We created our Blog to pinpoint our ideas, using it as a virtual forum to develop our research. Primarily, we looked into the idea of creating fake identities on facebook as a means of performance, to collect friends and design the perfect concept of ‘cool’.
From here, our ideas advanced into a new ensemble piece utilising different medias, displaying alternate ways of presentation and the presentation of self. This spanned from an article found in popular women’s magazine ‘Glamour’. The said article explored the number of different ‘women inside your head’ following the text, a self discovery test allows you to find out how many voices you have. We both took the test, Victoria having less ‘voices’ than Chloe indicating that Chloe has several types of ‘women’ to help her cope with arising issues whereas Vikki has less, yet is more in control with hers, staging them all equally.
We decided to create a short multi-media film about Vikki’s’ everyday alter-egos, this was based on a number of social situations including, at home around the dinner table, intoxicated with peers, at work with customers, by ones’ self and in rehearsal. Using Vikki, we could display all those women inside of her igniting several alter egos that are shown in her everyday life.
We wanted our practical project to serve more or less as a documentary detailing sociological perspective from which social life and the performative-ness of it can be observed.
Our aim was to create a practical which was both theatrical but also virtual that encompasses real life of today and how we live in a nation that forces us to perform or else.
Baz Kershaw (1999) suggests that ‘Widespread changes in the processes of the social...are producing what I call the performative society. How individuals fare in the competition between life-styles or the struggle for survival depends increasingly on their ability to 'perform'. Hence late capitalist multi-party democracies produce societies in which performance pervades cultural process.’
The way in which we have created the real life is by forming a case study so we can look at to what extent the individual ‘Victoria’ in her ordinary working situation conducts herself and her interactions with others, the way in which she controls and or possibly manipulates the impression people form of her, the way that she ultimately reacts, responds and does so whilst sustaining this ‘performative’ interactive performance. The two questions of interest we establish were; the first being, does life still represent what is real or something that is well rehearsed? And the second being; is the individual presenting themselves in the form of a disguise, constantly playing a role, character, who society wants them to be or anything but who they are?
The reason we essentially wanted to make a multi-media video is because when researching into Philip Auslander and the subject of Liveness we realised that the status of live performance is slowly yet surely diminishing due to our culture being dominated by mass media. If the only way to reach our audience was through media and the use of screen that was to us therefore the most suitable method in which to conduct our practice.
It is totally natural that when an individual enters the presence of others they commonly seek to acquire information about him or her or to bring into play information about them already possessed. As Kenneth J. Gergen discusses, ‘In determining the self that we present, the environment in which the encounter takes place is as important as others’ identities. We are not likely to identify ourselves in the same way at a formal dance as we do in a pool hall, regardless of who is present’. In our online age- this extends to interactive social environments including instant messaging, facebooking, myspacing and office emails. In each circumstance every individual is guilty of presenting themselves in a different way. However, western culture generally condemns those whose public face differs from their private conception of self.
It is clear that when an individual plays a part he/she implicitly requests his/her audience to take seriously, the impression that is fostered before them. The observer is asked to believe that the character they see actually possess the attributes he/she appears to possess, for example, even though he is fictional, consider the alter egos of Clarke Kent and Superman, they are both the same person but with what seems like different characteristic and personality traits.
Our approach was based on the influence of theorist Sigmund Freud as he was the original observer of human conduct. The notion of psychoanalysis ‘being a system of intellectual constructions, becomes something that generally concern others, but not the reader himself.’
Freud brought to light that we scientifically develop an id (inner desire) as we are not born one which is responsible for our basic drives, like food, sex and our aggressive impulses. From there we then use our ego which meets the needs of the id and is primary based on the reality principle, followed by the super ego which tells us the rights and wrongs of a situation and is the morale part of us.
We wanted to form a multi-media performance piece that combined and introduced a range of interdisciplinary practices by using new media's to show how we live in a performative society that involves us displaying a multitude of alter ego and adapting personality traits in everyday life. By doing this we required the outcome of our project to show that (as the test we are going to make our audience do, will explain) we have many alter-egos and characteristics not just to survive in this ‘dog eat dog’ media driven culture but to merely embody these characteristics in order to cope with different circumstances and situations in life. Therefore one believes that we are neither performing nor frauding ourselves.
Thursday 17 January 2008
conclusion on performance
By looking ata range of theatre practitioners and thetare group such as Forced entertainment and Elizabeth le compte it opened up our eyes to a worldd of perfromance we would create via the web and television, radio and media.
Our perfromance I feel was suceessful, eventhough our audience was small it still carried out what we wanted it to do be cause our project is personal it involves and asks people to question who they are and whther they are frauding themselves of not.
The feedback on the day we recieved was that they understood why we did our performance in the form we did, they felt utterly distracted by having so many things happening at once, this is how some of us feel about the virtual world, this is defintely how i felt about colliding theatre and the virtual. However i overcame and confronted this fear and confusion with both the module and the creating of our perfromance.
Our perfromance I feel was suceessful, eventhough our audience was small it still carried out what we wanted it to do be cause our project is personal it involves and asks people to question who they are and whther they are frauding themselves of not.
The feedback on the day we recieved was that they understood why we did our performance in the form we did, they felt utterly distracted by having so many things happening at once, this is how some of us feel about the virtual world, this is defintely how i felt about colliding theatre and the virtual. However i overcame and confronted this fear and confusion with both the module and the creating of our perfromance.
The project, filming , editing and design
We had divide up the roles of the project and had our ide and how we were going to form it so it was the fun bit now- actually creating and developing our piece.
Over our Christmas break I was to film me out with my friends and my family and when i returned back to Uni I filmed me in rehearsals, in class talking to peers of mixed gender - so that we had a wealth of material that chloe could look at, edit and pull together to make our perfromance or fraud video. Whilst she was working on the editing of the video i helped look for the audio with her on youtube so once again we had an unlimited chose to chose from so our peform could really communicate what we were trying to express about living in a performative society and feeling the pressure to perform.
Once that was over with I then created the slide show, whilst chloe photo copied and organised the live practical actvity of how many voices we have in our head we then came together and wrote our manifesto collaborative which you can read above.
This project has challenged me because i have never before interacted with media nad created such a piece where it is my ressponsiblity to film and deliever a range of material for it then to be structured and created into an visual watchable piece.
Over our Christmas break I was to film me out with my friends and my family and when i returned back to Uni I filmed me in rehearsals, in class talking to peers of mixed gender - so that we had a wealth of material that chloe could look at, edit and pull together to make our perfromance or fraud video. Whilst she was working on the editing of the video i helped look for the audio with her on youtube so once again we had an unlimited chose to chose from so our peform could really communicate what we were trying to express about living in a performative society and feeling the pressure to perform.
Once that was over with I then created the slide show, whilst chloe photo copied and organised the live practical actvity of how many voices we have in our head we then came together and wrote our manifesto collaborative which you can read above.
This project has challenged me because i have never before interacted with media nad created such a piece where it is my ressponsiblity to film and deliever a range of material for it then to be structured and created into an visual watchable piece.
idea, concept and form- STORY BOARD
"Our story board"
For our case study;
1) Around Friends
2) Around Family
3) At work - RETAIL THEATRE
4) At Uni - classes, library, student life.
5) Performing - Rehearsals
6) Time alone
7) with different genders
8)interaction with media, telephone voice - elaborate upon, internet.
IDEAS
our ideas was initally to show how you can can fraud yourselve - the way in which you are training to say certain thing we were going to make a kind of retail theatre, as I had noticed a post at work that said "smile your about to go on stage"- this made em think are they hiring normal everyday people to work for them or are they hiring people, this forces the concept of perfrom or else by Baz Kershaw.
How when chloe and I work at resturant we feel like we are perfroming because in the kitchen its very similar to how manic a dressing room is, quick changes, being shouted at by your chef e.g director!
and having to walk through the kitchen onto the resturant STAGE with a smile and deliever.
This then forward onto whoa re we really? we wanted to create a myspace or facebook page of a person and to represent COOL from having previously looked at it to see how many friends we would gain. By we then finalised on the the decsion of using me as the case study and looking at me in ddifferent situation to see whther goffman was right that we change and perfrom in different situations andaround different people. We then futhered this by looking at my alter ego to establish who and why i am this person.
I carried how a test that said how many women do you have inside your head i have 7 and 10 is the most womeen so this shows that I have than average to deal with different circumstances.
The form
We wanted to create this impact of media being all around use so we decide to take the approach of using media in our piece mixed with an interactive live activity for our audience to take apart in. We want them to find out how many voices they had in their head whilst distracting them by showing them individually on their computer screen a side show created by me on my alter ego, demonstrating me with pictures in different circumstances we then futhered by creating a video that we were also going to show them of me in everyday life so they could make up their minds if and when i am performing.
To sustain the idea of training a person to perform and self help advice to become the true you we aimed to create an audio commentary which had the backing track who are you, by The Who and audio taken from You tube videos bout people frauding themselves, as then the audience are visually witnessing me changing to different personas and listening to why we fraud our selves everyday- is it truely fraud?
Roles
Me - case study actress, filmer and slide show creator
Chloe - editor of film and audio, organiser of project, cheif researcher.
For our case study;
1) Around Friends
2) Around Family
3) At work - RETAIL THEATRE
4) At Uni - classes, library, student life.
5) Performing - Rehearsals
6) Time alone
7) with different genders
8)interaction with media, telephone voice - elaborate upon, internet.
IDEAS
our ideas was initally to show how you can can fraud yourselve - the way in which you are training to say certain thing we were going to make a kind of retail theatre, as I had noticed a post at work that said "smile your about to go on stage"- this made em think are they hiring normal everyday people to work for them or are they hiring people, this forces the concept of perfrom or else by Baz Kershaw.
How when chloe and I work at resturant we feel like we are perfroming because in the kitchen its very similar to how manic a dressing room is, quick changes, being shouted at by your chef e.g director!
and having to walk through the kitchen onto the resturant STAGE with a smile and deliever.
This then forward onto whoa re we really? we wanted to create a myspace or facebook page of a person and to represent COOL from having previously looked at it to see how many friends we would gain. By we then finalised on the the decsion of using me as the case study and looking at me in ddifferent situation to see whther goffman was right that we change and perfrom in different situations andaround different people. We then futhered this by looking at my alter ego to establish who and why i am this person.
I carried how a test that said how many women do you have inside your head i have 7 and 10 is the most womeen so this shows that I have than average to deal with different circumstances.
The form
We wanted to create this impact of media being all around use so we decide to take the approach of using media in our piece mixed with an interactive live activity for our audience to take apart in. We want them to find out how many voices they had in their head whilst distracting them by showing them individually on their computer screen a side show created by me on my alter ego, demonstrating me with pictures in different circumstances we then futhered by creating a video that we were also going to show them of me in everyday life so they could make up their minds if and when i am performing.
To sustain the idea of training a person to perform and self help advice to become the true you we aimed to create an audio commentary which had the backing track who are you, by The Who and audio taken from You tube videos bout people frauding themselves, as then the audience are visually witnessing me changing to different personas and listening to why we fraud our selves everyday- is it truely fraud?
Roles
Me - case study actress, filmer and slide show creator
Chloe - editor of film and audio, organiser of project, cheif researcher.
Self presentation
Was the focus for mine and chloes virtuality and perfromance piece.
Our pratical production was called 'performance or fraud' which evolved from thinking about living in a performative society and how we are are foced to perfrom or else! are we frauding ourselves by perfroming and being someone else every day who are we really?
Our main influence was Erving Goffman who said that "In real life , the three parties (the player, the othercharacter and audience) are compressed into two; the part one individualplays is tailored to the parts played by the others present, and yet these other also consistute the audience"
He talks in this book the presentation of self in everyday life about how we present ourselves and how we interact with others depending on who we are with, what sitution we are in and what we are doing.
ARE YOU FRAUDING YOURSELF?
A little treat have a listen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgQqnzdVqJk
Our pratical production was called 'performance or fraud' which evolved from thinking about living in a performative society and how we are are foced to perfrom or else! are we frauding ourselves by perfroming and being someone else every day who are we really?
Our main influence was Erving Goffman who said that "In real life , the three parties (the player, the othercharacter and audience) are compressed into two; the part one individualplays is tailored to the parts played by the others present, and yet these other also consistute the audience"
He talks in this book the presentation of self in everyday life about how we present ourselves and how we interact with others depending on who we are with, what sitution we are in and what we are doing.
ARE YOU FRAUDING YOURSELF?
A little treat have a listen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgQqnzdVqJk
The Essay-Can Theatre compete with other forms of media in the digital age?
I felt whilst researching into my essay subject and writting about the topic that for the first time on this virtuality and perfromance module that I really coonceted with the mater of Virtuality happening in theatres and its relevance to contemporary perfromances.
My question was 'Can Theatre compete with other forms of media in the digital age? Should it try? Discuss with reference to the work of contemporary theatre practitioners engaged with ‘intermedial’ work'.
My conclusion was that It is important to remember that drama is a multitude of form, thus plays an important part in the output of media as long as theatre decides to embrace technologies and multi-media practices within its work it should stand the test of time, theatre has to change with its era it is living in and this particular period of race is a high speed information dispersal world with a mesh of communication networks.
Within this essay I was allowed to explore futher into LIVENESS by philip Auslander who proclaims that 'live performance is identified with intimacy and disappearance, media with a mass audience, reproduction, and repetition'.
By seeing Complex which was a two piece perfromance of Electra which used multi-media and the oedipus, it gave me a real insight into theatre that uses multi-media to enhance the narractive and contribute to the overall stage picture and into a theatre production that used no effects and was JUST live perfromance. In all honestly having seen both i most defintely favoured Electra because the live feed images happening on the four television screens located downstage, left and right and centre stage left and right captured my attention as they kept changing colour from black and white to colour reflecting how television has advanced and creating a familiar but intimidating effect as it showed a slice of life and an overtly world view.
My question was 'Can Theatre compete with other forms of media in the digital age? Should it try? Discuss with reference to the work of contemporary theatre practitioners engaged with ‘intermedial’ work'.
My conclusion was that It is important to remember that drama is a multitude of form, thus plays an important part in the output of media as long as theatre decides to embrace technologies and multi-media practices within its work it should stand the test of time, theatre has to change with its era it is living in and this particular period of race is a high speed information dispersal world with a mesh of communication networks.
Within this essay I was allowed to explore futher into LIVENESS by philip Auslander who proclaims that 'live performance is identified with intimacy and disappearance, media with a mass audience, reproduction, and repetition'.
By seeing Complex which was a two piece perfromance of Electra which used multi-media and the oedipus, it gave me a real insight into theatre that uses multi-media to enhance the narractive and contribute to the overall stage picture and into a theatre production that used no effects and was JUST live perfromance. In all honestly having seen both i most defintely favoured Electra because the live feed images happening on the four television screens located downstage, left and right and centre stage left and right captured my attention as they kept changing colour from black and white to colour reflecting how television has advanced and creating a familiar but intimidating effect as it showed a slice of life and an overtly world view.
DISNEY ON BROADWAY !
who is excited about The little mermaid coming to BROADWAY!! ....me.
I absolutely adore Musicals, I am most probably one of the biggest Musical Theatre Fans in the world. Im currrntly in West side story at Bath Spa university at the moment playing a Shark Girl, However I would absolutely love to be playing a disney princess on the West End. Come on every girl whats to be a princess!!
check out the web site with all the info on disney musicals;
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