Claire Elizabeth Barratt – MFA 2
Project Outline
Cut along dotted line & arrange in order of preference:
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Self as medium for art in performance.
Raw Materials of Self – body & psyche.
Define what constitutes Self in this context.
Define Raw in this context.
What is my ART?
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I transform in order to become.
How do I define transformation in this context?
To become what?
Why is transformation necessary?
(transformation – for the purpose of)
I am transformed by becoming.
The altering experience of becoming (other) transforms me.
(transformation – as a result of)
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What is the relationship of the raw materials of Self to other raw
materials?
They are collaborators – authors.
They invite me to respond – the invitation is specific – the task
is specific.
Task translates into gesture – gesture becomes new material.
Task may alter original material (material is transformed)
I take role of catalyst.
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Raw Material’s invitation may require me to surrender – to
melding.
A transmutation.
Self into Nature.
Female form / Nature form.
Classic Mythology.
Classic Romanticism.
Blatant Essentialism?
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Material Culture.
My own personal material culture – (the new essentialism?)
Material culture gives information:
What materials were available?
Which materials were chosen for use?
Which materials were assigned to what use?
For:
Practical purposes
Aesthetic purposes
Spiritual / Ritual purposes
Personal / Intimate purposes
Entertainment purposes
Political purposes
Educational purposes
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Pedagogy.
Bring this experiment back to its origin.
Tools for learning & creating.
Exploration & discovery
Experiment & result
Practice as research
Research for information
Information is learning
Learning & application = praxis
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Who/what am I looking at?
(artistic, literary, philosophical, cultural, historic sources)
What am I looking for?
Ideas of:
(definitions of) Self (in the context of)
(Raw) Materials
Environmental interaction (nature)
Transformation
Maya Deren, Ana Mendieta, Carolee Schneeman, Hannah Wilke,
Francesca Woodman, La Ribot, Isadora Duncan, Rudolf Von Laban - German
Expressionist dance, Pina Bausch, Ted Shawn - Jacobs pillow, Black Mountain
College,
Kazuo Ohno, Tatsumi Hijikata - Butoh dance,
Anselm Kiefer, Bill Viola, herman de vries,
The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, Ovid’s Metamorphoses,
post-Freudian theories of analysis, histories of
Self-in-relation-to-World,
material culture, cultures of altered states of consciousness
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Claire Elizabeth Barratt – MFA 2
INTRODUCTION
Ramblings on the subject of TRANSFORMATION:
I have a cup of tea – I am transformed
I go for a walk – I am transformed
I drink some wine – I am transformed
I do some sit-ups – I am transformed
I watch a movie – I am transformed
I … this could go on forever ……
- Perhaps not on any huge, significant, life-changing
scale, but a transformation none-the-less. I am different than I was before.
Even on the tiniest level of material
structure there is rampant transformation occurring every fraction of a second.
Neutrinos dash about, subatomic particles collide and annihilate each other.
This is Life. This is Spirit. Even inside the molecules of the coldest,
hardest, most motionless rock.
Art was born from transformed state of human
consciousness – from trance, from hallucination. In desire to communicate their
visions, they transformed raw materials into mark making mediums to create
colour and form on cave walls.
Transformation is a continuous, unstoppable
flow of progression – even in decay.
As an artist I transform in performance. I
transform in order to perform and I am transformed by the act of performance.
My raw materials are those of the Self – the body and psyche. My project is
“RAW-(Material)”.
Project Description:
The Raw Material series is the second stage
of the project:
“The Process and Praxis of Constructing the
Self as Medium”
The project examines the properties of the
Self as Raw Material and explores a practice in which the Self “transforms”
within the act of performance.
My enquiry is two-fold:
“What constitutes the Self as medium for
art?” – and –
“How does the Self transform for and via the
process and praxis of performance?”
Stage one of the project was to develop a
“practical pedagogy” for performance art – one that could provide an unbiased
substructure on which to explore and create.
A method was generated through a series of
synergetic workshops and then tested and proved in a real/virtual time/space
duality situation: “The Performance Anxiety Workshop Experiment”: http://claireebarratt.wix.com/performanceanxiety
My “quest” for the second stage of the
project has been to apply this pedagogy on myself – to become my own student.
Using the Self to go beyond the Self.
This is a concept that is universally
recognized, most often in terms of self-improvement.
In athletics or in intellectual pursuits, the
body and mind are employed as the tools to better themselves. Here, I am
addressing the capabilities of Self for the purpose of transformation /
metamorphosis / transcendence and creation in the art of performance.
It is from this position I am addressing the
Body and Psyche – as the Raw Materials of the Self – and the Self as medium for
art in performance.
I am also addressing the Raw Materials in the
environment around me – of nature.
All raw material has the potential to
transform, to become medium with which to create. It is in this capacity I am
addressing both Self & Nature.
My process is taking the form of a one-year
journal.
Journal entries are created in text, video,
still image and sound recording.
They present a complete cycle of the seasons
– beginning in summer.
They fall into two main categories, which I
am calling “Body Studies” and “Nature Specimens”.
- Body Studies examines the raw material of
the Self in self-exploration. It is a series of studio recordings that
catalogue actions of the body.
- Nature Specimens is an engagement in a kind
of “personal material culture” – the raw materials of nature – specifically the
seasonal aspects that lend themselves to a sense of temporality and an urgency
to capture and interact with them during the time they are present.
This engagement of the Raw Materials of the
Self with the Raw Materials of Nature produces a response from Self that can
then be taken back into the studio and integrated into Body Studies. The
resulting gestures and sounds can be catalogued as motifs to build a repertoire
of “ingredients” – components for further use in composition.
During this one-year project period, I have
chosen to maintain a “neutral” appearance within the work. To appear as “nude”,
considering the implications of the environment and what is appropriate. In
some journal entries this calls for literal nudity. In others, a “second skin”
such as a body stocking. While other environments call for more pedestrian
attire – yet always in neutral skin-tones.
At the beginning of the project I shaved my
hair as an initiation ritual. I will not cut or colour it for one complete year
– allowing it to serve as a marker of time.
All this is in keeping with the concept of
the Raw Material of the Self.
Dissemination of the project is multi-faceted
and includes:
Live Performance
Workshop
Multi-media Installation
Video Screening
Claire Elizabeth Barratt – MFA 2 - Research
Bibliography – annotated
The Senses in Performance
Sally Banes & Andre Lepeki
Banes,
Sally, and André Lepecki. The Senses in
Performance. New York: Routledge, 2007. Print.
An anthology
of articles by performance practitioners and philosophers on the role of the
senses in performance as theater, ritual and sensory experience.
What the Body Cost
Jane Blocker
Blocker,
Jane. What the Body Cost: Desire,
History, and Performance. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota, 2004. Print.
Blocker
probes deeper into the effects of and reactions to performance in the wake of
postmodern discourse.
On Edge
Cynthia Carr
Carr, C. On Edge: Performance at the End of the
Twentieth Century. Hanover, NH: Wesleyan UP, 1993. Print.
Cynthia Carr writes from her perspective as a downtown New
York journalist during a relatively recent time of great progression and
progressiveness in the arts. The book includes a host of key contributing
artists. A “hands-on” description, a voice from the “front lines”.
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
Mihaly Csikszentimihalyi
Csikszentmihalyi,
Mihaly. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal
Experience. New York: Harper Perennial, 2008. Print.
A
psychological assessment of the human capacity to become completely absorbed in
a task and maintain an extended state of heightened functionality.
How Do you Make yourself A Body Without Organs?
Deleuze / Guattari
Deleuze,
Gilles, and Félix Guattari. "How Do You Make Yourself A Body Without
Organs?" A Thousand Plateaus:
Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota, 1987. N. pag.
Print.
A philosophical thought experiment based on a
concept by Antonin Artaud.
Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti
Maya Deren
Deren, Maya.
Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti.
New Paltz, NY: McPherson, 1983. Print.
Maya Deren’s
account of her experiences in Haiti when on an expedition to film and document
the Voudou practices and culture.
Writing Down the Bones
Natalie Goldberg
Goldberg,
Natalie. Writing down the Bones.
Boston, MA: Shambhala, 2010. Print.
Natalie Goldberg’s
suggestions and anecdotes on how to go about journaling using one’s authentic
voice in writing.
Body Art / Performing the Subject
Amelia Jones
Jones,
Amelia. Body Art/performing the Subject.
Minneapolis: U of Minnesota, 1998. Print.
American writer, curator and teacher Amelia Jones offers a
postmodern view of body art – of art made with the body. She discusses artists
working with the body from the 1960s through the 90s. A philosophical tool for
the contemplation of “the body” as subjective medium for art.
Caught Falling
Nancy Stark Smith
Koteen,
David, and Nancy Stark. Smith. Caught
Falling: The Confluence of Contact Improvisation, Nancy Stark Smith, and Other
Moving Ideas. Northampton, MA: Distributed by Contact Editions, 2008. Print.
American choreographer Nancy Stark-Smith discusses her
“Underscore” method of movement improvisation, as well as stories and anecdotes
from her life and work. An inspirational tool for methods of approaching the
body in motion.
Freeing the Natural Voice
Kristin Linklater
Linklater,
Kristin. Freeing the Natural Voice:
Imagery and Art in the Practice of Voice and Language. Hollywood, CA: Drama
Pub., 2006. Print.
A practical
instruction book for students and teachers of voice as it pertains to
theatrical performance. Linklater guides the reader through a progression of
exercises designed to free the voice from strains and constrictions.
Always more Than One: Individual’s Dance
Erin Manning
Manning,
Erin. Always More Than One: Individual’s
Dance. Durham, NC: Duke UP, 2013. Print.
Coming from
a dance / choreographic perspective, Manning discusses the psychology of a type
of autistic perception where an environment gradually takes form.
Subjectivity: Theories of the Self
Nick Mansfield
Mansfield,
Nick. Subjectivity: Theories of the Self
from Freud to Haraway. New York: New York UP, 2000. Print.
A
contemporary history of philosophies regarding what constitutes self, identity
and the individual.
Kazuo Ohno’s World: from without and within
Kazuo Ohno / Yoshito Ohno
Ohno, Kazuo
and Yoshito. Kazuo Ohno’s World: from
without and within. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan, 2004. Print.
The words of
Butoh dance pioneer Kazuo Ohno, and his son and artistic collaborator Yoshito,
in interview, workshop and conversation.
Unmarked: The Politics of Performance
Peggy Phelan
Phelan,
Peggy. Unmarked: The Politics of
Performance. London: Routledge, 2004. Print.
Peggy Phelan is an American writer considered as an
authority on subjects of performance and feminism. Both of these subjects are
the topic for discussion here, within the context of what is not visible.
Recommended as a “must read” for anyone investigating the politics of
performance.
The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying
Sogyal Rinpoche
Rinpoche,
Sogyal. The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying.
New York: HarperCollins, 2002. Print.
Sogyal
Rinpoche’s response to the ancient texts given in The Tibetan Book of the Dead.
He discusses the Bardos – transitions of life, death and rebirth as presented
by the Buddhist tradition.
Handbook Of Material Culture
Christopher Tilley
Tilley,
Christopher Y. Handbook of Material
Culture. London: SAGE, 2006. Print.
A reader of
contemporary perspectives on the broadly encompassing subject of material
culture.
The Ovid Collection, Ovid's METAMORPHOSES
The Ovid Collection--A. S. Kline, Ovid's METAMORPHOSES. A. S. Kline, 2000. Web. 14 Feb. 2016.
<http://ovid.lib.virginia.edu/trans/Ovhome.htm>.
