DOC 3F by Christianna Tsigkou

DE-OBJECTIFYING SPACE

I work with ways of percieving the space as a living entity.

I invite the spectator to see and feel the breathing space

details and loops

I started looking at the space in microscale, inviting the spectator to see that they are so much more than a blank canvas. For me this practice was important to bring attention to the space as something more than just a container of human activity. By exposing this different view of the materials, I was able to invite the spectators to see a space with a more empathetic eye, to understand them as a body not very different to ours.

Experimenting with feedback loops, using cameras and projections I played with the idea of the space performing on their own. These loops needed to be activated by the human body, inviting the bodies (human and space) to engage in a performative act together.

In an attempt to invite more interaction and a feeling in the body of the spectators, I started exploring the sense of touch, creating a piece that was asking them to touch a wound in space, a scar (which is what I saw cracks on the wall as) and to feel it warm.

In these attempts I was using an approach where space was anthropomorphized, given human characteristics in order to evoke empathy and be seen as a fellow body.

Throughout this time I was mindful of the way that the spectators were invited in the spaces, it was important that their own bodies had to move at some point in space and I usually also performed as a character/facilitator in the experiences I experimented with. All these elements became parts of my methodology later on.

listening with the feet

During a 7-day workshop with Rachel Schuit we worked as a group with a series of body and movement exercises to open our senses.

While working with one of the exercises and feeling the space around me as an entity that's communicating with me, I had an experience which I could only describe as "listening with my feet". My soles became hyper sensitive to the materials they were coming in contact with. This was an experience I wanted to share with others, so I created an experiment for one spectator. Blindfolded, I would first touch them on their bodies and their feet and non-verbally invited them to rock their weight back and forth. Then I would take them by the hand, walk with them passed different ground materials, until we reached the soil. There I asked them to stop (without verbal communication) and I would gently put the weight of my body on them and on their feet.

What I was aiming at was to bring as much attention as possible to the feet of the spectator and to invite them to feel and appreciate more all the textures of the materials they step on.

During this workshop we also created and performed a ritualistic performance, that explored time and being bored, listening to what's there and embracing the natural elements.

THE MOMENT OF CONNECTION BETWEEN THE HUMAN BODY AND THE SPACE BODY

Starting from the human body and the space body as 2 different entities, I'm looking into what is that moment of connection that signifies the beginning of their engagement in a loop, where the 2 bodies are performing together, constantly feeding off each other's input.

What is needed to achieve that connection? To unlock the perception?

collecting time, traces and connections

I was concerned with how can the human body be invited into the space body and treat them as an equal performer.

By taking this "invitation" as an inspiration, I started paying attention to entrances of buildings. Since photograhy is not my medium of expression, I turned into something more tactile. I started collecting the traces of materials that can be found at the entrances of buildings. I first trusted my body, it felt like a gut feeling to fall on my knees and just repetedly move my pencil back and forth to reveal the texture of the material underneath on my paper.

After talking about this act and being asked many questions about the reasons or significance behind it I started realising that these paper traces where not the only thing I was collecting. In fact, the main collectable, was time itself. Time I spent in that entrance, in that passage, standing still, observing while myself being in a meditative state (repetitive movement, eyes fixed on paper).

During that time, I was also collecting connections. Me connecting with this space, the outside or the inside of the building, remembering other times I've been there while making this new memory, revealing the unseen details on the floor, a floor that so many others had stepped on, that have made their own memories with. But also me connecting with passers-by, with people that got interested in my action, that asked me questions about it, that started seeing the details and the beauty of the space.

levels of spectatorship

During my process of creating these experiences, I started categorizing the spectators in 3 main categories:

-1st level: Spectator-Participant

-2nd level: By-stander, passer-by (the space is activated due to an extraordinairy activity performed)

-3rd level: Maker-facilitator (conducting embodied research and observing actions and reactions)

collection and experience

After a few attemps to stage the collection of the traced materials on the papers, I decided to instead use the collection to inform a new work altogether. I started developing "Meditation Exercises in Space", an audio guided experience where the spectators were asked to come in physical touch with the floor of an entrance (a place that they know and have been to before) and evoke memories that connect them with this place. This was an attempt to extract my personal experience in the places I was collecting into a methodology, aiming at finding that moment of connection between the space body and the human body.

In Rotterdam

Following my methodology (spending time in one place and using my embodied knowledge to understand what I would like to stage, how I want the participants to be activated and what to take with them) and keeping in mind the political charge of the project, I worked in a place I felt drawn to. A place where many different elements of nature, infrastructure, commerce, wildlife and everyday suburban life come together. There I developed a performance, with a soundtrack (given in mp3 players to the participants) and a character. The attempt was to merge different timelines together, with interviews from fictional residents of the area, talking about the changes that were made and how they are living them. In the background, soundscapes recorded from my own hometown in Greece (which I saw changing in a few years) added an uncanny feeling.

In this piece I wanted to further explore audio as a tool, using fictional storytelling, my role as a performer in public space, what interactions that brought and play with absurdity, something I don't usually do in my work. It was also a good exercise on framing the spectator's attention.

SPACE-BODY AS A CO-PERFORMER WITH THE HUMAN BODY

Spectators are becoming-performers with the space, engaging in a performative action together, giving and taking.

?Body-space hybrid?

The presence of the human body in space (relations-connections)

?Immaterial qualities and how can they be "visible"?

Awareness of surrounding space

to explore further

-relationality

-body and performance (jacques lecoq, lorna marshall, miranda tufnell and chris cricknay

-embodied research

-haptics and proprioception

to keep in mind

braking away from visuals

the visuals are more important to the secondary spectator (activating the space in their eyes-something is happening in this space that they would not expect, so this space becomes something different than

just a...)

framing

directing the spectator

TIME

spend time in the space, live it (part of my methodology)

invite boredom and explore what happens after it

some of my current references

Pauline Oliveros - Deep Listening

-Composing with space

-Exercises on how to really listen to the surroundings

-Made her practice part of her life as well

Meredith Monk

-Body and architecture as instruments

-Exploring new ways of using the body

Bernhard Leitner

-Sound architecture

-Exploring the possibilities of sound and space as one entity

William Forsythe

-"By negotiating with the elements in space, you are already engaging in a choreography with them."

Janet Cardiff

-Inviting fiction storytelling that feels real in physical space

-Creating relations and merging timelines

Scenocosme

-Using interaction and technology to perform together with materials, plants, stones...

URLAND-The last chapters

-Using headphones and binaural microphone in a "traditional theatre" space to enhance storytelling experience

1st exercise (blackbox)

audio

can we co-create a symphony with the space?

who is listening - who is performing?

how to invite the body to listen to what is there already?

what kinds of spaces?

non-traditional performance spaces (or at least not treated as such)

non-places

transitory

known (or known in one way)

lived places

what I will be working on

series of exercises

touch

can we co-perform through our bodies coming in contact with the space?

how to prepare the body and how to come out of it?

elements I (want to) use

improvisation

active participation (for me means usually also body movement)

technology (to amplify, enhance, reveal, focus, frame)

meditation practices

body expression techniques

fiction storytelling

IN PROGRESS...

why blackbox? would it work better in the middle of our studio?

how to further the practice?

what happens to memory if we replay after 2 weeks?2 months? a year?

on an island

solo practicing of transferring one landscape to another

using the human body as a recording device

playing around with what is filtered and what can be amplified

overlapping soundscapes-overlapping landscapes

overlapping vs overlayering

group practice in 2 parts

transferring a landscape

jamming (to invite playfulness)

was the physical real-time place taken into account in the improvisation?

circular formation-what did it do? how to break it?

using recorder as a method for me to live mix, so that was my way of filtering/directing

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