to the performance pushed my boundaries as a performer as well as the way I think of and look at performance.

My piece, Dispersion, was primarily based on light and sound paying particular attention to Isaac Newton’s discoveries. It was heavily influenced by the idea of performing in multiple spaces including an abandoned shop, the ‘Gravity Fields Festival’, and Lincoln Performing Arts Centre, eventually making the end product adaptable and versatile to be performed at more than one venue. The performance took place in studio 2 of Lincoln Performing Arts Centre on 10th May 2014. It began at 14:00 and ended at 18:00 with a thirty minute break which began at 16:00. This was a durational piece as we carried out tasks and experiments for thirty minutes at which point we rotated to the next task. Audience members were invited to enter and exit the space as they pleased with the freedom to explore the space and discover with us.

My initial research started with the basics of site and what this style of performance would ask of me. Richard Serra says of site-specific art; ‘To move the work is to destroy the work.’ (Kaye, 2000, 2) I would say that this is the same case for site-specific performance as once the piece is moved to a new site, it is ruined; the history, environment, location or social context of the site may have been a stimulus for the piece and therefore reflected in the work. As my piece relied heavily on science and having an understanding in something I had not studied since my time at secondary school, much of my research time went into rediscovering these theories.

Analysis of process

At the beginning of the devising process I originally thought that my final performance was going to be based in a vacant shop in Grantham with the theme of retail therapy. In order to get ideas flowing I spent lesson time, as well as time outside of university hours, observing customers and viewing shops, taking care to view the details of various shops and considering what my site might look like. For me, this was the most exciting part of the module as I had no idea what direction the performance would take.

The performance then started to take a different route to what I had originally thought. Although the site was still an abandoned shop in Grantham, we added an element of science to the performance rather than relating it to retail. This was because the final performance is going to be part of a festival held in Grantham called ‘Gravity Fields Festival’. The festival is ‘inspired by the work of Isaac Newton and includes ‘a dynamic and creative programme of science, arts and heritage events’ (Gravity Fields Festival, 2014). As the performance was being commissioned, we were sent a brief from the festival organisers including four different themes that each group would have to adopt; Gravity, alchemy, and two groups focused on light. I had decided that I wanted my final piece to involve the science behind sound and so it made sense to link this with the theme of light. Part of me saw the festival as a positive as it meant our piece had a starting point that we could develop. On the other hand I felt that this could have restricted us and our ideas that we already had due to the specific audience and nature of the festival.

I wanted to explore how others had already successfully explored light and sound in performance and in doing so, came across ‘The Light Show’ which took place between 30th January and 6th May 2013 at Hayward Gallery in London. The Light Show at the Hayward Gallery (UCLUPiTV (2013) Pi TV) Once piece that I found particularly interesting was ‘Cylinder’ by artist Leo Villareal whose work I decided to research further. These light installations, as shown in the video, made me question how different they would have looked with human interaction. How can these lights affect the human body? Could they make the body look deformed or broken? Would bodily interaction change the overall mood of the piece? These are all things I wanted to explore further and incorporate into the final performance.

Heavy science research lead me to find out Isaac Newton discovered that white light is not a single colour, but a combination of all the colours on the light spectrum. He backed up this theory by shining a white light into a prism; the light which came out the other end was multi-coloured, an experiment that had been completed before, making people believe that prisms were responsible for the colour change. Newton extended this experiment by using another prism which the multi-coloured light shone into. This time the light which exited the prism was white as the colours had refracted together, proving that the prism did not colour the light. ‘…Newton refracted sunlight with a prism into a colour spectrum – each coloured ray with a specific refrangibility, or angle of refraction. With a second prism, he demonstrated that each refracted ray of the colour spectrum is dispersed to the same degree as with the first prism.’ (Marcum, 2009, 458) Newton also went on to discover that light is made up of particles rather than just being a wave.

Our trip to Grantham helped us with the devising process, defining our ideas. On our initial visit to the site we were shown around possible performance spaces, several empty shops, luckily finding one which inspired us. I had imagined using mirrors during the performance to relate to refraction and the shop already had a variety of mirrors fitted around the space. This was a huge positive for us and we could instantly see our piece being performed in this space.

(Woodhall, M. 2014)

My group had discussed the idea of using a shop window as a way of grabbing the audience’s attention and at this particular shop this idea was possible as there was a ledge large enough to stand on and make us visible.

(Woodhall, M. 2014)

The shape of the room inspired us to have hidden parts of our performance, making the audience work to discover some parts of the piece. Finally, we also liked the variety of hooks and rails around the space which we could use to hang objects which related to our performance. We were not exactly sure of what these items would be, but we would figure that out further down the devising process.

(Woodhall, M. 2014)

As previously mentioned, site-specific performances are heavily influenced by the site, its history or the way it is currently used/set out; ‘Its usage, or former usage, may directly inform the dramatic structure’, (Pearson, 2010, 149) Although in my case, the inspiration was coming from the science festival and the work of Isaac Newton, there were still aspects of the shop’s past which were relevant to the theme. We were informed that Isaac Newton carried out many of his experiments in some of the shops in The George Shopping Centre, which is where the shop we had chosen was located.

During seminars, we had the opportunity to perform our work-in-progress to the rest of the class. To begin with, many of our ideas were inspired by physical theatre, especially the work of PUSH ‘Physical Theatre’, performances of STOMP and finally, John Bohannon, a biologist and science journalist. He delivered a talk called ‘modest proposal’ with help from a physical theatre company, Black Label Movement, to help explain his points in a more engaging way for the audience. This exciting explanation of science inspired us to explore and explain light through our bodies. To tie in sound to the performance we decided to create a soundscape with wooden spoons, playing various rhythms. The idea was to have sound waves projected on a wall, reacting to the sounds we made, showing the difference between high and low frequency sounds.

The pieces we were getting inspiration from were not necessarily associated with site performance. After realising this and getting similar feedback from our peers and lecturers, we decided to go back and study some site-specific practitioners for inspiration. Although what we had been devising was engaging, well suited to the festival audience and involved our theme of science, we came to understand that we were 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) The whole point of site specific performance is to perform, not act. This can be done by completing tasks, reading aloud or simply just observing. It is crucial for us to understand that performance happens all of the time in everyday life before thinking about the performance itself. I think that we got carried away with our ideas and forgot this main principle and it resulted in an over complicated piece of theatre which was not completely obeying the rules of site specific performance.

I took a tremendous liking toward the company ‘Lone Twin’; their walks, journeys and durational performances. Their work consists of activities and tasks which heavily involve the audience. Many of their pieces have asked audiences to join them on a walk or help them to carry heavy objects. ‘The element of repetition or the extended duration of their activities also ask for the audience’s commitment; confronted with the impossibility of seeing the whole project the audience might make an effort to stay with them for a long time or to come back several times to witness the development of the project.’ (Willaims, 2011, 69) After reading about their work, I was inspired for my performance to become durational. I liked the idea of completing tasks and having no idea how long the audience would stay for.

It was then decided that we would go back to our original ideas of using certain materials such as prisms, microphones, projection and video in a simple way, completing science based tasks. The main focus of our piece was originally light and Newton’s discovery, therefore inspiring us to use prisms in the performance. To layer this we then brought in the idea of sound and the science behind it into the performance. Another way of layering the performance was our use of various elements of technology. ‘In a stratigraphic model of dramaturgy, site-specific performance is envisaged and executed as distinct strata or layers.’ (Pearson, 2010, 167) When showing sound we had the basic idea of projecting sound waves onto the wall showing how sound travels. We then added a microphone to the performance which interacted with the sound waves, showing the different dynamics and frequencies to the sounds we were making. The final part to this was to add text rather than unrelated noises. This was an original Newton text which described his discoveries whilst we attempted to show these around the space with the science based tasks. We also had an idea of taking photos on a Polaroid camera to capture moments of the performance and have them around the space for the audience to see. The more layers there are to a performance, the more the audience have to discover. Some audience members may relate to the projection whilst others may understand more from the text. This was to give the audience room to understand the piece in an inventive way without making it too obvious.

As many of our ideas started to drastically change, we decided to go back to basics and look at different lights and how they work. The light pictured below reacts to the sound around it; the colour of the light changes every time there is a loud sound. We thought this was a nice way to link light and sound together.

(Woodhall, M. 2014)

We spent two hours being creative with this light by playing the piano and seeing how often the colour changed, experimenting with the body and we also linked it to the sound waves which were projected on the wall.

(Woodhall, M. 2014)

The news was then broken to us that we would still be performing in the ‘Gravity Fields’ Festival in September but our performance in May would be taking place in the Lincoln Performing Arts Centre (LPAC). I think this can be seen as unfavourable due to the fact that we have planned out our performance to fit into the shop we visited in Grantham. However, there were many positives to this change as we could rehearse our piece in the site we will be performing in. We also did not have the issue of trying to get all of the technical equipment to the site as most of it was stored in LPAC. It was easy to assume because I was performing in a building where you would typically find tradition theatre performed, that it would take away the essentials of site-specific, however this was not the case; ‘Studio theatres are sometimes known as ‘laboratory theatres’ or ‘theatre workshops’ both of which suggest the process of experiment and ‘making’.’(Pickering and Woolgar, 2009, 26) Although our site changed, we decided to keep our performance the same meaning that our piece was not so much site specific but it could be known as site intensive or zone specific. For me, I think that our site was more metaphorical and could be known as the ‘Gravity Fields Festival’. We then adapted the piece so that our original site was in mind when devising as well as the new site, this made the piece highly versatile and could potentially be performed in many different spaces by only having a couple of changes to fit the space appropriately. This would entail; being able to black out a space, separate it into two rooms or sections and having the materials available as well as a power source. All of these changes which were made to our performance pushed us as a group in terms of being adaptable and open minded when things did not exactly go how they were originally planned.

Throughout these changes, I came to realise that the performance was no longer about explaining light and sound; it was more about what we had discovered and our journey throughout the devising process. This was shown by having a video of our devising and experimental process playing throughout the performance. We wanted the audience to feel as though they were seeing us experiment with light and sound in an installation setup, giving them the opportunity to walk freely around the space and enter and exit as they please; ‘Depending on where the spectators are positioned, they will see a different combination of performers and may thus interpret the situation differently.’ (Pearson, 2010, 176) By doing this, we hoped that each audience member would be present at varied points of the performance, meaning that us as performers and the audience would have discovered different things and had a varied experience.

Performance evaluation

As the set up for the piece was only small, I felt it was highly important to completely clear the space, sweep the floors and block out all light so that the audience would have the best experience possible. For the performance, the space was separated into two by a curtain. In the first half of the room two performers were experimenting with a prism, looking closely at how the light rays looked on the human body. Another performer was sat in front of a television watching the video we had created which involved more of our experiments with light. In the second half of the room, behind the curtain, the final performer was reading a piece of original Isaac Newton text. Reacting to the speech were sound waves which were projected onto a wall. The performer was lit by a light that changed colour, also reacting to the speech. Every thirty minutes, each performer moved in a clockwise direction to have their turn with the next task.

We had a steady flow of audience members; there were times when there was no audience present in the space but as we were completing tasks, the piece did not heavily rely on this. Some audiences walked in and out within a short space of time but others took the time to watch each task with care. Some sat with the performers and sat to watch the television which made it feel as though they were part of the task too. Many audience members were unsure on whether to go behind the curtain but all attendees eventually ventured to the second half of the space. After starting our performance we realised that, because the room was dark, it was not clear that anyone could enter at any time and therefore if performed again, some sort of sign would be helpful in securing this does not happen again. On the subject of performing this piece again, we actually have this opportunity in September during the ‘Gravity Fields Festival’. For this performance, we are going to meet up and make a few changes to the piece. I personally would love to try out our photograph idea. Whether this is with a Polaroid camera or by printing the pictures with an ordinary printer, I think it will be an effective way of capturing the beautiful moments of the prism on the body and another layer to the imagery already used in the video. We have also spoken about projecting the video rather than showing it and a television and making the video longer instead of having the short video on repeat. Another thing to think about when performing this in the festival is that the space is much different and will take a lot more time to block out the light and the number of audience members will increase dramatically.

Bibliography

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

Marcum, James A. (2009) The Nature of Light and Color: Goethe’s “Der Versuch als Vermittler” versus Newton’s Experimentum Crucis. Perspectives on Science, 17(4) 457-481.

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

Pickering, K. and Woogar, M. (2009) Theatre Studies. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Williams, D., Lavery C. (eds) (2011) Good luck everybody: journeys, performances, conversations / Lone Twin. Aberystwyth: Performance Research Books

Woodhall, M. (2014) First visit to Grantham, Retail Therapy. [15th March]. Available from https://sitespecific2014dsy.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/ [Accessed 12 MAY 2014]

Woodhall, M. (2014) Playing with lights, Retail Therapy. [3rd April]. Available from https://sitespecific2014dsy.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/ [Accessed 12 MAY 2014]

The Light Show at the Hayward Gallery [online video] Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot2NXm6EGuE [Accessed 15 May 2014]

101 Things to Do With An Apple- final blog submission

May 16, 2014 by Nathan Joseph·0 Comment

Framing Statement

On May 10th 2014, Phil Munro, Kate Newman, Claudia Cross, Connor Mccue and I created our own piece of site specific theatre which was based or mostly influenced by the famous Isaac Newton when it was supposedly claimed that he theorised the notion of gravity immediately after an apple fell on his head from the tree. Our performance was based entirely on apples and we named it ‘101 things to do with an Apple’. Our first original title was to be The A team (which is a reference to the popular 80s TV show), but we decided to stick with the former as our title. At first, we wanted to recreate the entire Isaac newton story, laced with comedic and fictionalised acting. However, as we progressed more and more into our ideas, we instead decided to forget the acting and start doing. Many things we found to do with apples are mostly traditional and conventional things, but then wanted to steer off into the abstract and do thingsthat most people wouldn’t even dream of ever considering. It was a durational performance that evidently lasted around 4 to 5 hours with one break in between. The showing is to be the first of two as we are expected to perform at the Gravity Fields Festival in September. We was told that this festival was based around Newtonian science and we was to create something science based. We had a lot more freedom with the space at the Lincoln Performing Arts Centre, but I never really had the feeling that our performance was ‘site based’. We wanted to incorporate that feeling of decay and desolation into our piece. There was no talking throughout the entire performance as we felt that silence was a lot more authentic and related to the piece. We thought about audience participation from the start, but instead opted for audience reaction. I will discuss how our process went from trying to ‘act’ out our performance in the early stage, to creating a piece of art that enables one to go deeper within the boundaries of theatre as a whole.

The Process

When we define the word ‘site’, we envision the term as a place that is built within this world. Site is everywhere; cities, houses, museums, shops and so forth are prime examples of how we perceive the term ‘site’. It is not classed as acting but it still stays in the lines of theatre, only to take away the conventional space like the stage. When we think of site specific, we determine the precise and clear space which will be transformed into a place of performing manoeuvres. As Mike Pearson says ‘In reflecting upon the specific relationship between place and performance, we might usefully borrow other disciplinary optics. We might realign such performance as an active agency within adjacent fields of endeavour: geography, architecture, urban planning.’ (2010, pp42). The world around us can be used as performance. We base site specific on those three key terms above and it forms the basis of specificity. In the first session, I already had an initial idea about how a performance could have been developed. As an avid video gamer I played the game Silent Hill: Downpour and something caught my eye. Seeing as our main goal was to create a performance that was based around science, I initially imagined the concept of lights and space being merged together. In that particular game, the main plot focuses on a supernatural town that has the ability to bring mannequins to life. In this essence, I thought about having performers play the mannequins and having this scientific element of light. I had the notion of the lights sort of ‘activating’ the mannequins with the latter coming to life with only the flick of a switch. As another form of research, I watched the 2007 film Sunshine to gain an understanding of the scientific elements.

‘Our sun is dying. Mankind faces extinction. Seven years ago the Icarus project sent a mission to restart the sun but that mission was lost before it reached the star. Sixteen months ago, I, Robert Capa and a crew of seven left earth frozen in a solar winter. Our payload a stellar bomb with a mass equivalent to Manhattan Island. Our purpose, to create a star within a star’. (Boyle, 2007).

This film was more of an encouraging thought process about the solar system and natural light. There is a very highlighting scene that struck me the most scientifically, when the protagonist sacrifices his life to activate the bomb and for moment before he dies he is sandwiched between a nature and science. This made me wonder about the kind of light we can reference in a performance. Physicist Brian Cox points out that ‘heat is a form of light although we don’t call it light’. (BBC, 2011). Seeing as the Gravity Fields Festival is based solely on scientific collaboration, I wanted to exam a way in which science and human nature is linked. Instead, our group decided that we should scrap the idea of light and sound and focus solely on the history of Isaac newton and the gravity theory.

We watched several videos of site specific performances one day to get some initial thoughts and ideas about the style of performing we were going to craft. The one performance that was interesting to me was Yoko Ono’s piece titled Cut Piece. In 1965, Ono sat on a stage in a dress and invited members of the audience to come and cut a small piece of her clothing one at a time. As the performance went on, the more naked she would become. This piece partially inspired me as a performer to pay close attention to spectators who have been asked to interact with the person who is performing. In this case, it still shocks people to this day how much a few of spectators became more of the ‘eager beavers’ when she was close to getting naked. I felt this piece conveyed a powerful message about the psychological interaction with the seemingly vulnerable performer and the eager audience.

In the early development stages, one of the key requirements that was expected was to understand how to draw an audience in. With having the mind-set of performing in empty shops, we had to grasp the concept of performer/audience relationship. For example, how would a performance that appears to be something so basic manage to engage with the audience’s expectations? Well according to the book Performance Analysis, ‘the viewer performing interpretative acts predicted by the viewed, while the viewed itself- the object as it is perceived- is in turn constructed, endowed with meaning in the gaze of the viewer’. (Counsell and Wolf, 2001, pp178). What they are trying to examine here is how the performer has a purpose to fulfil to an audience which was one of main goals within our group. Eventually our performing space was no longer going to be in the shops, but in the LPAC. So we already knew our initial target audience would be students and adults. As for Grantham, the audience dynamic would have drastically switched because it would have been families and everyday members of the public. This sudden change took an impact on our ideas at first, but eventually we managed to carefully put things together. But we valued the idea of how Site Specific stretches beyond the possible and it helped to begin to understand what kind of audience we are trying to convince here.

In theory, apples belong to a specific ‘place’ which is the tree they grew from. Nonetheless, I thought about the idea of how we are giving apples the space to perform. It is their show, they are the artists, and they are have taken the stage. We, as performers have given them the time to shine, use the place they were born from to their advantage to showcase their skills.

I took this picture to reflect on how we were going to enable these apples to take centre stage. I used this quote spoken by Robert De Niro’s character Travis Bickle in the famous 1976 Martin Scorsese movie Taxi Driver, which has gone down in the history of cinema. I chose to use this particular quote because I wanted to understand the key element within the mainframe of site specific, which is to take something from its real life and turn it on its head in the form of real life art. The popular culture reference is a way of recreating something that is fictional and making is as a simple thing you could do with an apple: The Apple staring into the mirror, looking at itself, implies that it is being given a status, but this does its best to maintain its form of space. ‘High status players (like high- status seagulls) will allow their space to flow into other people. Low status players will avoid letting their space flow into other people’. (Johnstone, 1981, pp59). This values the aspiration for the apple taking the space and the people (the performers), who give them that moment of creativity. The mirror represents the apple assembling its place in society and looking deeper within themselves. Time was to be a part of our installation because of how long we wanted to take in performing the tasks at hand. We stuck to the idea of taking as much time as possible. There was no rush. The first ever thing that was done with an apple was to film it over a period of time rotting. The visual element of the video itself looks very abstract and this happened to connect with our idea of having a decayed environment as a performance space, as well as our duration. This video is an example of how we wanted to identify the core elements of a clattered environment. The time lapse effect shows just how effective and visualising the piece of fruit looks as it goes mouldy over the months. In the context of our performance, the space and time is merged to create a surreal image of what things we can do with an apple. As this was the first time I had done something like this, I always thought about the charisma and spatial awareness of the whole performance. As an inspiration, I was watching videos on professional magician and endurance artist David Blaine. He is a key example of somebody who uses the city as their performing playground with his illustrious techniques. In the 2013 TV show Real or Magic, Blaine attempted to show celebrities magic that borders the realms of reality and how the impossible seems possible. ‘Most believe that the greatest trick a magician can do was to convince the world that the impossible is real’ (Blaine, 2013). For years, he has specialised in wowing the public with his artistic craft. Many reactions to his magic sound like ‘oh my god’ or ‘that’s impossible’. One funny reaction in this show in particular was from Harrison Ford, who promptly told Blaine to get out of his house after witnessing a card trick. Blaine’s energetic presence is what drove me to understand how our place as performers is giving solely to us to rectify. We give the audience our benefit of believability and in turn they are drawn in to what they are watching. In this instance, Blaine attempts to cross the line between what is real and what is simply an illusion. Lyn Gardner believes that ‘these days “site specific” can be just about anything that doesn’t happen in a theatre’ (The Guardian, 2009). I partially agree with Gardner’s notion that site specific can likely be a standard performance outside normal theatre. However, in terms of the authenticity of site, she’s wrong about the performance being ‘anything’ but real life integrity. In terms of place, everyone has one. This place is what gives us freedom to move and think, to live and breathe. Our visit to

Grantham gave us more of a range of ideas about how we can pull something like this off. We looked at a few empty shops but this empty newsagent it’s what we wanted the moment we looked into the dirty windows. This shop in particular gave off a realistic sense of knowing how to establish our place within the site spectrum and how it would easily relate to our subject matter.

The renowned theatre group ‘Blast Theory’ had created a multimedia based performance called Can You See Me Now and this was a source of inspiration to understand the concept of everyday performance in the real world. The piece was solely based on virtual reality and uses a video game style method to use the city as a form of absence and presence. It would represent the relationship between the real life performers, whose job was to find the ‘gamer’ who was logged into the virtual version of the real city. ‘By sharing the same space, the players online and runners on the street enter into a relationship that is adversarial, playful and ultimately, filled with pathos’ (Blast Theory, 2013). So the city has created an opening for gaps to be filled with players and spectators. ‘When we perform alone, a part of the self stands aside, appreciating and evaluating what we do.’ (Tuan, 2001, pp161). In this sense, the players are the runners on the streets and the spectators are members of the public who can sign up to play. This idea of making the space our own, is what helped the creative aspects morph together. It helped motivate our goal to create an easy and simplistic performance, which makes the audience want to either get involved or in this case, just be engaged with the style and narrative of our context. In my opinion, I believe site isn’t just about performing outside the normal realm of traditional theatre, but it is more of a way to interject what we see in the real world and use it to our own advantage as a way to perform.

Performance Evaluation

After weeks of a challenging preparation process, our performance was a success because we finally accomplished many of the things we wanted from the start of the project, although some things were changed drastically in the last few days before.

During the performance, our ideas came to life with an hour long video of many of the things we had done with apples set up as the installation. Seeing as we had a relatively large studio space to perform in, we used that to our advantage and managed to create the cluttered and broken down environment we envisioned from the very beginning. Audience members were free to come and go as they please, although about 15 people altogether throughout the day came along to see it. We printed off a checklist for them to collect to take around with them in our performance space. Their objective was to try and tick off all the things that can be done with apples and I was very surprised at some of the responses. Around 3 or 4 people actually found many of the things on our list but some missed it. The idea was to enable them not to interact with the performers, but to look around at the space carefully.

We even had one overzealous member of the audience who just came into the room and sat down in our set trying to cut apples. We had to tell him to not touch the set, but what was interesting was how someone so curious would want to impulsively interject themselves into our performance space. That sums up how we didn’t want full on audience participation, but we should have prepared to expect the unexpected.

What I think worked well the most was the video we had playing on the projector screen. It was roughly an hour long video that was played on loop. It had about 80 things that was done with apples as well as well as the decaying time lapse apple. Another performance aspect that worked well was the energy of our group. At first, we never thought we could manage to pull of something this abstract, but it became easier when we discovered that only movement and action was the key ingredient. We weren’t trying to portray characters that are doing things with apples, but we as ordinary people were just trying to show people that we want to take a real life element and expand its horizons. We had a white board and a bell in which whenever it was rung somebody or a couple will take the stage and perform something with an apple or apples. Days before performance, we had an order which was to be carried out as in who goes up when. On the day, we decided that it wouldn’t matter what order we go up in or who performs first because we wanted to relate more to out cluttered set so instead we let it flow however it flowed. Improvement wise, I think we could have used or added more things to the space and anything we printed out that was used around the space such as apple facts or Steve Jobs quotes, could have been laminated to reflect the realism or quality of the performance. Another improvement I would add to the piece would be more of the history of Isaac Newton. I felt that if we had the story of Newton’s theory incorporated more into our work, then it would give the audience much more of an understanding of what the influence and history of our context was. If I could change one tiny detail of our performance and I believe my group would agree is the way the bell that we used to ‘activate’ us, could be left to the audience to ring it. But this would require a prompt or sign to alert the spectators of some kind. I hope that I will have more of a feel for the real site in September. Only then will I have learned one of the true elements of site specific performance in general: the Site itself.

Overall, site specific performance has been by far one of the most difficult subjects I’ve ever been taught as a trainee actor. But what I have learnt is that I have been too blind to see that performance stretches way beyond acting and it throws reality into the mix. Or better yet, reality is the performance.

Bibliography

Blaine. D (2013) David Blaine: Real or Magic. [online video] available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAiWABRx9tM [accessed 12th may 2014].

Blast theory (2001) Can You See Me Now. [online] Brighton available from: http://www.blasttheory.co.uk/projects/can-you-see-me-now/ [accessed 14th may 2014].

Boyle. D. (dir.) (2007) Sunshine. [Film] Fox Searchlight Pictures.

Counsell. C, Wolf. L (eds.) (2001) Performance Analysis: an introductory coursebook. New York: Routledge.

Gardner. L. (2008) Site specific theatre: please be more specific [blog entry] 6 February. The Guardian. Available from: http://www.theguardian.com/stage/theatreblog/2008/feb/06/sitespecifictheatrepleasebe [accessed April 20th 2014].

Johnstone. K. (1981) Impro: Improvisation and the theatre. London: Methuen drama.

Joseph, N. (2014) 101 things to do with an Apple. [photos] Lincoln and Grantham: Lincoln Performing Arts Centre

Ono. Y. (1965) Cut piece [online video] available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Sc47KfJjcI [accessed 13th may 2014].

101 Things to do with an Apple. [performance.] Lincoln: Lincoln Performing Arts Centre.

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

Tuan, Fu -Y. (2001) Enacting Space. In: Colin Counsell and Laurie Wolf (eds) Performance Analysis: an introductory coursebook. New York: Routledge.

Wonders of the universe (2011) [online] BBC. 28 March. Available from http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00fz68w [accessed 16th march 2014].

Sustain – Final Blog Submission

May 16, 2014 by Rory Martin Butler·0 Comment

Sustain: A Site-Specific Performance exploring the battle of muscular resistance against the force of gravity.

For our Site-Specific performance we chose to explore the affects that the force of gravity would have on the human body when faced with physical exercise being sustained over a period of time. Our performance took place on Saturday 10^th May in Studio X, at the Lincoln Performing Arts Centre, from 14:30pm until 20:00pm. Each member of our group had a specific set of tasks or exercises to complete within the allotted time, each exercise was to be sustained for as long as possible before the muscles within the body could no longer battle against the gravity acting upon them, all exercises once complete, were then repeated in the hopes of beating the previous recorded time. Gemma Steele completed four exercises (Right-Arm Sustained Lift, Left-Arm Sustained Lift, 2-Leg Lift, and Rear-Leg Lift) using a two-litre bottle of water to act as a weight to be sustained for as long as physically possible. Kayleigh Newberry also completed four floor/chair-based exercises (Leg Hold, Superman, The Plank, The Bridge), each exercise was sustained for as long as possible, and eventually were extended in differing ways to test the sustainability of Kayleigh’s strength. The final two performers, Chelsea Simpson and I, delivered four lifts (Knee-Lift, Cartwheel Lift, Back-to-Back Lift, and All-Four Lift), each lift was executed and sustained according to the Pilates instruction we undertook in preparation. All exercises were timed and recorded.

From ‘Defying Gravity’ to ‘Sustain’: A development process for Site-Specific Performance

In order to consider the extent by which we as a group developed our work it is first important to not our initial aim was as follows: It is suitable to recognise this project as an opportunity to stretch the transferability of performance into other industries, creating a fluidity; a clean transition , crossing the boundaries or limitations separating Performance and Science through interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary means; that is to suggest an integration of knowledge and methods from different disciplines by means of a pre-conceived synthesis approach or indeed individuals of differing disciplines drawing on their disciplinary knowledge forming into a pseudo-amalgamation of vision or perhaps of a development of a ‘bank of knowledge’.

The foundational dynamics of our concept for Site-Specific centred solely on the limitations within performance, and how implementing a pseudo “experiment” i.e. the effects of gravity on the human body and sustaining weight over a period of time, encapsulated the idea that as humans we are limited and defined by the external effects of science and force. Placing this concept within a performative manner was initially established on the foundations of reflection and visual trickery to remove the visual concept of limited space and location “of site- specific theatre there is a “tendency to treat site –specific theatre work as a means of moving away from the strict codes of the traditional theatre and encouraging creative freedom” (Gleave, 2011, 4 (from Wilkie, 2002, 249)) The concurrency between performance and place is explored within site-specific as a means of disestablishing the traditional concepts of performance; a division between performer and audience. As Rob La Ferais states in his Introduction to Vertigo “The out-of-body experience, the flying carpet, the flying broomstick… collide with a metaphorical impact with the purely visceral flesh and blood experience of the human body, organs and all, being lifted out of the bonds of gravity.” This particular articulation of the physical boundaries of performers versus gravitational force encapsulates the overall target that we as group strove to achieve.

I found that working within the unfamiliar territory of this particular performance theory required me to establish my aim for exploration; this was a continuous consideration of limitations within performance. I found myself consistently questioning the presence of boundaries and the tactics available to overcome them, to extinguish them from surrounding the presentable action. By exploring the visual means of boundary removal it was imperative to implement a spatial design concept; this was achieved by introducing the illusionary capabilities of mirrors. By choosing to mirror-paper the space in which the performance would take place, we found that it served a dual purpose in that it allowed for a means of defying gravity, at least in a visual sense; the action within the space would be reflected all around thus removing the boundaries of space and allowing for the action to be viewed outside of the primary performance location “Engaging the full volume or arc of the space… it may raise the audience, in arrangements temporary or permanent. The vertical is engaged and viewpoints shift” (Pearson, 2010, 157).

This idea introduced the concept of unlimited performance; the action would appear in numerous places about the room without a set end of action this concept concurs with performative applications of time (pre-performance, performance, and post-performance – The Many Headed Monster by Joshua Sofaer). This idea of ‘limitless’ performance was influenced heavily by the works of Isaac Newton (as a variable of performance production). Leslie Hill states in her (Dis)Placing the Senses: Introduction “Isaac Newton was arguably the greatest sensualist…Through the naked five senses he found out the universe in its greatest mysteries: … gravity and levity; time, space, place and motion. And infinity. For Newton, the infinite was the ‘sensorium of God’.” By imbuing the process development work with Newtonian criteria (such as: theory of gravity, ‘infinity’) we found how his influence within the nature of science altered the subconscious arena within which we could operate, thus honing our area of focus in performance exploration.

Collating our initial material for the performance work we endeavoured to achieve meant that we needed to consider the implications of introducing each element. As with any work produced within performance practice, every variable and concept requires justification alongside sufficient and relevant application. What we found was that not only did the mirror-room design remove the limitations of performance space, it also highlighted a key Newtonian theory; attraction. We found that mirrors communicate a sense of vanity within social constructs and this led us to explore how physical symmetry determined attraction between individuals, which ultimately led us to consider how this can be representative of particle attraction within Newton’s works. As stated by Leslie Hill in (Dis)Placing the Senses: Introduction she considers the poetical construction of the ‘Apple’ story and it’s representative quality of Newton’s theory “…linking the symbol of sin and knowledge with the revelation that we live in a universe where every particle attracts every other particle by invisible force.”

As our development process continued to incorporate further depth of material relative to the chosen site and the variables being taken into consideration as influential to the final piece; most notably Grantham’s Gravity Fields Festival. We began to layer the performance pieces that were being developed, adding further contextual performance techniques and visual stimuli to produce a ‘bank of knowledge’ suitable to the project. Each individual within the group were set the task of developing furthering tasks and ideas that would culminate in an alternative concept to present to the Gravity Field’s organisers Jeremy and Rosemary. We had decided to continue our focus area of gravity ‘removal’ exploration and found that, whilst our initial idea was dependent on light and clear visual, we could oppose the idea by plunging the performance into darkness and highlighting the action with Glow-In-The-Dark (GID) paints; thus giving an audience the illusion of action taking place outside of the familiar scope of performance. We found that numerous artists had developed the concept of visual art and performance taking place within darkness using GID, specifically the works of The Blue Man Group and Team iLuminate from television’s America’s Got Talent. This alternative concept of performance was not as thoroughly researched as our initial ‘mirror’ idea, and yet we did find a very clear performative quality that would be both visually stimulating and motivating to a wide audience; this concept was particularly ideal to include a younger audience. The exciting and colourful nature of the GID concept would engage a family audience which was incredibly suited to the nature of the festival; which is ultimately the reason why this was the chosen concept that the festival co-ordinators were keen for us to develop and produce.

Furthering the conceptual dynamics of the GID performance was explored through three short performances (5, 10, 15 minutes respectively). Our conscientious decision to avoid developing a performative narrative for this piece was influenced by our exploration of how physical response and auditory reception inspired a new dynamic of visual art and physical impulse; creating imagery blended with colours both literal and interpretive. The idea was simple; each performer would have access to GID paint and three chosen musical tracks (of varying genre/identity). In their respective performance areas the performers would engage their auditory reception and whilst employing their individual physicality, each performer would create a ‘dance-like’ response to their chosen music; each physical movement would be strengthened and elongated as the action continued, and the GID paint would act as a means of extending the action beyond their physical range. This visual display of physicality was intended to be representative of how each action could be responsive to the sounds heard, and also, by using GID paint, the action served to display the freedom of performance against the force of gravity. However, whilst this idea was exceptionally stimulating for the senses, the inevitable mess that would be created was a huge concern for the group. The dynamics of the performance were continually explored most specifically with focus on physicality; the idea of action/reaction.

Physicality quickly became the foundation of the performance and therefore we needed to explore ways in which to develop our physical strength and adaptability. A key area of focus that I introduced to the group was Pilates, and the core strength that the exercises provide and improve. We considered how our bodies could be engaged and tested in their resistance to the forces that act upon them in our day-to-day lives. We explored the techniques of chair duet exercises inspired by the work of physical theatre group Frantic Assembly. We combined the exercise according the Frantic Assembly with the works of physical theatre practitioner Pina Bausch; specifically her focus on the areas of our bodies that we are most uncomfortable with. One performer would be seated with the aim to remain in the seat, whilst a second performer would be stood and would physically eject the seated performer by only adjust (or touching) the seated performers’ areas of the body they were uncomfortable with, with the end result being that the stood performer replaces the seated performer on the chair and the roles are reversed. By doing this, the seated performer naturally, flinches in negative response to the contact that they are experiencing; this was something we wished to explore, as even the most subtle of movements (a flinch) could be engaging and needed to be considered in a performative manner in response to the music they would later hear. What we discovered was that as this continuous loop of action repeated, the physical exertion became tiring, and the determination to removed the seated performer, inspired the stood performer to extend the ways by which they could achieve their goal of sitting; this meant that simple pushing and pulling, turned into lifts and extensions that were visually engaging and performatively exposed the challenge of muscle resistance to the force of gravity. A further exploration of muscular resistance on the force of gravity was found within what we named the ‘Doll Exercise’, this was where we performers were laying on the ground, and with the backdrop of ‘haunting’ music, we moved in slow motion from the ground to standing. This very simple performance showed how the muscles within the body strained to achieve standing over a period of time. However, as we began to place these exercises within the short performances, we began to love sight of the initial concept, as we layered the performance with too much, and confused the visualisations of the performance.

Fortunately, when we came to view all of the performance material we had developed we found that beneath the over-complicated stimuli we had inputted into the performance we could find an area of clear focus. What was initially an endeavour to challenge boundaries and limitations of performance became an exploration of the boundaries and limitations of the human body and the external forces acting upon them; with a focus to Gravity. What we then developed was how we could produce a performance that highlighted the focus of physical strain against the force of gravity. What we came up with was a means of exploring this idea by showing three individual areas of performance, with each performer engaging in sustaining timed physical exercises including: Lifts between Chelsea and Myself, sustainable floor and chair exercises by Kayleigh (i.e. Superman, The Plank) and sustaining exercises with a two litre bottle of water by Gemma. Each of these exercises were put into practice to show how that the muscles (over time) would weaken and the fight against gravity would inevitably be lost. What made this approach interesting was the determination of each performer to continually beat their previous record and also how the physical exertion played out within the facial expression, the sheer ferocity of focus, the charged atmosphere within the performance space and the results of physical exertion (i.e. body temperature, sweat). The quality of simplistic movements and actions such as these are abundant with exploratory capabilities, full of intrigue and engaging subtleties. The exploration of these simplistic concepts led us on a journey to discover the intricacies of muscles working against gravity and ultimately led us to a concise and clear performance that we considered both innovative and stimulating. Our initial challenge of ‘Defying Gravity’ had progressively developed into a determination to ‘Sustain’.

The Battle to ‘Sustain’ (Evaluation)

Throughout the development period of our project, we encountered a sudden and unexpected change in the location of our site. The performance was designed and prepared for a chosen site in Grantham. However, we had to relocate to Studio X within the Lincoln Performing Arts Centre (LPAC) due to the inability to travel to our site, and also the inability to ensure all props and technology would be able to be taken to Grantham. Our performance for Site-Specific Performance ‘Su stain’ went through numerous challenges and revealed engaging and motivational results as the day went on. Our morning began at 9am, and started fluid and functional; the set-up of the room was efficiently completed and we quickly threw ourselves into the preparation phases of the day’s project. Once we had sufficiently settled ourselves within Studio X, we immediately began numerous warm-ups to ensure we were ready to engage in the strenuous activities that our performance would involve. I insisted that we all did a one-hour Pilates session, to not only warm-up and prepare our muscles but also to focus the group. One thing Pilates had taught me is that the focus dedicated to each individual movement is invaluable when it comes to physical performance and exercise. After this we continued with stretches and an intensive cardio workout. By 14:30pm we were ready to begin our performance. The performance began at a sensible pace but we soon found that we were pushing ourselves to the limits a little too early; this could have been a result of the charged atmosphere within the room, the presence of an audience, or the sheer determination to challenge our bodies. But we soon found that we were weakening fast, and needed to break. This activated serious alarm bells for each performer; Kayleigh was feeling the strain in sustaining her plank exercise, and managed to pull a muscle, Gemma was finding her balance was off and could not focus, Chelsea was forgetting where to place her breath to sustain the lifts, and I was sweating uncomfortably early on in the performance. Once again, I felt it necessary to insist we push on, stretch ourselves out, and do another short Pilates workout, to refocus our alignments, and to ensure that all performers were using their breathing to support their activities. This was the right thing to do and we found that we could continue at a more comfortable pace. We re-engaged with our individual activities, each one of us keeping a keen eye on our times to fuel our determination to beat our records and the action continued, with audience members coming into the space, observing for short periods of time, some staying for full cycles of each activity, and this served only to increase our determination. However, we soon came to realise our consistent activity was wearing, our muscles were tiring, our ability to sustain the lifts and exercises was dwindling. On reflection, we found that had we attempted to do a full day of the same process before the final performance, we would have been more prepared for these occurrences. By the time we came to assessment, we were down to our last bouts of energy, but the engaging environment we created still stimulated our audience, and the atmosphere of the room was incredible. I feel that the performance was efficient, and stimulating. However, I do wish we had had more rehearsals practicing for the same amount of time. I also would have liked to have allowed for audience participation, something that was mentioned to us in our initial feedback from both Conan Lawrence and Dominic Symonds.

Superman ‘Sustain’ Studio X

Performer: Kayleigh Newberry

Cartwheel Lift ‘Sustain’ Studio X

Performers: Chelsea Simpson and Rory Butler

Left-Hand Sustained Lift ‘Sustain’ Studio X

Performer: Gemma Steele

Works Cited

Gleave, J. (2011) The Reciprocal Process of The Site and The Subject in Devising Site-Specific Performance. MPhil(b). University of Birmingham.

Hill, L. (2006) (Dis)Placing the Senses: Introduction. In: Leslie Hill & Helen Paris (ed.) Performance and Place. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 47-48.

La Frenais, R. (2006) An Introduction to Vertigo. In: Leslie Hill & Helen Paris (ed.) Performance and Place. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 53.

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

Reference List

Govan, M. (n/a) The Place of The Artist. [online] Available: http://blackboard.lincoln.ac.uk/bbcswebdav/pid-768813-dt-content-rid-1342791_2/courses/DRA2035M-1314/govan%20revisioning%20place.pdf [Accessed 8 May 2014].

Kaye, N. (2000) Site-Specific Art Performance, Place and Documentation. Oxon: Routledge.

Slowiak, J. (2007) Jerzy Grotowski. London: Routledge.

Dispersion

May 15, 2014 by Naomi French·0 Comment

Framing Statement

Our piece Dispersion was performed at Lincoln Performing Arts Centre on Saturday 10^th May, 2pm to 6pm. The word Dispersion was chosen as a name for our performance as it is a word that incorporates both sound and light elements, and also reflects how our piece is dispersed around the shop/studio. Site specific is a type of performance that is not in a conventional theatre. ‘The term (site specific) refers to staging and performance conceived on the basis of the place in the real world’ (Newman, 2012, 50). Performance itself encompasses not traditional acting but instead, performance art, installations etc. It ‘places the audience at an entirely different relationship to the text, the place and the purpose for being there’ (Pearson, 2010, 7). Site specific performance is also not in the traditional place you would expect to see a piece of theatre so that is why it can be unusual for audience members.

At first we found out we would be performing in a shop as part of the Gravity Fields Festival in Grantham in September 2014. So we had to tailor our piece to the work of Isaac Newton and science. As the festival is about the work of Newton, we researched into many different ideas to do with him and found we were most compelled with his theory of light and sound. As part of the brief we were given for the festival, it also was said that we could chose from different topics, and we chose to go with light and sound because there is so much you can experiment with and learn from. Originally from the outset we wanted it to be very visually stunning and interactive for families and children.

We chose to keep the set very simplistic and minimalist as ‘the minimalist object emphasises a transitive definition of site’ (Kaye, 2000, 2). We then found out later in the course that we would also be performing our main assessment in Studio 2 in the Lincoln Performing Arts Centre. Personally, this worked better for us because of sound and lighting equipment available at hand. We took a journey through many different styles of site specific performance to get to our final piece which stripped back Newton’s theory of light and sound. It was also our choice to black box it to block out any outside light to make the colours even stronger.

Analysis of process

‘Retail Therapy’ was our initial title. This immediately provoked ideas about the thought process of a person whilst shopping. What stuck out for me was how shopping supposedly increases peoples moods, bringing a sense of self-satisfaction. But, does one merely shop for satisfaction? Or do the corporate companies of the world perpetuate a greed driven society in which the capitalist system is constantly driving forward the ideas of wanting more.

As part of our initial research, we went into the town and visited shops. This was very different from any other normal shopping experience, as we were coming in as an outside eye, observing the behaviours of shoppers. An interesting thing evident was how isolated a shopping department store. ‘The city is too complex an organism for us ever to fully know it, consisting as it does endlessly intersecting narratives’ (Pearson, 2010, 98). Much like the stories and the lives of the everyday customers in the shop.

The most poignant part of the process was being told we were performing in the Gravity Fields Festival in Grantham. Immediately, ideas of science were conjured up, how the use of lights and optics could be used in performance. Perhaps the potentiality of using mirrors. When one goes shopping, there are mirrors everywhere, leading us to become aware of our reflection as we decide whether or not we want that item or not. When researching for inspiration I came across this performance; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzUv4EedXWU (Margineanu, 2012). What stands out is how the audience on the outside are looking into a supposed different world, snippets of different scenarios and the passers by are mere spectators, but what if roles were swopped? Instead, we are watching the outside world in their daily pursuits in life.

To further our knowledge in Site Specific, we looked at other pieces of work which were both challenging and inspiring. We needed to be exposed to different kinds of performance we have never come across before, some shocking and thought-provoking in order to make us think about how we could work with audiences. The performance that was the most engaging was LIGNA’s Radio Ballet, performed in 2008 (Sofaer, 2010). What was really striking was that the audience were just members of the public, each with headphones, performing actions in the middle of the city. From this, we had the idea of giving our audience headphones, to guide them round the shopping centre and the shop. After feedback we were discouraged to use this idea because the experience of the performance would be too intimate and isolated and ‘our thoughts are not limited by what we can learn through the sense’ (Cimini, 2012, 357).

Punchdrunk were another group that were highly influential in our process. After reading into their work and their manifesto, it encapsulated the point of our performance; ‘Audiences are invited to rediscover the childlike excitement and anticipation of exploring the unknown and experience a real sense of adventure’ (Punchdrunk, 2014). Through the use of colours and sounds in our performance, this is how we aimed to make it accessible and visually exciting for families, especially children.

This then lead us to further discover what was meant by space, boundaries and thresholds. It got me thinking of what we actually mean by the term space. One would never truly think about the different spaces identified in life, for example-dream space, the sub conscious space of our dreams; ‘the phenomenology of the daydream can untangle the complex of memory and imagination’ (Bachelard, 1958, 26). But, the space that stood out for me was a transient space, whether that is a hotel, airports, train stations or even a shop. People are constantly passing in and out throughout time, with no one staying, making their mark on history and leaving the memories behind them as they pass through it.

As the disused shop was our performance space, we needed to work out how the audience would move around and explore the space as ‘emptiness is an illusionary category and performance may have to work hard to assert itself’ (Pearson, 2010, 156). It reminded me of the time lapse videos of people walking and going through the motions of day to day life. What if we actually stopped and truly appreciated the space we are in? Furthermore, as a group we explored that ‘there is inside and outside, with thresholds to be crossed and contracts to be made’ (Pearson, 2010, 158). The entrance to the shop brought us a new meaning as entering a threshold into a potentially new world.

Visiting the site brought us new clarity to the piece as we could envisage our ideas in the space. Different ideas that we have been working on over the past weeks were finally being put into practice. The shop we chose was full of mirrors, and was originally ideal for the type of performance art we wanted to create, linking in with the science of reflection. A particular thing that stood out for us as a group in the shop was the use of the windows. In our final performance, we want the windows to be blacked out to ensure no light escapes from the space. Therefore, it was even more important for us to connect with audience members as they will not be able to see inside. In order for this to happen we have to make it eye-catching and appealing for passers-by, to truly ‘enhance relationship between performers and audience’ (Allain and Harvey, 2006, 148).

But what about the passers-by themselves? They are looking into this shop window, wondering about what they might purchase or what is aesthetically pleasing. ‘The ordinary practitioners of the city…they walk-an elementary form of experience of the city; they are walkers’ (Hopkins et al, 2009, 59). Normal shoppers on a day to day basis pass throughout the city, through the monotony of life and yet are participants in a performance which they are completely unaware of; of merely walking. As knowing performers in the window we have to try and create a new performance with our audience.

For the final section of our performance we wanted to look at how Newton’s theory of the prism reflecting and refracting light can be used in performance. It is fascinating the different colours it makes and this would be very visual for the audience, especially children. Whilst researching I came across an artist called Stephen Knapp who produces light paintings. The way in which it looks so magnificent but yet is only made out different pieces of glass with light shining in different angles to make the colours bend through is inspirational and captivating. It creates a sense of discovery and feeling of awe for the audience as it looks so visually stunning but they learn the science behind the light at the same time.

(Knapp, S., 2005)

In our performance we wanted to take the audience on a journey. This journey is going to be personal and differ for each audience member. Initially, it may be slightly unsettling for the audience as a shop is quite an unlikely place to see a performance and there is ‘no existing conventional performer-audience structure to contend with’ (Newman, 2012, 55). Therefore, it was even more important to grab the audience’s attention and make it eye-catching for families.

For one of the parts of the piece, the intended aim was to use a microphone and through this project sound waves onto the wall, to show the audience how sound waves are produced through noise. After research into patterns between chords and colours, we found that minimalist music uses patterns to create its style of work so this is why we chose to originally use this in our piece. Another reason why it was chosen was that the beat was constant, with only subtle changes and phase shifting; similar to the beam of light which is constant. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNnGVqW0pvA (Hughes, 2011). This piece of music was originally used in our physical theatre performance as we portrayed through our bodies how light moves and reacts which different light beams. After feedback-it needed tightening up and sharper movements which were worked on.

The most engaging part of site specific performance personally is the idea of the pre-performance, performance and post-performance and how the audience is used. Audience involvement is a really key thing we as we want strong engagement in every element of our performance. Therefore ‘a distinction is drawn between watchers and the watched’ (Pearson, 2010, 157). One part of our performance we were exploring was experimenting with the use of different sounds and rhythms to create for the audience. Through using different utensils and everyday objects, to using our voices we were exploring different ways in which sound travels and a particular focus on listening to the sounds around us. A specific influence was Cathy Berberian’s Stripsody.

(Berberian, C., 1966).

This snippet of the piece shows how the traditional notation on the stave is replaced with different onomatopoeic sounds which create a story for the audience. A splash of humour is also brought to the performance through the different sounds made through the voice and this really struck a chord with us, especially for audiences with children in. Philosopher Maurice Merleau- Ponty would argue that ‘there are limits to what sound can do in terms of expressing audibility’ (Cimini, 2012, 360). This was why we chose to be overly expressive and visual so the audience were not just focusing on the sound.

After feedback from our performance- in- progress presentation, we were told to really strip our concept back and bring it back to basics as ‘minimalism’s site-specificity can…reveal itself in performance’ (Kaye, 2000, 3). So it was decided as a group that we would still focus on light and sound but experiment with it in a simplistic way rather than show this through live music and physical theatre. We experimented with playing with light and how light works on the body; creating different shadows.

(French, N., 2014).

This is one of our group members and we were interested in how we could manipulate the light to make it create different shadows on the face. We experimented with different parts of the body to see how the light reacts to the contours, in particular eyes and faces as this was where you could get the more intricate detail.

(French, N., 2014).

This light here reacts to sound. If someone was to clap and make noise it would change colour accordingly. We experimented with this and used clapping, stamping, our voices and a piano and this was incorporated into our final performance. It would also encourage audience interaction and participation as they could clap and it would change colour.

(French, N., 2014).

We then began to experiment with direct spotlights onto people and how this would change the direction of shadows. A possible idea suggested was to have text being read out under a spotlight. It would be particularly striking because ‘non-auditorium performance environment can directly engage the audience in a sensory experience’ (Newman, 2012, 50). It can captivate an audience as they are truly listening to what is being said.

Another main point of feedback was to experiment with the use of prisms and the different reflections and colours they create. Having ordered a prism we began to experiment in rehearsal with how a prism reflects the light to produce a spectrum of colours and how this can be used in performance. We experimented with shining a white torch and a white laser through the prism and found that surprisingly the torch worked better as maybe the laser wasn’t strong enough. ‘Sight and movement are ways of moving into relationships with objects’ (Cimini, 2012, 361). We then continued to experiment and found an OHP projector to create the best spectrum from the prism so this is what we used in our final performance. (Shown the spectrum below).

(French, N., 2014).

By this point, we were informed that our final performance was in Studio 2 in the Lincoln Performing Arts Centre. We felt this would equally work as well as it has an extensive collection of lights and sound equipment available to use. From this we found that ‘to move the site-specific work is to re-place it, to make it something else’ (Kaye, 2000, 2). Although, it is not the original site we were working in, the science festival is our site and not the building itself which important to keep in mind. It was from the final few weeks in our process that we came up with the name for our piece- ‘Dispersion’. This word encapsulates both light and sound and it shows how our performance is dispersed into different sections. We also set up a twitter page @DispersionLPAC (Dispersion, 2014) to keep audience members up to date with all our findings during the rehearsal process. It was important to keep our audience engaged with the process as it informed them when they came to see the final performance from where the ideas came from. This also meant we went back to our original idea of having different experimentation stations around the room. As Pearson mentions inSite-Specific Performance: in ‘each section, there must then be agreement, concerning its nature, purpose and emotional tenor’ (Pearson, 2010, 161).

Performance Evaluation

The main thing learnt from the final performance was that we underestimated how physically and mentally draining it would be to concentrate and perform for four hours with a half hour break. It was really challenging but also a sense of achievement when finished as all the tasks were completed. After feedback from the audience, it was evident that the most striking part of the performance was the minimalist set and the surprise of seeing the sound waves projected behind the curtain. ‘The path which the audience takes through the performance then serves…to re-invent the space’ (Newman, 2012, 52). As the piece was a performance installation piece, there was no opportunity for the audience to get involved, but again after feedback we found this was a good thing for that particular space and it was more visually engaging because of the focus that remained throughout.

One thing that could have been improved for the final performance was the use of the OHP and the prism. The OHP was used because it showed the prism the most clearly but as we rotated every half an hour, the scanning of the body with the spectrum doesn’t change and this could get quite repetitive and potentially disengaging for the audience. This is why next time we could try and get the audience involved, maybe through giving them the prism to work out how the light is refracted, constantly educating the audience members through performance.

As we are lucky enough to perform our piece again in September at the Gravity Fields Festival in Grantham, it is now our challenge to shape our piece ready for the shop, making it more engaging for the amount of audience members that are going to be present because of the festival. As we were quite unfamiliar with our text due to the fact it was a recent decision to read the text; there were still words we could not pronounce. Therefore, next time we perform it in the Gravity Field’s festival we will be familiar and comfortable with all the words in the text, perhaps even experimenting with different tones or pace whilst saying the text. Philosopher Gaston Bachelard, states in Poetics of Space that ‘the poetic image places us at the origin of the speaking being’ (Bachelard, 1958, xxiii). As the piece was quite individual in the sense that people could come and go on their own free will and everyone will take some different from the performance, it shows how ‘site-specific performance…provides the audience with an awareness of their individual presence’ (Newman, 2012, 54). This is why when we perform it again we would slow down the transitions between moving stations because more emphasis is made on the presence of the performer and the audience member.

The story of our process shows how the ideas have progressed and evolved, been changed and yet as a group, the final performance produced was visually capturing and fully expressed what we wanted to show to the audience- us experimenting with light and sound. It will be interesting and exciting to see the performance reshaped for the Gravity Fields Festival in September.

Bibliography

Allain, P., Harvie, J. (2006) The Routledge Companion to Theatre and Performance. New York: Routledge.

Bachelard, G. (1958) The poetics of space. Boston: Beacon Press.

Cimini, A. (2012) Vibrating colors and silent bodies. Music, sound and silence in Maurice-Merleau-Ponty’s critique of Dualism. Contemporary Music Review. 31, (5/6) 353-370.

Dispersion (2014) Homepage [twitter] Available from https://twitter.com/DispersionLPAC [Accessed 15th May 2014].

French, N., 2014, Dispersion pictures. Lincoln: Lincoln Performing Arts Centre.

Hopkins, D. J., Orr, S and Solga, K. (2009) Performance and the City, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Hughes, N. (2011) Theme 1- Electronic Minimalism [online]. Available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNnGVqW0pvA (Accessed 16th March).

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

Knapp, S. (2005) Museum Exhibitions [online] USA. Available from: http://www.lightpaintings.com/museum.html (Accessed 13th March 2014).

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Newman. J. (2012) The phenomenology of non-theatre sites on audience. Theatre Notebook, 66, (1) 48-60.

Pearson, M. (2010) Site-specific performance. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Phillips, T., (2013). Graphic music scores-in pictures [online] London: Guardian. Available from: http://www.theguardian.com/music/gallery/2013/oct/04/graphic-music-scores-in-pictures (Accessed 15th May 2014).

Punchdrunk (2014) Company[online] London. Available from: http://punchdrunk.com/company/article/about [Accessed 12th February 2014].

Sofaer, J. (2010) The Many Headed Monster- the audience of contemporary performance [online] London. Available from: http://www.joshuasofaer.com/2011/07/the-many-headed-monster/ [Accessed 12^th February 2014).

The Final Piece – Human Inc.

May 15, 2014 by Cherry Povall·0 Comment

Our Site Specific piece was an installation spanning over approximately six hours in the LPAC café on Saturday May 10th. Rather than putting on a show for our audience, we interacted with them in a fake market research setting for the purpose of evaluating their interest in our (fabricated) anti-aging skin cream. The research was part of our fake pharmaceutical company named “Human Inc.”; we specialise in using state of the art science and technology to create longer lasting and better improved healthcare products for “the promise of a healthier future” (our slogan). Our aim is to convince our audience that we are a genuine company and have them willingly participate in our market research by offering them insight into our ‘new products’ and a free sample of “Bliss”, our company’s bottled endorphin rush.

Throughout this project we have developed several potential products including anti-aging skin cream, a bottled endorphin rush and eye drops which can change the colour of the iris among other futuristic merchandise. Though we do not possess the technology or the means to actually create our fantastical products we have invested our time and money into researching the potential ingredients and science behind these goods to make them seem as realistic as possible. Our scientific research will serve as our basic script for the duration for the performance but our general performance style shall be naturalistic and abstain from any character names or traits in the pursuit of a friendly shop assistant persona.

We have encountered several issues during our development process in which we have changed location and performance ideas several times, however I am pleased with our final result and believe that adapting is simply a part of our development as performers.

Our original performance space was to be several abandoned shops in Grantham, the hometown of Isaac Newton. As such our performance topic was to be science in the format of a shop. I knew very little about shopping and even less about science, so when we were told that this work had to be based on the science of Isaac Newton as well as hold to the connotations of a shop I became increasingly concerned with how we would devise a piece to fit this criteria. As a starting point I did some research into the different kinds of laboratories and scientists we could look at under this huge umbrella surrounding Newton’s work. More particularly I looked at the kind of sciences that interest myself; computer science, genetics, chemistry, alchemy, what chemicals reside in the human body; “six elements account for 99% of the mass of the human body: oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, and phosphorus” (Helmenstine, 2014). During this time I was reminded of an idea that was mentioned in a previous lesson regarding genetics and modifying embryos. I considered the idea of modifying humans with prosthetic limbs and the potential to ‘edit’ humans through genetic engineering. We already genetically modify crops and animals in the name of science, but what would the ethical response be to genetically engineering humans? Currently this technology is being pursued in an effort to eradicate certain health issues but Danielle Simmons raises the question of “designer babies” (Simmons, 2008) wherein the potential to select certain traits in embryos could lead to a “genetic aristocracy” (Simmons, 2008) should these enhancements become available for purchase. I was intrigued by this idea and so continued to pursue the idea of developing a piece around human enhancements and selling ‘The perfect human’.

Our group was formed under the united interest in genetics and human enhancement, this was sub-categorised under “Alchemy”. Alchemy is primarily an ancient chemical science which concerns itself with the pursuit of longevity, the creation of the philosopher’s stone and creating gold from base or raw materials. This is largely done through the transmutation of materials in which, through heat or chemical equation, objects are altered into a more perfect state. Some alchemists hoped that by achieving these three legends they would “finally transmute the human body into an incorruptible ‘body of light’” (Klossowski De Rola, 1973). I looked into the logic behind transmutation circles and discovered that, regardless of the equation, they are always formed of both male and female elements or components in order to create a perfect balance. It tied in perfectly with our theme of ‘creating the perfect human’.

We assembled our resources and knowledge on the subject and thought that the idea of a literal human shop would work best for our theme. Within the shop we would have potential customers tailor their own human model via a series of interactive games and allow them to select the skin tone, eye colour, height, weight and various other characteristics of their model. By giving the audience the option to choose their idea of ‘the perfect human’ we could have them question their perceptions of beauty in regards to modern influences and their own views on beauty. I also think that it would be interesting to see if the audience would question the morals of making ‘the perfect human’ or if they would detach themselves from the ethics in order to complete the task. We decided to name the shop “Human. Inc.”

Tullin, J (2014) Human Inc. Logo

Though our intrigue was sharp our compiled knowledge of the subject was decidedly low. As such we were eager to take up the opportunity to tour the science labs with professors Alan Goddard and Nicola Crewe of the University. Alchemy is widely disregarded in modern science, some describe it as “akin to magic” (Principe, 2013) or “inherently a spiritual endeavour” (Principe, 2013) and so instead we considered the inner workings of biological and chemical reactions within the body to help aid our research. There are chemical reactions happening in our bodies every day, from the digestive system to the output of emotions. Gerasimo describes the process of touch as “the body’s neuronal circuits [being] directly activated, with a peptide reaction proceeding from the body’s surface to the spine and then travelling to the brain and becoming part of conscious awareness” (Gerasimo, 2003). We wanted to make it clear that the choices made by our audience had a deeper structural meaning biologically than simply choosing the colour of the hair. One good way to demonstrate DNA and cellular structure to our audience would be to make posters of microscopic images of fingerprints, eye colour and hair follicles. With this we could accurately show our audience how drastically different the DNA is in each individual and hopefully make them consider the implication of asking them to ‘pick a colour’. Following this line of thought we arranged to meet with Alan for a demonstration of fingerprinting. It is common knowledge that no two fingerprints are the same and even with only 4 participants we would have 40 unique prints to play with. It was this vast array of possibilities that we wanted to showcase to our audience.

With these factors in place the concept of “selling the perfect human” suddenly became a lot more plausible to me however we still lacked the technological means to recreate a physical body other than using our own as examples. Having decided on our idea I started looking at how we could make this performance as realistic as possible by looking into the real science of ‘making a human’. Focusing on DNA manipulation and thinking about our original focal point of alchemy and the longevity of life, I took inspiration from one particular article describing a scientists search for a cure for aging and death. He claimed that “slowing aging, if it can be done, could be a way to prevent many diseases” (Pollack, 2014). This search for longer life may potentially be a more realistic approach for our work than recreating life itself.

In order to demonstrate our progress we developed a short sketch wherein we were able to display some of our research and explore the knowledge and techniques we would carry over to our final piece. The 5 minute performance revolved around the idea of nanotechnology and the potential to use advanced tech to cure degenerative illnesses such as Alzheimer’s. We researched the common effects of neural related diseases and discovered that when the cerebellum is attacked victims often lose motor functions, memory and often can’t complete simple tasks by themselves. It’s a serious and unfortunately common illness.

As an example of our company’s potential, we fabricated a scenario wherein an implant into the cerebellum would identify the healthy brain cells and recreate them, effectively replacing the dead or damaged cells. Through this short piece we implanted the idea that our company worked towards a healthier future for humankind and encouraged the use of ‘medical upgrades’ as we referred to them. Though the experiment was well received it was brought to our attention that degenerative mental illnesses are more common among the older generation and as our audience was likely to be mostly of a younger age it may be more interesting to explore the argument of vanity vs. medical, specifically selling upgrades in the form of bottles and gels like a pharmaceutical company.

Seeing as we could not in fact recreate the technology, we began focussing more on the aesthetics of a shop and potential products we could ‘sell’. We theorised varying ‘products’ such as age reduction skin cream, vocal enhancements and eye drops that could change the colour of your eye. For inspiration we looked at Roche Pharmaceuticals and Pfizer, competing companies in cosmetics and biopharmaceutical research. Both companies boast a wide range of health products and claim their research is for the sake of improving “health and wellbeing at every stage of life” (Pfizer, 2007). It suddenly occurred to us that we could create our own pharmaceutical company whilst maintaining the illusion of striving for perfection. We decided to create a market research survey as a means of interacting with the audience. By using a product as a stimulus we could ask questions regarding what it was the public would like the product to do or include. By posing as a shop it would be very unlikely that we would actually convince people to buy our products, but if we were to conduct research on what people want to see in our products then we would have a much more convincing reason for interacting with our customers.

One of the most difficult challenges we faced during this module was our change of location. Instead of performing in abandoned shops in Grantham we would instead be performing in the LPAC theatre. Although initially disgruntled by this sudden change it dawned on us that the café in the LPAC would make a perfect location for our piece. Having been focussed on the shop atmosphere, to be given the opportunity to use a working shop space was perfect. After looking around and spending some time in our new location, we realised that, while we had always wanted to portray the idea of a professional, our original site was lacking in some fundamentals commonly associated with shops; tables, shelves, chairs, any form of television or display screens to name a few. However, the LPAC not only had these at our disposal, it also came at no extra cost to us. These added amenities would work in favour of our effort to portray the perfect company atmosphere and we were eager to plan our installation with new vigour.

Tullin, J (2014) LPAC cafe

We were reminded regularly that for this piece to be successful we would have to convince our audience that we are an authentic pharmaceutical company. We set about making name badges, posters, buying/creating products to ‘sell’ and even advertising videos with the theme of ‘Human. Inc.: The Promise of a Healthier Future’. Even though we were using pre-existing products for our displays it was important that we came up without own science to explain their functions and properly pass them off as our own products. We would have two products on display and one in production (which would be the focus of our market research survey).

The first product we called ‘Silk’, an organic hair removal cream. In reality this was only a bottle of hand cream, but by telling our audience it contained natural glycerine (to remove the hairs), black truffle extract (to trick the stem cells into creating new skin in place of the hair follicles) and sugar cane (to reach deep into the root of the hair) we could more accurately convince them of our trustworthy nature and add to the illusion that we were in fact a professional company. It also helps to have an actual product to show, even if the contents don’t match the description, it’s beneficial to be able to see and smell the product.

Our second product we named “Bliss”, a bottled adrenaline rush. One of our very first ideas was to sell bottled emotions which are essentially chemical reactions occurring within the brain as a result of external influences; this is an extension of that initial idea. An adrenaline rush is caused by the release of endorphins in the body as a result of excitement, sexual intercourse, food consumption and other similar activities “with high endorphin levels, we feel less pain and fewer negative effects of stress” (MedicineNet, 2007). The theory behind Bliss is to force an endorphin rush through a chemical reaction as opposed to natural stimulus. I also did extensive research into the potential ingredients to re-establish our authenticity. Bliss contains N-Acetyl Cysteine and magnesium sulphate which act as receptor switches, Guarana which contains natural caffeine to boost the heart rate and Forskolin which actually forces the body to rapidly produce endorphins, “forskolin (“Endorphin Enhancers”) that increase endorphin levels” (Pondera 2014). With this the chemical balance is complete and an endorphin rush is triggered which can last up to 4 hours depending on the individuals height and weight.

We decided that, rather than stock it on the shelves, Bliss would work best as a giveaway to our audience, an added treat to persuade them to participate in our survey and a way to ensure that we remain in their minds long after the performance. The most crucial part of this performance would be to act the part. No matter how convincing our props and set, the illusion could only be complete with our well-rehearsed explanation.

The final product we would display is called Reverse, an anti-aging skin cream which will be the focus of our survey. It was important that we at least had an understanding of skin creams in order to accurately portray our aims and ideas for this new product. In actual fact we had already conducted the necessary research into the cream and so all the participants would have to do is pick a scent or price range, a simple task that would still make them feel included in the process.

Tullin, J (2014) Silk Logo
Tullin, J (2014) Reverse Logo
Tullin, J (2014) Human Inc. Products

During our final performance we re-arranged the space to our liking to include three tall tables, a bookshelf or relevant materials and a waiting room with several couches and chairs. We were each armed with the appropriate knowledge and ready to help participants with the survey and to answer any questions they may have had regarding our company and products. Though audience members came in short bursts, we managed to draw in around fifty people, many more than I was expecting. Participants were generally impressed with the formality and professionalism of our company but I feel that the process itself may have been lacking in excitement. It seemed that audience members’ interest began to dwindle with the extensive scientific talk and perhaps an element of mystery or danger regarding the products would make the piece more durable in Grantham.

One thing I was particularly pleased with was the look of the space; the posters, products and general layout helped to affirm our professional look and I believe the use of laptops and tablets throughout the performance helped with our mind-set of futuristic technology. I was also pleased that our level of research was sufficient enough to convince members that our products could well be real and some were even convinced to leave contact details for further product information. Overall feedback was positive; one response said “I was sucked into a world in which companies like yours actually exist” (Tullin, 2014) while another replied “you were friendly, chatty and explained things very well, making me feel comfortable enough to leave my email with you” (Tullin, 2014).

Tullin, J (2014) Human Inc. Display
Tullin, J (2014) Human Inc. Staff

One of the toughest challenges we faced during this performance was the site and duration of the piece. After having been moved to the LPAC, we were initially told that the space would only be available to us for a short time. After the piece unfortunately ran over we were concerned at the pressure we were putting on the staff for extending our stay but were assured that it was only a minor issue. I am also grateful that when we perform again in Grantham the running time will be much shorter; although we gathered a large crowd over the performance period, they often came in short bursts and much of our seven hour piece was spent waiting for someone to interact with.

Throughout Site Specific we have been faced with many difficult or altogether seemingly impossible challenges, none of which we have conquered to the standard I feel we could have given the right assistance or means to do so. I feel that the module as a whole has been far more challenging than I had anticipated and believe that some of its allure was lost in the move from Grantham to the LPAC and in its ever adapting subject content. I hope that when we perform this again in Grantham in September we will be able to rediscover the meaning of “Site Specific” and give our audience a longer lasting impression than our bottled give away and instead leave them questioning the ethics and progression of science in the near future.

Works Cited

Gerasimo, P (2003) Emotional Biochemistry. [online] Available from http://experiencelife.com/article/emotional-biochemistry/ [Accessed 8 May 2014]

Helmenstine, A (2014) Chemical Composition of the Human Body. [online] Available from http://chemistry.about.com/od/chemicalcomposition/a/Chemical-Composition-Of-The-Human-Body.htm [Accessed 5 February 2014].

Klossowski De Rola, s (1973) The secret art of Alchemy. London: Thames and Hudson LTD.

Medicine net (2007) Endorphins: Natural Pain and stress fighters [online] Available from http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=55001 [Accessed 3 May 2014]

Pfizer (2007) Pfizer: Working Together for a Healthier World [online] Available from http://www.pfizer.co.uk/ [Accessed 12 May 2014].

Pollack, A. (2014) A Genetic Entrepreneur Set His Sights on Aging and Death [online] Available from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/05/business/in-pursuit-of-longevity-a-plan-to-harness-dna-sequencing.html?_r=1 [Accessed 12 May 2014].

Pondera Pharmaceuticals (2014) Why Endorphinate? [online] Available from http://ponderapharma.com/why-endorphinate/ [Accessed 3 May 2014]

Principe, L (2013) The Secrets of Alchemy. London, Chicago: The university of Chicago Press.

Simmons, D (2008) Genetic Inequality: Human Genetic Engineering. [online] Available from http://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/genetic-inequality-human-genetic-engineering-768 [Accessed 5 May 2014].

Tullin, J. (2014) Human Inc. Silk Product information [email] Sent to Lauren Brook, 10 May

Tullin, J. (2014) Human Inc. Silk Product information [email] Sent to Sarah Ford, 10 May