More Art Influences

As well as the application of theoretical texts, we have always been looking out for any artistic texts and pieces that have relevance or can give us any further inspiration for the devising process.

Christina Rossetti

After Death

I felt this poem is beautifully echoed the themes of the location of the self within society and within relationships, as well as the feelings of the disembodiment of the mind from the body, in Rossetti's case through death, or in our case through the development of social networking.

The curtains were half drawn, the floor was swept

And strewn with rushes, rosemary and may

Lay thick upon the bed on which I lay,

Where through the lattice ivy-shadows crept.

He leaned above me, thinking that I slept

And could not hear him; but I heard him say:

"Poor child, poor child:" and as he turned away

Came a deep silence, and I knew he wept.

He did not touch the shroud, or raise the fold

That hid my face, or take my hand in his,

Or ruffle the smooth pillows for my head:

He did not love me living; but once dead

He pitied me; and very sweet it is
To know he still is warm though I am cold.

Samuel Beckett
Not I

This Beckett play was also particularly influential in generating our thoughts towards the language square, listening to the rhythms of the speech patterns, the breaking down of language into the fundamental shapes and sounds, as well as the disembodiment of the self and ideas of the other.





- Muscle memory
- Spark of memories, convoluted, circularity
- Mouth as a muscle reflex
- Mouth at odds with self, can't express the self within, battle between soul and body
- Memory can't exist without mind but mind can construct a memory
- Violation of her being trying to disassociate herself
- Communication, speech thought
- Half on identity as an idea
- Body vs mind
- Master vs slave
- Playwright vs actor
- Place creates identity limbo
- If I can only be masculine, Not I is the feminine

Steve Reich

These videos have been particularly influential in thinking about the ways our identity pieced together with all these fundamental elements of language and communication, to what we pick from influences such as the digital age and age of commericialism and industry, as well as from all the little rituals we do everyday. As well the beauty of his music, these videos and the music are also fascinating in their use and exploration of repetition and the patterns he creates.

 

On his work, Steve Reich writes:

The overall texture is made up entirely of multiples of the same timbre, which texture highlights the overall contrapuntal web with its many resulting patterns which the listener can hear. That is to say that my early works like Violin Phase and Piano Phase were written for multiples of identical instruments because if, for instance, in Piano Phase I play piano and you play harpsichord or synthesizer we will hear the separate timbres moving out of phase... Thus, multiples of identical instruments with the same timbre were acoustically necessary in my early pieces to create the overall contrapuntal web and particularly the ambiguity as to where the downbeat is...

This layering and building up of the same thing over and over again to create something else, unified and yet ambiguous, is particularly inspiring when considering the ideas of ritual and how some small, minor things that we repeat everyday can build up and become inherent in who we are.

The dance in this video is also particularly inspiring for the same reasons. Indepedent journalist Jenny Gilbert reviews the performance, also performed at Steve Reich's 70th Birthday celebrations:

First off the block was the Belgian Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker with her response to Reich's austere early period. Someone within my hearing likened its effect to being hit repeatedly over the head with a spoon, and there's no disputing that Piano Phase and Violin Phase, both composed in 1967 and relayed, by necessity, on tape, are maddeningly insistent - that's the point. Both are abstract formal studies which play with the electronic technique whereby a repeated melodic pattern is split into layers which gradually and sneakily fall out of synch and diverge.

 Keersmaeker is happy not to meddle with this format, and offers us its visual match: two figures (Keersmaeker herself and Tale Dolven) in a repeated pattern of arm-swinging walks and revolving turns. With their grey frocks, ankle socks and disengaged expressions the pair have the air of faintly naughty schoolgirls, particularly when they allow their frocks to flip up to show their knickers, the rhythm marching on unbroken.

While Jenny Gilbert isn't a particular fan, this dilemma of the music either being hypnotically repetitive and enchanting or of being excruitatingly irritating is also something worth exploring, perhaps a chance to see whether we are easily annoyed by the repetitive and want to escape the rut the music and movements show or in fact whether we find comfort in the rituals we live by.

Texts & Links
- Rossetti, Christina, After Death, 'The Broadview Anthology of Victorian poetry and poetic theory', Ed. Thomas J Collins & VivenneJ Rundle, Broadview Press Ltd. 2000
- http://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01184/arts-graphics-2008_1184484a.jpg
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUyXQ82YhTk
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYRykV6gjh4&feature=related
- Reich, Steve, Texture-Space-Survival, 'Perspectives of New Music', Vol. 26, No. 2 (Summer, 1988), pp. 272-280, http://www.jstor.org/stable/833197
- Gilbert, Jenny, Dance To Music by Steve Reich, Barbican London, Independent Online, 8th October 2006, http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/reviews/dance-to-music-by-steve-reich-barbican-london-br-marjories-world-unhinged-gardner-arts-centre-brighton-419209.html

Floor Plans

Version 1.

Version 2.

Contents Lists

This is the first set of lists we made for figuring out what we would need for each of the squares. We felt it was important to keep our minds open to the fact that these could all change and that these lists didn't mean everything was set in stone. However, it was also important that we started thinking about the practical side of the performance and collect our thoughts about what we would need to gather or make for the project. Click on any of the images to enlarge them.

Cyberspace Devising - Simulating virtual communication

The date or meeting square is something than in practice was something rather easy to execute, taking a think of the sort of conversation that Ben will improv with his participant and the impact on them. Similarly, the 'normal' square is rather self-serving, not in that it doesn't need working on in its composition but in that we knew what it was going to form and the basic shape it was going to take. We also already had a practical trial for devising the language square at the work-in-progress meeting with Jonny & Nick, taking things to work on practically and improvements to make. The cyber and labelling squares were becoming harder to form. We decided to spend this week focusing on our ideas for forming the Cyber square....

We had hoped to include a more performative, physical theatre element to the piece, especially as a way of exploring the disembodiment of the self in the cyber and representingt the different aspects of the identity of the face. We even tried going outside onto a field on a beautiful sunny day, doing a proper warm up and throwing around some moves and ideas to try and get the ideas going....This photographic evidence doesn't show that to our best ability but trust me, we were knackered afterwards... Unfortuately, as sunny as it was and as much as we tried out new things, the ideas just weren't there! Perhaps it was because a couple of weeks previous we'd all seen a student production of Belleville Rendevous, that Jessie was in, that included some brilliant, well developed physical theatre and we were all too self-concious of it not being as good. Maybe it just wasn't meant to be.

Instead, we decided to try another idea out...

As I've tried to document below, the practice was to try out the concept of exploring how we communicate with another over the internet and the different elements which are lost in doing so. As we didn't have the technological resources immeadiatly to hand we used domestic props to demonstrate. So to explain:

- The task is for participant A, in this case Kwaku (though we ran it through a couple of times with each of us), is to have a conversation with participant B, Ben.

- A is allowed to communicate normally, in that they can use their own voice and speak directly, what they said is heard by B. A, however, cannot see B and are unaware with who they are talking to. 

- However, B is not allowed to use their voice at all, instead they must communicate through the use of their body.

- They must also have their body communication mediated through participant C, Jack (who would possibly be one of us, not sure yet), who instead of vocalising what he thinks Ben is saying, instead has to write it onto the flip pad (which represents typed words on a screen, C wouldn't be visible to A in the actual circumstances.)

- Therefore, while B responds directly to what he hears, A can only respond to the words he see's and B must accept whatever C communicates, regardless of whether they are correct or even truthful in how they interepret it.

Results

- Became rather sinister and unnerving when, either out of curiousity or for sheer fun, the boys decided to take up different identities, making a strange observation of the real unknown dangers of taking to strangers on the internet.

- On one occasion, Ben decided to be a young boy and Jack, so not to get in a stereotypical 'youth' conversation was a 30 year old, as he thought this would still be young enough to not be creepy. And yet this age difference was still enough to make any conversation they did have seem sinister and inappropriate, as we knew or had it drilled into our heads of the horror stories of recent years that this should be inappropriate. This is something that neither Ben nor Jack set out to achieve and yet this was the result.

- Is this something we're going for?

- How easy will it to control or even to encourage the participants to become apart of?

- When we tried to be more normal and ourselves, it soon became rather a tame and predictable experience. Is this something that could affectively last 15 minutes if there wasn't naturally engaging participants?

- Took a couple of attemps for us to warm up to it, was easier because we were already friends

- Interesting use of seperation/divisions, how it affects the space and what it means to be in what space. Performance or not, privacy, open space, freedom...

Something to consider developing or reconsidering....

Links

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cq6eEHq4olk 

Closer Look at the Disembodiment of Cyberspace

After our exploration of devising for the Cyber square, and in preperation for our devising  focus on the Labelling square, I decided to take a closer look in the disembodiment of the self, looking not only at whether or not we are becoming disembodied in cyberspace and what this means to our identity, but also using this to think about what affect this has on our modern day understanding of our self-identity and how we like to distinguish, determine and document every aspect of our identity. While these 3 articles may not, in my oppinion, be able to stand firm in one clear answer, they raise many questions that perhaps we as internet consumers and growing up in the digital age, may never have beem aware of, ones that we could hope to raise and point at in our own work. Are we to become reconstructed in cyberspace? Is that 'perfect' self to which we aspire actually a possible acheivement in a virtual world?

The physical body in Cyberspace: at the edge of extinction?

Introduction

 So, is there anything "universal" which makes up "successful" communication situations, "successful" in terms of being efficient, enjoyable and "natural"? (With respect to artifacts "natural" means "acceptable", i.e. whether humans like to become engaged in interactions or not. Humans cannot avoid contact with other humans, but artifacts and new technology can, to some extent, be used or not). I assume that there is such a common basis underlying interaction, communication and "understanding". If we talk about interaction and communication in an entertainment or business context, agents have to understand each other. And all nature (and studies in natural sciences confirm this) tells us is that understanding cannot be separated from a "living body", an embodied mind. Understanding means re-experiencing and reconstructing past experiences on the basis of the current context and bodily state of an agent.

The question of embodiment has always been linked to the question "What is life and intelligence?" ... What do we know about how animals and humans use their body in real life? How do they live with their bodies within a given environment? In public, but also in the scientific community, "cyberspace" is often used as a metaphor for a world where the human body only plays a minor role, where we are in danger of becoming a creature without a body, experiencing things by direct stimulation of the nervous system, where we will lose the sense for reality and get lost as a virtual creature in a virtual world. A world where we become isolated, ending up as extremely individualized selfish beings. Some people in the artificial intelligence and virtual reality community are very enthuastic about this bodiless future; they are looking forward to "getting rid" of the ("imperfect", mortal) body, i.e. they like the idea of transmitting their personality and intelligence to a computer memory and leading an immortal and perfect life...

Body and Environment

Natural bodies are individual and unique. Even twins do not have a completely identical body. They might have a identical set of genes but their bodies are not identical. Bodies are physical entities. They occupy a distinct volume in space and time. No other individual can be at the same point in space and time. Our perception of reality uses the metaphor of a geometrical three- dimensional space within which our body is located. This is also a metaphor usually used in cyberspace that you locate interactions and people, or representations of people, in three-dimensional space. This is not just by accident or by a technological bias. This is because it due to a straightforward way of transferring metaphors of our natural thinking to metaphors of our thinking in artificial worlds. The body's shape changes during active movements or contacts with other objects. It is not something fixed. The body shows characteristic symmetrical and asymmetrical features. Individuals take a certain perspective according to the orientation of the body. Even if you are very close to another individual when, for example, you are watching a movie or dancing, it will never appear that you both experience things in exactly the same way, but simililarly. You can discuss the similarity of the experience and various forms of interpretation. You have to be aware, however, that you are always discussing ways of finding similarities. Language is our tool with which we communicate and find these common, similar aspects in our life and perception.

 Reality and Active Bodies

The big advantage of having a physical body is that it gives you a first-person experience by actively exploring the world. This is why we often find it boring to watch TV or read a book. We can have very lively mental experiences by doing this. What is missing is a certain interaction, a direct feedback from the world. This is why virtual reality applications are sometimes much more appealing to children and also to adults, because they can provide this kind of feedback and interaction to some extent...

What matters are the ideas which are constructed in our embodied mind and which have an important meaning to us. A real person can have the same importance as a cartoon figure (e.g. to a child), or a football team (e.g. to adults). Technical devices which let humans enter virtual worlds manipulate the human body. They do not replace the body, they try to make virtual experiences (as we know them say, from watching TV) more realistic to us by allowing active exploration and interaction... Since actively exploring the world is a crucial aspect in (animal) intelligent behavior and learning, virtual environments could potentially bridge this gap.

Conclusion - As Kerstin Dautenhahn sees it...

To conclude, in my view, we are not in danger that the physical human body will become extinct in cyberspace. It will be re-interpreted, somehow re-invented. Its meaning and expression will be adapted to changing conceptions of (social) "reality"...We do not have a database in our head but a story generator. We are constantly writing and re-writing scripts, stories about ourselves and other people. Cyberspace is a attractive medium because it gives us ways to enact and to replay these kinds of stories. It seems to be a universal human feature that we like stories, that we need stories in our life. My interest in cyberspace came from the idea that this technology may help us to write and to enact good stories, better stories than before. The body is the point of reference for the reconstruction of old "stories" and the reinvention of new ones.

Flying Through Walls and Virtual Drunkenness: Disembodiment in Cyberspace?

As virtual worlds develop on the Internet and become more integrated into people's daily lives, we need to examine issues concerning how people are represented, and how these representations through the electronic medium affect people's social relationships and own identities.

Mitch Kapor and John Barlow wrote: "The old concepts of property, expression, identity, movement and context, based as they are in physical manifestation, do not apply succinctly in a world where there can be none." Perhaps we need a new discipline in order to broaden our insight and understanding of our virtual selves. The traditional disciplines of anthropology, biology, psychology, sociology and philosophy can be supplemented by this new discipline. It is becoming known as cybertheory.

To what extent do we project our own bodies into a virtual world? Conventions and standards of bodies in the real world are too often carried over into virtual environments: the beauty myth is manifest in descriptions of bodies as sexy and beautiful; similarly, many examples of virtual characters represented as strong and powerful bodies also exist...Are we too deeply infused with the notions of beauty, power, and status that our virtual characters must also represent these conventional ideas? Does the fact that we see so many examples of real world conventions about the body transported into the virtual world mean that we are really disembodied? Are we not portraying bodies of our virtual characters as those that we wish our own bodies to resemble? How can we transcend the beauty myth in a virtual world and develop new ideas about the attractiveness of other individuals?

Although sensory information is different to our real world experience, technology is already providing us with new ways to explore movement in virtual environments. We can fly over landscapes, penetrate walls, enjoy multiple views simultaneously, move through all corners of Euclidean space, and step outside our portrayed representations, and back in again. Will these new experiences push our awareness of our body further into the background, will we feel completely disembodied, or will we be able to bring these bodily movement experiences back into our physical worlds to think anew about our own physical selves?

hello, and what are we today?

Identity is the first thing you create when you log on to a computer service. By defining yourself in some way, whether through a name, a personal profile, an icon or a mask, you also define your audience, space and territory. In the architecture of networks geography shifts as readily as time. Communities are defined by software and hardware access. Anatomy can be readily reconstituted. (Leeson 1996 : 325)

Seems surprisingly relevant to the current Facebook culture that my generation and many older and younger are currently intoxicated by......

As it can be seen from the quote above there is a certain creative element to 'being' in cyberspace. This notion of creativity is evident on the World Wide Web, where people can create a space to represent themselves such as a personal homepage. These pages often list personal interests, aspirations and ideals, sometimes containing pictures of the person it is there to represent but frequently they are text and simple graphics. The person who authors the page decides how much of themselves to reveal or even to invent a self that bears no relation (apart from authorship) to their 'real' selves. Thus, as Baudrillard put it, "this body, our body, often appears simply superfluous... ...everything is concentrated in the brain." [i] So at the same time as creating a persona the user is distanced from their actual body, but, as Balso points out "'freedom from a body' [does not] imply that people will exercise the 'freedom to be' any other kind of body than the one they already enjoy or desire."

What is quite a chilling thought to ponder as I read this article, is what does this culture mean for the future generations and for the future of the current Facebook generation?

The notion that the Internet is some kind of public forum, where ideas can be shared, and discussed by equals, behind a mask of anonymity is inherently flawed. The very fact that users are anonymous allows them to put forward opinions that do not have to be considered or informed. Any notions of democracy [x] on the net are similarly undermined, how would users vote without intrinsically fixing their identities? Without a fixed identity there is no safeguard against multiple voting. How can the disembodied and often dispersed, citizens of these virtual communities reach a consensus for non-virtual action? Poster contends that "Dissent on the Net does not lead to consensus: it creates the profusion of different views. Without an embodied copresence, the charisma and status of individuals have no force."

All these articles demonstrate that this issue is still very much current and split into different camps of whether the influence of cyber on modern day relations is a positive or negative one. From this we decided to not take a specific side but instead explore the sensations of what is removed from us in cyberspace, being the real and immediate senses, and team this was an observation on how we are currently using the internet and networking sites, in our example Facebook, in our every day lives. This would require:

- a blindfold
- a wheeley chair
- sensory experiences throughout the space
- a recording of a written script about how an individual uses Facebook
- some experimenting!

Texts, Links & Images

- Dautenhahn, Kerstin, The physical body in Cyberspace: at the edge of extinction?, http://duplox.wzb.eu/docs/panel/kerstin.html

- Mark, Gloria, Flying Through Walls and Virtual Drunkenness: Disembodiment in Cyberspace?, http://duplox.wzb.eu/docs/panel/gloria.html

- Jones, Mike, hello, and what are we today?, http://www.garfnet.org.uk/new_mill/autumn97/sa.htm

- Fonteijn, Marc, Central Identity addons and readers, http://www.flickr.com/photos/marcfonteijn/1053975538/

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identical_Twins,_Roselle,_New_Jersey,_1967

- http://www.flickr.com/photos/elina/123398281/

- http://farm1.static.flickr.com/102/261403894_9532884fdc.jpg
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYhCn0jf46U

Labelling Devising - Pair Movement Piece

As with the Cyberspace square, for the Labelling square we had plenty of theories and ideas to fuel our devising but had yet to find a hook to create something so again we spent a session focusing on getting the piece into action.

We spent a while listening to different pieces of music that we'd already been looking at, (Steve Reich came into full force!) and spent a while doing some warm up games and focus exercises. One particularly effective one that Jessie led was starting on the floor, she got us to become more and more aware of each part of our body and our breathing, before then having to try and pull ourselves of the floor but trying it using different parts of our body. This progressed on to us walking around the room, picturing someone we knew and almost becoming them as we mimiced and thought about every aspect of their walk and how they hold themselves etc. It was a really funny experience because the latter part of the exercise I'd watched many times as an effective focus warm up for character actors, thinking about each part of their character, and so you would have thought I'd be prepared for it. And yet, I still managed to slip into thinking about someone very personal and close to me, which meant when Jessie asked us to make a sound they would make i froze up, unable to put a stamp on how I felt or wanted to represent them. This may all seem incredibly irrelevant but it was interesting and intriguing non-the-less!

After the this, as we happened to get interupted by some visitors and we were all hungry for lunch anyway, we started to have a look around youtube for some inspiration and any recent videos we'd seen. The following video was particularly influential in looking at the ideas of the body, of connection with another and of the concepts we've previously explored of fitting into a mould or ideal.

Dead Dreams of Monochrome Men was DV8's first stage show to be professionally adapted for film. Loosely based on the story of serial killer Dennis Nilsen, it explores the interwoven notions of loneliness, desire and trust. Founded upon the conviction that societal homophobia often results in tragic consequences, the work grapples with the disturbing forces that drove Nilsen to kill for company.

This concept was then rehearsed over a couple of days, giving Jessie and Kwaku a chance to collect their ideas of the speech they would improvise and focus their thoughts and emotions regarding the movement and tone of the piece. During a couple of the runs (when I wasn't editing the sound recordings as seen in the images), I took audience/director notes to see what as an observer I was experiencing and to give Jessie & Kwaku some constructive feedback on their improvising.

Directorial/Observer Notes

Run 1

* Who is the conversation supposed to be with?

- Interview

- Meeting with a stranger or a friend

- Questionnaire or scientific exploration

- One person, multiple or abstract, rhetorical

* What tone of voice should Kwaku have?

- Robotic

- Self-reflective

- Investigative

- Troubled

* Labels

 - Body Features

- Labels stuck on us

- Forced onto us by society's rules or do we seek them out?

 - Do we want a label on us as it gives us a place in society?

- Interesting struggle between the two

* Gender balance, Jessie & Kwaku,

- Power difference

- Place in society

* Measuring

- How do you measure self

- Measure identity

* Fitting into a mould

* Putting into a box 

* Mimicing

* Rationalise

* Asking questions to learn more about the self

- Finding more about the world through the self

- Reminds me of the way we define our selves by the other

* Looking for the pefect mould to create and fit into

* Jessie more about living with the mould

- Getting through the day

- Carrying on

- No matter what

- Searching for comfort

* When Jessie stands up fully & straight signals the switch, Kwaku crouched. Made a lovely tableau composition from many angles. Paused moment. Try to hold

* Do the questions go on for too long?

* Nice rotation on the spot

- Small, precise movements

- Good contrast to the more erratic

- Would be good to see some more height in general to add to the levels, breaking out of the box

Run 2

* Kwaku voice seemed

- Quite intrusive

- Creepy

- Desperate

- Attacking and yet vunerable

- Push it further and perhaps add some colour, happy when thinking about certain questions? Ruin the mood?

* Should they acknowledge each other? Could probably work either way but needs to be consitent so we can think about what that means for the piece and what is being represented

* Questions, definatley work best as rather abstract and improvised, but they need to be either more varied, as they seem to lead us to think its about something rahter specific, or we need to think of an underlying narrative.

* Good rise and fall, Jessie trying to get up, pushing on, lovely

* Noise, energy of movement, can that sync with the subject matter or the tension of the questions?

Texts & Links

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hkr_LZbQklc

- http://www.dv8.co.uk/projects/deaddreamsfilm

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_8PNnwqnxc&feature=player_embedded  

Creating the 'normal' in performance

Something that we found ultimatley fascinating, so much so that when we brought up discussing what was going in this section there was always either a giggle or a groan, was our idea of how impossible it is to represent something as perfectly normal in performance and what that ultimatley said about our pursuit to fit into a norm or the ways in which we attempt to document and repesent 'reality' in art and non-fictional documentation. In particular, was the very diffucult way it was to represent the investement the individual puts into creating their own personal space and the way in which we represent our identities, collecting fragements of identities we recognise in ourselves and storing them, either in physical, virtual or a metaphorical state, in order to help compose a greater understanding of ourselves

I would have liked to spend more time exploring the theories of this and its connection to performance in greater detail. However, the current project was already very complex and we were strapped for time, so it remained as ideas and thoughts as was decideded it will manifested more simply, but still keeping the ideas running through the aesthetic of the piece and through the basic composition of the 'normal' section. 

- Way in which we create our own 'nest', either the personal space of our room when we're younger or when we expand and create a home for ourselves, and the investment the individual puts into the space, an output of identity as well as a medium to help create one's own identity.

For example, one of the very first things I did when I moved into my clinical, boring campus room in first year was put my own nick-nacks, bedding, personal possessions in it to make my own. If anyone walked into my room, even though it was virtually identitcal to every other room in the block to start off with, they would know it was mine.

- How do we feel when we go into someone else's room? We can tell that it is there space also. Even if not something as private as a bedroom, there is still a sense of the owner connected to the material environment. How do you feel entering another person's room uninvited or without them present? How does this correlate to a promenade audience? Do we get the same sense or feeling even if we know its a performance?

- Document our lives through personal possessions

- Other means - diaries, new age of photos, videos,

- Pursuit to document more accuratley, more clearly, truthfully.

- Isn't the desire to document the same as sterotyoing, in that it trys to summarise or simplify a life into a manageable 'document' or text.

- Getting put into a box, dividing up our lives into different, managable areas when yet we are far more complex and multi-faceted. Can we ever truly know everything about ourselves? Even if we get that understanding is it really something that we can mediat and re-present?

- Same as this academic project, hard to capture everything!


A practical influence on this square was the exhibition 8 Rooms, 9 Lives, another part of the Welcome Collection's Identity Project (as earlier featured).

Review by Times Online:

This exhibition is a jumble of what appear to be half-finished boxes. The show looks a bit like a building site. And that’s probably because, in many ways, that is exactly what it is. Identity is more about construction and deconstruction than about a completed product.

Drawing on assorted, often extraordinary and always fascinating, memorabilia from a number of collections, both public and private, this exhibition assembles everything from notebooks, diaries, drawings and photographs to scientific objects, models, letters and plastercasts. It creates a show that challenges us to examine what determines our sense of identity: both our inner, innate sense of self and the idea of self that is imposed from the outside by the societies that need somehow to define us.

Identity, this show encourages us to see, is an amalgam of multiple selves. It’s a fittingly postmodern position to take in an era of face transplants and gender reassignments and electronic avatars

Texts & Links

- Campbell-Johnston, Rachel, Idenitity: who do you think you are?, Times Online, November 24th 2009,  http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/visual_arts/article6928532.ece
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sX9B9rxgck8&feature=player_embedded

Devising Ritual & Cyberspace V.2

From our work on Durkheim and ritual (Behaviour, Belonging and Belief), as well as carrying on from our cyber devising, here's another short clip that shows our devising progress if you will...





Links


- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qX9ODnRqQu0

Final Piece - Photos

The 'normal' sectionThe 'foyer' enterance with guest photos

The 'ritual' squareJessie setting up 'normal'

Jack's ritual routineThe 'labelling' square

The 'language' square'Language' square & symbols

The 'language' squareThe tools of the 'language' square

Ritual and the screen montageThe paths of documents

The 'date' square

Live Feedback/Documentation

As part of the 'Normal' or diary section we had left and invited Jenni, the occupant, to fill in and document her experiences around her, as a way of getting her to engage in her surroundings, observing how environment can influence and change our identity whilst also looking at how we document and express our identities through stories and diaries, leaving behind traces of experience and fragements of identity. We also included large pieces of paper covering the floor, creating paths between the different areas and a free, safe audience area where the audience could get step out of the interactive, involved environment where they can also be compelled to share their thoughts. These large sheets were more difficult to reproducer but below I've  photocopied each of the pages she wrote:

Cyberspace's Journey Notes

So this is what happened....

- Rachel was given her own set of instructions, like the other guests, next to her picture. She was told to sit on the wheely chair and wait till further instructions. While she did so she was asked to look into the mirror and contemplate what she saw.

- After she was left on her own, as the remaining guests were led out of the 'foyer', Rachel was given another card of instructions, telling her to accept the ipod given to her by me, put on the headphones and listen.

- She was played a recording, similar to the Language sections, about an individual's use of Facebook

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=O7WSAK4J

- After this she was given another note, telling her she was about to be taken on a journey, to be aware of all her senses and experiences around her. And to close her eyes, as she was blindfolded.

- Taking the ipod off her, I replaced it with a booklet, which she would not be abe to read until she was right out of the performance space and free to go.

- I then took her around the space by wheels, taking her to each of the squares to experience a different sensory experience:

* The feeling of a breeze from the normal section, using the abundance of paper to waft
* The sound of rhythms, banging, laughter etc from the language section
* The smell of coffee & wine and the feeling of warmth and light from a friendly group photo taken in the date section
* The taste of salt (cruel suggestion, the culprit shall remain annonymous but was an representative for the taste of sweat) from the labelling section
* The crashing rhythms of ritual

- This continued until she was wheeled right back outside the space and released into the real world. She was allowed to take with her photo from the date square (polaroid) and her booklet, a printed off Facebook conversation from over a year a ago, but she was refused re-entry in the space to look around despite a pleading request....

And that's cybersquare!

Language Final Transcripts

Jack's Transcript

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=AWLERS0X 

If it’s messy we apologise. The woman who cleans this room was fired last week. She used the wrong cleaning product on the floors and look, their ruined.

We do not tolerate defiance. She stood their silently. We left a note stating how the floor should be cleaned. Hot water and soap would have sufficed.

How would you have dealt with her?

No matter.

We will connect you. Globally speaking, we can connect you with anyone.

Remember you are with us now.

This space is not yours. You were not born here. On this land.

But please do speak with your native tongue.

He wants to talk to you.

He has travelled someway but, no, not like that.

Listen. It will introduce him

Chum Chum Pa.

Chum Chum Pa.

He wants to know.

It shouldn’t take so long for a response

No. It shouldn’t.

He feels trapped. Why don’t you answer him?

Do you understand? Yes or No. Answer.

Isn’t that rude? Rebellious?

Please. Have some respect. He offers his without question.

I’m not important. We don’t have long. Minutes. If that.

And he is such a great man! What he has done! For them.

And yet you will not budge.

The Great Englishman. And the other.

Countrysides away. Green grass and sweaty gallito trees.

Oh my.

Can you hear him? Through the years?

Escucha mi ritmo.

Escuhca mi ritmo (Listen to my rhythm)

Escucha con atención (Listen carefully)

Y no inter rumpas. (Do not interrupt)

Escucha a lo profunda descon ocido

Listen to the deep unknown.

Find your hands. Place them on the table.

Chum Chum Pa.

Repeat the beat with your hands. A palm for ‘chum’. A finger for ‘pa’.


Chum Chum Pa.

Chum Chum Pa.

Good. Faster.

Chum Chum Pa.

Chum Chum Pa.

Chum Chum Pa.

He hears you!

And they talk of monolingual unity. Not here!

What are you thinking? That’s he’s so savage he has to use a beat to talk to us?

I wonder if you really know.

Chum Chum Pa.

Keep up please.

Chum Chum Pa.

Chum Chum Pa.

Chum Chum Pa.

Pa.

‘More and more I am convinced English is an unfit medium for the voice of...

Garcia versus Gloor. 1980. Texas. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. English Only Policy. Customer preference. Good Practice. Better Management.

Slums and carnivals. Salt flats and Incas. Jungles and snakes and men shooting darts.

Martinez versus Label Master. 1998. Illinois. Northern District court. English only policy. Creates Racial Harmony.

Tacos and gringos. Hose pipes and tequila. Gang members wearing oversized sombreros.

Gonzalez versus the Salvation Army. 1991. Florida. Tampa District Court. English Only Policy. Creates racial harmony. Better Management.

Do you hear the echo?

It is, of course, easy to ignore. It’s been done. It is still done.

Did you think it was a beating heart? Or of drums?

Think of your name. What has made it. Who has made it. What it stands for. What people think of when they hear it. Think of the bonds it has made.

And feel lucky if this is difficult. Other names are easy to place. Globally speaking.

A mutilation is happening. A mutilation which halts enrichment.

You may be thinking. I am not one of them.

Take off your blind fold.

Ignore everything around you.

Look around you. Remember the lines of the square around you. Look at the person in front of you. Smelling there, breathing into the same air as you: odd? Do not speak. Do not write any words- You have the space. The objects in it and your body to communicate with the other person. Do not mouth words.

Greet the other person. You cannot use words.

Compliment the other person. You cannot use words.

Touch them on their left shoulder.

Go back to your table and turn your back on the person.

Tell the other person how old you are without turning around.

Avoid the other person’s eye contact but try and get their left shoe.

Mimic the other persons’ actions.

Listen carefully. Protect the tower without touching the other person.

STOP. Sit down.




***


Jessie's Transcript

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=Y4D0USN0


(Background)

(Make breath of speaker very apparent.)

So we have noticed you. I am sure you have an idea about what it is we are looking for.

A few things now.

Make yourself comfortable – I would like you to understand our comfortable though – please bare in mind the lines around your body when you get comfortable – you are sitting in a box, of sorts, understand these lines and replicate the right angles in your body shape. Comfortable? Comfortable like us no less.

Now we are getting quickly to the questions because obviously you don’t have to much time in the box right, that is right yes.

We are interested in your sound, I am not sure that you ever think of yourself in sound unless you are that girl, I can’t see you but if you are the girl then you will probably be very good at this.

Comfortable?

Rigid?

Do you know what water on water sounds like? Of course think of a sunny stream by all means, how many rivers have you actually sat beside? What we would like is some reality please? Perhaps think about bath water, tap water or the sound of the lavatory – the lavatory is probably the best, recent I think, we presume.

Now hear that water. We are interested in your count, can you now tap a rhythm on the table in front of you that sounds like the rhythm of the falling water hitting the still water?

Keep up – please you aren’t.

A little longer please.

Are your hands hurting?

Keep the rhythm up.

Thank – you, that has being recorded, in fact you are – the whole of you but perhaps your weren’t aware?

Your hands probably sting. This is good, we can measure that type of physicality.

Please now stamp out a steady rhythm with your feet – steady does not mean slow.

We are looking for a consistency, so please keep trying.

Good – now don’t stop but start to say your name where you here a gap in your stamping.

Remember that you are not a dancer.

(Pause)

Keep steady – I am not sure about your steadiness.

(Pause)

Good – keep going; we are going to add some more instruments. Please do not stop whilst I give you these instructions.

So when you are not saying your name let out a long breath.

So, to re-cap, your feet should be moving at a step stamp. You should be saying your name in between each stamp and when you are not saying your name you should be breathing out.

You sound very professional.

Keep going.

(Pause.)

Now to your hands. Can you please drum your fingers on the table – this can be a continuous movement.

(Pause.)

That’s it, keep going please.

(Pause.)

A little longer.

(Pause.)

Your name does make an interesting rhythm.

(Pause.)

Now stand – up. DO NOT STOP MAKING SOUNDS.

Stand – is this difficult, you should be able to do this quite easily.

(Pause.)

You are doing well, please do not worry about the chair.

(Pause.)

Keep going, good.

(Pause.)

Now start to move your feet around the table, keep everything regular. Do not worry about drumming your fingers on the table, use your knees instead please.

That’s it steady movement

(Pause.)

You are doing well. Do you feel hot?

(Pause.)

Keep regular.

(Pause.)

Are you back to your starting position yet? I can’t see you

(Pause.)

You need to answer me.

(Pause.)

Good.

Now keep going around but see if you can get faster.

So you should be stamping faster, saying your name, breathing out and drumming your fingers on your thighs.

(Pause.)

Keep increasing your speed.

Good.

You seem quite hot

(Pause.)

Please do not forget the box shape.

We are still aware of it.

(Pause.)

Get faster we said, you can go faster than that.

(Pause.)

Are you almost running? I cannot see you remember.

(Pause.)

Good

Now when you feel ready get on to the top of the table and continue to make sound. In the meantime do not reduce your speed please.

(Pause.)

Good. Still faster.

(Pause.)

Do you feel ready yet?

(Pause.)


Faster we think.

(Pause)


I can only think that you can get faster

(Pause.)

Can you think how it will feel to stop? Do not slow down please.

You seem ready. Are you? Ready when ready – I think that is the saying. Ready for the stop? Ready for the centre of the table? Please don’t slow down.

(Pause.)

Ready?

(Pause)

Faster.

(Pause.)
Ready?

Can you feel the spring in your legs? Can you feel the ready? Can you feel the surface of the table top? Ready? It is not my decision. Ready is yours. Ready? Do not slow down. Ready?

(Pause.)

I think you are ready.

Ready with me. NOW.

(Pause.)

Your breath is perfect to us.

(Pause.)

Yes let yourself calm; get the rest of the oxygen to your muscles. You are ready now for the last we think.

(Pause.)

So now rest.

So now pause.

And with the last bit of energy shout your name please, shout it when I say please – you will see me soon.

(Pause.)

Now please – shout.

So now take off your blindfold.

Look around you. Remember the lines of the square around you. Look at the person in front of you. Smelling there, breathing into the same air as you; odd?

Do not speak. Do not write any words- You have the space. The objects in it and your body to communicate with the other person. Do not mouth words.
Greet the other person. You cannot use words.
Compliment the other person. You cannot use words.

Can you touch them on their left ear.

Go back to your table and turn your back on the person.

Tell the other person how old you are without turning around.

Try to get the person's eye contact so that you can hold it to the count of 5.

Mimic the other persons’ actions.

Listen carefully. Destroy the tower.
STOP. Sit down.

***