1. Object perspective
This clip shows the process and results of a studio-based exercise which involves participants taking on the positioning and perspective of an object in an everyday place. Using this shifted perspective as a catalyst, the young people are firstly asked to take on the physical characteristics of their chosen object in relation to others and the environment in which it is placed. Working in groups, as objects positioned in a common everyday place, the participants speak and converse with each other as that object, commenting on the place they are in and the people who are interacting with them. This particular method of performing place allows for a productive re-viewing of the everyday and results in a series of scenes and moments which explore everyday places through a shifted perspective.
3. Performing fearful place: masking tape and movement sequences
The exercise shown in this clip is a way of exploring fearful place in the studio through movement. Participants are asked to think of a place they are afraid of and to find a way of recreating that place in the studio space using masking tape. Working from this taped space, they generate a series of movements which perform their actions in, and response to, the fearful place. These sequences are then re-positioned in relation to the actual space of the studio and result in some committed and thoughtful exploration of places that are feared. The physical marker of the masking tape is a useful way of bringing an external place into the studio, aiding the development of the movement responses.
2. Performing BBM
This clip shows an exercise conducted towards the end of the process of working with the young people to explore their everyday use of BBM messaging. Participants are initially asked to share the last 3 messages that they have received and sent from their Blackberries. This moment is then refined, developed with movement and used as part of the final performance, with the addition of appropriate sound effects. This particular exercise is an example of how digital place can be explored and performed, drawing on the everyday virtual worlds of the participants involved and re-positioning these within a performance context.
4. The Uncomfortable Choir
This clip shows how fearful place is explored through voice by sound practitioner, Patrick Furness. Participants are first asked to vocalise fear in a range of different ways. Drawing on these vocal responses to being afraid, the sounds generated are captured and layered together using the software, Ableton Live. These recorded sounds are then activated in performance, augmenting the live voices of the performers on stage to create an ‘uncomfortable choir’.
5. Disrupting Everyday Actions: Cornflakes
This clip shows the results of a process run by movement practitioner, Stephanie McMann, to explore and disrupt the everyday action of eating cornflakes. Working from this starting point, everyday actions are heightened, amplified and co-ordinated into a sequence. The actual disruption of the performance space through the dropping of cornflakes becomes part of how this exercise operates in re-performing and deliberately disrupting everyday places, allowing them to be re-viewed and reconsidered. This work was a follow on from ‘On Sites: Scattering Cornflakes’.