Solo Performance Written Document

7/24/2019 Solo Performance Written Document

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COLLEGE OF BUSINESS, ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES

COURSEWORK SUBMISSION COVERSHEETCoursework MUST be submitted online via Blackboard Learn under the relevant modular/studyblock/assessment block course page.

Student Number: 1500144

Module Code: DR5504

Module Title: Specialist Option (Performance Directing, Solo Performance,Performance Writing)

Module Tutor: Fiona Templeton; Carl Faia

Assessment Number/Name:

e.g. Coursework 1, Coursework 2,Presentation, Final Assessment

Process and Performance Document 1 (due Jan 15)

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Louay El Jamal

‘Hunter-Hunted’ — Specialist Option Assessment 1

Lawrence Halprin’s The RSVP Cycles: Creative Processes in the Human

Environment splits the creative process into four phases mnemonically referred to asRSVP: Resources, Scores, Valuaction and Performance. In his book, he defines

Resources as those ‘which are what you have to work with’, Scores as those ‘which

describe the process leading to the performance’, Valuaction as those ‘which [analyse]

the results of action and [introduce] possible selectivity’ and decision-making, and

Performance as ‘the result of scores and … the “style” of the process.’ These are the

necessary ingredients, he says, for communication to be possible, and each element

must ‘be visible continuously, in order for a piece of art to work so as to avoid secrecy

and the manipulation of people’ (Halprin 1970: 2). It was with this concept in mind that

I approached my Solo Performance titled ‘Hunter-Hunted’; a digitally-supplemented

performance that explored abstract themes of addiction, depression and rebirth.

The initial concept for this performance was to devise a piece that explored the

effects of sound travelling in space. To accomplish this, I knew I would need the

following things: at least two speakers in order to create the illusion that sound was

travelling in space; at least one sound file that would play long enough for the sound to

be heard in motion; a program that would tell the sound to move from one speaker to

another; and a trigger that told the program when to begin playing the sound and when

to move it around the space. These, I considered to be the resources that I had at my

disposal, through which I would somehow have to devise a piece that communicated

with it’s audience. However, what I wanted it to communicate, I did not yet know.

In devising my performance, I questioned how much presence the technologyshould have in the project before it risked overtaking the ontological and

phenomenological interpretation of the performance. I knew that I wanted to

communicate something human, and did not want the use of technology to detract from

my ability to accomplish that. In theory, there is enough rhetoric to support both sides of

this conversation. Philip Auslander, for instance, maintains that mediatized

performances, even ones composed of purely robotic actors, can accomplish the same

things that live performers do (Krasner and Saltz 2006). However, imagining a live

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Louay El Jamal

piece of theatre that has been completely digitised did not sit well with me. Noël Caroll,

on the other hand, rebuttals Islander’s arguments ‘insisting instead that there exists a

definitive ontological difference between live performance and mass media. He bases

his account of the difference between live and mediatized performance on the roleinterpretation plays in performance, in contrast to the purely mechanical process of

media presentation’ (Krasner and Salz 2006: 11). Carroll’s argument supports what I

had in mind going into my piece very well. While I wanted to explore the elements that

technology can have as a support for a solo performance, I wanted it to remain as just

that: a support, and not something that takes over the piece itself. I wanted the

conversation to be about the content of the live performance, and not necessarily about

the technology behind it.

When it came to the score of the performance as described by Halprin, this came

in the form of a diagram that helped me conceptualise the performance I planned to

perform. The diagram highlighted a scenario similar to if two people were about to hunt

one another, and they began by circling each other in order to maintain some distance

between them, where one hunter was “the sound” and the other hunter was “the

performer”. If the performer were to take a step to the left, the sound itself would

reciprocate by taking a step to the left along a circular path—and the same would

happen with a step to the right. The diagram served as a tool to help me communicate

my ideas with the collaborators that I was working with.

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Louay El Jamal

Actualising the project was just as much a part of developing the score for the

piece, as was conceptualising it in this case. Where with most theatre the score may

present itself in the form of a script, the score for this piece was represented in the formof computer programming and a tech-rider. In the initial stages of development,

IRCAM’s SPAT processor (or Spatialisateur in French)—a ‘real-time spatial audio

processor that allows [artists] … to control the localisation of sound sources in 3D

auditory spaces’ (Forumnet.ircam.fr, 2016)—was used to program the movement of

sound around the room. After testing, however, and due to time constraints, my

collaborator and I were unable to program SPAT in such a way that gave us the desired

effect highlighted in the diagram. Opting to work independently, a redesign of the

performance—programmed with Ableton Live 9 Suite and TouchAble from an iPhone

on my wrist—ended up being the score for my performance. The score, pictured below,

organised a series of digitised scenes, which, when played concurrently with the

performer on stage, added new meaning to the performance.

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Screenshot of Ableton score for “Hunter-Hunted” performance



Louay El Jamal

With the introduction of Ableton Live as my score, the narrative of the piece

began to change, as well. While the SPAT program would have allowed me to improvise

my movements in the space and have the sound react accordingly, the Ableton Live setrequired that the I initialise each sound in order for it to play. In other words, the

performance could no longer be improvised. Knowing this, it was important to me that

the fact the technology was being controlled by the performer was not concealed, but

amplified and made known to the audience. If it had not been so, I believe the potential

for audience detachment from the piece would be greater, encouraging them instead to

question whether I was leading the technology or the technology was leading me, as

opposed to the content of the piece itself. In response to this, I glued an iPhone case to a

glove, in order for me to visibly and remotely control the Ableton Live interface from

my wrist, and still have full range of motion throughout the performance. I hoped that

this would answer that technical question in my audience’s mind right off the bat, and in

an almost Brechtian manner, erase the ‘magic’ behind the technology, and encourage

them to focus on the narrative instead.

The meaning of the performance came to me while workshopping the piece

independently; Halprin would have called this the “Valuaction” phase. Initially, I had

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Screenshot of Ableton score in TouchAble iOS app for “Hunter-Hunted performance



Louay El Jamal

inserted a generic set of stock sounds into Ableton to test sounds moving in the space.

Once it came to fine-tuning the piece, I gradually replaced the sounds with ones that

would give the character a reason to move. This, I hoped, would give the piece more

cohesion. One of the first movements the hunter does on stage is hunt an invisible birdwith an invisible throwing stick. This, for me, symbolised the loss of innocence, or the

first step in the descent towards depression or addiction. Having these themes in mind

helped fuel all future decisions while honing the piece. From there, a whole world of

symbols and metaphors spun through my mind, helping develop not only the narrative,

but the mise-en-scene of the piece, as well. What if there were a nest of branches

surrounding the hunter on the ground, adding to the bird-like imagery? What if I wore a

mask to symbolise the falsely positive exterior that a person in distress is forced to

wear? What if there were projections on the walls that changed in response to the

sounds being heard; to the emotions that the character is feeling? This last idea required

another score altogether. Ableton on its own, being a sound-editing software, would not

have allowed me to design a series of visual changes in the projections; this had to be

done using Isadora. But by using a series of silent MIDI triggers sent from Ableton to

Isadora, I was able to have the projections change simultaneously with the sound,

through TouchAble on my wrist.

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Screenshot of Isadora score, linked to Ableton through a series of “Note onWatchers” that listen for silent midi cues to trigger changes in the projections.



Louay El Jamal

Finally, in an effort to strengthen the themes of my performance, I decided to turn

everyday objects into signifiers for the stage. The Prague School theatrical theory

suggests that ‘while in real life the utilitarian function of an object is usually more

important than its signification, on a theatrical set the signification is allimportant’ (Bru " ak and Elam 1980: 6). Similarly, my hope was to classify the objects in

the performance—such as the toilet paper roll, the apple and peeler, and the umbrella—

as signifiers, through their use on stage, so that the audience could then use them to

support the themes that they interpreted from the performance. The apple and peeler, for

instance, may appear to one person as a symbol of self-harm as each strip was placed on

the character’s arm, but to another it may be interpreted as the start of a new phase of

life, seeing as the peeled apple was white, like a blank canvas. The beauty of this is that

as a signifier within a piece of art ‘it can be picked apart for […] themes that best suit

the arguer’s perspective’ (Holub and Rowling 2015).

Halprin states that the RSVP cycle is ‘multidimentional and [interconnected]’ and

‘operates in any direction and by overlapping’ (Halprin 1970: 2), and this certainly was

the case with my creative process. By the time the performance had been presented, the

initial concept had morphed into a completely new one, and each additional tweak

required more tweaks within all elements of the RSVP cycle. An adjustment in the

projections required an adjustment in the sounds, which in turn required an adjustment

in the physical movements of the character in order for a new sound to be played from

the iPhone. Once everything had been finalised, and I was able to test-run the

performance all the way through, one final score was created in the form of a technical

rider pictured below.

Looking back at the performance, I felt that it was, for the most part, successful.The technology functioned the way I had intended for it to, and the few hiccups that

arose with the handling of props were rectified quickly in the moment. If I were to move

forward with the project, I would focus on finding a way to make the environment more

immersive. Perhaps wider projections that filled all four walls completely, or a thicker

bundle of branches to engulf the character in a cage-like manner. All in all, I was

pleased with the end result, and the experience has made me very keen to continue

experimenting with digital performances such as this in the future.

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Louay El Jamal

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References

Auslander, Philip (2011) Liveness: Performance in a Mediatized Culture . London [u.a.]:

Routledge.

Elam, Keir (1980) The Semiotics of Theatre and Drama . London: Methuen.

Forumnet.ircam.fr, (2016) Spat . [online] Available at: http://forumnet.ircam.fr/product/

spat-en/ (Accessed 10 January 2016).

Halprin, Lawrence (1970) The RSVP cycles: Creative Processes in the Human

Environmnet . New York: G. Braziller.

Holub, Christian. and Rowling, Joanne (2015) J.K. Rowling uses Dumbledore to

Explain her Opposition to Israel Boycott. Entertainment Weekly. Available from: http://

www.ew.com/article/2015/10/27/jk-rowling-israel-boycott-dumbledore?12121

(Accessed 12 January 2016).

Krasner, David and Saltz, David (2006) Staging Philosophy: Intersections of Theatre,

Performance and Philosophy . Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

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http://www.ew.com/article/2015/10/27/jk-rowling-israel-boycott-dumbledore?12121

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Solo Performance Written Document