Joshua Sofaer’s Performance Pack Performance was a really fun and interesting experience. It structured ‘how performance is used by performers’ in this model:
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- The Art Exchange } Space – Location
- Participants: Artist & Audience } &
- Art Work: Form & Content } Time – Duration
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- The Art Remnant: Documentation –Recorder –Viewer –Medium –Selection
Each of these sections is broken down and considered in terms of a certain number of options:
- 1.) The Artist: Cultivates and Practices. In the case of my performance the artist will obviously be myself however this section will include collaborators such as my classmates, Martin, Lisa and anyone else I enlist for help along the way!
- 2.) The Audience: Auditors, spectators, participants, collective witnesses
One to One // Chance // By Ticket // Remote Viewer
- 3.) The Form: How the piece is expressed, performance technique and application
// Object – Left over from performance end
// Video – Performer not present, entire piece pre-recorded
// Interactive – Audience directly affecting performance
// Action – Live action as with traditional theatre
- 4.) Content
Personal // Political // Spectacle // Self-Reflexive
- 5.) Location: No site is neutral. Given Location vs. Chosen Location
Chosen Specific Site // Given Specific Site // Theatre // Street
- 6.) Duration: Quantitative
60 Seconds // 60 Minutes // 24 Hours // 365 Days
- 7.) Documentation: Recorder – Who, Viewer – Sense of, Medium – Form, Selection – Content
Photo // Drawing // Trace // Gossip
Each of these sections will be considered for my final piece and having gone through the pack, looking at a number of artists and performances and discussing the different options as a whole class was a great way to consider a range of perspectives. Overall, the Performance Pack Performance provides a helpful set of tick-boxes to ensure a stable structure.
Final Performance:
1.) Myself.
2.) Ticketed – 25% by invitation.
3.) Action – involving direct address.
4.) Self-reflexive – though projected on / inclusive of the majority of audience members, i.e. other students. Also, intertextual; weaving ideas and extracts from ‘The Library of Babel’ with the ‘mad woman in the attic’s story and my own opinions and perceptions.
5.) Chosen specific site – essence of ‘theatre’ and stage, made more intimate.
6.) 10-15 minutes.
7.) Gossip – though practical elements of process were documented through photos.