Of Photography at Frascati - Weds performance

flickr

What can I say... some of the things I have said in the last few days are 'never again wi-fi technology in a live performance', 'enough of this demanding, self-gazing persona' and 'unless I have a revelation in Amsterdam I'm done with this show'.

A quiet revelation perhaps, then, my show last night.

Much was down to the audience being great - good numbers, focused yet pretty relaxed they got the swing of things quite easily and I saw several postshow-glow faces afterwards. That, and receiving some lovely and interesting comments afterwards proves it's all worthwhile...

It is a funny thing, this way of performing - rendering myself passive, blind and open while handing over lots of control / responsibility of the audience's own experience of the show back to themselves. I offer myself up, removing my vision and hence my ability to control - and satisfy - the audience based on 'keeping an eye' and responding to them. All i can do is trust that my setup/framing is strong enough, and that people find the set-up motivating enough to engage with it all. Then over to you, my dears.... thank you everyone who came and took part last night.

Comments and feedback very welcome.

Frascati programme...

Theatre Frascati programme for 'Tender Fall' of which 'Of Photography' is part along with other performances and installations.

Love the venue, and their publicity design too.

It seems to be a dutch (Amsterdam?) thing - graphic design is generally more playful than in the UK. 'Unconventional' seem to be the convention... maybe the brits (me included) have the need for cooool and detached... I like this playfulness.

Performing 'Of Photography' - Shunt London

Sunday 17 Oct

'Of Photography' at Shunt Bar, 42-44 Bermondsey Street, London SE1 3UD. Free. Doors open 8pm.

This will be the first public showing of the developed version of 'Of Photography', originally created at the beginning of the year and shown at / co-produced by Plateaux Festival.

The current version is prepared for Theatre Frascati, where it's showing next week as part of a triple bill.

Using technology, my body, paper and choreographed movement, I invite the audience to view and take part in a sensory, maybe slightly unsettling take on Spectatorship, Seeing and 'Visual identity'.

The piece's original concept was a reaction towards excessive photography of performances - or any event with some public 'photo-value'. I wanted to ask what responsibility the photographer, or the consumer of images, may have towards their subject matter.

In this version, I have chiefly kept the concept but shifted the 'everyday' minimalism of the original production to a more distinct visual style, choreography and dramaturgy.

Kindly supported by The Nightingale Theatre.

Performing Of Photography - Frascati Amsterdam

I will show Of Photography as part of a Triple Bill in combination with Corbeau by Myriam Gourfink and Moth by Francesca Grilli at Theater Frascati, Amsterdam.

20 - 21 October 2010

More info + tickets

Research & Development plans

'Of Photography' is a solo-piece using technology, the body and the audience. It premiered in April 2010 at Plateaux Festival as a Plateaux co-production.

Score: The audience are instructed to photograph the performer who stands naked and still in the middle of the space, and then to place the photos on her. The audience uses three compact cameras and the photos wirelessly transfer to print on sticky photo-paper. At an improvised point in the performance, the performer unplugs the printer. She then walks up to individual audience members and offer them to peel one sticker off to keep before leaving the space.

For concept, see the post Of Photography.

The first ideas for the piece came over a year ago but the main development of the performance took place during a week's residency at Kunstlerhaus Mousonturm, Frankfurt.

One week to develop a live performance is not very much. Even for a conceptual, action based piece like 'Of Photography'.

I discovered a few things during my residency:

• The audience is an exciting 'material' to work with but it's also a huge material. I feel I have only started scratching the surface...

• With just one audience test prior to the performance, the actual performance experience felt compromised and limited for both performer and audience. This has not been a problem in earlier, intervention type work.

• The audience needs to be part of the rehearsal process. This is tricky for several reasons. A 'real audience' rarely happens apart from at actual performances, and rehearsals with an initiated, small audience will only provide insight up to a certain point.

• 'Of Photography' has a strong concept. The challenge is to make it work as a live piece.

After feeling disappointed with how the performances went, it felt natural to begin a studio research once back in Brighton. My starting point will be this piece and its base concepts, and build on my work from the past year. I am not calling it anything yet, apart from perhaps 'Nightingale Sessions'....

With the kind support of Nightingale Theatre, my two-month research and development will start there on June 7th. It will be a time to experiment and play in a dedicated space, with great people to help me! See NEWS section for audience rehearsal dates if you want to join (just let me know).

Time has come to complement - and counteract - last year's over-used 'thinking about it'.

Of Photography . 02

Live performance

1 May 2010

Plateaux Festival, Künstlerhaus Mousonturm, Frankfurt

Of Photography . 01

Premiere at Plateaux Festival, Kunstlerhaus Mousonturm, Frankfurt am Main

Performance assistants: Sarah-Maria Martin, Phillipp Bergmann

Technical support: Michail Mavronas

Support in every possible and impossible way: Martin Baasch, Phillip, Mellie and everyone at Mousonturm

Of Photography

Photo: Gabriel Harju

Of Photography is an audience-participatory performance which investigates the relationship between photographer, image and the image's subject matter.

This concept started as a reaction towards excessive photography of performances - or any event with some public 'photo-value'. In this piece, the general acceptance of and participation in documenting or recording of an event is isolated and turned into the performance itself.

Of Photography draws on life in a time of online social networking, mobile phones and digital cameras - where 'mediated' often equals or replaces 'first-hand' experience. Using our visual/social digital tools, our view seems infinite and with all the time spent on/with it, there is a sense of real engagement. However, this engagement or relation to the mediated does not involve touch, location, smell... nor direct responsibility towards what or who is at the other end.

In Of Photography, I aim to merge the mediated and the direct experience of the audience both visually and experientially by connecting photographing, the actual photograph and physical touching of a live subject. Maker, motif, observer and observed are blended together to possibly provide a situation where the audience may test... their own boundaries of those.

Premier at the Frankfurt Künstlerhaus Mousonturm Thur 29 April with a second performance Sat 1 May during the international live art festival Plateaux. Conceived by Sara Popowa and realised with co-production from Plateaux Festival and The Basement, Brighton, UK.

From the Plateaux festival programme:

Eine Performerin setzt sich einem weißen Raum aus, einem Publikum, einem Blick, einer Kamera. In „Of Photography" ist das Publikum aufgefordert, den Körper Sara Popowas mit den eigenen Blicken zu überschreiben, zu verhüllen, bloßzustellen, zu verändern. In Zeiten von Handycams und sogenannten social networks verschwimmen zusehends die Grenzen von Selbstwahrnehmung, Autorschaft und dem Recht am eigenen Bild. „Of Photography" nimmt den Ball auf und verhandelt Fragen nach gesellschaftlich determinierten Bildern, Kunstklischees und wechselseitiger Verantwortung für Wahrnehmung. Popowa führt in ihren minimalistischen Arbeiten eine Performancetradition weiter, die sich mit dem Verhältnis von Performerin und Publikum beschäftigt; unwiederholbar entsteht jede Aufführung aus dem Moment der Begegnung. Die Performance stellt Fragen nach Unmittelbarkeit und Dokumentation, einem kollektiven Gedächtnis performativer Momente und ob sich seit Yoko Onos „Cut Piece" wirklich etwas verändert hat in der Wahrnehmung von Räumen, Körpern und Sensationen.