In this SLP session we worked on creating spaces connected to our worlds/themes for the project. I brought in a tapestry, disco ball lights, funky patterned scarf, a soft, fluffy bag, festival accessories including pink tint glasses, a clock and rabbit ears. Thinking about my theme of drugs and psychedelics I considered perception and this can be altered through the colourful party light and glasses. The locations I expect to encounter such substances through festival wear. The clock connected to the altered perception of time and the tapestry and scarf related through the patterns and colours that made me think of drugs association with specific culture’s and time periods.
In my space I imagined creative freedom, somewhere to listen to music, relax and look at patterns and colours. My space would be inside a pop up tent, like a tepee in a field. It would be warm and comfortable and stimulating. In the space is colourful decorations and soft materials and fun costume bits. The rabbit ears reminded me of Alice and wonderland and the connotations of drugs to that classic storybook.
Within the performance in my space, I introduced the objects I’d brought in to my partner. I switched on the colourful party light and demonstrated through the sunglasses and lights how the colours on the tapestry and scarf seemed to change and almost dance. I tried on the accessories and sat by the tapestry enjoying the surroundings without pressure to do much more.
When my partner encountered the space she also tried on the accessories and used the party lights to create a disco atmosphere with music and dancing. The one to one performances were fun and relaxed, it was clear that the items I had included in my space made more a creative and chill atmosphere, not serious or with any clear instructions of what to do.
In the session with Owen Parry we experimented with fan culture. I brought in a wand and notebook as well as an outfit that resembled the costumes of the main Character Sabrina in the tv show I was being a fan of: The chilling adventures of Sabrina the teenage witch, on Netflix.
We considered what it means to be a fan. The community that you have access to or can build as part of a fandom. Also noted some words we associated with fans which mostly seemed to be negative: Embarrassment, obsessive, secretive, shame, commercialisation, religious, worship, hyperventilation, identification, trash, admiration, time consuming, dangerous, violent, stalker, sexualisation, gendered.
We did some exercises considering what we were fans of and how fans within communities create things – specifically art, even when it is not actually credited as art. We considered how to let our desires and interests infiltrate our creative processes, making what we want to make and not just what we thing categorically works as ‘art.’
Then in groups we worked to paste our fandoms together, ‘shipping’ to create new possibilities. With one partner we considered how The characters in Sabrina the teenage Witch would meld with the LGBT+ movement, that she is a fan of. In the process of pasting our content together and creating a short performance we decided to literally connect the two worlds through the physical movement of a hug. Still adorning some of my Sabrina accessories, we embraced, whilst reading out an exert of a story about being a part of the LGBT+ community.
Through this workshop it was interesting for me to consider my own desires and how my project could shift if I follow them unashamedly. I also felt this was a good spring board for me to consider pasting content together that I may not think makes sense or works collectively and to not work exclusively within the bounds of what I consider to be performance or art.
Practice-based Research Project 