Documentation Process and Reflection : learning how to document

Monday 27th January 

In our class with Jane we were given the task of watching some of the third year open project performances and finding different ways of documenting these productions . The first performance we watched was "Geek Speak" which was a piece that looked at embracing your inner geek and not feeling ashamed about that part of your personality. There was a section within the piece where the performers lived out their fantasies of having a date with a Star Wars character. I had an idea for documenting this part of the performance I would shoot short clips of that scene and use a split screen technique at particular moments . I feel this would help to frame particular moments to help emphasise the comic and absurd encounter the audience experience as the performers go on these imaginary dates. 

There was an installation piece that took place within the dressing room. The piece explored the seduction and dependency that performers have on fame .I thought if I was to document the piece I would take lots of stills to capture different areas of the installation to explore and examine the different stages that these characters experience in their journey through the piece. I would also consider using a surveillance camera to document the piece to illustrate the obsessive and compulsive behavior of the performers . The task we were set I found useful because it made me consider numerous and many different forms of documentation . I still feel I need to gain greater experience with working with new mediums like photography and film footage which I hope to use a lot in my documentation of my solo. 

Solo Projects - Exploring more areas of performance art

Thursday 23rd January

We met with Leentje today who discussed with us her experience of creating her own solo performances .Leentje discussed the first solo performance she had ever made which was entitled 'Knitting to worry about'. In this piece Leentje portrayed a character called Anika who knits an entire family, environment for herself. Leentje described this piece to us as being a metaphorical performance that illustrated her own journey of having to start a new life from nothing. 

Leentje described another of her pieces "Horse' which was again another metaphorical piece of performance. The performance illustrated Leentje's own difficulty with her own identity in a a new country and her own difficulty with engaging with others when they were only interested in what surrounded her. It was genuinely so useful and helpful to listen because she has the experience and knowledge about the negatives and positives that come with the process of creating a solo project. Leentje's process interested me because she has scripted some of her solo work and with other pieces of work she has a skeletal plan for the performance. It has made me consider that it depends on what kind of piece I am trying to create and that if I am writing a particular monologue I may need to specifically script that work before I begin fully rehearsing it. However I have considered if I did a work that relied on audience participation I perhaps could not specifically script my performance because it would depend on the audience reaction. 

Leentje introduced us to the work of Ying -Mei- Duan a Chinese performance artist whose piece 'sleepwalk' involved audience interaction where the performer encountered members of the audience in a trance like state and she went up to one of them and slapped them across the face. The piece 'Sleepwalk' was based upon the abuse that Duan received from her parents as a child which they claimed was due to their sleepwalking problems. 


Leentje also introduced us to Franko B's work which is based upon his own ritualistic and bloody violation of his own body. We were shown footage of his live performance 'I miss you'. We watched a short video in which Marina Abramovich gave advice to young artists. Abramovich's advice was  to still explore the ideas that you have rejected and try to find the potential within them. She also suggested to use the medium or tool which you can use the best to express your ideas. 

I thoroughly agree with the advice that Abramovich suggested about exploiting the medium you are comfortable in I am beginning to consider using some element of my own poetry or piece of text within my solo performance. I feel my ideas for my solo project have shifted massively over these last two weeks I was considering doing a piece around my difficulty with dyscalculia and how it effects me emotionally and mentally. As the week has gone on  I have been introduced to more and more styles of performance art.The highly symbolic pieces that Abramovich creates like 'the lovers' and the metaphors behind Leentje's work has inspired me to want to create a piece of work that is a metaphor or is symbolic itself. The subject for my solo is about me being able to meet my grandmother for an hour who died before I was born. I feel this subject I want to examine in my solo is symbolic of my own grief    and sense of loss at not having her in my life. I feel this subject could also be a metaphor for me trying to construct an illusion or a reality out of something I have lost.

Documentation Process and Reflection : iMovie Training

Tuesday 21st January

We had our first ever iMovie training session today I was a little nervous and daunted at learning how to edit film and also compile film together because I do not consider myself to be particularly technical. I am not unfamiliar with apple computers so once Sam the capable technician led us step by step through the basic steps of how to import clips, rearrange clips,import clips I eventually felt more confident. The apple programme iMovie is a lot more simpler and straightforward than I thought it would be.

Notes taken on how to use iMovie. 




Over the course of this weekend I am going to film a few short clips using my iPhone. The short clips of film I have shot I am going to use so I can practise my editing skills. I am going to practice all the basic skills Steve taught us so I become more comfortable with using the editing software. I feel I am still getting to grips with how to film footage as well because it is not something I have had much experience of. Hopefully over the next week or two I will gain more knowledge and experience on how to use and operate different kinds of recording equipment.

Documentation Process and Reflection : Photographic Composition

Monday 20th January

In today's lesson with Jane we looked at the art of Photographic composition. Jane instructed us to focus  upon a specific subject when composing our picture and for that to be the main focus of the image. We were given a square frame each and sent outside to capture and compose several interesting images. I used my iphone to capture the three close ups and three distant shots. I did find when I took each picture it a little challenging to hold the frame exactly still because I was so focused upon finding the subject. This led to a few of my images being blurred or ever so slightly out of focus.

When taking the close up shots I found this more interesting because I felt I could find more detail within my subject and it enabled me to find more meaning in the image than I had done before. There was a paving stone on the floor with cracks running through I was drawn to it because it looked as though it was being torn apart. When I first captured the image I did not use the frame to see what effect it would have on the picture. I found that when I did not use the frame I seemed to loose the focus upon the original subject .When I looked at the image I found that my eye was being drawn to several subjects distancing my gaze from my original  chosen subject .However when I used the frame I found that I was able to focus specifically on the subject in the exact way  I had wanted to when I had first encountered it.

Jane looked through the various images we had captured and she advised us that the subject we are trying to capture does not always need to appear centrally within the image. Jane suggested to play around with the placing of the subject to place it in the third of the picture makes the position of the subject more interesting and engaging. We briefly discussed the photographic term 'Golden Triangle' which is when you imagine three triangles dividing up a picture it allows you to create the perfect composition.

The simple aspects of photographic composition we were taught in class have made me consider that  as we document our work I want to take particular stills of my solo project to create a composed image that can reflect a very specific part or a moment of reflection in my piece. I feel that these composed images If I use them will help to build the journey of the performance itself but also the process of creating this performance

Solo Project- Introduction to Performance Art

Thursday 16th January 2014


Today I have begun the exciting but slightly nerve-racking process of creating my first ever solo project. Nancy my tutor gave the whole class an overview on the development of performance art which is the type of style we are using within our solos. Performance Art is a form of art that combines visual art and dramatic performance. Performance Art is a form that developed from the work of visual artists during the the 60's. Live Art is a form of performance art which is used mostly in Europe. Live Art as a form of performance is inspired by visual art, experimentation and dance.

Nancy showed us a wide range of different performance artists works and their style  within it. We were introduced to Spalding Gray's work which is focused upon our own life experience as being the material for our own performances. Gray co founded the New York performance company The Wooster Group' in the late seventies. Gray created a trilogy of  autobiographical performances Sakonnet point, Rumstick Road and Nyatt School that all explored his own personal story. The trilogy of the performances that Grey created allowed Grey to develop the persona of Spalding and construct the monologue drawing his own history. The trilogy of performances that Grey created developed the autobiographical form of performance  .Grey's performance 'Rumstick Suicide' was a piece of autobiographical performance that explored his mothers own suicide.

We were also introduced to Yoko Ono's performance art. Ono's performance art developed out of her interest in conceptual art and her desire to explore the area of performance art. Ono's famous piece entitled ' Cut Piece' invited the audience to approach her and cut away a small section of the dress she was wearing. The performance was initially performed in Japan and London during the early sixties period. 'Cut piece' is often interpreted as a feminist piece of performance art that is examining how women are objectified by the patriarchal system that society is submerged in . Ono actual intention in creating and performing 'Cut piece' was to test her own commitment to living a life as an artist. Ono's piece of work was a performed concept and was related to the 'Fluxus' movement which wanted to integrate life with art.

We briefly also covered performance artists like Joseph Beuys who came from a visual arts background. Beuy's performance work often explored the idea of ritual and he took on the performance role of a shaman   .His work dealt with strong social and political messages such as environmental issues he made a piece 'Documenta 7' which called for people to plant 10,000 oak trees. Beuys formed the idea of 'social sculpture' which was the concept of seeing the world and our society itself as a form of art. Bueys believed that every individual could contribute creatively to this concept of social sculpture and he implemented this idea in 'Documenta 7' where he invited people once he had planted the first tree to plant the next tree.

Nancy introduced us to Marina Abramovic one of the most celebrated performance artists in the world. Ambromovic performance work explores endurance and duration her well known work 'Rhythm O' examined her audience endurance and her own endurance as her audience were invited to do what ever they wanted to do to her using a selection of objects that even included a gun. Abramovic's work is predominantly testing the boundaries between the performer and the spectator . Abramovic's work is often regarded as being highly symbolic such as the piece of work called 'The lovers' where she broke up with her partner on the great wall of china. Abramovic's work is considered to be focused upon duration and she has incorporated this concept with a social message in the piece 'Balkan Baroque'. Balkan Baroque examined the issue of social cleansing through Ambromovic's continuous scrubbing and disinfecting of bones.

Nancy also suggested many diverse and different ways we could perform our piece from our own particular talents, our physical limitations, our own fears, our own physical adeptness, our own

myths, our own issues of being objectified.

My mind is filled with endless ideas of what I want to examine and explore within this Solo and this brief introduction to performance artists has made me want to search for the best possible way or style  to perform and convey these ideas.

 I feel in these early weeks I truly need to absorb as much performance art as I can and test my ideas out to see if they fit with this type of performance style. I also need to firmly settle on what I want to actually explore. I am becoming increasingly interested in exploring my own mental limitation which is my dyscalculia so I need to look into this further.  I am increasingly wanting my solo to lean towards being as Schechner said 'story of the performer'.

Research
http://thewoostergroup.org/twg/projects/spald.html
http://imaginepeace.com/archives/2680
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Beuys#Artworks_and_performances

Allain and Harvie  (2006) The Routledge Companion to Theatre and Performance, Oxon, Routledge

Documentation Process and Reflection 1

Monday 13th January

I am using this blog specifically to document the process and creation of my first ever solo project. It is an exciting and slightly terrifying prospect but I'm looking forward to the challenges and rewards I will gain on creating this solo performance.

In our first Mondays class after the Christmas holidays we met with Jane Linden to discuss how we have to document our work and simply what documentation is. Jane explained that documentation is needed to create a stable record of past performance because of the ephemeral nature of performance and ultimately any kind of art form.
I feel documentation is essential in order to preserve how the actual piece lived and breathed and how over a course of time it perhaps altered slightly changing the final product. I feel the process part of any performance is rewarding because you can test new ideas out and reject them if they do not work.  The process allows you to undercover new aspects of your performance that you were unaware of and I think when creating my solo I will become aware of new aspects of myself as an artist.

Over the next few weeks with Jane we are looking further into documentation and the debate over whether we should archive performance or simply store this performance within our bank of memories.

As part of Jane's classes we are also learning to get to grips with using iMovie so we can learn to edit and put together a short 3 minute DVD of our solo projects which is a main element that is assessed in the documentation unit. 

The thought of learning to edit film of my own performance seems daunting at the present moment however I feel my solo project is a good place for me to begin to to develop these essential technical skills.