Reading #12
Dixon, S “Digits, Discourse and Documentation:
Performance Research and Hypermedia
This reading began detailing a CD with the footage of a
production of Chameleons 2: in dreamtime on it in which the CD-ROM allows the viewer to
select the chapter they wish to watch. The disc also allows the viewer to choose to have audio commentary. Dixon uses this reading to explain the success
of this CD (and of this form of multimedia). As this reading looks on at this CD
and its possibilities
Reading #11
Barthes, R., “Camera Lucida”.
Focusing this reading mainly on photography, Barthes starts by explaining the surprises that a
photographer has to face when taking images for a theatrical purposes:
- How original is the content? is it something regular that which we could
come into contact with on a daily basis.
- Capturing a movement in
a 'moment' which painting cannot.
- Ability to capture the finest of
details, so for example the moment a flea jumps off a dogs back.
- Technique that the artist chooses to use in their photograph
- The luck of finding something unusual.
Barthes then moves on to explain a 'Punctum' - where the hidden meaning or details within a photograph are displayed, this could materialise as words on the t-shirt of a person in the photograph or a gesture. Barthes explains that for him the Punctum is the most interesting
thing about photography as many times the things he discovers are not actually
placed there on purpose or for a reason but have accidentally become the meaning of the picture.
This reading has made me aware of the hidden details in the photographs.
Reading #10
Phelan, P. “Unmarked: the Politics of Performance”
Phelan argues that Theatre pieces can never be repeated as
they are are an event that go hand in hand with time and place, two elements
which cannot be re-lived, so they can only be re-performed with differences
occurring every time. Re-performing a piece means taking the piece and reenacting
it with the political direction of the current director. It then looks into
more detail at how a performance piece is heavily depended on the memory they
leave in the spectator. Phelan then went on to talk of the power of not being
able to make eye contact with an artist, gaving many examples of work through
the past years that have had the artist either disappearing as part of the
performance or that had the face of the artist obscured.
Reading #9
Rebecca Schneider, “Performing Remains: Art and War in the
Times of Theatrical Re-enactment”
This reading from Rebecca Schneider explored historical war
and mass death catastrophes such as 9/11, from the perspective of the archive.
The reading spoke of how archives can resurrect events concealed in the past
that are not always for the better. Most wars in general have their facts and
figures locked in a secret government archive never to be fully released to the
public. The reading spoke of how facts can be changed and altered to alter a
countries vulnerability, meaning that certain governments may chose to only
release part of the truth to their public. Having wars truthly archived can
benefit society as it allows members of the public to engage with their
uncensored cultural history.
Reading #8
Jacques Derrida “Archive Fever”
This reading gave insight into the practitioner Freud and
his views on archives and the way a performance is expressed within said
archive. From the reading Freud has explored that archives are made possible by
death and destruction giving form to new life, as an artist passes away their
work becomes even more important in the creative industry. This is because with
their absence they are no longer available to answer questions regarding their
work and so the only things left to the world is what has been archived and is
accessible to future researchers.
Reading 7: Archive or Memory? The Detritus of Live
Performance
This reading began by looking at just how we archive a
performance and the fears that an artist faces when creating a performance.
Many people are concerned when creating a performance as to how long will it
last or be remembered and if it can be immortalised, implying that there is no
better way to archive a performance than in the memories of its audience.
Reason goes on to discuss that the archive is not concerned
with the generating of new work, simply the collection, collation and
classification and safe keeping of work already made. The image of the archive
is that of accuracy and objectivity. The archive is therefore not necessarily
the bastion of neutrality that it has claimed, as this view goes on the affect
that new live performances being generated have on the spectator.
Reading #6
Eugenio Barba, “Eftermaele: That which will be said
afterwards.”
This was a very short reading centered around the query of
how an artist speaks to their future audience members. The reading addresses
that a performance should be able to engage its current spectators and it is
also the responsibility of the men and women behind the piece to find a way to
make this piece travel to its futures viewers, this could be through
documentation or personal memory of those there in its original staging.
Reading #5
Auslander, P., “The Performativity of Performance
Documentation”
Auslander shows the use of photographs as a form of
documentation and how a performance should not be classified so if the only
interaction with the audience is through photographs. Auslander utilizes the
reading to explain two main performances, the first one is called “Shoot” where
an artist got another artist to shoot him in the arm and he photographed the
moments during and after. The other one was of an artist who jumped out of a
second floor window and had photographs taken but edited them to remove the
safety net below.
Auslander details that in “Shoot” the photographs are a form
of performance because they capture what really happened and allows the
audience the chance to see it for themselves. Whereas in “Jump” the photographs
have been tampered with to show something that is not real, the only people
that will see the performance in its reality are were those present at the time
of the jump.
Auslander gives the reader a few questions to think about,
What is to be said on the truth of digital media? Do the eyes deceive? How do
we know what we are seeing is really what happened?
Reading #3
Cook “What is past is prologue: History of archival ideas
since 1898, and the future paradigm shift”. Archivaria 43 pp. 17-63
Cook begins by explaining that Archives started as 'Houses
of Memory' in the year 1898. They were designed to be a sort of acces to the
collective cultural memory of the times, where anything that is worth
remembering is stored. However, in this
time period the things that had been forgotten suggest they were deliberately
removed. Across this time there was a lot of power endowed to government control,
where people of authority could depict who can and can not speak within the
public and the archive.
As the years have progressed and the creation and evolution
of the computer and telecommunications industry there has been a call for new
ways to keep archives, using organised unfallable systems and websites.
Reading#2
A’ness, F.(2004) “Resisting Amnesia: Yuyachani, Performance,
and the post-war Reconstruction of Peru”, Theatre journal, 56, pp. 395-414
In this reading A’ness talks about the Peru internal war
(1980-2000). Four years after and with a new government, they have decided to
revisit the war and trials are being held where testimonies from those involved
are used as the body of the argument.
The Truth and Reconciliation Committee works towards
exposing the stories or war hidden within the country and face the hard truth
so that the country can move on and start to rebuild itself, however in this
case the government of peru played a strong part in the destruction of many
lives and therefore trust in the TRC is minimal.
In order to balance this they appointed a company called
Yuyachkani, a theatre company who has been working within Peru for many years
before this war and during it. The company’s job was to tour around peru
performing works that try to improve the image of the TRC and explain why they
are here, encouraging people to come forward and reveal their story.
After the trails were done the Yuyachkani compiled all their
work together and a few new pieces to create a festival “never again” that
raised awareness of the evils that faced Peru in the hope that it will never
happen again.
Reading#1
Taylor, D. “The archive and the repertoire”
This reading began by explaining the differences of 'writing'
archival sources and 'repertoire' archival sources and explaining that we cant
have one without the other.
EXAMPLES OF WRITTEN SOURCES:
Written sources include things like:
- Newspaper articles
- Books
- Scripts
- Written Statements
- Written law
So basically anything that contains the spoken word on
paper.
EXAMPLES OF REPERTOIRE SOURCES:
Repertoire sources are:
- Visual
- Audio
- Sensory
- dance
Repertoire is passed on through teaching and memory, unlike
written where the skill was limited to one single format, by using repertoire
anyone could gain the knowledge by experiencing the performance for themselves
and then mimic this back over time gradually incorporating their own
interpretations.
Taylor also addresses that both forms of information are
important in the modern archive and that they work together. The example she
gives is of a wedding and how you can not have a wedding without the spoken
words of “I Do” and the signed contract of marriage. And this is of course, the
same for live performance, to archive a live performance we would record it and
store the program and the footage. However this cannot relay the first hand
experience of the audience member.
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