Re:Collection – an Autopoetic Performance

Glenn Noble, Daren Pickles, Joff Chafer, Katye Coe

    Research output: Contribution to conferenceOtherpeer-review

    Abstract

    This performance is the integration of long-form theatre and dance improvisation practices and audible performance ecosystems.

    Three improvisers with radio mics explore and shape a performance environment, creating spatial delineations and forms, movement phrases, mimed activity and gestures, which lead to the emergence of fragmented scenes and narratives. This practice follows simple improvisational principles, from the likes of Viola Spolin, of shaping discovery through muscle memory and interaction with space-objects, and mirroring physicality back within the work. This embodied process leads to dialogue, recollected memories, narration and confessional elements, which are captured and shaped by a sonic artist utilizing audio software. The resultant sound is fed back into the performance space and recaptured in an ongoing ‘feedback process’ to create a ‘sound-memory’ object within the space. This live feedback loop is generated between the microphones, performers and the audio speakers in the performance space, forming layers of sound, which interact with, extend and provoke the improvised material.

    This live work adheres to Cybernetic principals; material is generated via a ‘system of feedback’ between the composers, performers, technology, spectators, and the environment. The performance is Cybernetic in that it recognizes the non-causal, non-hierarchical nature of the man/machine/environment interaction, and that complexity is based on the interaction of simple elements. Consequently, layers of speech, sound and action begin to converge with one another to create an ‘autopoetic narrative’.

    The work utilises ex nihilo creative methods and is ephemeral is the sense that each performance is different and without fixed outcomes. The piece also explores how ‘meaning’ is formed in this kind of creative practice. In reference to this the work draws upon Marshal McLuhan’s hypothesis concerning how meaning is made in the ‘Post-literate society’. The ontological perspective is non-modern, in line with Heidegger’s perspective, postulated in his essay “The question concerning technology”.
    Original languageEnglish
    Publication statusPublished - 8 Sept 2015
    EventTaPRa Conference 2015 - University of Worcester - University of Worcester, Worcester, United Kingdom
    Duration: 8 Sept 201510 Sept 2015
    http://tapra.org/2015-conference/

    Conference

    ConferenceTaPRa Conference 2015 - University of Worcester
    Country/TerritoryUnited Kingdom
    CityWorcester
    Period8/09/1510/09/15
    Internet address

    Keywords

    • improvisation
    • sonic arts
    • Memory
    • feedback loop

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