[dance-tech] Re: March discussion forum: dance/performance and participation
- From: Johannes Birringer <Johannes.Birringer@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "dance-tech@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <dance-tech@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 23 Mar 2015 22:00:32 +0000
Jacob -- fascinating double perspective, on the symmetry/asymmetry relations,
and also on the unequal perceptibilties you mention, or could we say the
"invisibilization" of part of the work (sorry, i am here using a pun on a
theory I was just beginning to read and dwell in, a book by Andreas
Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos on "Spatial Justice: Body, Lawscape, Atmosphere"
(Routledge, 2015) -- a book that digs into some fundamental questions of
understanding how law or legal norms work (and hide themselves)...... this
might not be an uninteresting angle if we were to look at asymmetry also in
reference to the themes and cultural dislocations mentioned by Nilüfer and
Henry.
your second point stunned me --- an "audience residency" or workshop? That's
brilliant.
Naturally, i do remember that in some arts and technology collaborations over
the past years, especially when these involved so-called interactive
installations (and perhaps also social scientists/psychologists on the team
interested in behavioral responses, these collaborative teams would invite
performance and non performance artists to be user testers, come an try out the
setting and let the software programmers and designers watch
how peope engage the work. But how to build/find a pool of people interested
in being user testers. I guess you are right, students and unemployed people do
got to psychology/neuroscience test experiments, so why not
to participatory theatre experiments. testing relational aesthetics. very
cool.
regards
Johannes
>>>
[Jacob schreibt]
It’s awesome seeing the discussion evolve. I thought I would throw in a few
things that have emerged out of my recent projects (mainly Jacqueries —
http://jqrs.org).
1) Asymmetrical audience experiences
By analogy to ‘information asymmetry’ in game theory: chess is totally
information-symmetric, poker is largely information-asymmetric (players do not
have the same information about the state of the game).
Traditional theatre (proscenium or otherwise) aims at information symmetry. I
have been exploring highly asymmetrical works, using parallel tracks of action,
of which an audience member can only see one. Sometimes we use mediated
elements (videos cued on the audience’s iPhones) to show them some of what
they’re not seeing live.
This creates a huge amount of dialogue after the show, as people compare their
experiences. It also encourages a videogame-like ‘replayability’ as audience
members will frequently stay for a second show (we run twice a night) to see
what they missed the first time.
2) Audience in Residence
A dance company here in Toronto which makes highly adventurous / participatory
works got foundation funding to create an ‘Audience In Residence’ program. It’s
a pool of people who act as a test audience: they’re given specific training in
communication and the nature of creation, and then invited to join the creation
process at various points where their presence is useful to the performers /
creators. They receive a stipend (although some donate it back to the company).
In my experience so far this has been an absolute bolt of genius. The pool of
people is large enough that it’s not always the same gang. The stipend
encourages substantial participation by poorer and disabled people. The
resulting sessions have proved hugely valuable to me in the creation of
participatory and tech-enabled work.
Hopefully that pays back some of my lurking time...
xJ
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