Category: Audience

This time last week: Performance Reflection..

Samantha Mckenzie / / Audience, Concealed Illusions, Development, Evaluation, Uncategorized

This time last week my group and I had shortly finished our final performance piece. We were performing a piece of site specific drama in a gallery room in The Usher Gallery. Our piece aimed to highlight the similaritys betweeen idealised art and idealised people and how through the use of Instagram and makeup application we idealise ourselves.

The Performance

We were extremely pleased with the outcomes of our performance, and were happy to see the many faces who came to have a look. I found it challenging to continue doing something so repetitive for that length of time, especially because of the impact it had on my sore, stinging skin. Coming up to the performance date we did all discuss how painful our faces will be during and afterwards but felt there was nothing we could really do about this without changing the piece entirely. We did not want to change it because we thought it is such an aesthetically powerful piece which delivers a more intense atmosphere because of the gruelling and perhaps painful process. We did however choose to involve moisturiser as part of the routine between each section of makeup removal to look after our faces. I do not think this alters the aim because applying moisturiser is something that I inparticular do anyway before applying or removing makeup.

Another difficulty was staying in particular positions for a durational amount of time; it was uncomfortable to sit with crossed legs for 20 minutes but I feel it looked affective and as if we were possibly sitting on our beds applying makeup when we were young. We wanted the change of posture and position throughout to reflect how it is a routine but something we do at home in our bedrooms as part of an everyday process. Also, because we were sat in the positions that we were, spread around the bench, it gave the audience opportunity to see all of us. A lot of the audience members chose to walk around us so they could see each of our faces. However we were interested in how some of the public entered the gallery initially but once they saw us they chose to leave; perhaps they felt we were invading their space where they enjoy to look at the art work. Another interesting observation of mine was the choice some of the audience made to stand around the outside of the room or at the doors. One particular audience member spoke to me afterwards and said she did not want to come into the room because she felt as if she was invading our space, she found it odd that people were coming in and and looking so closely. It was interetsing to hear different people’s perspectives. In a way I would like to think they were intrigued enough to come a little closer but also it is pleasing to know they thought of the space as ours which was one of our aims. We wanted to recreate a space such as a bedroom where you would get ready for the day or a night out.

Our preperation began a few hours before the performance and admittedly I was nervous to set up the projector and see how the whole thing looked because we had a limited amount of time in the process to organise a practice set up. Thankfully there were no issues and the sound we had recorded also sounded great in the space and created the right atmosphere. A couple of last minute additions to our piece which I have not mentioned before are the use of an alarm clock, a bed sheet and the removal of our t-shirts.

The clock- As we were only supposed to be performing for two hours we needed an end point to our piece. We chose to use an alarm clock because it is something we perhaps have in our bedrooms, it is also an indictation of time and once more reiterates that applying makeup is a durational process which is part of a set time routine.

The sheet- We decided to use a bed sheet the lay over the centre of the benches we were performing on. This created a similar appearance of the makeup covered t-shirts which portrayed large versions of makeup wipes and also prevented any makeup spilling onto the surfaces. We also thought this created a bedroom affect.

The removal of t-shirts- The t-shirts we were wearing throughout the performance eventually appeared like the dirty makeup wipes which we had dropped on the floor. We decided that it would be an effective end point for us to remove them once the alarm clock sounded to show that they are something disposable. We removed our makeup and then our t-shirts also asking the questions- you wouldn’t go out without your makeup on, but would you go out without your clothes on? Is there a link between the covering of our bodies with clothing and the covering of our faces with makeup? Are they sometimes both as important as each other?

Overall I was extremely happy and relieved with the outcome. I felt that our piece delivered the exact message we had hoped for and also triggered some very important questions amongst our audience. The whole process has been very rewarding and also made me rethink how I present myself and how I want people to see me.

 

Responding to our time…

Tabitha Hilton-Berry / / Audience, Evaluation, Possessed Time

In our performance, we found that although we did not have a constant audience at all times throughout, we were noticed and intriguing to the members of the public that visited the museum that day. People would drift in and out and then come back later to see the progression of our piece. It was almost as if they thought they might be missing out on something and wanted to know what we would do next, which I found very encouraging for the overall reaction that we got from the public.

At the beginning of our piece, there was quite a considerable audience for the first hour as they watched us awaken from our fictitious slumber and start our day,controlled by the sound of a ticking clock. it was interesting to see the people who wanted to see more was generally families with young children, as the children found it either intriguing and as I remember, kept asking their parents questions about us.

‘Who are they, Mummy?’

‘Are they real?’

‘What’s that sound?’

It was encouraging to know that we were being noticed in the way that we had hoped to be and that, even though they were young children, we were being observed and questioned, not just passively watched by an uninspired audience. Not only did the children ask questions, but in order to educate their children more, parents were asking questions so together they could work out the meaning behind.

‘What sounds can you hear?’

‘What’s that on wall? Is it a clock?’

‘Do you think the sound is coming from those watches in the cabinet?’

‘What do you think they’re doing now?’

The audience response was overall very good and even when the clock puzzle was being formed by ourselves, people were walking around us and peering in to the centre of the circle to see how the puzzle was coming together. If we were to change something with regards to the performance, I would suggest audience interaction would be good, especially as a learning technique for young children. They could be incorporated into helping us put the puzzle back together, as even for us it was a fun task that we could all co-operate in.

There were a few audience members that did not appreciate what we were doing in the space. Some people would walk to the doorway, glance in, and then quickly turn around and head to another room. One woman laughed as she stood and watched us, another asked her husband ‘Is this even worth looking at?’ while her husband replied with a brief ‘Let’s go somewhere else.’ We of course did not expect for everyone to fully appreciate what we were doing as performance is not everyone’s ‘cup of tea’ and it was actually good to see that people were still observing us and questioning what we were doing even if they quickly decided that the did not like it.

 

Theatre & Museums

Jade Nicholls / / Audience, Cultural Terrorists, Space

After studying Susan Bennetts work into the use of theatre in museums it made us more positive about working in the museum and gallery. At first the site was daunting as museums and galleries are usually seen as places for people to relax and take in the art and artefacts without being disturbed, which is why we did not think putting on a drama performance in the Usher Gallery would appeal to the public. This was a main reason we did not decide to do a very long durational piece, we did not want the members of public to become frustrated we were in the way of what they wanted to see. However after reading Bennetts ‘Theatre and Museums’ it began to make a lot more sense as to why we were given this particular site. Performances are contemporarily performed in theatres, if you compare theatres and museums they have many similarities, ‘Theatres and Museums have increasingly become symbolic and actual neighbours, sharing the task of providing entertaining and educational experiences that draw people to a district, a city, a region and even a nation’. A lot of research has gone into whether or not performances should be brought into museums on a regular basis, John Faulk also wrote a book called, ‘The Museum Experience’, which goes into very specific details about what happens in the museums and the type of people who visit them. He found out during his research that, ‘Demographic analyses of cultural activity show that people who go to the theatre, concerts and movies are also museum visitors’, this also proves that using the museum as a site for our performance would not disrupt the members of public but actually intrigue them and may make their museum visit more enjoyable. Overall both Bennett and Faulk’s work gave us a more positive outlook on our ideas, instead of holding back so that we did not interrupt the gallery we believed the public would enjoy the performance more if we done something fast, loud and disruptive as it draws their attention and from the studies the people who visit museums also like to visit theatres meaning they must like drama performances.