P1 starts to be independent from P. Its expressions and intentions starts being contrasting and its movements start having influence on P, rather than being its mirror again.
P2: focus on hands and lower part of the face. Reproduction of typical, unconscious, small actions (es.: routine movements of the fingers, plating with hair or clothes, etc..)
P3: lower part of the body, actions coherent with P2
I got a repulsing anxiety, yet I’m playing the most fervid mind games worthy of an absinthe-addict’s mind. That leads me to plan a possibly definitive break out, to avoid an admission to hospital for post-failure depression. The same, a year ago. ESPECIALLY THE DEPENDENT ONES.
Scene 5
The dichotomy P : ACTION vs. P1 : CONTRASTING ACTION is now clear. P is prevented from moving freely by P1’s intentions. The double that has formerly acted simultaneously does not exist anymore. One overcomes the other.
P2 – P3: those isolated parts of the body are now acting franticly and redundantly. Repetition of the same sequence of actions over again.
I don’t give a fuck about going out, I’d just like to sling myself into bed fucking my brain out with crosswords until falling asleep victim of a self-esteem collapse due to my ignorance
vs.
instead I will go out tonight, Reluctantly. Smoking one hundred cigarettes and hoping to get back home as soon as possible. The same, a year ago.
The last scene is under construction. I know the world is looking forwart to seeing it. Me too. It's gonna come soon, don't worry.
Today, for the first time this year, I walked for about 20 meters wearing a sleeveless t-shirt, as the weather started to be warmer.
P1: sitting, same position as P
P2-P3: sudden stop or changing of direction
The same, a year ago. TIME IS A SINUSOID FORWARD ORIENTED.
Scene 3
P1: focus on the upper part of the body and facial expressions. Lilting a cigarette, reaction to what it is said by the voiceover (thoughts)
P2: focus on the hand movements, the hand which holds the cigarette.
P3: focus on the lower part of the body. Legs plus other arm.
P: the whole body. Its movements will be coherent/contrasting either with P1, P2 or P3
Today, got the book for a kamikaze-exam which I have to take in three days from now and for which I’ll never be prepared. I’m therefore appealing to any saint, angel, idol, soul, word, mother Earth, sister moon, Brahma, Shiva, Vishnu or to any god of the cities that might kick my ass. The same, a year ago. ITS EQUATION IS COMPOSEDBY VARIABLES IGNORED BY THE MAJORITY.
This is the ground plan for my final project. The space is meant to be built out of flats (black lines) inside the WCA theatre. Thered lines indicates the projected surfaces. The audience will stand in the space inside, together with the performer. The access might be either through the tv studio door or through the main entrance.
PROJECTION 1: in front, mirror of the performer
PROJECTION 2: on the left, focus on the hand movements
PROJECTION 3: on the right, focus on the lower part of the body
The performer movements will be sincronized or in opposition with one or more of the projections at different times.
This is my script text. I'm gonna dicect it and intgrate with the action. Any suggestion for improvements is welcome.
Today, for the first time this year, I walked for about 20 meters wearing a sleeveless t-shirt, as the weather started to be warmer. The same, a year ago.Time is a sinusoid forward-oriented.
Today, got the book for a kamikaze-exam which I have to take in three days from now and for which I’ll never be prepared. I’m therefore appealing to any saint, angel, idol, soul, word, mother Earth, sister moon, Brahma, Shiva, Vishnu or to any god of the cities that might kick my ass. The same, a year ago. Its equation is composed by variables ignored by the majority.
I got a repulsing anxiety, yet I’m playing the most fervid mind games worthy of an absinthe-addict’s mind. That leads me to plan a possibly definitive break out, to avoid an admission to hospital for post-failure depression. The same, a year ago. Especially the dependent ones.
I don’t give a fuck about going out, I’d just like to sling myself into bed fucking my brain out with crosswords until falling asleep victim of a self-esteem collapse due to my ignorance instead I will go out tonight, reluctantly, smoking one hundred cigarettes and hoping to get back home as soon as possible. The same, a year ago.
Time is a sinusoid forward-oriented. Its equation is composed by variables ignored by the majority. Especially the dependent ones. For example: why do I find myself at 6 o’clock in the evening peeing in a bar’s loo, when I should be in five other places simultaneously and I haven’t put my foot in any of them instead? I don’t know indeed. Sometimes one fills his own life on purpose and then avoids to do anything in order to escape. I’m at the same point as I were a year ago. Just with more things involved.
The thing is that a year ago I was going out not to waste the last moments with a person I thought I loved shamelessly, who, after having happily cheated on me, would have moved in another continent within two weeks from then. Tonight I’m going out with an irrelevant person instead, and I will have to bear him reporting me on his holiday in another continent.
To be honest, I don’t know what’s the best. But at least before I could satisfy my romantic-hero titanism, couldn’t I?
This is the video documentation about my solo performance shown on Monday 27th of April in the WCA lecture theatre. The editing includes both parts of the video I had projected on the screen and the interaction I, as a performer, had with it and the sound.
THE ORGANIZATION OF THE PERFORMATIVE SPACE:
I began the preparation of the space locating two chairs that would have been my reference point in the orientation of my movements. Besides, I distributed the left over ones in the room in an apparently casual order. Among them, I set up a table with crisps, snacks and drinks on it. On the screen I projected the image of an eye shut. This image was in slow motion, so its tiny movements were just perceivable if somebody would have stared at it for long. The sound of a noisy chatting was eventually filling the emptiness of the space, giving the impression that something was already going on.
THE PERFORMANCE:
As it might be deduced, I started the projection and the sound a couple of minutes before the opening of the doors for the public. Then, I went out and back in among the audience, inviting to help themselves with the food and drinks. After some minutes of free chatting, as we were in a party or in an happening of some kind, the projection started changing slowly, and, as it can be seen in the video above, the interaction within my three means of communication -body, projections and sound- started.
AREAS OF RESEARCH AND THEMES:
My aim has been exploring different kind of relations with the audience throughout playing with de-contextualization and bringing the incorporality of sounds and projections at the same level of importance as the corporeal human body.
Themetically, I researched on the theme of the double, of the free will and on the symbolism of the eye. This is the reason why I wanted the performer (myself) being pretty much identical both in the projection and in the reality. The figure of the eye (which culturally represents the mirror of the soul and in most literature the vehicle of the inner self, as well as being the symbol of God for the Christian iconography) has meant to be the thread link of the performance.
Eventually, I managed to play with a double breaking of a frame of expectation in the audience and I had the opportunity to test how they would have reacted in front of it. Briefly, they expected to go and sit to assist a performance, and they found themselves in front of a kind of party environment. Then, once they located their mental frame into this context, they couldn't immediately realised that they were already part of a performance going on. It has been significant to me the example of a girl who asked me when the performance were foing to start and if she was still in time to go to the toilet. My reply, as a performer, has been: "Fell free to do whatever you want, however, the performance has already started".
PERSONAL ACHIEVEMENTS:
As it turns clear, from this project I learnt a lot about the reactions and the behaviour of the audience. Above all, I realised that in those cases of pushing the public to an high level of freedom and confidence with the space and the performer, it is necessary to be able to prevent and be ready to face every possible changing in the process of performing that this freedom inevitably implies. Much more than I actually was. I observed than people, after overcoming the embarassment, they actually behaved naturally and spontaneusly, as their mind couldn't frame that as a performative (or theatrical) environment as intended for the common sense. They therefore moved the set and (auch!) my only reference point for the movements, the only chair that I wanted to remin fixed.
Besides, as the voice over started, they started to settle themselves discretely on the chairs, turning them as they were et the cinema. That was the exact point they felt as the beginning.
From the feedback I received, I can tell that the interaction and manipulation of the reality by the non-corporeal reality (that can be seen as the opposition thoughts vs. actions as well as the contrast between the self against its social and mental structures, rather than the question of the free will) has been perceived.
From this experience, I dare to say that I want to carry on with this idea improving it and, possibly, working in a way to push the audience further in the process of decontestualization but maybe in a more subtle -and more effective- way.
