Monthly Archives: May 2016

Influence: Nerve Endings/ Brain and Emotion theory

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I have had this design in my head after meeting up in April with my tutor and with Darren but I felt it needed improving before introducing it to you in my blog but something has convinced me to keep it.

This is my final set design:


 IMG_4072

It got me thinking how I could portray young adults and the problems we are facing which create a constant battle in our minds as well as the rest of the world. Using the alcove will hopefully make the work immersive with the limited space used and having the audience close up to the alcove will make it intimate. I designed the set to be a representation of a mind whereby the entanglement of string and rope represents the idea of being trapped and restricted in many ways such as job prospects, debt, trust etc. The use of scattered paper will represent the media, contracts (student loans), laws and government documents. The vertical rope on the outside symbolises bars which should make the audience think of  being restricted and confined and forced into having to struggle forever as an adult.

What sprung to mind when I drew this out was that the rope reminded me of the connection between the neurons and electros in the brain (the only thing I found interesting in science) for example:

neurons

This reminded me of my first initial design:

The idea

The connection of the rope reminds me of the picture above and this links perfectly into my idea of the brain. I have researched into how the brain works on developing and portraying emotion which will work in my piece well.

I just searched  Google for ‘brain nerve endings’ and this is what I came up with…

“Those are called emotions. The brain does not have sensory nerve endings, because it has to process the feelings in your body. Emotions are cognitive responses to sensory stimuli after they have been processed.”

(Qoura.com, 2016)

I knew from this that I was on the right track and took from it the sentences marked in bold. It has given me an idea on how to portray my own acting in the piece and the way to perform using body movement. I am considering using the works of Lecoq in my piece to show the connections of the emotions triggering in the brain as it stores it by physicalizing it in the use of lights and body movement.

I started to research a little further into ‘how emotions work in the brain?’ as this will help with the development of the style of movement, sound and lighting.

I found 2 websites that were useful to portray my non-narrative piece.

  1. howstuffworks.com
  2. sciencemuseum.org.uk

The first one I went to was the science museum to get a basic idea of the brain and all its glory.

This next section will be quotes and then short clear notes at end of the section, so as the creator I want to keep it simple in description to  help with the process of the piece.

 

Science museum

The Senses:

“You use your senses together information about the outside world.”

(Science Museum, 2016)

“All these sensations are changed in electrical signals and carried to your brain which them puts all the information together to produce the whole picture.”

(Science Museum, 2016)

 

 

What is consciousness?

“Consciousness has been described as ‘awareness of oneself embedded in the world.”

(Science Museum, 2016)

“Your self-reflective awareness defines you in the context of society, culture and history”

(Science Museum, 2016)

“Many neuroscientists think consciousness emerges from the activities of our tangled network of neurons”

(Science Museum, 2016)

 

Which are of your brain controls emotions?

“The neurons in your hippocampus play a role in emotions”

(Science Museum, 2016)

 

Science.howstuffworks.com

5 ways your brain influences your emotions

“A lot is going on inside your hand, and your brain and its complex processes are even manipulating your emotions”

(Uttley, 2016)

“Much is involved in interpreting emotional circumstances and crating your responses to them, and how you feel and how you respond to these feelings in ways you’re probably not even aware of.”

(Uttley, 2016)

“Part of the brains information- processing network includes neurons or cells that transmit signals throughout the brain.”

(Uttley, 2016)

 

What I learned from all this information  is that the emotions in the brain bundle up and form links with certain memories; this then becomes a continuation of when you experience a certain memory, the memory you experienced with it will be there when you use that emotion with a new experience in life.

Taking the idea that the bundle of memories causes the reaction emotions that are the “awareness of oneself embedded in the world” (Science Museum, 2016) will help with my attitude and style on how to present my performance.

Here is a video I also found useful as well:

(Sentis, 2012)

 

Work cited:

Science Museum (2016) Who am I? Your Brain. London: Science Museum. Available from:  http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/whoami/findoutmore/yourbrain  [accessed 7 May 2016].

Sentis (2012) Emotions and the Brain. Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNY0AAUtH3g  [accessed 7 May 2016].

Uttley, C (2016) 5 Ways Your Brain Influences Your Emotions. USA: How Stuff works. Available from:  http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/5-ways-your-brain-influences-your-emotions.htm [accessed 7 May 2016].

Quora (2016|) Does the human brain have nerve endings and senses in it?  USA: Quora. Available from: https://www.quora.com/Does-the-human-brain-have-nerve-endings-and-senses-in-it [accessed 7 May 2016].

Talking within the Space

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I felt this exercise was a great release when creating the content of my performance. I just walked around the studio with a mic in one hand and a microphone in the other, then just talked out my feelings and opinions whilst I put as many YouTube videos up with news reports and political conventions etc. as possible. Doing this helped me understand the pressure of the media when talking truthfully; I feel I did a great job and it gave a strong atmospheric feel to my piece.

This is a snippet of what I got:

I did a mind map of all the issues of what young adults are going through and how they are affected by them. This was a great stimulant and helped me to speak my mind in my rehearsal and experiment how best  to express the issue.

mind map

I felt free when I was in an empty space and had nothing in my way to stop me saying what I wanted to say. It became a self-evaluation process on my feelings about the whole issue of how young adults are treated by government and the public. By doing this, I got some ideas on how to approach my non-narrative performance as the content is strong when you are talking to no one in an empty space; it reflects the mind palace idea. All I need to so is to refine what I have spoken in the space because there is about 20 mins of material.

The most favourite thing I said was “my mind is clouded with all these strings that are attached.”

I felt this spoke to me as it linked well with the design of my set which is styled with rope and, is going to be put into the alcove of studio 2 in Lincoln Performing Arts Centre.

Non-Narrative piece

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I decided the best way to do my performance is not to do it in a narrative way because the topic is not a box standard one; it’s potentially affecting many young adults who want to help make the world a better place but can’t because they are burdened with so much debt. I returned to the book Creating Solo Performance and found a section where it helps with the foundation of the piece. This is what it said, “If you are not doing a narrative piece, and it can be a useful task to set goals for yourself as a performer.”  (Bruno and Dixon, 2015, 97) So that’s what I’m going to do; by answering the questions given on the page, to set goals and set a promise of what I will approach within my piece:

What are you trying to do?

To explore the situation of what young adults are going through when saddled with debt as they embark on their financial future by making people aware of it and acting upon it.

Why?

Because this issue affects many young people who are trying to improve their lives but are thwarted because of a lack of trust, the possibility of a corrupt future and debt up to our ears. Although this is the problem, students and some people have been affected in one way or another however, it can be different for anyone.

So I am trying to let my performance be open to interpretation as I want it to be a piece which is relatable to every experience that the audience have had, find areas/ parts of the performance where they connect and feel a sense of release by watching it being performed and be made aware that every young adult feels the same.

How are you going to do this?

As a piece that is very visual with a simple acting and a non-linear narrative so it acts like a thought of the mind rather than a performance.

What do you hope to achieve by doing this?

By using a soundscape of news reports that impact on me and other students/ young adults and a set that is sufficiently artistic, I hope to fire the audience’s imagination so they can work with the piece and tap into their feelings, memories and thoughts on the matter to support it and highlight it.

 

Now I have set my goals and achievements I must be sure it is clear to the reader and easy to interpret for each individual in the audience.

 

 

Work cited:

Bruno, S. and Dixon, L. (2015) Creating Solo Performance. London: Routledge.