The idea is basic, vague and difficult to make sense of.

I met with my lecturer who advised me against implementing my idea of encouraging the audience to snip through the rope to help release me because of technical issues. Letting me cut through the rope shows it’s a personal battle with myself and a physical concept for my mind. The next day I had a meeting with the technician and my lecturer to talk about the set up and lighting etc.  and revealed quite obviously that the design I had roughly drawn out was still in progress and a mess. We briefly talked about how to attach the rope in the area without damaging the walls and it was suggested I have poles on each side of the alcove and use a wooden frame to attach the rope. After some thought, it was decided that the wooden frame may not be sustainable for the physical element of it so scaffolding was suggested not only for its robustness, but also for the imagery it conveys as a metallic industrial look. This makes the piece appear even more cold and cell-like and ably reflects the mind of a restricted and pressured young adult.

We discussed how lighting can make it look good by casting shadows from the rope and it was suggested that UV lights be used at the back of the alcove; this will spread light through the small space of the performance as well as where the audience is thus making it very immersive and atmospheric for them and giving them the impression that they are congealed into a subconscious vortex of a human mind. This will be actioned using birdie lighting and the main lighting in the studio.

After my meeting, it dawned on me just how unclear my plans were so I created some initial designs:

These ideas are much clearer and more precise and better express the notion of ‘constriction’ and ‘control’.  So now it is necessary to experiment with the area and try and form clear space awareness as well as see the space speak for itself before the use of speech and movement. I want it to be shocking and make the audience question the reality of the subject.

Using the book Creating Solo Performance by Sean Bruno and Luke Dixon as a reference, I will be taking my main idea from this book which is “once you get them used to generating material and trusting their instincts, you can play with extremes” (Bruno and Dixon, 2015, 11).

Before I worked with the place as a whole, I have concentrated on using the rope as a means of confinement on the chair.

Case Study- Chair

I started to wrap the chair with rope to start with to see where it went as the use of “real objects” (Bruno and Dixon, 2015, 11) is suggested in their book Creating Solo Performance.  It helps to have some familiarity with the object when playing with your ideas and it is easy to find a chair and easy to produce as it doesn’t cost anything. I went with the book’s suggestion to start by playing with it so as to capture my ideas and portray them into the chair. I just took the feelings I got for my subject matter and let that led me into my work.

I felt exhilarated by how I had captured my idea using rope and a chair but then realised that to anybody else, it still looked just like a chair that was wrapped with rope so, I thought up the idea of adding sheets of paper covered in words which reflected my state of mind. This would give the audience something visual and recognisable to contemplate and question.

The pieces of paper have the thoughts that a current young adult has on its mind.

These include:

• Job!
• Pressure, pressure, pressure
• I’m Not Ready!
• What am I doing?
• Grades!

and comments that have been written in articles I have come across such as “children labelled as failures in primary and secondary education have no hope of further or higher education” (Bryon, 2009). These all add to the pressure and resentment felt by young adults of not succeeding and which ultimately lead to having low self esteem issues and thinking they are not good enough.

Work Cited:

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

Byron, T. (2009) We see Children as Pestilent. [online] London: The Guardian.  Available from: http://www.theguardian.com/education/2009/mar/17/ephebiphobia-young-people-mosquito [14 April 2016].

When I read the articles and watched the news, I felt suffocated and trapped and really wanted to physically translate this sense of being held captive, restricted, controlled and pressurised by the government and society as a young adult. Being trapped always conjures up a picture of a spider’s web and how insects get stuck in the webbing with usually no chance of escape. This totally symbolises my concerns that many young adults are caught up in a web of debt from which there is little chance of escape for many years so I took this idea for my performance.

From this light bulb moment, I have written my performance; I will be in the middle, surrounded by rope that will entangle me in a mess. I don’t talk but there is an over voice speaking a random and abstract monologue of thoughts about what a young person in 2016 feels about the current issues as well as  some facts/figures of the news on the lost generation. Pieces of paper are attached to the rope and on them are written old school reports and comments on me such as ‘failure’ etc. The audience can come and help snip me out of this entanglement of a confused, stressed mind and help me step out into a ‘bright future’.

The ideas written on the paper are:

• Audio
• Thoughts
• Fragmented
• Faint thoughts
• ‘Life issues on a rope’
• When an audience
• As the performer you get anxious because they are being too slow about it; you just panic and freak out by trying to get out and move everywhere possible.
• Then the audio goes onto a darker tone on the pressure of life. (climax)
• Then calms done and goes to neutral but with tiny bits that are panicked.

My idea will be demonstrated using a bungee cord on each side of me; this will help me move easily and give me height and a strong image when the rope moves with me, as I panic in the climatic section.

I feel that this is still a very rough idea and isn’t clear enough for an audience to comprehend; the set will also be quite difficult to construct.

     (Vimeo, 2016)

“This performance explores the mental spaces that open up during control exchange in human relationships” (Mai-Hudson.org, 2016)

Duration time- 7 weeks for 8 hours per day

The performance created great depth in accuracy and is portrayed as a neat image with precision. Despina created an enclosed space for the audience which helped with a closer connection by the way of strong focus that naturally will engage the audience.

This is what I felt I can take from it for the focus and precision to capture the audience. The controlling eternity of the piece was shown through the rope example of restriction. The mentality was shown for me through the slow and precise way of taking off the robe around her. This was shown through the video

The Video we watched has shown:

Performance had an idea of:

• Set of actions
• Methods use of meditation, discipline and restriction
• Experimental situations of control exchange
• What she played around with:
• Multiple functions of the gaze
• Mechanism for introspection
• Surveillance
• Recognition
• Communication

What I get from this and want to explore through my work:

• Restrain trapped
• Controlled
• Set free
• Independence

The slowness of removing the rope reminded me of the resistance of the anxiety and, stepping out of the comfort zone of insecurities and finding comfort in other people’s happiness and letting people do all the confidence for them, not being their true selves.

(Mai-Hudson.org, 2016)

Work Cited:

Mai-Hudson, (2016) Despina Zacharopoulou: Corner Time. [online] New York:  Mai-Hudson. Available from http://www.mai-hudson.org/durational-performances/2016/3/1/despina-zacharopoulou [Accessed 06 April 2016].

Nexus10 (2016) Corner time, Despina Zacharopoulou [online video] Available from https://vimeo.com/160467573 [accessed 6 April 2016].

I have an idea to look at the way that ‘self-help’ books try and encourage or discourage people to do certain things. I will put these in my development of performance and hopefully find a way of going against them. But, let me guess, you’re saying to yourself but that’s the purpose of these books to go against your lifestyle; now how can you go against something that is specifically developed for that function?

Well, I say, you can.

In a sense they are controlling you but in a way that you don’t know about.

Because they use this word a lot: ‘courage’

But why go tell people this is the particular or the right way of living?

The Independent has an Article called ‘The modern fix: Do self-help books really work?’ http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/the-modern-fix-do-self-help-books-really-work-7466554.html

“They all want us to understand how other people work. But you can’t understand how other people work because other people aren’t always comprehensible. And neither are you.”

I felt this quote was a good place to start as a stimulus for my project.

I feel this quote relates to me when I look at these books and when I try using them, half way going through one I just say to myself ‘FUCK it!” why am I letting someone tell me how to think, eat and practically breath. I live my life from rules I set not a £10.99 book that I volunteered to pay for and get from it a patronising dictatorship.

My feelings said by Julie Hall (businesswomen):

“There are people in life I called Dream Stealers,” she says, “people who don’t necessarily understand what you are trying to achieve. They can be difficult to ignore, but by picking up a self-help book, you can get back the power of your dreams and also your vision, and they can give you the courage and motivation to do whatever you want to do. They are my bibles.”

Like I said before, I have used one as a ‘bible’ and looked at some others briefly. My Bible was ‘The Secret’ by Rhonda Byrne and I thought it would make my life perfect. Alas, there is nothing that can be perfect, it’s a misconception. The Secret is being linked to the universe and that the universe can make you dreams come true just by asking it. The law of attraction.

Okay,

I am going to take that idea and run with it but what I will be running with is making my ‘universe’ which will be my performance. It’s as though what I want is miraculously going to come out of  no where.

This is my concept. Final.