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Lament of the Noise Makers

I will be constructing a string machine called Lament of the Noise Makers at Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff as part of the Experimentica Festival. The space will be open from 2pm - 10pm on Monday to Wednesday (13/10/08 - 15/10/08) finishing with a destructive performance on Wednesday evening at 9.30pm.

It consists of a shambolic orchestra of things: Buzzers, Konks, Crashes, Horns, and Animals, controlled by a wardrobe and animated by a conductor who has wandered in from an entirely different concert . The machine will be Constructed from the detritus of shows once performed, in process, and never realised.

Please visit the link to Chapter (opposite) for more information.

I have a lot to report from what is the first year of my part-time PhD at Aberystwyth. This blog has been somewhat neglected so I have some catching up to do. I intend to return to several key moments of practice and the papers I have given from the past year to bring it up to date. These include:

Performing The Galapagos Man at the NRLA (Tramway Glasgow)
The string machine Meret which was constructed as part of an Artist Residency at Theatre Materials/Material Theatres CSSD London. And the accompanying paper Object as Postdramatic Gesture.
A paper on Theatre Machines given at the Conference Objects Of Engagement, Royal Holloway, London.
The building of the string machine Lament of the Noise Makers in the Foundry Studio, Aberystwyth.
The forthcoming performance of a version of Lament of the Noise makers at Experimentica, Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff.

Each one of these moments of practice and theoretical papers are being treated at as individual ‘etudes’ (Cabinets for the case of exhibition) for my ongoing thesis, which as expected has gone through several stages of refinement since my last report.

Starts Thursday 26th June. Aberystwyth's first monthly live art, music and tombola night. Six PhD students and Artists have joined forces to produce the event. I will be performing in the showroom band as well as building the showroom sculpture: a hybrid of a 1920's shop mannequin and CCTV camera system.

PhD Progress Report

I am working towards three components to present as my thesis:

Written Component (Approx 40 -60k)

Divided into two parts:

Part 1: A contextual study of the theory, construction, and performance of the Bio-Object in the theatre of Tadeusz Kantor:

Introduction: The Door of Cricot 2 (An Entrance) at 5 Kanonicza Street, Krakow.
Object 1: The School Bench from The Dead Class (1975)
Object 2: The Wardrobe from Dainty Shapes and Hairy Apes (1973)
Object 3: The Death Machine from The Madman and the Nun (1963)

These objects will be considered through the analytical framework of Postdramatic theory and the philosophical implications of making the object perform through the notions of Stasis, Ghosts and Possession.

Part 2: Taking this contextual study as a framework the second part will contain a written analysis of the application of this theory through the construction and performance of a contemporary Bio-Object. As in Part 1, the analysis will be considered from the perspective of the objects themselves. The Bio-Object will take the form of a String Machine (A concept that is unpacked through the exhibition and made explicit through the final performance)

Reference will be made to the work presented at the exhibition and final performance. In this respect a supporting DVD of exhibition material and footage of the performance will be submitted with the written component.

Exhibition

Through a series of residencies, workshops and performative presentations I intend to explore the practical and artistic considerations involved in constructing a contemporary Bio-Object leading towards a final performance.

The documentation of these accumulative events will be presented in an exhibition that will be presented in conjunction with the final performance. This documentation of the practice will be assembled under the rubric of ‘the collection’. This means the objects, DVD documentation, photographs, inventories; notebooks etc. will be collected, arranged and displayed as artefacts of the performance event.

Final Performance

This will consist of the realisation of a contemporary Bio-Object in the form of a string machine. The exemplar performance will be a result of the practical application of theory expressed through the written component and the accumulative events presented at exhibition.

Forthcoming practice 2008


Artist residency at Theatre Materials/Material Theatres conference for The Centre for Excellence in Training for Theatre at Central School of Speech and Drama.


Duration: 14 – 18th April 2008
Visit http://www.cssd.ac.uk/cett/ for more information.

The residency will be based around the creation of a string machine in a studio within The Central School of Speech and Drama. The title of the project is - Priming the String Machine: The Object as Postdramatic Gesture.

Although the residency will contain a degree of response to the space at Central, the overall content of the work has been predetermined. To further the notion of the memory theatre as part of what might constitutes a Bio-Object I have decided to return to a specific element of an earlier performance work The Lightning Conductor (2005). The element of which I will return to, is an object used within the show: A mink fur wrap worn by the character of Meret. Therefore the string machine will be constructed from the perspective of the mink fur. (Image documentation of The Lightning Conductor can be found at http://www.museumoftheend.com/ - the mink fur can be seen around Meret’s neck)

A number of objects have been assembled to respond to this notion including several duplicate mink furs and a number of miniature puppets of the character of Meret. The voice of the actress who originally played the character will be taped and inserted into the machine.

These ideas are intended to set a playful framing to approach and to give a structure in which to make decisions that have a dialogue with a pervious performance event. Therefore the objective of the residency is focused on the progress of the form rather than allowing the content to dictate.

Further objectives of residency:

1) To gather progressive audience feedback of perceptions and engagements with the apparatus outside of a formal performance event (specifically the perspective of an audience who have never encountered the work before)
2)To implement a more sophisticated control apparatus allowing for a greater degree of finesse during manipulation; to build fishing reels and other winding mechanisms into the control system; to realise a table mechanism that is currently at the design stage.
3)To start exploration into the practical implications of integrating the miniature within the string machine.
4)To initiate the notebook system as a form for recording the process of practice.
5)To develop a model for future residencies through quickly assembling a working string machine in an unknown space and therefore gaining a heightened understanding of the form.


The residency is structured as following:

3-days Response and construction.
1-day Performative Workshop.
1-day Performance Presentation.


Conference Paper at Theatre Materials/Material Theatres.

I will present a 20 minute paper at the conference titled: Performing the Object/Avoiding the Subject: The Object as Postdramatic Gesture. The paper will contextualise the work presented during the residency and introduce the wider exploration of my PhD research into the possibilities of approaching object manipulation through a postdramatic form as exemplified by Kantor.


Notebook System


I have devised a notebook system that it is intended to document and notate the process of performance practice. The notebooks will be accessible through Exhibition and as an appendix to the written component. They will organise the multiple facets of practice as well as becoming an integral part of the apparatus of the total ‘thing’ that constitutes the Bio-Object. In this regard they will serve as the assembly instructions of the Bio-Object presented through the final performance.

Notebooks:

- Object
- Intentionality/Animation
- Totem
- Experimental Text (Outside the Morgue of Fame)

I will expand upon this in due course.

Roaming Memory Theatre

The roaming memory theatre is a form intended to present a (re) appearance of the theatre work The Galapagos Man through a miniaturised roaming toy theatre. The toy theatre is built on top of one of the original items of set. This item (a table on wheels) becomes a form of ‘roaming machine’ that acts a memory theatre of the original production.

Technical Considerations:

§ The ‘roaming machine’ is completely self-contained and pushed around by a nurse who will instruct audience members about viewing.

§ The roaming machine can be adapted for performance in any space and has the potential to be taken outside of the gallery space, onto the streets and surrounding area. This adaptation can be done by the company through a site visit prior to performance or in consoltation with the venue.

§ At certain intervals the machine will play out a miniaturised version of The Galapagos Man. Each performance will take approx 10 minutes.

§ The lights and tape recorders on the machine are all battery powered.

§ The machine is 1.5m x 0.7m x 1m. The performance can be adapted to the area in which it is placed.

§ No technical assistance is required when performing – a space for some assembly is needed before the performance starts.

§ A framing of the performance as a memory theatre will be provided to the audience through a small sensory-programme that is handed to each spectator (if they choose to take one)

I am currently applying to various Live Art Festivals to enquire if they can accommodate this promenade style performance.

Theatre Materials/ Material Theatres

Great News! The company have been offered a residency at the Central School of Speech and Drama between April 17 – 18 2008. The residency is called, Priming the String Machine: The Object as Postdramatic Gesture and will form part of the conference Theatre materials/Material Theatres.

Lightning Conductor Pictures

I have finally got hold of the Lightning Conductor images from 2005. It is a shame that this is the only documentation of the show we have (although there is a version of the total Ed. show floating around Japan on a cable channel...need to track it down) I would like to return to the 'lighthouse series' someday and fully realise my ideas for the show - 10ft high document puppets and all. I also miss working with a large group - if any of you want to beinvoled in the next project (starting in April - more to follow..) then let me know.

I SHALL DEFINE IT ONCE AND FOR ALL!

Aberystwyth Bound!

Relaxing with friends in Aberystwyth

I have begun my new job as research assistant to the head of the Theatre, Film and Television Studies department at the University of Aberystwyth. The department has a massive student population and what appears to be a very active research culture focused around the CPR (Centre for Performance Research), which is like a state of the art bond villain style command centre for performance research. The centre has a staggering collection of material, especially Kantorian - which is nice. The post is part of a studentship within the department where I will be teaching undergraduate students as well as starting my practice based PhD. The rapid move from MA to PhD has proven very beneficial as I feel as if my MA research can just continue in the same direction. For the first few months I will be reading around the areas outlined in my proposal to try and define the focus of the theory and continue preparations for The Galapagos Man’s trip to the National Review of Live Art in February. I have put my current PhD proposal below:

Performing the Object/Avoiding the Subject: The Object as Postdramatic Gesture.

The question of an OBJECT
An object in theatre is almost always a prop.
There is something offensive in this name for the OBJECT.
A HUMAN and an OBJECT. Two extreme poles.
Almost enemies. If not enemies, they are strangers.
A human desires to know the object, “touch” it,
appropriate it.
There must be a very close, almost biological symbiosis between an
actor and an object.
They cannot be separated.

Tadeusz Kantor, from The Eighth Insegnamento (1988), 1993:240.



Hans-Thies Lehmann’s Postdramatic Theatre (1999) seeks to define a language that articulates the relationship between conventional dramatic models and the ‘no longer dramatic’ forms of avant-garde theatre that have emerged since the 1970s. Lehmann’s study considers these forms by analysing aspects of their central aesthetics, aspects of space, time, body and text. Significantly he only suggests at the role of the object. The utilisation of the object as part of postdramatic aesthetics is introduced only through a wider investigation of the theatre of Taduez Kantor. This is perhaps due to Lehmann’s primary focus on the mediatised image, framing his reading of postdramatic aesthetics through the emergence of media within performance and how contemporary postdramatic theatre has become characterised by it.

Taking Lehmann’s study as a point of departure this PhD seeks to attend to the notion of how the object, outside of virtual manipulation, has the potential of being used as part of a postdramatic form. It will consider how an object might be performed as a postdramatic gesture through its materiality and how it is appropriated within the theatre. It will therefore frame the object as a visceral and tactile ‘thing’ that is physically and not virtually present in performance.

Mapping the territory: Subject/Object relations.

Central to understanding and subsequently defining what makes an object perform or become part of a postdramatic gesture is how it attends on the question (and tensions) of the subject/object relationship within that theatre. The aim is to build an argument towards a theatre of objects, a theatre that defines for itself what objectification is and how it impacts upon how it is performed. Therefore, the theoretical study of the PhD will predominantly focus on how subject/object relationships are defined and played out in postdramatic forms.

Lehmann’s allusion to the object within the theatre of Taduez Kantor will be central to this argument. It will address what Lehmann defines as “Stasis/Ghosts” (2006:58) presence with Kantor’s work, looking in detail at the Metaphysical presence of the object, and the psychological effect of uncanny doubling within his theatre.

Kantor’s theatre of objects seeks to redefine the subject-object relationship. Through redefining the sacred, Kantor’s theatre shifts towards how an objective transcendental presence (represented through the objects) becomes integrated with the subjective presence of the actors and Kantor himself. It can be argued that this form side step’s the subjective principles of modernity and moves towards a postmodern notion of what Guignon defines as “de-centring the subject” (2005:107) where there exists a “rethinking [of] humans as polycentric, fluid, contextual subjectivities, selves with limited powers of autonomous choice” (2005:107).

Therefore Kantor’s work will be framed within the historical and critical contexts of how the thinking around the subject/object relationship in performance has reached this position. The areas that concern this contextualising are:

- Premodern worldview of the object: The sacred object, the use of the object in rituals and early performance (ceremonial use of the object).

- The sovereignty of the subject in modernity. Modernist initiatives into reframing the theatrical object: Edward Gordon Craig, Theatre of the Bauhaus.

- Postmodern attitudes towards the subject, specifically anti-humanist discourses: the challenge of subjectivity.


The theatre of objects is therefore not just a theatre that contains objects or a theatre that objectifies its participants. A theatre of objects interrogates the very notion of the human subject through its form rather than its content. It is a theatre that operates beyond the conventional models of performance, models that only seek to confirm existing notions of how the subject-object relationships work. It is through the puppet and performing object, theatrical forms that speak uniquely to these questions, that a theatre of objects can exist and thrive. If such forms have a future we must look to ways of reinventing them, like Kantor. Only then can such forms attend to the issues of an increasingly fragmented and paradoxical cultural landscape in which theatre operates.

All aspects of theory will revolve around how appropriate they are to postdramatic theory. Therefore strands of these contexts can be drawn out and expanded upon and will form the basis for practical experimentation. These contexts need to be more clearly focused but this can only be achieved when further work has been done around each area.


Methodology

Once the theoretical contexts are more clearly focused, strands will be drawn out to explore practically.

The decision to challenge the virtual by arguing towards the utilisation of the visceral, sensory, and metaphysical dimension of the object has been driven by my own practice and experimentation as the director of a theatre company. Therefore the PhD will be practice lead, practically exploring how objects might be framed, manipulated, and integrated with performers and spaces to attend to the questions posed by the theoretical study. I will continue to take the role of director, leading a series of projects with performers, puppeteers, and designers, conducting workshops and devised performances that play out the concerns of the research. I have already formed established relationships within my company with a number of practitioners and artists and I will also be seeking to forge new relationships with undergraduate and postgraduate students who have appropriate research interests. These projects will be devised to address specific aspects of my research questions and adapted to the resources and situation of the department in which it is undertaken. Due to the nature of the research, the practice is concerned with using simple technology, reframing forms such as conventional puppetry and the use of domestic and found objects. The workshops and performances will then be documented appropriately (Journals, seminars, DVDs etc) and presented in support of a written thesis.


References

Guignon, Charles, On Being Authentic. London: Routledge, 2004.

Kantor, Tadeusz, A Journey Through Other Spaces. Essays and Manifestos 1944-1990. Edited and translated by Michael Kobialka. London: University of California Press, 1993.

Lehmann, Hans-Thies, Postdramatic Theatre. London: Routledge, 2006.