Multimedia is a broad name for a form of performance. One of the main things we learnt from the first few sessions on this, was how a performance can be devised from anything and everything. In our first sessions we were given a sheet of tasks to complete that created a pathway of personal contributions. For example, some of the tasks involved drawing something you did they day before, or explaining a fear you have etc.
Performances can be made from a simple seed of thought or explosion of ideas. No specific way of coming up with a performance is right or wrong or will even be more successful than an other. The only thing the performance needs to be successful is passion.
This module has helped me unsderstand that absolutely anything can be turned into a performance, even human behaviour. As Marvin Carlson states ‘’the recognition that our lives are structured according to repeated and socially sanctioned modes of behaviour raises the possibility that all human activity could potentially be considered as performance, or at least all activity carried out with a consciousness of itself’’ (2004, p. 4). Schechner writes about restored behaviour, as aspects of performance and states that: “Restored behaviour includes a vast range of actions. In fact all behavior is restored behaviour – all behaviour consists of recombing of previously behaved behaviours” ( 2002, p. 35).
Thinking about all of this, I began to look into other performance artists, particularly Forced Entertainment, and I realised that they create shows from singles ideas. Below is a clip from their performance Spectacular (2008) which involved a guy dressed as a skeleton, talking about death. As an observer I instantly thought the idea must have stemmed from the idea of death. How often you think about it? How often you worry about it? Whether or not you are scared of it.
Reviews from The Stage state that “The piece, written by [Robin] Arthur and director Tim Etchells, is clearly built on juxtapositions, and seems designed to explore the boundaries of theatrical expression, from the elaborate production being described to the minimalist staging we see, from the underplayed image of Death personified to the melodramatic overacting of dying, from a purely verbal performance to a purely physical one.” (Berkowitz, 2008).
Works Cited
Berkowitz, Gerald (2008) Spectacular. Online: http://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/review.php/22364/spectacular (Accessed on 3rd March 2013).
Carlson, Marvin (2004). Performance: A Critical Introduction. London: Routledge.
Schechner, R (2002) Performance Studies: An Introduction. London:Routledge.