Feeling stuck in a rut and lacking inspiration, me, Jenny, Lotty and Louisa decided to have a group session together to discuss and collate our ideas, and offer each other any feedback.
We began this by initially talking through any ideas that we had. Personally I felt in a place where I had no idea of what I wanted to create. I knew that it will probably involve audience interaction/participation and will probably take the form of a durational/instillation style work.
Next, Louisa suggested an exercise where we had to write down five words that described the last piece of work that we made, and then write down any exercises, research, themes and ideas that we would have if we were making another piece of work about these themes. Once we had done this for our own work, we did it for each other's. My last piece of work was the one I mentioned briefly in my last post, where I held hands with a participant and talked to them about intimacy. Below is a photograph of my map.
My five words were intimacy, fears, connection, contact and conversation, and these five words raised some interesting responses from my peers. Ellie Harrison and Adrian Howells were written down, both of whom are huge inspirations onto my work, specifically looking at how they manage 1:1 performance and audience interaction. There were a few questions regarding my feelings during this sort of work; 'Who do you trust to take control?', 'When do you feel in control?', 'When are you powerful?', 'Are you or the participant exposed? And which is scarier?'. These questions have been useful for me to reflect upon my practice during this project.
My interest into intimacy began in my previous project, where I explored my own personal discomfort with intimacy by holding hands with participants - people that I do not have an intimate relationship with and therefore something that I found uncomfortable. Beginning a project with the starting point being discomfort was something that became daunting for me, and I knew that this would bring even more challenges when considering the introduction of participants. White talks about the risks that participants take when taking part in a performance, stating that;
"In everyday life the risk of embarrassment has a disciplinary effect on people. We are under injunctions to control ourselves, to present performances of ourselves that fit the personae we present to the world. So when participatory theatre invites performances from audience members, it presents special opportunities for embarrassment, for mis-performance and reputational damage, such that the maintenance of control and the assertion of agency that protects this decorum is important to the potential audience participant, especially at the moment of invitation" (White, G. 2013).
As a performance maker asking audience members to participate in my work, I am assuming responsibility for myself, the participants, and the work - the audience members are taking a risk when participating, and I feel that I have to ensure that they feel comfortable during their experience.
Moving forward, I will explore each of my individual interests that were raised in this exercise and see how they can be implemented into this project.
My interest into intimacy began in my previous project, where I explored my own personal discomfort with intimacy by holding hands with participants - people that I do not have an intimate relationship with and therefore something that I found uncomfortable. Beginning a project with the starting point being discomfort was something that became daunting for me, and I knew that this would bring even more challenges when considering the introduction of participants. White talks about the risks that participants take when taking part in a performance, stating that;
"In everyday life the risk of embarrassment has a disciplinary effect on people. We are under injunctions to control ourselves, to present performances of ourselves that fit the personae we present to the world. So when participatory theatre invites performances from audience members, it presents special opportunities for embarrassment, for mis-performance and reputational damage, such that the maintenance of control and the assertion of agency that protects this decorum is important to the potential audience participant, especially at the moment of invitation" (White, G. 2013).
As a performance maker asking audience members to participate in my work, I am assuming responsibility for myself, the participants, and the work - the audience members are taking a risk when participating, and I feel that I have to ensure that they feel comfortable during their experience.
Moving forward, I will explore each of my individual interests that were raised in this exercise and see how they can be implemented into this project.
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