Living Gallery Risk Assessment

Our ideal number of people present in the room whilst performing is around 6-8, this is because everyone would have plenty of space and it is still quiet an intimate number of people which will create an intimate and enjoyable setting for our audience. We can, however, fit comfortably up to 17 people in the room at any time.

We will instruct our audience with the medium of cards to red out one of the pre-prepared statements and then keep it. This will mean that the audience feel comfortable in taking action with the piece, but we also don’t give them too much information so they can still work out what the piece is about. We also have written out own statements as we don’t want to place the audience with too much responsibility.

Living gallery - Performance

Our living gallery exhibition went really well. We were able to produce something that most people understood and were eager to take part in. We had a Science beaker which held all of the questions that the audience should ask us. Everyone apart from two people understood what to do when they entered the room. This was most likely because ask people entered we all pointed towards the beaker and the rest was pretty self explanatory.

However, there was a couple that entered the room and were clueless. Mason, Nick and myself pointed to the beaker and the couple took a piece of paper and read it in their head and then just stared at us. This of course was not what we wanted to happen and eventually the couple left and saying 'this is awkward'. We hoped that our sign on the door that everyone entered which read 'Come in and ask us a question' would make it obvious as to what the audience members should do. But I think most audience members were oblivious to the sign but just figured out what to do once inside. To have insured that everyone know what to do, we could have verbally told them however this would have ruined our mannequin portrayal.

Something that worked well would have been the fact that practically everyone understood what to do and seemed to enjoy participating in our gallery. If the audience didn't want to participate then our living gallery would have been quite lifeless. Although our piece would have been even better if we had more paint and longer time to clean ourselves up before moving onto our other performance. This is because we were so immersed in our responses to the questions that the paint we were using got everywhere. This meant that by the time it came to cleaning ourselves up, we had to really hurry. It also meant that we didn't have enough time to completely tidy the space we were working in. 

Overall, I was delighted with our living gallery. All of the audiences comments were positive and questions like 'how does southern rail make you feel?' made them laugh and add there own little comments like 'i think I might need some of that black paint (black - Anger). This meant that there was a constant juxtaposition of light laughter and serious questions like 'How do you feel when people are stereotyped?'. Something that was unexpected but made me happiest was probably the fact that some of the audience members decided to ask their own questions. For instance a little boy asked 'How do planes make you feel?'. I think the variety between Mason, Nick and my answers was the most interesting because something that would make me sad, would make Mason angry and Nick jealous. This demonstrated the fact that all of us have different brains that react differently to different things.

Something that I will take from our experiment was the fact that my answers to most of the questions was 'Anger'. Maybe this was just because of the questions that the audience asked but either way it was quite sad. Even things that we are meant to have a positive view on such as the police, responses to them were either sad or angry.

Gallery Images Linked to Performance

 
This image relates to our final piece and is translated in the way that we present ourselves to the audience. We stand with a strong and open stance and are open to whatever questions the audience want to ask us.

This sculpture is a plaster mould of the artist’s body, reinforced with fiber glass and encased in a skin of soldered lead. Gormley uses his own body to examine the physical and spiritual relationships between humankind and the natural world. He says: ‘sculpture, for me, uses the physical as a means to talk about the spirit…a visual means to refer to things which cannot be seen’ .

Gallery label, October 2016 (source: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/gormley-untitled-for-francis-t05004)

This relates in the sense that we explored issues that are normally covered up and so we revealed the rawness and truth in society. We didn't cover anything us, instead we answered them.




This links because we all see things differently and interpret things in different ways. This means that some things that may bother or tie me down, might not bother others.

Combining human and animal forms and mixing recognisable and unfamiliar elements, Jane Alexander’s African Adventure. The objects positioned among the figures include sickles, machetes, a Victorian christening dress, boxes for explosives, a steel car and a worker’s overalls. These relate to themes such as migration, trade, labour, colonial legacy, conflict and faith. But African Adventure does not present a particular moral or political message, as is often expected from work made in South Africa in the immediate post-apartheid era. Like the hybrid human-animal characters who are both confrontational and vulnerable, the work is ambiguous, moving between realism and metaphor, mixing the everyday with the uncanny. (source: http://www.tate.org.uk/visit/tate-modern/display/artist-and-society/jane-alexander)

Room plan:

The Mind - Lesson 6 - Tuesday 14th February 2017

THE PERFORMANCE:




Prior to our performance we were told to remain focused since some of us were switching off and to be alert at all times in case the protagonist (Rose) was to choose us to becomes her (and then if we were Rose to respond to what we were seeing). I think we all achieved all of the improvements we were given which allowed our show to maintain a smoothness that couldn't have been achieved if actors weren't always paying attention to Rose.

Some of the strengths that shone through during our performance included the shows unpredictability which stemmed from our improvised work and the reactions of our audience. For example, at the end there was an ensemble moment in which we tied the audience members memories to our balloons, there was a really beautiful feeling in the atmosphere, it was quite cathartic. I think this was achieved because of our intimacy with the audience earlier on in the show and so everyone was feeling the same way and were all open to sharing those emotions. This meant that when it reached this moment, everyone was relaxed and shared the same buzz.

The girl that I opened my box with told me that I made her cry and gave me a hug at the end which is also evidence for the connections made between us actors and the audience. This made the work very relatable which gave it more meaning. The fact that most of the audience consisted of family members would also put dementia into retrospect because their memories which were displayed on the memory wall and the people that they love and are in front of them could potentially die of Alzheimer's.

There was a nice pace to the piece and despite issues with finding the right numbers to choose a box, we managed to move on and continue without the show becoming disrupted. Because of this, as the show went on we just became more confident in ourselves and our audiences responses.

However, we didn't get through as many of the improvised individual memories for the audience as we'd thought that we would have. Which was fine, but just meant we didn't get as much as we'd hoped done. Lack of instructions also left the audience members confused at times. We could have improved this by giving the audience members a set of instructions via a little booklet or even by verbally telling them in the games room of what is expected of them during the actual show. This would have allowed a smoother run and the audience would have been aware of what the numbers on their tags meant and therefore made sure they kept it safe and were ready for participation if asked to.

This terms use of experimental theatre has been interesting and fun to be a part of, I have appreciated aspects of it such as its unpredictability which has kept me on me feet and active, however i think it's quite a difficult en re to gasp and ever fully understand. Our piece was experimental because it was based around the unknown. Anything could have happened in our piece because most of it was left up to the audience. This did make me feel a little bit nervous but I defiantly enjoyed it. We had no control over what could happen which in itself also links in with dementia because the individuals suffering with dementia don't have always have control over their choices or what they understand.

We also stayed true to our practitioner (Antonin Artaud) by using things such as piercing lighting and abrupt sound which shocked the audiences senses and wasn't necessarily a comfort to listen to at all times. For example, some of the music used was played backwards and so it sounded twisted and sinister. This made me feel on edge and almost seemed to enhanced the lighting because of it's sharpness. It made me feel as though everything was all over the place and like broken is shards that were put back together randomly. This would definitely link in with the breakdown of the brain and confusion. We also performed without having a script which also went with Artaud's style. And our overall performance was closest to Peter Brooks idea of 'Immediate Theatre' because it will always be current and a timeless issue which we managed to perform/present 'in the moment'.

Other elements such as multiroling also seemed to have a deeper meaning. For example, if I review a previous lesson in which we watched an Emmerdale episode that had the same actors playing different characters to demonstrate how sufferers of dementia can often confuse people and places. Our use of multiroling portrays a similar meaning because it shows a group of people who could potentially play any character in the piece and  the play making sense. After all, we are all images stored in the hippocampus but when the hippocampus begins to decay, those images can get lost or become intermingled with other memories. It can become difficult to distinguish reality and fragments of the imagination.

Gallery - Lesson 5 - Thursday 9th February 2017

We finalized questions and then walked around the room to find one that suited our piece best. We ended up choosing a science lab because it linked in with the theme of emotions and chemistry of the body. We are also going to place ourselves on top of the lab desks  because that is where experiments take place and so we will be the equivalent to the reaction taking place. This will make our piece site specific.

I also did extra research and found out that when different elements react with fire, they turn different colours. I might incorporate this into the coloured paint and link the harshness of different elements with different emotions (and so the coloured paint for that emotion). However, it could get complicated and be unnecessary so we'll decide by next week.

Taken from an AQA Triple Science text book

We also decided that we would wear all white instead of putting the paint onto our skin and being in underwear. This is because otherwise we won't have enough time to remove the paint and start our show which is going to be immediately after this performance.

The Mind - Lesson 5 - Tuesday 7th February 2017

We didn't get the opportunity to work in our performance space today so we spent time refining our work. First of all we decided what games were going to be played in the reception area of our show. My group chose to be in charge of the game 'concentration' but moulded it around the mystery of the lost memory by having things such as neurons and brain cells as the cards that need to be matched. Once a match has been found, it is then passed around to a group of scientists that examine the cards as though it's evidence and make some notes. This worked well because it meant that we would be playing games that make the audience use their brains and so our main theme is introduced gradually and implicitly, leading up to the climax of the show.

 Once we were all confident with the presentation and layout of our games we allowed the rest of the class to come and test them out. The tour began down stairs and we worked our way upstairs, first by writing a memory we'd never want to forget onto a post it note and then by working our way into the games room. There were also other games such as Kim's game and the magic cup game. After this, we continued and ran the whole performance. The performance ran smoothly apart from the individual group moments in which certain things seemed to be amiss. This included things such as the fact that different people's music choices didn't quite match the movement of the piece or that sections just needed tightening up.

We then had the rest of the lesson to work in those groups and reflect on our feedback. My group decided to not only change our music choice but also the entire piece. It's now a much more meaningful and simple piece which I think will be more effective and make it easier to be understood. This is an improvement to the one it replaces because everyone is able to perform it better and it's not just one persons ideas.

Gallery - Lesson 4 - Thursday 2nd February 2017

Here's a list of the questions that the audience will ask us in our performance:

How do you feel when people don’t give up their seats on public transport?

When boys are being stereotyped, how do you feel?

How do you feelings towards sexism?

How do you feel about going home?

How do you feel about death?

What does your best friend make you feel?

What does your family make you feel?

What are your feelings towards pornhub?

How does daner make you feel?

How does food make you feel?

How does football make you feel?

What do you feel when people flirt with your significant other?

How do black people make you feel?

How do white people make you feel?

How do gangs make you feel?

What do you feel now?

How do you feel about gang violence?

How do you feel about expensive food?

How do you feel when bus drivers can see you’re running but drive off anyways?

How do you feel towards racial stereotyping?

How do you feel about UKIP?

How do you feel about animal cruelty?

What do rude people make you feel?

How do you feel towards people that are loud on public transport?

How does Southern Rail make you feel?

How do the train strikes make you feel?

How do you feel towards people that wear socks and sandels?

What do you feel when you see young children wearing make-up?

How do you feel when people don’t finish their sentences?

How does other peoples lateness make you feel?

How do you feel when someone you love is sad?

How do you feel when you no longer fit into certain clothes?

How does having to do exercise make you feel?

How do you feel when you discover that you have a hole in your sock?

How do you feel towards charities?

How does cancer make you feel?

How do you feel when people lie?

How do you feel when you see a homeless person?

How does food make you feel?

How does your significant other make you feel?

How does your bed make you feel?

How does sleep make you feel?

How does other people’s success make you feel?

How does COD (the playstation game) make you feel?

How does FIFA ( the playstation game) make you feel?

How do you feel about people that use the word ‘like’ excessively in sentences?

How does music make you feel?

How does boxing make you feel?

How do you feel when you win things?

How do you feel when you get free stuff?

How would a random make out session  make you feel?

How do relationships make you feel?

How do you feel about the dark?

How do you feel about waking up early?

How do you feel about being uncomfortable?

How does fast food make you feel?

How do you feel when you can’t understand things?

How does being angry make you feel?

How does WIFI make you feel?

How do you feel when you go somewhere with no WIFI?

How do you feel when you watch TV?

How do you feel about Leonardo Dicaprio?

How do you feel about Megan Fox?

How do you feel when you talk to someone with an accent?

How do you feel when you have to get out of your comfort zone?

How do roadmen make you feel?

How do you feel when you’re in the company of a spider?

How do horror movies make you feel?

How does loneliness make you feel?

How do the police make you feel?

How do you feel when you trip in public?

How do clowns make you feel?

How do you feel about religion?

How do you feel about dementia?