From the archives: First Research Synopsis

Current Research Synopsis 2007
MA Theatre – Visual Language of Performance

Primary research – The use of improvisation in interdisciplinary performance

I am conducting a critical analysis of the use of improvisation techniques in historical and contemporary interdisciplinary performances. I am interested in both how improvisation has been used to facilitate collaborations amongst artists and how it is used to devise final performances.

I am researching techniques of avant garde groups of the 1950s and 60s such as the Black Mountain College (Cage, Cunningham, Rauschenberg) and Fluxus event scores. This time period has had a strong influence on my collaborations to date and I would like to examine how these early performances have influenced contemporary performance groups. Contemporary groups that I would like to study further include Complicite, The Wooster Group, Forced Entertainment, and Filter.

Questions
- How are contemporary companies incorporating different types of media into their performances?

- How are they using improvisation techniques to devise a final performance?

- How have the early avant garde techniques influenced contemporary performance?

- Are there aspects of early performances not widely adopted today that could benefit contemporary practice?

- What techniques have groups such as the Wooster Group or Complicite preserved from their early work in their current practice?


- What criticism do the artists have of their own work and the direction it has taken (ie the impact of commercialization on what they feel they can produce?)

- How does my work further the tradition of improvisation in interdisciplinary performance?

Workshops
To complement my theoretical work, I am conducting workshops open to artists from all backgrounds to try out techniques that come out of my research. This term, I am working with simple exercises drawn from different creative disciplines designed to increase the vocabulary available to express their ideas and explore their discipline in a perfomative context. Moving forward, I plan to examine how the use of varying levels of pre-determined parameters or event scores affect interactions between performers and how different types of constraints can be used to create a dynamic final performance.

Secondary research – Solo artists with interdisciplinary practices
I would like to test out some of the theories I develop from my primary research as a solo performer. Since my primary creative discipline is performance-based video, I am revisiting the work of artists such as Bill Viola, Vito Acconci, and Nam June Paik. I’m also interested in researching Laurie Anderson and Meredith Monk, and would like to locate some contemporary London-based solo artists who do interdisciplinary work.

Questions
- What are solo performers asking/demanding of/communicating to their audiences with the choice to present themselves alone on stage?

- What are ways of creating connections with an audience where they feel included in the performance? Through non-verbal communication? Through technology? Are there particular shapes, forms, or perspectives?

- Should issues of intimacy actually be the primary theme of my research?

Outcome
My longer term interest is to form my own interdisciplinary performance troupe–not only as an opportunity to develop my own work, but also to create a support structure and opportunity for other artists to work in this area.

Questions
- What are the implications of my research for my continued practice? As a solo artist? As a workshop leader? As artistic director of my own company?