I decided to work on two pieces of text in SLP on two pieces of text, considering the method’s we learnt in Shelia’s workshop on how to work with text. I decided to look at one piece of text from Mark D. Griffiths Ph.D on the PsychologyToday website titled “Drug Use And Creativity: Can psychoactive substance use enhance creativity?” I then also worked with a second piece of text that is less objective and feels like it is written more personally with an opinion, an answer to the question “Do drugs enhance creativity?” on Quora. Michelle Gaugy, art dealer & former artist, author, art consultant wrote 6 paragraphs in response to the question. I worked with the black-out method, redacting to words from the text until the collection of words remaining made my finished text.

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https://www.quora.com/Do-drugs-enhance-creativity

https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/in-excess/201702/drug-use-and-creativity

3 Minute performance: Using methods previously explored in class

Build a world that connects to your overarching theme, use objects to decorate your space (Daniel’s workshop)

Use music to transform yourself in the space (Julia’s workshop)

You used something ‘on’ or ‘about’ or ‘inside’ yourself as the source of a story (Shelia’s workshop)

My 3 minute performance: Ask audience member to tell me something ‘on’ ‘inside’ and ‘about’ themselves. Set up ‘world’ that makes audience member feel physical sensations whilst interacting, lay on soft blanket, feel warmth of heater and listen to music. After time to experience, ask them the questions again, do they feel more connected with their body and their answers after the physical and music ‘transformation’ moments.

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Feedback from my 3 minute performance: The aesthetic of comfort and ideas of serenity as an atmosphere created through use of different backgrounds was interesting for viewers. The use of warm air affecting the body involved physically and music at different levels allowing someone to ‘get lost in’ the atmosphere created. In feedback with my group we discussed my project in relation to the creation of an environment, how this can then also be contradicted or changed. They suggested I look into using all the sense to affect those in my performance space. I hadn’t considered how the use of smell or cold air instead of warm could work to create an unpleasant environment and how this could useful in my piece. When I asked the audience member the ‘story questions’ from Shelia’s workshop I paraphrased them slightly, just speaking more candidly which lead to some questions seeming more emotional or factual compared to story based. The group that watched my performance found this interesting and even though I had not done it intensionally I left me to consider how the different questions I asked and how I asked them also contributed to the persons creativity and answers as well as the environment I’d be working to create.

During this mini performance i really wanted to focus on how the person who entered into the performance space with me and became a part of it felt. In feedback I was told it felt like a useful process, with a point which I appreciated because if such a short snippet of performance had that effect then it excites me to experiment with how I could further this ‘process’ within my piece. Joe also reported back to me in feedback that the length of time spent in the performance space felt important from his experience. The longer he was able to lay on soft fabric and listen to relaxing music whilst feeling warm air blown at him allowed for the builds up of the overall affect on his mind, relaxation, mood and creativity. The effect of being in the environment was more distinct the longer the experience was able to last and this made me consider how long I would want audience members to stay in the space in my final piece.

I am Rachel Gallagher, I have made work as an actor, director and part of the design team. In the past I have worked on many projects, some influenced by my ideas about being female and modern feminism as well as my Irish catholic religious upbringing. I am interested in making work that involves other people, that isn’t restricted by a performer/audience relationship we have come to know and abide by. I want to make work that I care about and that is open for other people to be involved in. I want to explore different mediums. I also want to create things with the people and resources I have available to me currently as part of my process, even if they don’t make it as apart of my final performance.

I am interested in how our ideas shift over time, attitudes towards things, social phenomenons, tradition and change. I am keen to explore our modern world through my personal experiences whilst also considering other artist’s experiences and letting these infiltrate into my project, I do not want to make a biographical piece. I want to look at modern ideas of what makes an ‘artist’ and how to be creative as well as considering past ideas surrounding art and creativity. I do not want to romanticise or glorify but I care about creating atmosphere and allowing those who experience my work to feel something. I want my audience to feel open to interact and react to my work however much they want. I want whatever I make to be a product of experimentation.

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The first task in Shelia’s workshop was to describe our project as a living room. Inspired by an artist who said when collaborating they would initially invite their partner into their living room to begin work. I thought of what I wanted to do with my project and what I am trying to explore – the link between artists/creativity and drug use, and wrote the following:

There is no ceiling and the floor is covered in a very soft carpet, so soft that it slightly forms around your foot when you stand on it. It is comfortable and incredibly soft that it is almost other worldly. The room is medium size, open enough without being blank and with enough space that not one feels cramped into the space. The walls are covered in bright patterned wallpaper with magic colours that dance and move and are extremely vibrant. In the room there are soft, chill spaces for chatting in groups. There is also other spaces for activities. There is no rush to leave or rules or reasons to compromise ideas, a free space. There is calm but stimulating music playing and there are colourful lights that make the colours on the wall change like an optical illusion. There are materials for creating things at hand if inspiration might strike.

Later in the workshop we made a list of reasons why we interested in our themes or why we wanted to make the kind of project we do. Inspired by Bob Flanagan’s ‘why’ poem. I also hope to revisit this exercise through my project to see how my ideas about my theme and project are shifted or changed throughout the making of it.

Why?

Because I’m interested in the connection between artists/drugs/death (mental health)

Because I want to understand why people justify taking drugs, can they inspire good?

Because it’s topical and I personally care

Because its a bit scary and risky to investigate, I might not like what I find

Because I like the aesthetic attached to drug use in the 70’s

Because Drugs are glamourised

Because Drugs are dangerous

Because I want to know do they really ‘unlock’ creativity for us

Because drugs and art can be used as therapy but can also kill people.

Through this project I originally wanted to explore the theme of finding Euphoria in our modern world. The rise of the wellness industry and recent focus on ‘self help’ inspired me. I was mostly attracted to how this infiltrates into my life and the generation I am apart of, 20+ year olds, studying, working and living in London/the UK right now. The irony of how focused the world currently is on wellness and self-help yet statistics about mental health and the dangerous night out/ binge drinking/drug culture and lifestyles inhabited by people in situations very alike to myself are in bizarre contrast.

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I had no set ideas about performance or exactly what I wanted to created. However I was very keen to consider modern day drug culture, especially in comparison to that of the 70’s. In class workshops I repeatedly found myself going back to these ideas about the danger of drug culture now and how we romanticise use of drugs in the past. I kept thinking of how I could create the atmosphere of woodstock “an Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music” and became slightly obsessed with things created as a result to the different attitudes to drugs in the past. Yet I also found myself desperate to resist glorifying drug use.

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I have since further developed ideas around the theme of my project and have found a new interest in the link between drug use and creativity. When I’ve witnessed debates around the use of recreational drugs I have often found that people on the defence justify their activities as artists. I’m keen to explore these ideas around recreational drugs and psychedelics as a method to create, to inspire something new for artists and ‘unlock’ parts of their brains we apparently don’t have access to without the substances. I also would like to consider the ‘tortured artist’ stereotype, look at artists in the past who have been influenced by drugs and the connection between art/substances and death as a result of addiction, death for art.

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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.

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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.

SLP 1: Dressing of Alter Ego, Persona or Second Self

“alter yourself and what garments might you choose to be in accord with your research interests so they became a physical manifestation of those preoccupations?”

“a complete kit that is a physical manifestation of your research/thematics.”

Outfit tool kit

• soft colourful scarf, attraction to soft materials
• Mesh net top / reminiscent of rave clothing worn in the 90s 
• Bright scrunchie, neon colour reflective of colourful lights and psychedelic posters 

During the transformation dressing ritual I listened to a youtube video called “Liquid | off the air | Adult swim”

The sounds in the music video are electronic but satisfying to listen to and go through many phases. As I began to dress and decorate myself in the items I heard the sounds move into different parts of the song, develop and change and I felt this affected how I felt about the alter ego I was creating and the feeling of my ‘new’ (alter ego body) in these new items. 

A lot of my items were focused on the colour and feeling go them to touch, the soft scarf, the bright hair scrunchie, the netted black top.

I found that the phases of music changing as I dressed brought confidence to the alter ego at point. I began to imagine what event or activity I would be dressing for and how the clothes would make them feel.

I considered the theme of my project and began to think if my items were placed on a seat before me would another person agree that they are suitable in a project that is about finding euphoria? As this alter ego in new clothing I began to think about how it is unlikely that others would associate my theme with the items I had chosen and how finding euphoria – especially in our society is done in so many different ways: being alone, on holiday, having sex, listening to music, taking drugs, being asleep, dancing… One person’s ideas of finding euphoria might be someone else’s ideas of hell. I thought about how my perspective on this is affected by my position within society, young adult, female, middle class, living in London etc. 

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