February 15 2012
Lecture:
Today's lecture we looked at the different types of technologies that are used within performances.
What is MASS MEDIA?
. This is a type of technology that try's to bring people together.
. It is used to bring as many people as possible.
. It's a type of communication with technology.
Examples of Mass Media:
There are several main mass media mediums:
1)Books
2)Radio
3)Television
4)Internet
5)Phones
6)Newspapers
7)Journals
All the above can be classified under the terms of printed, recorded, radio, film, TV, internet and mobile.
The internet is the most interactive medium. You can interact on the internet straight away and it is the easiest accessible form of media. People all over the world can interact with one another from different places. Social Networks such as Twitter and Facebook enable people to post what is going on where they are. On the internet a person is able to find what is going on in another country by looking for breaking news stories and researching different things. The internet is the most commonly used and also tends to include all other mass media. It is the cheapest and sometimes free way to access information from around the world.
Theater, Performance and ....internet:
Some examples of mass media through media:
. Intermedial Performance (Albersmeir and Roloff, 1989)
. Virtual Theater (Lanier)
. Cyberdrama (Murray, 1997)
. Telematic Performance (Salz, 2004)
. Cyber Theater (Chatzichristodoulou, 2006)
. Cyber-performance (Causey, 2006)
. Digital Performance (Dixon, 2007)
. Hyperformance (Unterman, 2007)
. Cyberformance (Jamieson, 2008)
. Online Theater
. Networked Performance
Cyberformance: is a live performance that utilizes internet technologies to bring remote performance together in real time, for remote and/or proximal audience.
Jameson, 2008
Examples of performances that use cyberformance:
Solo Performance: Where only one person is involved, the internet is used to connect to the single performer, rather than to connect distributed performers.
Jameson, 2008
In solo performance the audience become the most important element.
Helen Varley Jameson (2008: Le Salon panoplie.org
http://www.creative-catalyst.com/gesture/index.html
Helen Jameson's performance is broadcast live and while the performance is going to she chats to the audience using a chat box that is shown on the side of the performance video.
. The chat box next to the performance takes the performance to another level.
. It allows the audience to comment on the performance in a way that can help the performer get feedback and be able to change the performance accordingly.
How can a solo performer use the internet for their performance?
. It allows the audience to watch your performance live by using the U-Stream.
. If you want to include a music video within your performance you can have it playing in the background from YouTube.
. You can use the internet to break people's expectations.
. Use the internet as research for you performance.
. Advertise your performance and also to get feedback for ideas you may have.
. Using a blog is also a part of reflecting and writing down ideas of performance.
Up-Stage (cyber-stage) are different things that performers can use.
Cyberian Chalk Circle: Documentation:
This is a performance using the medium of cyberperfomance:
' Live performance that involved interactions with the audience. Included performer, technical.
http://upstage4.cyberformance.net/stages/etheatre
Sit comfortable in your desk chair, your sofa, your bed or even your local café and follow our game while you are updating your TWITTER, chatting on your SKYPE, spying your friends on FACEBOOK, or just searching something on GOOGLE…
Performer: Evi Stamatiou
Director: Christina Papagiannouli
05:00 pm 14/May/2011 (UK local time).
http://upstage.org.nz/blog/
Life streaming performance by Dries Verhoeven (Leaf Festival - 2010)
Leaf is a non-profit organization, connecting cultures and creating community through music and art.
http://www.theleaf.com/index.php/thefestival
A performance was put on miles away using the internet and video cameras while the audience could watch the performance going on from another location.
Social network sites such as Twitter can also be used to show a performance. Take for example the the Royal Shakespeare company got actors to form twitter accounts in which they were the characters from 'Romeo and Juliet.' Within this performance people can follow each character and are continually updated with tweets from the characters speaking to one another. This is a modern version of the play because even though they stay true to the script they are using their own words to interact in this performance.
http://water-wheel.net/(This is a digital platform that for commenting on the technology of performance.)
To use this platform for performance, one of the conditions is for the performer to included water metaphorically within their piece.
How Cyberformance is adjusted within last weeks readings?
. Laurie Anderson uses projectors and a lot of technologies that make her piece dynamic.
. Like in the websites/platforms for performance, you can get the computer to produce a voice for you, similar to Laurie Anderson who uses the computer to distort her voice.
. Philip Auslander speaks about live work and the use of media: 'The blending of real and fabricated personae and situations that occurs when performance personae assume the same functions as 'real' people in the media has the same disorienting effect as the flowing together of various levels and types of meaning on television, but on a larger scale.' (1989, 129).
Creative Writing Exercise:
Within in this exercise, similar to the free-writing exercise I did a few weeks ago I had to write down my thoughts. However, this time I was given a phrase that I had to start my story off with. 'I am writing to say...'
This is what I came up with:
I am writing to say...it is weird how things work out. There are many definitions and conclusions that one person that come across. Is it because of the way we were brought up? Or maybe that things we see! Could it be a combination of what other people tell you and your own thoughts? Maybe it is the way people want you to think. Things don't have to be complicated. They can be easy if we want them to be, we need to find the line between the two. Consider possibilities that you have never thought of before. Maybe you are scared! It is okay to be scared. Many people are, but it is not scaredness you should use as an excuse to hold you back. It is up to you to be all you can be. It is up to you to decided what it is you want to be and it is up to you to fight for it. To be something that nobody else thought you'd be.
Next we had to write again but this time to use a different mode of writing such as a laptop, phone to see how it feels writing on it.
This is what I wrote on my phone:
I am writing to say...that maybe I don't know who I am or where I am in this life, but I do know one thing, and that is I am a Fighter and I don't give up easily. No matter how long it will take for me to find the person I am mean't to be or which paths it may lead me,I know that I will get there. But I would like to get there with you, I would like to know that when I excel and succeed you will be there by my side to share in the success and happiness I found and I hope that will allow you to want to do the same. To not give up, to know that there are better things out there for all of us and you can also find who you truly are. Together we can be amazing, together we will be fearless and mostly we will be together.
What I found was that my writing changed completely. When I was writing on paper I felt that it was more personal and so was able to share a lot more of my thoughts. Once I started typing on my keypad it felt as though I was writing for someone else. It was still a bit personal because at times when I need to write down what I am thinking and I didn't have a paper close by I would write on my phone.
Next we had to choose one of the two stories above and rewrite it as a Facebook Post: What's on your mind?
Re-write it for Twitter: What's happening? 140 characters.
What I realized is that the questions are different and it is also a way that might influence the way you write down your status. It also shows that any random news that one person posts another person will comment.
We can use this as a way of finding ideas for our solo performances,
It is also a way of advertising.
You can also create a character (as in the Romeo and Juliet production).
Afternoon Workshop:
To start of the class we spoke about the need for warm-up's.
Did some stretching,
Some breathing exercises,
Articulation exercises,
Relaxation,
Focus.
All these help a performer prepare for their performance both physically, vocally and also allows them to stay calm and focused.
Improvisational Exercise:
Finding stories with/through our bodies:
Learning to trust yourself and your stories:
For this exercise we had to find a place in the room that we felt comfortable and then relax and find a repeatable movement that we can continue doing. Once we had found our movement we had to repeat out loud or in a whisper, 'I remember...' for as long as we could until we had a thought in our head and then we had to speak what we were thinking instead of keeping it in our head.
After that we had to go back and write down what we spoke or thought about.
I personally found it hard to concentrate and spent most of the time repeating the 'I remember...' I also think that the reason I had a problem with finding something to think about because it felt forced. The harder I tried to relax and think of something the harder it seemed to be and my mind just kept going blank. I personally find it easier to imagine things than speak them out and I think that had a part to play in the way I tried to do the exercise.
Next we had to choose one memory from the previous exercise and try to remember as much about that memory as we could such as smell, place, feeling and clothes we might have been wearing at that time. Then we had to go back and write down what we experienced in a way editing the story from before.
I managed to start remembering a bit of something but it was really distant. Some of the things I saw was in black and white, like when you see an old picture from the past.
Using the memory we had and the repeated movement we had to create a one minute solo piece.
A lot of people's performances were surprising because you could feel the emotion that they went through when telling the story.
Notes for preparing a solo performance:
. Once you figure out what you want to do start doing research on it.
. Start staging your performance.
. Start practicing your piece by trying out ideas.
. Record yourself doing your piece and upload it onto facebook, twitter, youtube to get feedback and more ides.
Reading one:
Hall, E. (1988) Silent Language. Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group
The difference between the types of learning is observing what others do compared to being taught how to do something by another person and corrected if done wrongly.
I think my solo piece falls int eh category of 'Formal Awareness,' because my piece is focused around the search of happiness and where I lost sight of it. It revolves heavily around my past experiences that has influenced my life at the moment therefore me question if those past influences are what has shaped what I am and who I have become.
Technical awareness is a combination of formal awareness and informal awareness and also categorized as a fully conscious behavior. The things that differentiates between the other two is that technical awareness can be written down and recorded or even taught at a distance.
People have different perceptions of things therefore they may never agree on a given pattern because to them it falls in a certain category or means something different compared to the next person.
Congruence is like a search for something that has a certain meaning to a certain person.
Formal patterns are almost always learned when a mistake is made and someone corrects it. Technical learning also begins with mistakes and corrections, but it is done with a different tone of voice and the student is offered reasons for the correction. (67)
Informal learning is an entirely different character from either the technical or the formal. The principal agent is model used for imitation. (68)
Technical learning, in its pure form, is usually transmitted in explicit terms from the teacher to the student, either orally or in writing. (69)
The formal is a two-way process. Formal learning tends to be suffused with emotion. Informal learning is largely a matter of the learner picking others as models. Technical learning rests with the teachers skills which is a function of his or her knowledge and analytic ability. (70)
Formal Awareness is an approach to life that asks with surprise, 'Is there any other way?' Formally aware people are more likely to be influenced by the past then they are by the present or future. The term informal awareness is paradoxical because it describes a situation in which much of what goes on exists almost entirely out-of-awareness. (71)
The informal is made up of mannerisms or activities which we once leaned but which are so much a part of our everyday life that they are done automatically. (72)
Deep emotions are associated with the formal in almost every instance. (73)
In time, as informal systems become firmer they become so identified with the process of nature itself that alternative ways of behavior are thought as unnatural - if not impossible. There is little or no affect attached to informal behavior as long as things are going along nicely according to the unwritten or unstated rules. (74)
The technical is characterized by a suppression of feelings, since they tend to interfere with effective functioning. (75)
The formal provides a broad pattern within whose outlines the individual actors can fill in the details for themselves. (79-80)
Technical changes are small changes which have to do with the details of an operation. (84)
Patterns are those implicit cultural rules by means of which sets are arranged so that they take on meaning. Culture is neither derived from experience nor held up to the mirror of experience. (116)
A given pattern is obvious to certain categories of people. (121)
The counters on the mobility scale are numerous and so finely grained that while the average person can manipulate the system he/she cannot describe how it works technically. (122)
One cannot underestimate the importance of such patterns and the hold they have on people at all levels. (125)
The can-may distinction illustrates one of the many different types of informal patterns that exist in our language. Another type is associated with the use of what is technically known as the superfix first identified by Trager. (127)
Words that mean the same thing whether you read them forward or backwards are pleasant aberration from the rule of verbal order, as are words which have a real meaning when read backwards. Order is used differently in different cultures. (128-129)
Selections controls the combination of sets which can be used together. For every pattern there are certain points at which selection applies, just as there are other points at which order is brought into play. What enables us to differentiate between patterns is that they do not use selection and order in the same way. (130)
Selection plays a prominent part in the patterns of social relations around the world in dress, sex, and in work and play - in fact, all of the basic primary message systems. Unlike order and selection, which have to do with patterning of sets, the law of congruence can be expressed as a pattern of patterns. (131)
Complete congruence is rare. One might say that it exists when a individual makes full use of all the potentials of a pattern. Language, it so happens, works in such a way that any adjectival can have comparative superlative degrees. In order to obtain complete congruity, however, the word unique can be used in certain situations. (132)
Pattern congruity or style in writing is a function of knowing what can and cannot be achieved within the limits of the pattern. (133)
Artists do not lead cultures or create patterns, they hold up a mirror for society to see things it might not otherwise see. The 'rule' of congruence, or style in the broadest sense, pervades not only the world of art but all kinds of communication. (135)
Two of the most promising leads are in the study of patterns of the informal type and in developing our knowledge of congruence and how it functions. (136)
Reading Two:
Brook, P. Empty Space
I think what this reading is saying is that an actor has to start from within themselves and be able to allow themselves to be vulnerable and strong at the same time. To find in themselves the need to share themselves with their audiences. They don't need much but themselves, the actors body is their instrument and with that they can make a performance from themselves.
In theater, you have the ability to make something that is 'invisible' like you thoughts and ideas or fantasies become 'visible' by being able to bring life to them on stage, in your performance.
By using theater, we are able to give something of ourselves to the audience.
We share elements of our lives that can only be seen in other's but in sharing we are making our own thoughts become reality.
As an actor one has to learn to open themselves to the audience, to share their secrets.
Theater is a means to explore oneself, to study ones own thoughts and ideas, and be able to show those 'selves' to the audiences in a way that makes the actor vulnerable to his own self.
Theater calls for the actor to 'sacrifice' themselves as in be a messenger/laymen for others by displaying/showing commonality between him/herself and that of the audience. Performing things that are otherwise kept within restrictions of oneself.
The Notion that the stage is a place where the invisible can appear has a deep hold on our thoughts. (47)
The theater is the last forum where idealism is still an open question. (47)
We still wish to capture in our arts the invisible currents that rule our lives, but our own vision is now locked to the dark end of the spectrum. (48)
An actor making a gesture is creating both for himself. out of his deepest need, and for the other person. (57)
A gesture is statement, expression, communication and a private manifestation of loneliness - it is always what Artaud calls a signal through the flames - yet this implies a sharing of experience, once contact is made. (57)
Fantasy invented by the mind is apt to be lightweight, the whimsicality and the surrealism of much of the Absurd would no more have st= satisfied Artaud then the narrowness of the psychological play. (59)
Artuad maintained...only in the theater could we liberate ourselves from the recognizable forms in which we live our daily lives. This made the theater a holy place in which a f=greater reality could be found. (60)
Artaud always speaking of a complete way of life, of a theater in which the activity of the actor and the activity of the spectator were driven by the same desperate need. (60)
A Happening is a powerful invention, it destroys at one blow many deadly forms. It can be anywhere, any time, of any duration: nothing is required, nothing is taboo. It is spontaneous, it may be formal, anarchistic, it can generate intoxicating energy. (61)
All religions assert that the invisible is visible all the time. (63)
A holy theater not only presents the invisible but also offers conditions that make its perception possible. (63)
The theater is a vehicle, a means of self-study, self-exploration, a possibility of salvation. (66)
'Auto-penetration' by the role is related to exposure: the actor does not hesitate to show himself exactly as he is, for he realizes that the secret role demands his opening himself up, disclosing his own secrets. So that the act of performance is an act of sacrifice, of sacrificing what most men prefer to hide - this sacrifice is his gift to the spectator. (66-67)
Reading Three:
Aernout Mik:
This work relies on public knowledge, because Mik's work is not allows clear or has a starting or finishing point, the viewer has to rely on their own knowledge of the world or event s they have seen.
To understand Mik's work, the viewer has to make connections between outside to those inside the room in which the work is being presented.
Although his work is fiction, it appears to be documentaries.
Within Mik's work, he tends to not include narrative and hardly gives direction. This is because he wants his viewers to bring themselves to the performance and react in a natural way through their own knowledge and information.
He tends to film for long periods of time because he says that after at least half an hour people tend to forget that they are being watched and filmed and go back to acting natural instead of knowing that they need to act.
Aernout Mik is an artist who exemplifies the fluidity of bu= boundaries. (13)
Mik's audience is of a different persuasions: it is a group distinguished by movement. The crowd changes - enlarges and diminishes - by the moment. (15)
Mik operates in controlled happenstance both in his 'direction' of crowds on-screen and with his viewers. (15)
Mik's notion of film is expansive and suggests another way of appreciating cinema outside the theater. (16)
What does seem to be at work in Mik's creations is the recognition of collective memory. The artist operates with the assumption that the viewer carries with him information filtered through the mass media. (19)
The viewer brings his own personal experience and social memory into play, thus investing the images with the signification the artist withholds: what happens on-screen is not explicated but can begin to be understood, through what the viewer knows of recent history. (19)
Many contemporary artists refer to or even appropriate from the collective memory of popular movies; Mik does not. (19)
It is not the set that Mik decides how his cast will move and what incidents he will cause to transpire. (20)
His movies speak through the mind of the viewer as well as ambient sounds of fellow viewers. (21)
Aeronout Mik's work was exhibited at the MOMA as a series of discrete installations from May 6 to the 27 July 2009.
http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/61
Below is a video in which Aernout Mik discusses his exhibition at the MOMA. In this video he speaks about how his work was set up in a way so that it mirrors movements of the crowds in the pieces with the movements of the crowds in the museum. Six screens were set up that show shots from parliament that was shot by six different cameras from six different angels. He says his piece relates to the democratic crisis in the Ukraine and how many of his pieces relates to different political and social events but do not show direct images of it but just snippets or shot flashes that bring in images that the viewers would recognize and cannot really place. His work has no sound.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmnIKihcBHw
This site shows images of some of Mik's installation works.
http://arttattler.com/archiveaernoutmik.html
Bibliography:
Aeronouot Mik
Auslander, P. (1989) 'Going with the flow: Performance Art and Mass Culture,' TDR 33.2, pp. 119-136
Brook, P. Empty Space
Hall, E. (1988) Silent Language. Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group
Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) (2009) 'Aernout Mik Exhibition,' New York http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/61 (accessed 20 February 2012
YouTube (2009) 'Aernout Mik discusses his exhibition at the MOMA,' (accessed 20 February 2012)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmnIKihcBHw
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