Author and Project Manager:
Aleksandra Czarnecki Plaude
In 2011, Stockholm University of Dramatic Arts (StDH) was founded, which was a merger between the former Teaterhögskolan (TH) and Dramatiska Institutet (DI).
All of a sudden activities within theater, stageart, film and media took place under the same roof. Curiosity and need arose to explore new working methods for collaborations and co-creations.
After a long-term effort with “the body as an instrument” with the spotlight and focus on acting I was interested in exploring how my experience and practical knowledge of the actors physical skills could be “borrowed” and “translated” in encounters with several artistic disciplines both within and outside the stage area.
I wanted to try laboratory methods to explore new ways of gathering experience through collective actions. I wanted to explore how the physical skills could contribute to writing and co-creation in interdisciplinary encounters. I was on the lookout for building new bridges that would tie together the worlds of stage, film and media. I observed that the body as an instrument and physicalization of thought, not only is a vital and important skill for the actor, the dancer and the stage artist.
The body is present in all artistic activity that in some way relates to the story of man. But the thought of the body isn't necessarily the same as a bodily and embodied thought. This nuanced and problematized approach has resulted in the research project Bodily Observations – on the lookout for new physical skills that I conducted in 2013-2015.
The research questions were focused on physical competence and the search for working methods to investigate collective memory, the collection and archiving of knowledge via the body as an instrument but also the body as a source of knowledge for creativity.
The project and its documentation were made possible, among other things, thanks to the participation of students from the master’s program called Choirpain (Körvärk) – from Troy to Verdun (2014). During this year of work for professional artists from various professional fields, new methods have been tested and developed. The documentation aims to capture parts of this process.
Partners
Matilda Ebenstål Almeida, filmmaker, documentation 2014
Therese Dahlberg, actress, documentation during fall of 2013
The Master’s program I have been doing in close collaboration with former colleagues at StDH: Harald Stjerne (film- and media) and Tomas Mirstam (stageart).