Colours that stand out
Traffic light colours- high, low, target range
Sweets are full of colour
Author Archives: Laura Baillie
Lights and Projections
After researching solo artist Laurie Anderson, an experimental performance artist, composer and film director who also plays experimental musical instruments and sings, I was inspired by her integration.
Habeas Corpus, is a piece “fusing storytelling and technology, creating an installation and performance piece that examines lost identity, memory, and the resiliency of the human body and spirit” (LaurieAnderson.com, 2007). The use of lighting here really inspired me, it is eye catching and creates a magic spectacle that catches the audiences attention. The piece is focussed on the life of Mohammed el Gharani who was one of the youngest prisoners sent to Guantànamo Bay prison camp in 2002 at 14 years old. The use of sound, projection and lighting to tell these events really interest me and I want the audience to walk in the space of my solo performance and be transported into another world- my world. I was laying in bed the other night and plugged in a light I have, when you take the top off it projects red light onto the ceiling and fills the room up. I immediately thought of Habeas Corpus and thought that I could use this lighting effect in my piece- the red lights deflecting looked like blood vessels- the body is filled with vessels and of course everyday I have to pierce my skin and squeeze out blood to test my blood glucose levels. I like the idea of filling the studio up with these vessels whilst a recording is playing- possibly the public’s views on what they think type one diabetes is, so it will set up the atmosphere for the rest of my performance. I also like the idea of filling the room with objects such as sugar cubes- like the hanging apples image- this would be interesting but I then thought about the meaning behind it and actually diabetes is about carb counting not sugar. therefore to fill the room with sugar cubes would miss lead the audience. I want them to know the ins and outs, the facts, symptoms and challenges I face.
I also liked Laurie Anderson’s use of shadows and projections in her music video “O, Superman”. The idea of light and projections covering the body I find really visually interesting and also quote powerful. If the piece is about me and the projections represent a part of me, then fusing elements together/ overlapping them, literally projecting on my skin, could work. This also reminds me of ‘The man whose memories fell out’ created by Fill in The Blank Theatre Company 2015 at the Lincoln performing Arts Centre. They used projections and I was visually moved by this piece as the images represented what was going on inside the man’s memory, which no one understands the same with diabetes no one really understands what it’s like to have it or what goes on inside my body. It is a non-physical disability and therefore the uses of images can help me reflect what my brain goes through as well as my pancreas.
These first two images are Fill in The Blank preforming, here you can see the vibrant colours and effect of feeling trapped by the projection on top of the performers’ body. The third image is of blood cells, a diabetic’s insides perform differently to a ‘normal’ person’s body as explained in the fourth image. Again, the use of red vessels or cells filling the room is a key idea of mine. Sometimes it is hard to communicate verbally, many people with disabilities or anxiety can experience this too and so by making my piece visually interesting and stimulating I hope it will impact a wider audience. To me it is important that students my age understand what I go through as they may have other friends at uni who may have diabetes and the amount of people who don’t have a clear understanding is shocking. What would you do if you saw a diabetic person collapsed on the floor? But also there may be young children who have just developed diabetes and I hope that my piece could resonate with them and let them know that yes we have to face an awful lot, but we can still live and make the most of our lives- even perform and get a degree!
Therefore, simple visuals will play an important role in my piece too as I don’t want to confuse audience members. they need to come away with a clear understanding of type one diabetes. What I show visually or audibly can be reinstated by words or images on screens.
(Fill in The Blank, 2015)
Jamie Wood’s O NO!
Jamie Wood’s O No! is a solo performance piece based on his life and inspiration from Yoko Ono’s work, such as Cut Piece, where audience members are invited up to take a pair of scissors and cut off part of the clothing the performer is wearing. Due to Jamie only wearing a nappy throughout the majority of the performance he managed to put a dress on for this part. The audience interaction was very notable in this performance and i wanted to take part as much as i could. I went from passing around a giant orange gym ball that ‘represented the sun’, to cutting the middle section of his dress off, to ending on stage blowing a funny sound making instrument that ‘represented a duck’ and i then had to fall onto the floor ‘die’ when the third balloon was popped. When i saw it in Edinburgh i also had to play ‘a cloud’ by holding a bundle of cotton wool. Utter madness but pure brilliance is how i would sum this performance up.
The way Jamie was stood in the audience, like Tim Crouch in ‘An Oak Tree’, as we entered made me feel at ease and let me know that i played a part in this piece. He asked me to ‘play his chimes’ so i did, I then was able to laugh and feel relaxed so when crazy things then happened in the performance i just went with it. I like the idea of the audience wondering what the rest of the performance is going to en-tale as soon as they walk in the doors, or even before they go through the doors. This is why i want to have an almost pre performance. I like the idea of charts and leaflets set up like in a hospital waiting room, and a blood test kit placed out with instructions of how to use it. Therefore, it would be nice if my audience tested their blood sugar levels (and also because it would be funny for them to panic that they have diabetes when they match up their level to the chart, although i hope i don’t find out someone is diabetic on the night of my performance). But the main reason i want the audience to ALL test their sugar levels (which i know they wont because some people are scared of a tiny ting needle), but i have to do this at least 4 times a day so they should man up and see what i have to go through. After all it is a solo show about MY life.
“Be as self indulgent as you possibly can… ” (Wood, 2016)
Jamie in his post show discussion also said that it is important to make theatre where you don’t show fear as the performance is only one tiny proportion of you. Therefore, make an autobiographical piece as much about you as you wish. this is why i want to use the basis of my Off The Page Script, about the insecurities of a girl in twenty first century relationships, which played on sensitive parts of my life but with light hearted comedy, as that’s how i deal with hard things in my life. Social media played a large role in my script, and i even used memes that i related to on instagram and facebook, which i have been looking at to find diabetic memes. Social media is a mix of peoples opinions and views, like a lot of work, people take inspiration from other artists and if they like an image or dance ,ove then why cant they use that in their piece. I like the idea of doing ridiculous things and because I’m a positive person, who look son the bright side of everything talking about the dangers of living with diabetes and what actually it involves, doesn’t have to be shown in a boring serious way. Jamie used a CD to create ‘a rainbow’, so the use of everyday props and also creating lighting effects has inspired me. i want my lighting to reflect my text. If i am talking about hallucinating, then why not have loads of jars of nutella flying around a projection screen. Crazy visuals but with simplicity will be key in my performance, i want the audience to remember my piece.
Not only do i want my piece to visually be remembered, through projections and lighting, possibly the involvement of nutella or hundreds of sweets and chocolate bars. I wouldn’t mind eating on stage. But i’ve thought about using these common associated objects to create something visual. For instance using all the multi-coloured shiny chocolate wrappers to create a backdrop, like Jamie has in his piece, just a hanging tie-dyed screen in the middle of the stage. To the audience it may just be a piece of material but to him it may represent peace and the hippy nature he creates. I want everything i do or use to have a meaning. So quite literally making a backdrop out of chocolate wrappers would represent not only the preconception that diabetics cant eat chocolate or that’s why they got diabetes in the first place, but the colours represent the different colours. The variety of colours, textures, patterns. Like living with diabetes, all the different challenges i go through that people don’t think about all the layers underneath.
Another key aspect of O No! which i really liked was the use of genuine voice recordings from his family members. Although you didn’t see them you got the sense of his life and how their voice impacts the decisions he makes.
What is art?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yJPZfFOrsc
Things i learnt from this video-
He comments on the struggles we face
He’s an entertainer, he makes people laugh
He talks about Life experiences
He’s slightly ridiculous and insane
He is himself and has a good time
Matt Chewiwie is “a Computer artist, short film maker, performer, and theme park enthusiast”(2006). In his solo performance “Step Pad Poetry” he steps on a dance mat whilst ranting about things that piss him off. He looks for laughs by putting on voices, but he is not sincere in his storytelling and he speaks all in one tone of voice. It is boring. However, looking to the positives about what could inspire me, I like his use of talking about his own experiences as i think i want to create an autobiographical piece. He uses the direction of the arrows on the dance mat as metaphors for the direction things are going in his life, each step gets harder and more aggressive as he stamps on the arrows, his life is like a dance mat. I like the use of metaphors as it brings another layer to a performance that makes the audience use their imaginations.
One of his youtube videos is called “Rebecca Black: The Ride”, a computer generated video. Although he is not standing on a stage “acting” it does not mean that this is not art. Perhaps not performance art but he has still used things that interest him and imaginative images such as fried eggs whenever the lyrics “friday” are sung. Fry Day. Quite comical and clever really. “A friend of mine dared me to design a theme park ride based on Rebecca Black. Pretty sure he was joking, but I took him seriously” (Chewiwie, 2013). I like the idea of using comedy in my solo performance as i want to talk about a serious health problem- type 1 diabetes but if i was to just stand and lecture the audience about what it is they would get bored and their heads would probably be over loaded with information. However, if i was to add interesting visuals, metaphors, comedy and my own personal experiences i think the audience would walk away with an over load of information, but actually remember my performance, and thus have learnt about type 1 diabetes.
Chewiwie, M. (2006). Matt Chewiwie. [online] YouTube. Available from https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCE2nnwZlUOcTAXEnsegY1wg [Accessed 4 February 2016].
visual ideas
