Discussion: What is art?
In a group talk we debated about what art is; It is interpretive, it evokes emotion. It makes you feel something you don't feel on an everyday basis. Feels colourful and personal. Freedom without judgement. Someone made a point about it being subjective and very hard to define. This discussion made me think deeper about what the nature of art is and whether or not it is quantifiable.
Exercise 1 - Duel in the Dark:
The first time we played this exercise it was the unpredictability that made it so interesting to watch. That sense of dramatic irony that us as audience members know what is happening but the players do not. I feel like we can apply this energy within the actor audience relationship. That tangible uncertainty could be harness by having the audience watch a scene that is completely up to their own design. The second time we played this game we added in another variable of the newspapers being in a different place (on top of a table). Changing an element allowed the game to be interesting another time. Returning my idea to the actor audience relation we could utilise this rule changing idea by allowing them to change the "rules" of the performance meaning us as actors would need to adapt ourselves. Moreover this would make the performance dangerous and exciting and unpredictable. When we played this game one final time in a session with Chris we had to pick some moments we thought were brilliant. All the moments I seem to isolate were the "Are they gonna do it?" moments; Adjei poised with the Newspaper and Chloe jumping out the way just in time. I believe it's the potential energy that makes these moments so fun to watch. They are charged with something raw.
Exercise 2 - Trapeze
I found parts exercise quite difficult. The initial moment of take off I found easiest to connect with; that nervous/excited energy like the kind you find before you plunge on a roller-coaster is something I can find within myself. However stabbing myself in the stomach I could never really find. It was a quick transition from a feeling of elation to that of self inflicted pain. I couldn't find the switch meaning the truth within the moment was lost. If I was to do this exercise again I would work harder and try find an equivalent feeling that I could relate to in order to find this sensation of stabbing myself in the stomach.
Exercise 3 - Mother and Child
I really enjoyed this exercise if I'm honest, It felt cathartic to just release some sorrowful sounds. Watching Eve and Olivia just have a moment of natural acting and then have a circle around it just filling the room with these horrible but truthful noises of loss and pain. It became sort of animalistic and beautiful at the same time. I let out this cry that slowly crescendoed and evaporated. It came from the energy in the room and filling the soundscape with what was needed. I feel like this exercises was a represnation of the sounds we can't express because of our societal conditioning which pairs well with Artaud's work about man being savage. We could harness this by showing the audience a "normal reaction" to a stimulus then showing a "true reaction".
Exercise 4 - Passing a laugh
This was another exercise I found quite hard, maybe it was because I wasn't in a laughing mood, maybe because I found it hard to go from a neutral place to a middle ground of laughing, maybe it was because I was thinking too much. It was probably a combination. However I did think this exercise was good at switching between manic and "normal". It was coming back to neutral after the big laughing moments that made this effective. I think as an ensemble it creates a weird atmosphere to whoever is watching. It poses questions; why are they laughing? what makes them stop laughing? Are they laughing at me? We could definitely use this silent communication to our advantage to make the audience feel on edge.
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