As a group, we had to create a ‘script’ from our silent performance piece at the Powell Center. The group as a whole did not write one, concise ‘script’, but rather each person wrote their experiences with the performance piece. In order to work with a very broad spectrum of explanations, I took a general idea and some highlights from each person’s experience; I used the script in all of the iterations whether it was through telling it straight from the page, or using it as a guideline for a concept of a piece.
The ‘Script’
In our performance, we were to create a piece based on our learning of a given building, which in our case was the Powell Campus Center. The catch was that we could not talk in order to prepare for the performance. In a general sense, we all felt very confused to begin with, just trying to figure out how to organize and figure out what to do. Of course, in this day and age, technology would seem as though all of our problems were solved, but the technology that ideally would have created a much easier creation of a piece actually turned into a bigger issue. Not everyone’s phone wanted to cooperate with the format of a ‘group chat’ or with messaging phones unlike their own. Thus, I believe that we ended up with 4 different group chats all including or excluding certain members who were found on at least one of the other chats. The disarray of communication made it so not all of the group participated at the same time. Which brings us to the actual performance, when planning on when to meet at the Powell Center, the group collectively came up with an idea, which was mostly scrapped by the time everyone met at the building. We tried to communicate ideas through body language and written ideas on paper, there were several usable ideas that could have been performances had we spent more time to develop them. We agreed on two that worked around the idea of documentation through video. We thought of the idea of using our bodies to activate the space in the areas of the second floor lounge and stairwell leading to the third floor. What we had to do to activate the space was not particularly defined, which is quite obvious in the documentation. It was chaotic, but as the performance went on, I believe that we learned to work off of one another to create a better feeling of consciousness among the group.
Each of us did our own thing throughout the process, which showed our own understanding of how to activate the space. Some chose to walk around, while others chose to imitate activities that took place in other parts of the building. Some did activities that created sound without talking. I think a lot of us stifled laughter at some point.
1. Creating a New Script From Conversation
I took down my conversation of telling my mother the story of the performance in order to create a single media storytelling piece about telling a story. The script took three tries, both of the first two were interrupted and I felt I had to start over when the train of thought was lost. The final part of the script was a bit less carefully told, I was a bit flustered with having to tell the story from the beginning again and again.
Mom’s Script: (Attempt 3)
J: I have to start over again. Ugh. Alright, so We had to partake in and document a performance piece that was representative of an installation piece representing Powell and its various uses. We could not talk while planning or doing the piece. Uhh…
M: What was the installation?
J: It was this collection of things that were taken from or represented Powell. There was like, a pile of cardboard boxes from the mailroom and there were packing peanuts and pamphlets strewn around the floor leading to the boxes. There was a, uh, table thing that had food and ketchup packets and stuff. We hung utensils, shirts, and air packing bags held up by fishing line. The line was held up by pillars of the Cohnen studio, the big building behind the light pink one I pointed out earlier, or a ladder that was also used to represent the levels of Powell. The performance was more based on ‘activating’ the space with our bodies and their movement. We used a lounge area on the second floor and the stairway leading to the third floor that was adjacent to the lounge. It was pretty universal, after discussing the performance, that we were all pretty confused about what to do, how to activate, some kids went all out, getting on tables – I think – while others mainly walked into and out of frame with the first piece. With the second piece, we made a time lapse video of us moving up and down the stairs, but we spent more time thinking about how our actions would look when we were sped up. A lot of us slowed our movements or took longer on each step or movement to make it more lasting on the video. I know, I made movements in a close to regular speed, and it looked as though I was spinning around very quickly on one step for a few seconds, Others walked or sat on steps at to make themselves seem to be doing so at a ‘regular’ pace. All in all, it turned out well, even if I still was not sure how it represented the installation.
2. An Interview With Myself
My first idea that I thought of when we were told of the project was to create a conversation with myself. I recorded myself responding to the story a few days before coming back to tell it so I could try to forget everything about my response.
3. Micro Hands & Feet Video
I brought some classmates to the Powell Center to create a piece with their movement. I did not tell them the story of the piece prior to recording them so they were asking if there was a rhyme or reason to what they were doing. I mixed parts of the recorded feet and hand based video.
4. Photography Of Discussing a Story
After using my classmates to create my micro study, I brought them upstairs to the lounge where the first of my groups’ performance was shot. I explained why they did what they did while taking pictures of their reactions. The reactions also included the reactions while the group discussed the process that they took on with helping me with my video.
5. Telling the Story of an Installation Through Images
My final piece was one that I showed to a few people when explaining the installation (mainly those who hadn’t seen it). I used the pictures I took during the process of the set up and tear down of the installation to help them create a picture in their mind of what we were trying to represent with our performance.
I thought that aside from directly showing people our performance video the images would most easily describe what we were attempting to do. In most cases I showed the images after telling the story. It may have worked better had I showed them first, explaining what the significance was.
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