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PARIP 2005

International Conference | 29 June - 03 July 2005

Bonenfant: Yvon | UK

Presenters:  Yvon Bonenfant (University College Winchester) and Ali Maclaurin (Queen Margaret University College)

Title: Toward the mapping of the body as a costume/voice interface in performance composition

This is presentation is the result of research into the collaborative process in performance composition/devising. Two artists worked together on this project.

  • Yvon Bonenfant is a specialist in physical and extended vocal devising processes and extended voice performance
  • Ali Maclaurin is a costume designer and visual artist with significant experience in collaborative devising processes.

Indeed, as little research of this kind has been done in this area, we needed to focus this pilot project around a number of basic concerns and areas for reflection. These were:

  1. What are the challenges that are faced by two creative practitioners attempting to create a live work in complete dialectic relationship from these radically divergent skills bases?
  1. How might collaboration between these skills bases engender new creative possibilities for each dramatic art form?
  1. As extended vocal expression is a result of complex biophysical processes in the body, what are the issues involved in creating performance for the vocal body that is scored, in part, by the textures, forms, physical constraints, physical liberations and tactile interactions with costume?
  1. Given the historical subordination of costume designers’ art to the aesthetic agendas of performer-protagonists, what is needed in terms of collaborative skill and new creative processes in order to empower costume to become a conscious part of - and central element in - devising a performance that uses the body as its expressive interface for voice?

Our presentation will thus focus on sketching out preliminary answers to these questions; these ‘answers’ are gleaned from our reflective, practice-led research.

The process and the piece

From June, 2005, we held a number of ideas-sharing and devising sessions during which we created a piece of new work. These happened in largely experimental and instinctive ways, as we needed to discover vocabularies for communicating across conceptual frameworks.

The resulting piece, Acoustic/Electric, was shown at the Diapason Sound Art Gallery, New York City, in October, 2005 and was curated by Micah Silver for the gallery. The live piece included costuming/wigging/fabric, extensive use of extended voice, and digital sound algorhythms that made vocal sound ‘move’ around a 12-channel sound system, as part of our experimentation with tactility and spacialisation. The piece lasted 2.5 hours and was performed to an audience at the Gallery’s regular Saturday night showings.

Content of PARIP presentation

As the live experience of the piece is impossible to reproduce without the sonic resources of Diapason, we will be drawing from:

  • Video documentation and reproduction of key performance moments
  • Live performance of key moments in the work
  • Sharing of tactile experience through interaction with costuming and voice
  • Verbal analysis and commentary on the work

… to communicate our current reflections on responses to our research concerns.

‘Peer Review’

We ask, in particular, for any questions and feedback that might provide fodder for exploring the following:

  • Your perception of the strengths and weakness of this kind of research process and topic
  • Research trajectories/practices with which this work might articulate

 


 

 

 

 

    
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