Sojourning.

Wow! Long time no post. Some of this is that I haven't been doing much research this year or going to shows that brought up core issues in my research. Until! "On the Table" by Sojourn Theater.

I saw a preview last night and it touched on audience participation and the use of media in a performance. And of course, a bit of interweaving of the two.

This is going to be a sketch focussing on structure & strategies because that's what I'm interested in.

PARTICIPATION
- performers who came in and out of being themselves. They had layers of character: the "characters" the "self characters" and "conversation mediators" and then just them chatting with us at the table. They did a great job of moving between these and I think it allowed us a way to connect with them as people and then follow them into the performance. And boy is this shift between states a hard thing to do!

- invoking a conversation amongst audience members. Bridging the gap of place, which was a core message (that I loved!) I felt this gave audience members some dignity. The company trusted that we were capable of being a very real part of their show. The structure that was there didn't feel overly controlling. There were 3 moments of conversation: 1) on the bus w/ a cell phone 2) at the table, informal unstructured conversation 3) moderated conversation I'm wondering how much the company predicted that we would do what most people who don't know each other do: talk about where we're from! It fit so nicely into the overall structure of the show and probably would've happened *anyway*.

- travel. The simple act of going from one place to another is a bit of a contract. Familiar feelings of excitement at not knowing what was coming next, being a spectacle ourselves as Portland neighbors looked confused that there was a school bus turning down their street! Good stuff, complicated logistics that they pulled off really well. Another simple thing that is actually really HARD.


USE OF ELECTRONIC MEDIA
- the cell phones. Such a nice way to use electronics as a catalyst for participation *and* communication w/ people you don't know. Really got us excited to get to our next venue. Allowed us some unstructured time to talk to someone we didn't know. But it was hard to hear on the bus. Alas!

- video on the bus. This was the only part that failed. And of course, I'm picky! But it was simple: school busses are noisy and have high seats. Add to that, the windows were open! And they expected us to watch and listen to a video that I'm sure they spent hours and hours perfecting. Couldn't hear anything. Couldn't read the subtitles on the "important" bits. The awesome part of the video: at first we thought we were watching a live feed from the bus leaving Molalla. That was really exciting. I was waiting for the camera to cut to a shot of the folks on the bus that we were about to meet. Technically this would've been really HARD too. And technologically, they ran into the issue of the video not working on the other bus. They could've left it at the cell phones. OR simply videotaped the journey from our respective locations to Oregon City and shown it to the other bus w/ a nice soundtrack. That would've connected us, taught us something, and been super simple to shoot.

- Lena's favorite effect: Juxtaposing live & recorded. That early part of the video that was street shots from Molalla? It created that lovely spot where space collapsed and I was simultaneously processing the real life Portland that we were traveling through and the recorded Molalla. I felt that old familiar sense: after initial disorientation I was much more keenly aware of my surroundings and was looking at familiar parts of Portland through new eyes. This phenomenon fits beautifully into the premise of place.

OK. Time for coffee and breakfast. Needed to get down notes while they were fresh in my head.

The state of my practice. August 2009.

State the problem in words as clearly as possible

The past 6 months have given me a bunch of nuggets to consider moving forward with my practice. They've come through informal and formal talks with other artists, attending local performances, a performance opportunity accepted and one turned down, receiving my first grant, reconnecting with dorkbot.

Let's do this in order listed above. Can I boil down to 1-2 sentences? It's an oblique strategy, so I'll try and not cry if I babble:

1) informal talks w/ other artists: Artists in Portland like to chat over coffee, food, booze, whatever. I've been inspired by the artists I've met who aren't afraid to do the work that is involved if you are serious about having a long-term, sustainable practice.

2) formal talks w/ other artists: ISEA2009 in Belfast introduced me to many artists who are hungry for an opportunity to discuss their practice with others. It's high time that we insist on reconfiguring the professional conference/symposium structure so that we can share our experiences and ideas during the short time we have together. The big theme from participatory practices was about control.

3) attending shows in Portland: There are some really talented artists in Portland. Their work stands up to the globally respected artists I have seen elsewhere. I find alot of what I've seen more interesting and more fully considered, actually. This one is linked to no.1

4) accepted performance opportunity: at YogaShala in June. Was fantastic to start thinking about how to involve other artists in my work. Also, how it can work when the elements of audio, video, and live acts are more fragmented or disperse.

5) turned down performance opp: Manor of Art at Milepost 5 was an amazing show and inspiring to have such a large dedicated space to the arts. It would have depressed me to work in a former nursing home! and my work needed some incubation and evolution time before I show it again.

6) grant received: for professional development conference travel. Encouraging to get support from local arts agency so early in my life in Portland, and the conference surpassed my expectations as far as connecting with possible opportunities to present, collaborate on new projects, and hopefully bring international artists doing sympathetic work to Portland.

7) dorkbot presentation & meetings: I need to work on my presentation skills! But the playful supportive environment of dorkbot is breathing new life into my interest in converting my tool into an open source platform. Work on this has already started, maybe I can have something running by end of year? Exciting thought.