Martina Sacchetti

The script: scenes 4-5

2009-06-12T19:21:00.002+01:00

Scene 4

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.

The Script: scenes 1-3

2009-06-12T18:21:00.011+01:00

Scene 1

Dark.

Sounds of alarm clocks

P1 on. Awakening of P. The day begins.

Voice over: stream of thoughts.

Scene 2

P1: legs walking forward

P2-P3: legs walking profile

P: sits still

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 COMPOSED BY VARIABLES IGNORED BY THE MAJORITY.

Budget for Final Project

2009-06-11T16:41:00.002+01:00

Payment of musician for producing and recording an original soundtrack: approx. 50£

Painting for the flats: 15-20£

Possible stage props and building material: approx. 100£

Publicity: approx. 20£

Possible extras: 50-70£

Total: minimum 235£, maximum 260-300£

Ground Plan for Final Project

2009-06-11T15:03:00.002+01:00

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.

Final Project: My First Script

2009-06-03T09:21:00.010+01:00

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 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?

Phase Lapse Trailer

2009-05-04T12:41:00.002+01:00

Solo Performance: DON'T FEEL FREE

2009-05-02T14:56:00.000+01:00

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.

Don't Feel Free

2009-04-27T00:53:00.000+01:00

A Short Performance.

Created and Performed by Martina Sacchetti

Music: About her by Marco Machera

Editing Audio/Video: Martina Sacchetti

Artwork designer: Daphne Giannoulatou

PHASE LAPSE. Invitation.

2009-03-31T09:41:00.000+01:00

Wednesday 1st April 2009, 12pm & 5pm

at Wimbledon College of Arts, TV studio (next to the gallery)

Daphne Giannoulatou, Jo Hyun Jung, Martina Sacchetti present:

PHASE LAPSE

a 20 mins devise performance.

We'll be glad to see you there.

Please don't feel free. Solo project proposal

2009-03-28T19:56:00.000Z

1. Aim:

Exploring different kind of relations with the audience throughout bringing the incorporality of sounds and projections at the same level of importance of the corporeal human body.

2. Methods:

The audience will enter a neutral space. At the beginning there will be just a projection and a recorded voice starting describing a situation. The audience will be free to sit or to stand, scattered in the space. Among them, a performer will enter the space as it was a member of the audience itself.. In the projection it will then appear a person, the "thinking mind" who will refer to the audience and pick up one of them, the performer itself, who will be the same person as the projected one. The interaction between the two entities, the performer and the projection, will therefore start. The recorded voice, the representation of the projection's "thoughts", will engage a relation with the public.

3. Space:

I need a clean, square space in which i will be able to obtain a big projection on the wall and provide scattered chairs for those who will choose to sit. I've asked for the lecture theatre, but I'm still waiting for confirmation.

4. When:

30th April or 1st May.

5. Materials:

-Two spot lights in front of the projection's wall;

-Two amplifiers for the sounds;

-Projector;

-Support to hang the projector on the ceiling (if needed);

-Ladder for set-up.

Phase lapse: the River "in fieri"

2009-03-28T19:08:00.000Z

The River is coming. Be ready.

Phase Lapse. Less is more as simple is hard.

2009-03-28T13:13:00.000Z

Let me start by saying that it is the first time that I refer to our group project with its name: Phase Lapse. We came up with this title after resesrchig and evaluating different proposals. We stated by thinking about something that would express a changing of state in time. The word "phase" recalls the physical passage of state in elements as water. "Lapse" on the other hand, is commonly associated with a definite period of time, a lapse of time. What we represent, in a cross cultural context, is actually a passage and an evolution throughout the already mentioned five steps, that can refer to a period in a person's life, or why not life itself.

Anyway, this week Daphne, Veronica and me started setting our group performance inside the tv studio space. That allowed our work to take a big step forward because we could not be able to take care of a lot of details without working in the actual space.

As I mentioned, we've always been working keeping in mind the common idea of providing clear signifiers without overload of information. Our means of communication (projections, sounds, but also the set and the space itself) are therefore designed to provide essential, coherent information which leaves space to the audience's interpretation. Last thursday, for the first time, we had them together into the actual space:

1) The white cloth fit into the space according to Veronica's design

2) The sounds edited by Daphne

3) The projections designed by me accorded and negotiated with the directional needs.

Despite our environment is based only on those three leading elements, having them set up precisely and coherently has been anything but simple. The sound needed to be corrected inside the space in order to be heard as it is without modifications and the projections needed to be tested with the lights on, readjusted and re-shaped to fit the design of the cloth. Furthermore the editing of the video frame has been revised and re-adjusted in order that it will follow the evolution of the sound togeher with the 5 steps of the evolution of te whole situation. Eventually,we needed to mark the performative space provided the light (and the passage from light to darkness) and the volume of the costume. In short: everything we thought it was ready, it was not!

Luckily, we've been working and negotiating together and in common agreement so far, and we hope that our intentions will be communicated to the audience in the best way.

About Ambient Noise.

2009-03-25T21:11:00.000Z

Today I assistes at the first VLP group project performance: Ambient Noise.

The performance conveyed an overall feeling of anxiety and uncomfort, supported by the condition of the audience.I personally found very clever the idea of exploiting the space outside the tv studio. The darkness, along with the sounds and the fact that members of audience has been in some ways compelled to stand next to each other in such a tiny space contributes to the creation of a claustrophobic atmosphere, from which it was almost impossible to escape.

The peculiar design of the set, which allwed the audience to see through a cloth what was happening on the "outside" (or "inside"? What actually was the inside and the outside could actually have been questioned and, why not, reversed) trsforming the spectator in a kind of voyeur, has been well developed. That separation emphasized the contrast btween the action and stillness, and, figuratively, between the values life vs. death. In spite of that, from a mere logistic point of view, I would say that a bigger space for the audience to stand would may have resulted better, without anyway preventing the feeling of uneasiness and the deep contact with the performers. This last element, in additon, provided a deep involvement, as the public was an actual part of the situation going on, as it was kind of projected in that environment all of a sudden. The importance of the sounds, in all of this, has in my opinion been massive.

What I found amazing as far as the action is concerned, has been the dis-covering and the transformation of the male performer into a soldier. However, athought they were wonderfully made, I didn't find the use of the masks essential in this case, because n my opinion they confused a little it the intentions of the characters.

In general, I must say that the experiment has worked out well, and the intentions I knew the design team had, has been clearly developed. Eventually, I cannot but pay my compliments to my mates Sarah, Bo and Vaso. Well done.

Group Project: Water Effect Projections

2009-03-15T16:13:00.000Z

For our group project, I've been rensponsible to provide the video that will be pojected on the cloth, in order to provide the effect of water.

I really enoyed experimenting with the video camera, using different kind of lights projected on different kind of textures as well.

Here are some screenshot from my 30 mins experimentation

Lamp light on a wall

Light partially hitting the video camera lense, creating the effects of drops

The effect of a neat disc of light I had by covering the light source

Source of light inside a blue (moving) plastic foil.

and...

Video camera covered by a bue plastic foil and then directed towards the source of light

Blue light on a wall

Blue light on a shiny surface

Blue light on water streaming on a shiny surface

Waiting to see the result on the set...

Group Project: Voice Over

2009-03-15T14:57:00.000Z

In order to renforce and make clear our cross-cultural intentions, we decided to play with different languages recorded voices and the performer reacting to them.

The River, which will be figuratively represented onthe set by using a hanging cloth with projections on it, would therefore be a speaking, male, presence. It will be speaking three different European languages. In contrast, the performer will be an European female, speaking in Korean language the line of the traditional poem.

Those two identities will remain separate until the moment of the fusion.

Personally, I've been responsible to provide the italian version of the recorded male voice, speaking the lines of our selection of related literature. I unfortunately didn't manage to upload the sounds, however, here are the texts that have already been recorded (together with the english version as well), ready to be edited in a multi-language mix that would provide the flow of sounds coming from the River. Besides, those extracts has been recorded three times, with three different intentions for each steps of the passage.

1. HESITATION
- Persuasive
- Inviting
- Tempting

“thus it is willed there, where what Is willed can be done: and ask no more.”

“vuolsi così colà dove si puote ciò che si vuole; e più non dimandare”

2. ATTRACTION
- Determined
- Calm
- Terrifying

“As the leaves of autumn fall off
one after the other, till the branch sees
all its spoils upon the ground
…”

“…
all assemble here from every country;
and they are prompt to pass the river,
for Divine justice spurs them so,
that fear is changed into desire.
...”

“Come d’autunno si levan le foglie
L’una appresso dell’altra, infin che il ramo
Vede alla terra tutte le sue spoglie
…”

“…
tutti convegnon qui d’ogni paese;
e pronti sono a trapassar lo rio,
chè la divina giustizia gli sprona
sì che la tema si volge in disio.”

3. FIGHT
- Aggressive
- Calm
- Mean but pleasant

“Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia,
And therefore I forbid my tears; but yet
It is our trick; nature her custom holds,
Let shame say what it will. When these are gone,
The woman will be out.”

“Hai avuto già troppa acqua, povera Ophelia. E mi vieto di piangere.
Ma ecco come siamo: la natura segue il suo corso, sia vergogna o meno.
Quando queste saranno passate, in me la donna finirà.”

4. FUSION
- Terrifying
- Triumphant
- Whispering

“Her clothes spread wide
And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up;
(...)
As one incapable of her own distress,
Or like a creature native and indued
Unto that element”

“Le vesti le si gonfiarono intorno, e come una sirena la sorressero un poco, (…) , come una che non sa quale rischio la tenga, o come una creatura nata e formata per quell'elemento.”

5. TRANSFORMATION
- Protective
- Powerful
- Warm

“Thenceforth my seeing was more than tongue can say,
Yieldsour discourse before the Light Supreme,
And violated memory falls away.

Like him who sees while dreaming, and the dream
Remains thereafter traced upon his feeling,
While memory holds thereof no other gleam,

Even such am I; for though the great revealing
Fades almost all away from me, yet flow
Its drops of sweetness in my heart distilling.”

“Da quinci innanzi il mio veder fu maggio
che 'l parlar mostra, ch'a tal vista cede,
e cede la memoria a tanto oltraggio.
(…)
Qual è colui che sognando vede,
che dopo 'l sogno la passione impressa
rimane, e l'altro a la mente non riede,

cotal son io, ché quasi tutta cessa
mia visione, e ancor mi distilla
nel core il dolce che nacque da essa. “

Solo project: first ideas

2009-02-22T15:15:00.000Z

This is the first time that I actually decide to post something more concrete about my ideas and far as the final project is concerned. Honestly, I always been kind of worryed about exposing myself too much about it. Anyway, I think that now the time has come, together with the necessity to get some feedback, in order to work the best as I can and get the best out of my work as well.

Given that this term we have to propose a solo project besides the group one, I decided that I might use this opportunity to start setting up and testing some devices and modalities I intend to use for the final performance.

Tools and devices: human body, sounds (music and recorded voice), projections.

What I would like to do is bringing the incorporality of sounds and projections at the same level of importance of the corporeal human body.

Therefore, my work will be oriented in the interaction between presence (the human body) and absence (projection and sounds), bringing the latter at the same level of importance -if not the leading element- of the former.

For example, there will be some moments in which the non-corporeal presence shall inteact and have concrete effects on the corporeal presence (the real performers), otherwise it can happen that the projection might work as the representation of a parallel situation or as the projection of the non-corporeal part of the human being (thoughts vs. action).

HOW?

To start, I thought about three situation tat might be interesting to try to work on. Here they are, for the moment, I found convenient labelling them with names to underline the concept underneath.

1. The alternative:

The situation projected is the same acted by the real performers in the space. In the projection there will be the same persons who actually perform, dressed in the same way and living the same situation but with some differences that may occur in the consequences, in the outcomes, or simply in the rithm.

2. The inversion:

Situation in which the real performer would become a projection of the intention and actions belonging to the performer projected (who actually does not exist in the "here and now" reality). Again, it will be the same performer that is going to be projected as well, creating the effect of a double. The live movements will therefore need to be coordinated with the movent in the projection, as a puppeteer with his puppet.

3. Thoughts and reactions

This is a concept I've already worked on before and I am interested in developing it further. I want to focus on the facial expressions that come out naturally when a person thinks. They are little, sometimes just perceivable, but they are reflections of inner reactions. Better, they are actual corporeal reactions -effects- to a non corporeal cause: thinking. They are thoughts that pass through nerves and flesh.

My intention is to concentrate the attention on a face that reacts to thoughts. Those thoughts might be heard by the audience by an over-recorded voice. I still don't know if this face should be projected (and zoomed in) or I should keep a live performer for it. Or maybe both.

Further development are coming soon.

Group project: Images and more direct speeches that might be used

2009-02-20T12:11:00.000Z

These are some extracts that might be useful to enrich the script. The next step will be to organize them organically in the script and to define which one shall be directly said and which one shall be recorded and heard as sounds instead.

Inferno, Canto III

Virgilio to Dante:

“The things shall be known
to thee, when we stay our steps
Upon the joyless strand of Acheron.”

Charon:

“Woe to you, depraved spirits!
hope not ever to see Heaven: I come to lead
you to the other shore; into the eternal
darkness; into fire and into ice.
And thou who art there, alive,
depart thee from those who are dead.”

“By other ways, by other ferries,
not here, shalt thou pass over:
a lighter boat must carry thee.”

Virgil to Charon:

“Charon, vex not
thyself: thus it is willed there, where what

Is willed can be done: and ask no more.”

Observations:

The nature of the characters of Dante, Virgilio and Charon allows us to see a clear distribution of values:

Dante: life

vs.

Virgilio: death, Dante's (living being) guide

vs.

Charon: death, damned souls' guide towards eternal damnation

Hamlet, Act four, Scene VII

Laertes:

Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia,
And therefore I forbid my tears; but yet
It is our trick; nature her custom holds,
Let shame say what it will. When these are gone,
The woman will be out. Adieu, my lord.
I have a speech o’fire that fain would blaze. But that this folly douts it.

Images related to the atmosphere we intend to create

We took in consideration the idea of exploiting the space as it was an aquarius, through which the audience can look at the performance happening inside.

Group project: first development of the script

2009-02-16T09:41:00.000Z

1) HESITATION

Dark. Audience scattered in the space (some people may be standing/walking). Words that can be heard during the entire duration of the performance, with different volume and intensities (es. One wispering voice at the beginning, more voices during high climax moments). Lights go up slowly. A moving figure can slowly be seen.
“Don’t cross over the river
Dear, don’t cross over the river”

2) ATTRACTION

(Try to show the hesitation that suddenly become attraction for water).
Reference Image: Dante Alighieri, Divina Commedia, Inferno, Canto III

“Figliuol mio,” disse il maestro cortese,
“quelli, che come muovo nell’ira di Dio,
tutti convegnon qui d’ogni paese;

e pronti sono a trapassar lo rio,
chè la divina giustizia gli sprona
sì che la tema si volge in disio.

“My son,” said the courteous Master,
who die under God’s wrath,
all assemble here from every country;

and they are prompt to pass the river,
for Divine justice spurs them so,
that fear is changed into desire.

At first as a reply to the voices, then it becomes more and more confused: “I’m crossing over the river” (can be whispered in member of audience’s ears)

3) FIGHT (Approach with the element and fight with it):

Sound:
Whispering “don’t cross over the river”
Clear recorded over voice: “what can I do for you”

In this part audience can be used as a “tool” for the performer. Something to which he may try to hold himself to avoid drowning. Or, on the contrary, audience can be seen as the water, so, an element in which the performer is going to be mixed with.

4) FUSION: Reference image: Ophelia

QUEEN: There is a willow grows aslant the brook that shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream;
Therewith fantastic garlands did she make
Of crowflowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples
That liberal shepherds give a grosser name,
But our cold maids do dead men’s fingers call them.
There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds
Clamb’ring to hang, an envious sliver broke;
When down her weedy trophies and herself
Fell in the weeping brook.
Her clothes spread wide
And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up;
Which time she chanted snatches of old lauds,
As one incapable of her own distress,
Or like a creature native and indued
Unto that element; but long it could not be
Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,
Pull’d the poor wretch from her melodious lay
To muddy death.
Sounds: Words from the corean poem: “you are drowning with the flow, died at last”
“what can I do for you”
Moment of stillness or slow motion in which the complete fusion between the body and the environment (projections/scenography) itself can be perceived

5) TRANSFORMATION

Rebirth as a new thing (transformation) and detachment from the element. Something must be changed in his appearance and attitude. Silence. Change of light. Slow movement to stand. Standing still. Dark

Group project: the writing of the script

2009-02-14T08:56:00.000Z

In the first meeting I had with my group, it was decided that one of my responsibilities would have been the writing of the script, or better, the developing of a narratitive and the construction of a coherent sequence of imaginaries.

Althought each one of us had departed from very different perspectives, during our confrontation, it turned out that we have a common piont: the function of the human body as an object and its potential of convey meanings and images.

I started my work from the text we proposed, which have been illustrated in the previous post concerning this project. Then I researched images connected with them, that often derived from pieces of literature havinga relationship with the natural element of water.

1) As mentioned in the previous post, the main source has been the traditional corean poem, of which I used some of the very lines for the script

2)I found ispiration by William Shakespeare's Hamlet, in the description of Ophelia's death

3)Finally in Dante Alighieri's Divina Commedia, where the damned souls have to cross the river Acheronte in order to enter the Inferno. Dante's use of this river, in addition find its origin in the ancient Greek mithology.

4) From Gabriele D'Annunzio's poetic I was inspired as far as the fusion between human and nature is concerned (panismo d'annunziano).

In order to se up a coherent narrative, then, I divided the development of the action in five key moments: hesitation, attraction, fight, fusion and tranformation, each one of them based on a precise reference image.

Finally, for a 15-20 minutes performance, with my script I chose to convey a precise image, a precise feeling, rather than build up a complex situation. In all of this I tried to consider and respect all other member's ideas and influences as much as possible. It's up our development of the scenography/costume and towards the direction now to make a significant and complete performece out of this.

Another Life in Your Hands

2009-02-08T20:39:00.000Z

This post illustrates the idea I was about to propose for the MA Interim show.

As a designer and, above all, as a performer, I started thinking about what I should have displayed in an exhibition in which there were involved works of fine arts. In other word, which performative work or installation should have been suitable to display among paintings and sculptures?
Then I started thinking about a possible audience, and its possible expectations. An audience that comes in an exhibitions in order to see works of arts.
What about, I thought, what about if those people, entering the exhibition, walking around paintings, sculptures, projections etc. they suddenly find themselves in front a human body? A displayed human body.

First concept
Why a human in an exhibition? Why should it be interesting? The first idea has been to produce a performative installation that presented a real woman in a doll’s packaging box along with her various accessories. It was supposed to be supported by sounds and slogans especially created for the installation. The audience would have had the opportunity to interact both with the sound (by choosing to listen or not) and the performer. This is an attempt to recreate the image of a real female made of flesh contrasting to the attempts of sex industry to recreate women made of artificial materials in order to satisfy human needs. Something that might look imperfect nowadays but, at least, real.

Further developments

The final outcome would be having a woman displayed with the slogan "Try me!" in her space, with whom the audience will be invited to interact. An audio commercial could be heard through headpphones:

"Woman Is so real! Feel her real heartbeat.

Woman moves by herself and she breaths, for real!

Look! She has body hair. And her eyes are moving!

Have fun dressing her as you like. Feed her!

You can talk with her and enjoy her company!

Woman, the one and only doll that makes you feel you’re dealing with a woman.

Warning: woman is a living and a thinking being.

Her external features may modify with time.

Her behaviour may not be compatible with yours.

Her tastes may not be compatible with yours.

Her religion may not be compatible with yours.

Her political views may not be compatible with yours.

Her wishes may not be compatible with yours.

Enjoy!"

With the awareness that placing a woman in a box would give rise to significant implications of meanings and stereotypes, the idea of using packaging has therefore been abandoned. The main aim of this work is very simple and its effect would be to reproduce what actually happens in real life when we first meet a person, explicating non verbal details as it was a commercial which promotes a product. This, together with the sense of uneasiness produced by finding a human in an art exhibition, is aimed to highlight the obvious (that often is not to be taken for granted) and the unsaid by saying it, reversing the social implication connected with it.

Group project proposal

2009-02-07T21:57:00.000Z

Sources:
Gong mu do ha ga (don’t cross over the river), traditional corean poem
Gong mu do ha ga
공무도하가(公無渡河歌)

Gong mu do ha 公無渡河 (공무도하)
-Dear don’t cross over the river
Gong kyong do ha 公竟渡河 (공경도하)
-Crossing over the river

Ta ha yi sa 墮河而死 (타하이사)
-you are drowning with the flow, died at last

Dang ne gong ha 當奈公何 (당내공하)
-What can I do for you

Background
It is known as the oldest Korean lyric poem. It is situated in transition period from public folk to personal poetry. In the background of this poem, there was a man who let down his white hair and walked through the river in the madness or ecstasy, holding a bottle of alcohol and his wife was trying to detain him. But he just died under the water, she sadly sang a song and died after her husband. Another man watched this on his way by chance, he said what he saw and listen to his wife. His wife was moved by that story and song, so she played Gonghooin(an ancient instrument similar with harp), singing that song. There is no one who didn’t feel sad and be impressed by that song because it was very sorrowful and beautiful.
There is an interpretation of this poem. One is about it’s periodical situation. The madman could be seen as a priest, and his madness and action which through the water could be understood that he is possessed by a spirit. This was in transition period from the unity of church and state to the separation of that. He might be loosing his power and there is no place for him, so he tried to transcend through death. In his point of view, that space ‘water’ could be explained as a place which surpasses life and death. Another interesting ides of this poem is interpretation in relation to western myth. In this case, Prof. Ahn(a scholar of Korean literature) explained that a mad man have a reference to Dionysus and his wife to a nymph.

Stabat Nuda Aestas, Gabriele D’Annunzio

STABAT NUDA AESTAS

Primamente intravidi il suo piè stretto
scorrere su per gli aghi arsi dei pin
iove estuava l'aere con grande
tremito, quasi bianca vampa effusa.
Le cicale si tacquero. Più rochi
si fecero i ruscelli. Copiosa
la resina gemette giù pe' fusti.
Riconobbi il colùbro dal sentore.

Nel bosco degli ulivi la raggiunsi.
Scorsi l'ombre cerulee dei rami
su la schiena falcata, e i capei fulvi
nell'argento pallàdio trasvolare
senza suono. Più lunghi nella stoppia,
l'allodola balzò dal solco raso,
la chiamò, la chiamò per nome in cielo.
Allora anch'io per nome la chiamai.

Tra i leandri la vidi che si volse.
Come in bronzea mèsse nel falasco
entrò, che richiudeasi strepitoso.
Più lungi, verso il lido, tra la paglia
marina il piede le si tolse in fallo.
Distesa cadde tra le sabbie e l'acque.
Il ponente schiumò nei sui capegli.
Immensa apparve , immensa nudità.

STABAT NUDA AESTAS (NAKED REMAINED THE SUMMER - ENGLISH VERSION)

At first I had a glimpse of her narrow foot
Streaming on the burning pine needles
Where the air was floating, trembling
Greatly, as a white diffused warmth.
Cicadas turned into silence. Hoarser
Turned the rivers. Copious
Resin moaned down the trunks.
I recognized … from the scent

In the olive wood I reached her.
I could see the cerulean shadows of the branches.
On her folded back, and her red hair
Flying silently in the palladium silver.
Later on, in the stubble ground
The skylark jumped out the furrow,
Calling her out, calling her name out again in the sky.
Then, as well, I called out her name.

Among the trees I saw her turning.
Like a bronze-coloured crop she sank in the grass,
Which awesomely closed.
Further, towards the beach, among the marine straw,
Her foot cheated on her.
Laid, she fell down between the sand and the water.
The western wind foamed through her hair.
Immense, she appeared, immense nudity.

Aim:
These sources are going to be the starting point of our 20-minutes devise performance. The main theme are the Life and Death rituals connected to the element of water under the perspective of both Eastern and Western culture.
Water has always been regarded as an element of great importance and human beings have therefore always attributed it multiple meanings and connotations. This is the reason why not only has water always been used by humanity for many different kind of rituals, but also we find water in very important moments in life.

Procedure:
In the next few days each one of us is going to research texts, videos, materials and rituals connected with the element of water. In particular, each member of the group will contribute with a research based on its own cultural background.
This procedure is going to provide us with a wide range of information that will allow us to create a visual imaginary. After that we will be able to start applying all those ideas in a practical way.

Project Proposal

2009-01-29T13:54:00.000Z

This is a very general starting concept for my project proposal. Any suggestion, lived situation and experience that could be in a sense connected to that, or simply a comment or a critic will be more than welcome.

“Acting means to feign, to simulate, to represent, to impersonate. As Happening demonstrated, not all performing is acting.”
Michael Kirby, On Acting and Not-Acting

It is pretty unusual of me starting a proposal with a quotation I totally disagree with. What I find useful and stimulating, however, is trying to start with a debate in order to explain better my starting concept for what it will possibly become a final performance for the end of this academic year.
The word acting has maintained the same root of the word action, as they both derive from the Latin verb agere, which means to do (an action). So basically, according to the etymology, an actor does not feign, neither simulates nor represents. He does. Again, the word performance derives from the late Latin verb performare, a compound of per (till the end) and formare (to make). As a consequence, even though it might be true -as Kirby points out- that “not all performing is acting”, it turns clear that performing is more acting than either simulating or representing or impersonating.
This excursus aims to clarify my research question that lies underneath my artistic aims for the outcome of a final performance. It comes from a reflection on a situation I actually lived, which I realised being in contrast with the common definition of performance. It has been discussed many times what can be defined as performance and what cannot. I agree with the definition which intends a performance as presence. And at that time, I was actually producing absence. I was acting as I was not. Reasonably, it has been weird realizing that I was in a way erasing my presence. But I was actually dissimulating rather than hiding away or deleting my traces: there were actually several signs that indicated it. Anyway, for those who passed by that place, I was not there. I was even not existing. But even thought I was producing absence, was not I performing?
What I am questing for my final project is, in conclusion, to find an original and effective way to make a performance out of absence.
It might be seen as dated rather than not coherent in this context, but the structuralistic idea that not only does a meaning achieves its value for what it actually mean, but also for being in contrast with the other elements that coexist in the same system could be an effective starting point for this work. Clearly, working by contrasts has never been as proper as in this situation. I don’t want not to act. On the contrary I want to use acting (in the sense I specified before, as actually doing something) and I want using presence as a device in order to create a contrast that would possibly allow the audience to perceive absence as the main dramatic component of the situation.
That is finally to say, to make absence being dramatically interesting and, why not, possibly able to substitute presence in what it will turn out to be a performance.

Chrismas in Bologna, Italy. The holy and the profane.

2008-12-25T15:15:00.000Z

The beginning of the Christmas' eve mass

During the celebration the priest claimed Christmas as "the celebrity of light, life and presents". Light because lights are lit up at Christmas time to recall the light Jesus brought in the world, life because he came into the world for us and presents because the exchanging of Christmas gifts is to recall the original gift that had been given to us (yes, of course, expecially for the brands and the shop owners). Besides, he often referred to the audience with the second person "you". "Even if YOU are desperate, sad.. etc. etc.. remember that it is for YOU that... it might be the very YOU... etc. etc.". The strategy of the "embrayage enunciatif" which allows the speaker to create a mock up of the addressee is often used in advertisement and brings an high level of involvement of the audience. See as an example:

Promotion. Isn't? For further reflections have a look at Dario Fo's Mistero Buffo, expecially the extract "Il miracolo di Lazzaro", a satire where it's represented a marketplace in a miracle in order to point out the marketing of miracles. Of course the priest intention may be oriented in a different direction, very charming for those who believe. But, for those who don't?

In the meantime, just behind me a group of boys and girls all well dressed up was discussing about which would have been the best club to spend the night, some people were talking about the food and refreshments thatwould have followed the function, some women were gossiping about how was becoming unpleasent and annoying that lady sitting opposite them and how unfashionable was her fur, I was taking the piss out of the gospel readers with a friend of mine and a few, disciplinate fellows were singing and praying with deep faith.

Despite the Christmas, the atmosphere in Bologna was everything but Christmas like. In one of the main squares of the city, Piazza Nettuno, directly in front of the cathedral of S. Petronio, a bolognese travelling musician called Beppe Maniglia had abandoned his guitar and his classical Beatles remakes and was playing techno-trance music that was supposed to come, he claimed, "directly from Rotterdam's best clubs". On the opposite side, meanwhile, the bells of the church were tolling.

...just behind him, the memorial portraits of the victims of the Nazi-fascism

Everything can be itself and its contrary. Christmas: the celebrity of shadows, death and marketing.

Critical studies research draft. That is to say: everything and nothing.

2008-12-18T09:23:00.000Z

The perspective of research I would like to put forward looks at the theatre as a phenomenon of signification and communication and it is supposed to be oriented basically on the physical theatre.

In general, what I’m interested in is the function of the theatrical relationship between what happens on the scene and the spectator, starting from the point that the peculiarity of live performances lies in the very simultaneity on these two elements. The simultaneity between the production and the communication process is fundamental for the creation of the theatrical relationship generated from the physical co-presence of issuing and receivers. In this context I firmly believe that the instruments of the semiotics disciplines could be very helpful and effective to provide analysis and, even if I am well aware that on one hand the risk of a too analytic work is to limit the potential of the interpretation, on the other hand it unquestionably allows to understand better the deep mechanisms of signification.

For that reason my analysis cannot but take into consideration the Umberto Eco’s theoretical categories (or, better, textual strategies) of Model Author and Model Reader, that can be applicable to performances as significant texts . On this view, performers are communicators and the theatrical text leaves empty spaces which the spectator will fill with his interpretation. What is clear, however, that we are not in the natural world but on a stage, in which the natural world is supposed to be reproduced in a credible way.
Theatre operates a simplified re-semiotization of the real life, in which not only does the mechanisms that generate it become clearer, but also the relationships between actors and between actor and public appear more evident.

On these basis, the great question I want to start from is: what is drama and what creates drama? Which elements create a dramatically interesting situation? How are the meanings effectively conveyed?

Furthermore, the complexity and the syncretism of my object of research led my curiosity towards the physicality of the theatre. As a consequence, another starting point of mine is meant to be the Decroux’s and Arteaud’s idea that at first an actor is a physical presence. According to Etienne Decroux, theatre is the actor, actor is the body, so, it derives that theatre is the body. In addition an actor must be able to do what he wants, not only what he can. The concept of a thinking body and the attempt to portrait with the body the process of thinking by making the movements articulated as thoughts are is really fascinating to me, because it is the body the main mean humans have to communicate through. This idea is really connected to the importance of the intentions and of the subtext of thought that should lie underneath every action (or, why not, stillness) happening on the scene. In this context it turns clear, as a consequence, the relative importance of the object on the scene that, on a view like this, could be undoubtedly questioned.

Bibliography:

Bettetini, G.; Calabrese, O.; Lorusso, A.M.; Violi, P.; Volli, U.
2005, Semiotica, Milano, Raffaello Cortina

De Marinis, Marco
1982, Semiotica del teatro. L’analisi testuale dello spettacolo, Milano, Bompiani

De Marinis, Marco
1999, Capire il teatro. Lineamenti di una nuova teatrologia, Roma, Bulzoni

Eco, Umberto,
1992-93, Sei passeggiate nei boschi narrativi, Harvard University, Norton Lectures

Elam, Keir,
1979, The Semiotics of Theatre and Drama, Routledge, London and New York

Other sources:

A relevant part of my research moves from my notes taken from corporeal mime classes at The International School of Corporeal Mime in London (www.angefou.co.uk/) by the last Decroux’s assistants Corinne Soum and Steven Wasson.
Another important source are my notes taken from the drama lessons by Alessandra Frabetti, Italian actress, director, teacher and theatrologist.

Project 1: the mash up

2008-12-16T07:24:00.000Z

Concept and supportindg materials for project 1: the Mash-up

2008-12-14T20:10:00.000Z

•WORKING BY CONTRASTS
Challenge: mixing two contrasting influences in order to convey more effective meanings.

•STARTING POINT
Two values in opposition:
Nature vs. Culture

Romanticism
•Trepidation, horror, awe, expecially experienced in confronting the sublimity of untamed nature.
•Aim to go beyond the rational and classicist ideal models.
•Power of nature overcoming the human being, sublime, childhood and naivety.

Modernism

•Affirmation of the power of human beings to create, improve and reshape the environment with the aid of scientific knowledge, technology or practical experimentation.•Goal of finding that which was holding back progress and replacing it with new, progressive and therefore better, ways of reaching the same end.•Progress, reshaping of the environment, control.

This starting point led my two influences to be…

Modern Times by Charlie Chaplin & The Rhime of the Ancient Marinere by S. T. Coleridge

•THE RHIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINERE
The ice was here, the ice was there,
the ice was all around:
It cracked and growled, and roared and howled
Like noises in a swound.
(…)
Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down,
‘Twas sad as sad could be;
And we did speak only to break
The silence of the sea!
Only in a hot and copper sky,
The bloody sun, at noon,
Right up above the mast did stand, no bigger than the moon.
Day after day, day after day,
we stuck, nor breath nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.
Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink
(…)
And every tongue, throught utter drought,
Was withered at the root;
We could not speak, no more than if
We had been chocked with soot.

MODERN TIMES

WHAT IN COMMON:

Nature that overcomes human Progress, control, work in series

ratinality and possibilities

ALIENATION OF THE HUMAN BEING
A theme conveyed in different ways, that can emerge more strongly from a comparison between apparently opposite influences

IDEAS FOR THE PERFORMANCE

Body painting as costumes

The use of the human body alone to reproduce the pictoresque images described in The Rhime of the Ancient Marinere
Etienne Decroux, L'usine (The Factory)

Etienne Decroux, The Man who prefers to stand (in the picure: StevenWasson)

The invisible man, that is to say: how to put on a counterperformance.

2008-11-26T19:08:00.000Z

I currently live in a house alone. A girl I know moved to her boyfriend's and she has already paid the contract until January, so, she allowed me to stay in the house in a sort of sub-rent.

Alright. The point is that sometimes, at different days and different hours, the landlady come inside this house because it has to be shown to people that could potentially rent it from January.

Alright. The point is that the landlady mustn't know that I'm actually living there.

As a consequence, not only do I get out of home as early as possible in the morning and come back as late as possible, but I do have to erase my presence, that is to say, when the girl texts me that at a certain hour in a certain day there’ll come the landlady I must disappear and leave the house as clean as possible.

Of course there are signs of me in the house: my toothbrush is in the bathroom and my glasses are on the table. There are my knickers on the edge of the bath and on the floor there are hairs of mine. Also the moka in the kitchen and the tuna cans on the shelves are mine. It’s my bag that hangs on the handle of the door. It’s my hand that cleans up, cooks, does the dishes, makes the bed and leaves fingerprints on the mirror.

So I actually disappear but I’m there. I don’t hide, I dissimulate. I don’t produce presence, I produce absence. And if performance is presence, what is absence?

I am a mind anarchist

2008-10-31T15:12:00.000Z

I`m not innovative and I`m fed up of innovation!
I just decided a road to follow and trying to give myself some limits.
Complete freedom is likely to become anarchy. Better being able to control ourselves.
LIMIT AND REDUCE!

Don`t erase the contrast

2008-10-14T13:43:00.000+01:00

I`ve always been fascinated by contrasts.
Everyone is I think.
So, I often like to look for it and to put it in what I do (holding in mind that contrast could be not caught if it is not built on a base of coherence. And that`s a contrst too, i`m afraid).

On one hand, postmodernism made us well aquainted with contrasts, and trained our senses in dealing with several inputs all at once. Sometimes they are so many and so fragmented that it ends up feeling like lying on a single stream.

So perhaps the ability to be effective and to create effective communication lies in removing rather than putting on. I had this impression during my acting studies and I keep on having it now, stronger than ever. I want to communicate something, so I`ll convey one intention, linked to a specific state of mind (which is often a stereotype of thought). I AM, e.g., sad, I don`t want to do the one that is sad. Again, I want to create spaces, I don`t want to fill in a space.

In addition, not only is the significate generated by his definition, but also by being different from the others significates in a system.

I would like these to be my key words: erase and contrast.

But rules are made to be broken, if not they would not be rules, wouldn`t they?

Is confusion a good starting point?

2008-10-10T15:33:00.000+01:00

I was slinged in another country a few weeks ago and my life has been so much filled in so far. My English is not that good and I`m already inside a lot of English stuff. Thinking. that`s what I`m pretty good at. Producing. Mmm... I must improve myself.
Settle down and thinking.
Then producing.
I don`t really know what I`m doing, but I hope I`m doing it well. Will brain fog dissipate?

What I`m sure of is that I`m learning, and that can be anything but wrong.

Somebody said "life is what happens to you while you`re busy making other plans"

So, isn`t that life? Good.

P.S.: If anyone wants to correct some grammar mistakes it would be welcome!