One action One word/sound One object One minute
1 hour:
Engage in an extended durational activity. Emphasise or repeat a “gesture” or
“action” until its original meaning or intention is lost, or morphs into something else. The performative action should be repeated for an extensive period of time in order to subvert itself. The time frame is to be determined by you. The piece should reach a critical point where the gesture can no longer be seen as a single utterance, but exists as something more in the context of the whole.
Now then: when is that, exactly? | Now, then: did anything happen? “Now then”
as an adverbial form opens time as a modality of manner, not a thing: not a series of points, or a line, or even a circle. The adverbial contradiction now then, both nonsensical and functional, points to that aspect of performance which vanishes, but also persists, accumulates, anticipates, truncates, forecloses, syncopates, pauses, hurries, retards, accelerates, stops, starts, repeats … in time.
This project consists of an individual performance piece done in association with a small group. The class will be divided into groups of four.
Content:
Each group of four will develop their own theme based on their interpretation of the given overall topic “Now then”. Each group must include a beginning and ending for their whole performance, and create transitions from each individual’s component to the next. The group will share lighting, props, sets, etc.
Each person in the group will create his/her own 3-minute performance, choosing a type of performance from the following list:
Task-based Intervention Strategy life-art-work
Duration/
Endurance-based Tableau vivant Space of tension
Monologue Praxis of articulating
identity Sound experience
Ritual Political Socially marked role
play
Jörn J.Burmester
Verbs
A proposal for diverse groups of artists or students
I. Making the Map
In the centre of a large sheet of paper, write down one verb that signifies a human action. Start with a simple and general term. Around the first word, participants write translations of it in all languages they know, share associations, teach each other pronunciations, and explain problems with the translation. A different colour is used for each language.
The rest of the paper is covered with verbs for actions related to the first one, and their translations. If you started with the verb “walk”, the group might continue with “go” and “run”, moving outward from the center as the meanings of the verbs become more specific and further removed from the original. In our example, words like “jog”, “run”, “trot”, “skip,” and “hop” would appear on the margins. Consider where each word is positioned on the map, so that clusters of related subgroups might appear. In our case these could be “ways that animals move”, “words for slow walking”, etc.
Once the paper is completely filled, participants study the mind map, discuss specific connotations of some of the words in the different languages, and fill in some gaps.
II. Performing the Map
Each participant chooses one word and, in 10 minutes, develops a short perform-ative action about it, without revealing their word.
The performances are shown to the group. After each one, the participants discuss which of the verbs on the map they would use to describe the action they have seen. Finally, the performer reveals their choice.
III. Moving on
Further exercises can include group performances, actions based on several words on the map, and creating additional maps centered around other terms.
Gio Curaming
Construct a cycle of emotions. Follow this diagram as you impulsively write down your thoughts, internalising each emotion in succession, shifting through the linkages. For example, adopting the six basic emotions, we can start the cycle from sadness evolving to anger to disgust to happiness to fear to surprise, then back to anger, and so on. On your own, you may add more specific, complex ones.
We are using words only as cues: one’s conception of a particular emotion may not be entirely similar to another’s. This is a solo activity so such a concern is nugatory. In fact, you can use other means such as a cycle of shapes, or of colours, of sounds, etc., anything that could serve as a stimulus—for clarity, I’ve used linguistic representations. The principal idea is to go shifting from one feeling to another seamlessly. Gradually intensify each emotion: work your way up to its peak, then let it subside while moving on to the next. Let the words influence your thinking, just as your imagination influences your writing. The writing hand must stay relaxed. However, do not resist a feeling until satisfied, especially when it sustains continuity. Depending on your propensities, you may spend more time on certain cues and less on others. Repeat the cycle as much as you desire.
In this exercise, the act of writing is merely a means to aid the thinking process; proper grammar is unnecessary. What’s happening on the page is un-essential, although you may infer from it afterward how much you’ve influenced an emotion, and vice versa. Concentration can be accounted to coincide with emotional intensity following the same trajectory; thus a good amount of it is required.
This meditative exercise aims to further the development of the artist’s voli-tion, which, I believe, lies at the very core of every serious artist, hence impera-tive in performing art—to gain awareness of one’s temperament, and, assuming it is attainable, control over one’s own perception (or projection) of self, of its mutability amid different surroundings.
Florian Feigl
Dividing
Take an object or material of your choice, of any quality—soft, solid, fluid, imma-terial, processed, built, or fabricated. Divide it in half, depending on the material quality or aggregate, by pulling, tearing, cutting, pouring, walking, waiting, think-ing, drawthink-ing, throwthink-ing, blowthink-ing, burnthink-ing, etc. Use tools or machinery as needed and ad libitum. Take one half and divide it in halves again, employing the same method as before. Take the resulting quarter and divide it in halves employing the same strategy as before. Continue until you reach a unit that cannot be divided any more with the chosen strategy.
David Frankovich