Aims and Objectives
The Lab week will be a fragment of my direction intented to achieve for the MA level. Since the objectives of the final performance M00-0364 is a lecture/performance, I dissected the scenographical space in order to address part of the performance. By performing this fragment will generate the understanding on how does the heaviest lecture section of the performance works for the audience in terms of botherness. It must be acknowledged that this section will be the segment with the most clinical and advanced vocabulary concerning reactions or procedures when having HIV (CD4, Viral Load and Lipodystrophy). The section will be lectured by me and the explanation will be from PowerPoint's and addressed as a performative action. Having stated that (and by performing that) I am not considering to minor the audience’s boredom since this section will still be long, calm and detailed. Within the description this monotony will be maintained on purpose in order to make them realize that the repetitiveness vanishes when they start taking notes on a note book that will be explained as given at the Interm-show performance. This fraction will also create botherness in order to jump out from it in the next section which will be one of the powerful picks on the overall MA performance. For those who kept the boredom as a passive receiver and want to continue with a none political and social consciousness, a hardcore and punk experimental music piece will be performed which begins by stating “If there is no political consciousness there is no aliveness but rather death of the human brain”. Having affirmed what is going to occur on the performative fraction, I do emphasise that the background will be filled with many TVs that on a loop show different people that have been interviewed about HIV/AIDS but in silence. During the MA level performance fractions of this interviews will be shown but not on the Lab week. It must be also said that the hardcore and punk experimental music piece will be inspired on one of the interviewed that manifests no political or social consciousness what so ever, no interest, no curiosity, no enthusiasm. As previously stated before, the lecture at the LAB2 will question how does the heaviest section of text works for the audience; how would the audience feel and react on the note books, how does the music created by the Music Composer Duarte Cardoso impacts as a provocation and how do small contradictions create discourse.
Methodologies
Throughout the week 10, Monday the 8th of March and Friday the 12th of March, I have been developing the scenographical set at the wood workshop and preparing a schedule for the Lecture I am about to present on the 25th of March. I did encounter several problems while deciding how should the TV-set structure be constructed. The final decision was influenced by the costs and the time. With the sketch changed and a reasonable lower price, I could start the process of building the structure within a short period of time. Considering that The Music Composer Duarte Cardoso has been working with me since 2005, I had previously decided that the best choice was to continue the outstanding collaborative work between both of us. By several meetings over Skype, I said to Duarte (as previously happened) that I just had the need to send my interviews in mp3 files and from that point would be his own interpretation upon the concept and research he has been analysing. From my perspective Duarte Cardoso created a superb piece and if any adjusts will be upon the feedback I will get on the 25th of March 2010 at the LAB2 bearing in mind the impacts and provocations of this piece. Duarte Cardoso completed his 5 years University Education in Portugal in Grand Piano for Concert and mostly played contemporary artists. Apart from that, he has been extremely interested in composition and started his own personal studies on composition before his Post –Graduate Education on electronic composition achieved in the US. Duarte Cardoso has been working and composing for my pieces and it must be acknowledged that this is a work where Duarte has the authorship to express his creations within the concept proposed. Apart from the heavy scientific research; scenographical set; interviews and text I have been developing, I have created the performance composition and time line I intend to achieve for the MA level. All this material came together in a power point in order to Lecture all the process. The power point contains all the process and what I longed to achieve in the UNIT2 and nothing has been left behind. The power point contains: Research; Performance Diagram; Performance Intensity Graph; Performance Time Line; Performance Stage Design; Explanation on a the dissected part of the stage in order to address the heaviest lecture section; Interviews; Text; Music.
Lab – feedback
The Lecture commenced by me stating “As you can see I am not performing, I am Lecturing the process for the performance but Lecturing is Performing.” . It could be recognized by some people everything that has been said. Some other people didn’t pay attentinon to the “but Lecturing is Performing” part and by that was said that I was contradicting myself by stating that my performance would have a Lecture section and lecture for me is a performative action and on the other hand “As you can see I am not performing, I am Lecturing”. It is acceptable that people don’t listen to everything but on the other hand don’t we all contradict ourselves sometimes? I am not by any means provoking a justification but rather just leaving a thought and an emphasis on something I had read 2 days before the LAB2.
“I am contradictory vato, and so are most performance artists I know.”
(Gomes-Peña G. 2005, Ethno - Techno, Routledge, UK)
When I was Lecturing/Performing the tutor yawned and I said “That’s alright to yawn, that’s fine” because that is one of my aims - I am not considering to minor the audience’s boredom, this monotony will be maintained on purpose in orther to make them realize that the repetitiveness vanishes when they start taking notes on a note book. They will be the ones breaking their feeling of boredom. Apart from that I could see that the tutor was provoked and embarrassed by me saying “That is alright to yawn, that’s fine” and it was a way for him to say that he would not take notes on the note book because he would never do so. This is definitely a very interesting aspect of the piece for me. How could I then get that in order to create that section? I immediately thought on giving the note book but at the same time questioning people on what has been said previously about CD4 Count and Lipodystrophy. Like that I would definitely get the intent for the upcoming section of the piece. It must be concluded that the heaviest section of the text and lecture was seen as heavy for some people and interesting for other people. The music created by Duarte Cardoso disturbed most of the audience. It was definitely one of the crucial moments of the debate and many themes and issues where discussed:
1 - This music was created from one of my colleagues voice when stating “I don’t know” in each question or statement of the interview. It is clear that when I stated - the main important objective in the interviews was the political and social consciousness and the thinking behind within each interviewed and not the knowing or not knowing of a specific answer - the sound piece created contradiction. How could I state that not knowing or knowing is not important and then I make fun of it?
The thinking behind and political consciousness, for people who have seen the interviews, was “I don’t know”. This was constantly said on questions and on statement comments.
2 - The music piece was provocative because I was using one of my colleagues.
I can totally understand the concerns and issues around this matter and I will make sure the music will be modified.
3 - “Why the need to be so political and provocative, could I use other ways of performing such as sarcasm, funny, comical?”
There is a big issue here concerning a spectator or a member of the audience. Let me make this extremely clear. Audience’s are used to see art pieces as entertainment and specially in England. Many times when going to performances I do hear beer bottles noise among the audience. The audience has the perception that everything has to be as like a musical theatre piece, beautiful, or happy. It does not. My work is not. And many other artists work is not. A political work is raw, factual and dry, or I must say – mine is. I do quote once more Filippo Tommaso Emilio Marinetti - “The audience is not alive, and is blinded by communal intellectual intoxication."
Findings
Is must be acknowledged that all the feedback was extremely necessary for the M00-0364. Having said that, some parts of the performance will be changed in order to create a better plan on the effect I am willing to achieve. The note books will be kept on the performance but that will not be the focus of the section as intented before. I will provide some questions on what has been lectured/performed on CD4 count, Viral Load and Lipodystrophy by the performers in order to ask to the audience. In reference to the music piece created by Duarte Cardoso, will be revised in order to support precisely the thinking behind and political consciousness. Regarding the audience’s will to discern a piece with “sarcasm, funny or comical” sections, I must say that this won’t be taken in consideration.
In conclusion, the M00-0364 performative fragment it is very experimental in which investigates the audience behavior, examines new areas and fields in order to explore on stage and continues to research and deep analysing techniques and new methods to deconstruct prejudice, preconceptions and none political or social consciousness in a conceptual modus.
Thanks to all intervied; Antonio MV; Darren O’Donoghue; Duarte Cardoso; Jules J. Foreman; Julien Romamczuk; Marouso Marinopoulou; Michael D’cruze; Milka Panayotova; Nuno Afonso; Sarah Sanderson.
concept | filipe canha
performers | filipe canha
scenography | filipe canha
sound designer | duarte cardoso
video | filipe canha
graphic designer | antonio mv
hair stylist | darren o’ donoghue
