BLIND TRUST details

BLIND TRUST

(A participatory performance)
@ Wimbledon College of Art

Approximate duration: 15 minutes

One participant at a time on a 'first come first served' basis. Get your number!

Concept, development, set design and presentation: Milka Panayotova

Original music: Giacomo Natali

Performing: Charlie Hendren, Laura Erwin, Marta Masiero, Martina Armaro, Michael Kelland, Milka Panayotova, Rata Thuvasin

Thursday 9 September: 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm

Friday 10 September: 5:00 pm – 7:30 pm

Saturday 11 September: 2:00 pm – 4:30 pm

Tuesday 14 September: 11:00 am – 1:00 pm

Wednesday 15 September: 5:00 pm – 7:30 pm

BLIND TRUST takes you on a small journey of the senses. While it sets off as a visual experience, it seeks at creating further dialogue in the absence of vision and language,

concentrating on touch and movement.

The performance is divided into two main parts: one is visual, and the other is non-visual. You are invited as the only spectator in the performative space, which you are free to explore. You will be blindfolded at a certain point and your journey will carry on by trusting your other senses as well as the performers who will guide you for the duration of the performance. Based on the notion that the absence of a certain sense contributes to the amplification of the others, ear muffs will be placed upon you and you will renounce to your sense of hearing for a few moments.While you are encouraged to respond to the performers' movements and tactile stimulus, this does not mean there is a right or wrong way of doing so. You may interact or just enjoy your non-visual tour of space, texture and movement.

High heels: While you can totally trust our performers, which will especially be the case when you are blindfolded, high heels are not an option. If you happen to be wearing a pair you can still participate, we got some flat shoes available.

Share with others what the journey was like for you: you are very welcome to leave a written or video message after the end of your journey as reference for other participants.

* Please note that you may be filmed or photographed for documentation purposes and the material could be used for promoting the show. If you do not wish to be photographed just let us know.

Blind Trust

MA show goes on the web!

Click here to see the website:
/http://www.wimbledonmashow2010.com/

Small lights, small changes, considerable impact

Now that the space is ready and the structure of the performance is slowly coming to life, there are the little details to take care of. Small things that make a big difference in visual and perceptive terms, all a big deal for my final piece. Things like getting all the LED lights to work in unusual ways, blocking the massive green lights of the beloved health and safety exits, so dear to the British. 
Great thing is I got the desired equipment, solved the problem with a flat screen way too big for its purpose, tried the sound system and many thanks to Eileen, got a heavy black curtain, pictured below. Can't wait for the two-day workshop with dancers leading up to the first show on the 9th of September.

Rehearsals with spectators

For the non-visual part of the show I have been trying out different movements and actions to do with the participant getting feedback from them. My first participant was Marouso. Topics that came up: trust, disorientation, fear.
I am also testing these ideas while working on the information given to participants before each one can have their private 'sensorial perception'.

Story line

A summerised story line of the performance, mapped out on the 29th July. Under development through practice and rehearsing with potential participants.

My space ready

A couple of weeks of muscle fatigue were worth it I guess, my space is all ready and newly painted now. 

Almost ready on the outside

Closing doors

Smooth walls

Floor painting

Rooms one and two seperated

Nutricion matters

Painting walls black

Ready

View from corridor (my space on the left)

Above photo taken from this angle, special tribute to health and safety

Well happy now! 

A short story in photos

On the 19th of July I handed in my final dissertation along with the research portfolio! So glad this is over. It was fun, but glad it's over...

And now I can enjoy preparing for my final show. This is how I left my space before we broke for holidays. Packed with lots of flats and red signs keeping  away potential burglars...

And the building started, in the early morning... Two flats up already!

The risk assessment sheets are a must in Britain... Steve, our technician was too nice to explain it all in detail...

But all I care about is put flats up...

So great to get some help! A lot of help actually...

Probably I am gonna dream of those tonight...

I am always amazed at how inventive people can be, especially when they got nothing to do. That's  some chewing gum on one of the flats...not using that one...

Here we go...

Getting there...

Closing the other side, it's starting to look like real walls!

Ok it's not so boring, not just a wall...there's a lovely door too...

Yes!

Will be back tomorrow!

Going Final

I have been working towards my final show in September. So far I have found some dancers whom I will be meeting within the next couple of weeks. 
At college we have had a number of meetings and have finally allocated spaces for our shows, all within the theatre building. 
Here is my space plan:

I will build two rooms which will be used as performative spaces, where participants are going to be invited one by one (or two by two, still to be decided). There will also be an outdoor performative space, Dundonald playground, just opposite the college. And the nucleus of it all will be a meeting point at the foyer of the theatre, where audience members will be invited to read more about the piece and take a number  in order to participate. When their 'journey' is over, participants will be interviewed and filmed on what they have experienced and the footage will be put up on a show reel for new spectators to view. As this time there will be almost no communication between audience members during the performance, the feedback loop will take the form of digital recordings. On the other hand, the autopoietic feedback loop between performers and participants will be influenced by touch, putting spectators in a position of reconsidering the use and validity of this sense.

Here is a sketch of some of my starting point ideas as regards to spaces. I had thought of allocating a room for each sense, but considering that all our senses are connected and work together, even if some are shut, I think that inputs of different nature may work within the same space and trigger various responses from participants.

It feels great putting all my ideas together now, realising that I have a lot of material and ideas I can use from what I have produced during this year. Working towards the final show feels like just placing everything in a well-defined pattern, yet it holds the excitement of the new.

We have a short break in the next few weeks, as we have our final paper to finish along with a few more essays. So I will be working on my final theoretical paper along with the development of my final show. A nice thing about this is that it will all be done in the old fashioned manner of pencil and paper, as I will be away enjoying nature for a change. Yes, machinery stays home this time.

On my way to discovering Scotland.

Dancers and Performers wanted!

How my final show is going to be is all in my head, developing, and it's already taken shape on some sketches.
I will need more than one performer, so I am in search of performers at the moment! Join the facebook event and share!
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=103342179714312

DANCERS AND PERFORMERS WANTED!

Are you interested in being part of an MA final show performance in September?

Want to show off you performance skills?

Ready for a new experience?

Keen on collaborating with others?

We are looking for contemporary dancers and performers with some experience on stage, for a participatory performance that deals with the senses and invites spectators to explore them.

General Rehearsals: 7 and 8 September

Premiere: 9 Septemeber

Replicas: a few of them from 10 to 16 September (exact dates to be confirmed)

All takes place at Wimbledon College of Art!

Contact Milka at:

milka.panayotova@gmail.com

07760505783