Advisor Meeting Report 1 - Autumn Semester

Studio Advisor - Laura Gonzales
Meeting date & time - Wednesday Sept 24 2014. 10am EST (3pm GMT) - 11am EST
Method - Skype


I found this initial meeting with Laura to be very positive and stimulating.
It helped me to focus my thoughts and ideas going into the beginning of the semester and to confirm the plans I had as being appropriate for accomplishing my goals during this period.

Laura's initial concerns were in regards to the planning of my workshop series.
Firstly, that I had been able to secure a venue and a group of "guinea pig" students.
Fortunately I was able to confirm this as positive. Asheville Contemporary Dance Theatre company have very kindly volunteered themselves to go through this process with me as their company project this season. I have them for eight weekly workshop sessions during their company rehearsal time on Sundays at 4.30 - 7pm.
Laura's next question was in regards to what I was going to do with them.
I have a series of Physical Exercises, Creative Exercises and Work-development Assignments planned, as well as journaling and discussion time during the workshops for students to articulate their experiences and give feedback with their opinions as to the effectiveness of the exercises.

Laura suggested I begin to formulate a written Syllabus. She advised researching other well-established performance-based syllabi of a wide variety (for example Suzuki Method). Also those of University performance programs (Dance and Theater departments), teachers who already have created a syllabus for Performance Art and any other performance-based programs that look interesting to me.

She also suggested some specific reading: 
Nancy Stark-Smith and her "Global Underscore" - an improvisational dancer who has developed and written about methods of in-depth exploration of the body in movement.
Natalie Goldberg "The True Secret of Writing" and "Writing Down the Bones" - for her process of writing and journaling about experiences.
And John Cage's list of "10 Rules for Students and Teachers".

We also discussed how a pedagogical method might be possible to be communicated remotely. Would it be possible to learn these methods via video? for example - or even just through written instruction. 
I will be creating an accompanying blog series of solo video demonstrations and written descriptions of the exercises.

A point that Laura made that was extremely pertinent was to pick up on the fact that the title of my project is "The Process and Praxis of Constructing the SELF as Medium".
Emphasizing the fact that I had chosen the total idea of "self" - rather than just the "body".
This brought to my attention many issues and ideas that I now want to explore and define more deeply.

Journal Entry - September 26 2014

I have some very good news!

I'm excited (& relieved) to have so easily & quickly found a perfect group of students for my workshop series.

ACDT - Asheville Contemporary Dance Theatre - http://www.acdt.org/
is a long-established company based here in Asheville NC who I have a working history with since 1999.
I approached directors Susan & Giles Collard with my "Seeking Volunteers" proposal (see previous blog entry dated 9.4.14) with extremely positive results .... 
It just so happens that this Autumn Season the company does not have any new project they are developing - so they have invited me to come & present my workshop sessions as their company project during their regular rehearsal time every Sunday at 4.30 - 7pm over the next eight weeks.
I'm thrilled about this!
I went to present an introductory session last week & the company members are all enthusiastic about being "guinea pigs" for my experiment! They feel that they will benefit as artists from the process & are looking forward to learning more about Performance Art.

In conjunction with the workshop session follow-up blogs (which will consist of a series of regular journal entries plus documentation of the workshops) - I am also creating a series of solo video sketches to demonstrate my physical exercises. Each one will be accompanied by a written description of the exercise & a statement of intention about it's purpose.


Reading:
I have now ordered & received seven books that I will be reading through this semester.
Richard Schechner - Performance Studies: An Introduction (2013)
RoseLee Goldberg - Performance Art: From Futurism To The Present (2011)
RoseLee Goldberg - Performance: Live Art Since 1960 (1998)
RoseLee Goldberg with Defne Ayas - Performa (2007)
Michael Huxley / Noel Witts - The Twentieth-Century Performance Reader (2002)
Guillermo Gomez Pena / Roberto Sifuentes - Exercises For Rebel Artists: Radical Performance Pedagogy (2011)
Nathan Stucky / Cynthia Wimmer - Teaching Performance Studies (2002)


Advisor Meeting:
I had my first Studio Advisor meeting with Laura Gonzales this Wednesday morning via Skype. This was very stimulating & really helped me to get focused into beginning the semester. I will write a full blog report on this soon.

Seeking volunteers - recruiting "guinea pig" students for Performance Art workshops .......

An Invitation to Participate in the Development of a New Performance Art Curriculum.

HELP! …. I need a group of willing victims for my MFA experiment!

Who: 
Claire Elizabeth Barratt – performance artist & candidate for an MFA in Creative Practice through the Transart Institute.

What: 

For my MFA project, I am developing a pedagogy for the practice of Performance Art to be integrated into a comprehensive teaching curriculum.

How: 

To begin this process, I need to establish a series of workshop sessions in which my methods can be explored within a synergetic environment.

Why: 

As this creative practice is pedagogical, it cannot be developed in isolation but depends upon the responses of students for continuous assessment.

Here is some more information about the components of this project:

About me - http://cebhomepage.blogspot.com/ 
Claire Elizabeth Barratt is an inter-disciplinary artist with a performing arts background. She is the director of “Cilla Vee Life Arts” – an arts organization with a focus on cross-media collaboration. Her work utilizes artistic disciplines of dance, music, text, media, visual and installation art. 

About Transart - http://www.transart.org/ 
Transart Institute is a student-centered postgraduate art program, which fosters independent thinking, risk-taking and the creation of an informed and sustainable art praxis.
Academic programming is managed and delivered by Transart Institute (TI) in partnership with the School of Art & Media in the Faculty of Arts, Plymouth University (PU), UK. The program operates within the Plymouth University’s standard regulations for postgraduate programs: 
About the MFA program -
Transart Institute offers an international, low-residency MFA program for working artists in a highly individualized format.
Students create their own course of study realizing individual art and research projects with the support of faculty and artist studio advisors.
There are annual intensive residencies in Berlin and New York. 

About this project - http://transartcebtransart.blogspot.com/2014/08/further-developments-on-first-year.html 
“The Process and Praxis of Constructing the Self as Medium”
a practical pedagogy for the practice of Performance Art 

To develop a pedagogy in which my methods of training, preparation and execution can be integrated into a curriculum for the practice of Performance Art. 
Acceptance letter from TI - https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4cHBYnXHpXzT1ZsUjVubVpoQVU/edit?usp=sharing

How I propose to engage volunteers: 

I will ask volunteers to commit to minimum of twelve hours workshop time (to be divided into weekly sessions or one intensive weekend)

I will guide participants through a series of physical & creative exercises while receiving continuous feedback about their experiences.

I will follow through with further exploration based on these discussions.

Our goal is to formulate effective methods of accessing the body’s potential for creative engagement as well as the mind’s capacity for innovation.

We will look at key figures in the history of performance art & discuss their work.
I want to create a dialogue with students about what they find most notable, interesting, relevant, inspiring about these artists.

Participants will be given assignments with a view to creating their own work.
We will review this process and develop constructive modes of exchanging ideas to further the work-in-progress.
An opportunity to present these works will be provided. 

This study has received approval through a PLYMOUTH UNIVERSITY APPLICATION FOR ETHICAL APPROVAL OF RESEARCH or PROJECTS INVOLVING HUMAN PARTICIPANTS: For Students on BA, MA, MFA and MRes Programmes. 
Workshop participants will be asked to sign an agreement to include:
An understanding of the goals of the project.
A willingness to participate.
The right to withdraw.
An agreement to a strict code of safety ethics.
A specific of which conditions confidentiality is requested or consent is given
(eg. The use of name, quotes, image etc)