Lab Two - A Self Interview

What do I hope to achieve?

I want to create a space for the audience, where they feel free to turn around and look in different directions. I will be using different elements within the piece, which can be viewed from different angles, thus providing a choice of different visual as well as auditory imput.

I want to find find out how safe the audience feels with being in the middle of a performance space, which is an audience arrangement I want to use for the Interim Show.

Further, it is important for me to get feedback on the reception and interpretation of the signifiers within the work, which draws inspiration from a curious case of a neurological disorder described by Oliver Sacks.

Why do I want to achieve this?

In my previous work I looked for different ways of making audience discover and see through unconventional ways of lighting and stage design, which inevitably involved audiences' participation through their use of other senses such as touch and smell. This research has taken me further into questioning audience participation and its mechanisms. Although this piece is not of direct audience participation, it will examine the physical settings for audience involvement, which is an integral part of the project for the Interim Show in April.

What research questions am I asking?

I will be addressing mainly practical questions that regard the audience engagement. I would like to see how they can interpret and interact within a space that is not designed for a conventional audience. Furthermore, I am experimenting with live dialogue, which is something I hadn't employed in my past two performance pieces.

Note: My original idea was to invite the audience to join in the dialogue, but I decided this is not a good idea (at least at this point) as spectators may feel intimidated. I don't like hearing my own voice, and knowing that I am not the only one, why should I push the audience into something like that? For me audience participation must be a natural reaction only triggered by performative elements.