rehearsal notes from The Map

​Map            :  A spatial representation of reality


Spatial        :  Consisting of at least two dimensions and usually referring to geographic space


Representation    :  Something that stands for something else 


Reality        :    The totality of all things possessing actuality, existence, or essence 


Body            :     A concrete, material, animate organisation of  flesh, organs, nerves, muscles, and skeletal structure. A body is defined, delimited, and articulated by what writes it, it is the surface and raw material of an integrated organisation of physical and social inscription. The body is                         organically/biologically/naturally “incomplete”; it is indeterminate, amorphous. A series of                             uncoordinated potentialities which require social triggering, ordering, and long-term                             “administration,” regulated in each culture and epoch by what Foucault has called “the micro-                        technologies of power.” The body, a human body, a body which coincides with the “shape” and                         space of a psyche, a body whose epidermal surface bounds a psychical unity, a body which                     thereby defines the limits of experience and subjectivity, in rule-governed social order.                         (Bodies-Cities, Grosz)


My current research is based on a performance work, A Map of Scars, Bruises and Broken Bones, which I created as part of the Discipline the City exhibition at Substation in 2017.  I was working with the idea of mapping as an external spatial and visual exercise. Performers of different ages and sizes go through a cycle of placing themselves in the space, lining themselves up against each other before performing a collective and individual repetitive action and sound. Based on codes of formalised movement language such as a sport or a dance form and its mechanic reproduction, a step-by-step sequence of a physical regime loops into a series of gestures forming phases that repeat themselves cyclically. The movement was composed from daily postures set in linear patterns and collective repetitive actions to comment on the discipline and control of bodies operating in a fixed regime of space and time. 


For the residency at Dance Nucleus, my research was about designing a movement practice and developing means of embodying the idea of mapping. I wanted to put the focus on the performer and started to look at creating a process that will bringing the ideas into physical experience. In the mentorship program with Arco Renz, I connected with his use of breath as an expressive medium, a physical pump which can connect between forms. I began to engage with my breath and use it as a mode to measure the internal sense of my body. That brought the inquiry into the body and the research gradually evolved from external languages to internal ones. 


I was interested to measure and represent the body as a kinetic energetic terrain. How do I measure and transmit internal sensations? I experimented with measuring its sense of depth and intensity of the body through modes of measurement using joints, breath and muscles. I looked into the body as phenomenon as I go through a process of sensing and representing internal spaces by going through a process of breathing, tensing and jerking. 


I devised the movement score below as a frame.   


Movement score

Basic shape: 
Walk along a diagonal line across the space
Sit, squat, stand, lie down along the line
Test the length and reach of head, legs and arms

Breath:
Breathe in and out through the nose
Where in the body do you send the breath to? 
Work into the extremities of volume, physical expansion and compression 
Increase the speed of breath 

Muscle:
Tensing-density 
Tracing paths like marking coordinate of a map
Isolated muscles contraction 

Nerves:
Twitch

Inspired by Arco Renz’s abstract approach to dramaturgy, I did not design shapes or gestures that I feel will represent the concept of the work. I focused on tactility and corporeal senses as the means to measure and test the body’s limit. I used the sensations of numbness, tightness and soreness at different points of my body as markers of borders and boundaries. This became about me experiencing my body and negotiating the process within the structure. I presented the movement score at two different moments of studio presentation, during which someone commented that they felt the intensity of the performance and was physically affected by it. Most felt their breathing changed and appreciated seeing the body in danger of hyper ventilating. Some even became concerned for my safety and questioned the intention of the mapping. I was intrigued by their responses, which demonstrated that the physicality of the performer was able to stir emotions and trigger physiological effects.


In the further development of my movement practice into a creative work, I see myself as performer-cartographer charting a kinesthetics terrain. I will continue to explore the embodiment of measurements as a means to performance making. By taking a corporeal approach to performance, this project expands the lens through which to view, discuss and make performance. As a performance maker, I would like the audience to view the body as a living event, a monument of breath, muscularity and energy.


Video link to the work in progress:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08xQa5m8SsA&t=973s


Notes from the mentoring sessions

Session 1: 

• Transplanting previous score into a new space.
• Placing oneself against architecture, placement against space and the other bodies in it.   
• How are we making the decision to move? 
• What shape to take on when we stop? 
• Context and layout of space offers different attention to the body

Reflection: It has been a while since the group met up, and we were busier negotiating the gallery space that was already occupied by an exhibition than with what is happening in the body. In the studio’s empty and open space, a sharper focus is put onto the bodies. Questions emerged in relation to shape and the types of gesture to make. Are abstract designs enough to convey any form of content and meaning? 


Session 2: 

• HIIT workout video
• I wanted to see the body over duration of physical exertion. But what is it after the tiredness? What is the point of focus?
• Sets of 100s in eyes, shoulder, arms, bouncing and vocalization of Shh
• Is there a need for clarity in the form? What does virtuosity in form serve? 
• Τhe development and repetition of a gesture from a body skill. Where does it start? The process of exploration is not clear here. Is it from a physical sensation, a mental image?

Reflection: I added a specific area where the performers are visible even offstage sitting and resting. That gaze of fellow worker added an objective viewpoint to how I view what is happening on stage. Yet how do I build tension in viewing for actions that are repetitive and predictable? I may be feeling the sensations of breath and sweat in my own body, but how do I engage with audience into what I am doing? 


Session 3: 

• Discussion on measurements, measuring against the environment, other bodies and within itself.
• Aside from scientific gadgets how to measure movement through physical means, external and internal ones? 
• Embodying the mapping -embodied measurements.
• Measuring external shapes to the internal kinetic system.  
• Measurement as a form of control

Reflection: Aside from the placement of bodies in space, today’s session was to look into the idea of mapping in the body and to create from the body. It was a big step forward for me to move the idea into the spatial context of the body. But some of the movements are so internal that it is not visible spatially, what do I need to do to draw focus to the micro movements?


Session 4:  

• Where in the space do I place myself? 
• Is there a frontality towards audience?
• Trying out the pumping of body parts. How does it start? The body tenses to generate speed into twitch. Where else can it go? How does it get there? What is going on in the other parts of the body from that isolated trigger?
• Finding a pattern to the twitch. How to develop?
• 8 points of the body
• How to work from systematic synchronicity into chaos? 
• Implosion versus explosion
• How to not lose the performer? Am I conscious of external space when I am moving intensely inside? How do I communicate what I am sensing inside?
• In what ways does the soundscape of text serve how the viewers read the body? 
• Playing with the rhythm of the text 
• Movement should not illustrate the text 
• Dramaturgy of clothes/costumes
• Structure-A B A, what do I want to convey?
• Floor pattern-Walking along a diagonal line across the stage

Reflection: In the previous session I looked at the idea of charting in the body, today’s session was about the readability of what I am composing in/through space and how simple device such as floor pattern could communicate meaning. I started to consider the idea of scoring specific poses in relation to the text and pattern sequence to the twitching. I had to think about making dramaturgical choices when composing patterns. 


Session 5:

• Formulating a rough score from the basic postures into the twitching. 
• Stringing sections together, walking along the line, poses along the line, muscle tension and 8 points twitch, twitch from standing poses going to the floor, back up to standing and walking along the line. 
• Transitions, how sections fuse into or away from the part before?
• How can I move the mapping language through shapes and postures on different levels and planes?

Reflection: Today was the last session and it was devoted to creating a draft movement score. In running through the score, many questions were raised in how I move from chapter to chapter. As I am working from physical sensations to bring me into the next section, how do I manage the objective and my subjective sense of time, duration and energy. How do I approach the repetition of walking in chapter 1? The development of the practice into a piece of work was discussed. What is the piece about? How do I go about framing the embodiment of measures? What constitutes a piece of work?


Further exploration 
Movement: 

• Working from breath, tension and twitch all at the same time. Where does one information start and another begin? How to manoeuvre into and within a knot of information? 
• Looking at the micro movements in the form of thoughts and actions when at the edge of consciousness.

Forms and shape:

• Try measuring within formalised language and codes of movement such as a sport, a dance form or a skill.

Performer and audience relationship:

• Where is the performer’s attention, how does that direct or shape her gaze? 
• What about performing with an inward gaze?
• What does the presence of viewers mean to the act of mapping?

Themes:

• What can you say with a solo body? What can I say with a group of bodies?
• How does each part inform to the greater idea of power and control?