Drama360/Site-Specific Performance: The Theatre as a Site ***

INITIAL RESPONSE: ABAIGEAL SKJEENA

1.	Quick, A. (2004). “Taking Place.” Art and Performance: Live. A. Heathfield. London, Tate Publishing: (pp. 92-99).

The ‘live’ art article discusses how it encompasses being in the moment, the ‘thereness’ of a situation. Trouble can arise because it can not be completely controlled or planned, but this is only to help ensure the realistic form of this kind of art. Site-specific art can be disrupted by the location which it must be presented in, according to Nick Kaye. From Pearson’s perspective ‘the solidification of space into place that is instituted by the spatial arrangements in the theatre auditorium produces an authoritarian representational system’. The author, Andrew Quick, wished to make aware the condition of movement, of mobility, that challenges the institutionalized place of theatre, which he considers the ‘part of the ontology of Live Art itself’. When ‘Thinking place’, one must consider how the space is to be used or what kind of space it will be for relationships to be created. Place is dependent on the ability to control movements, yet there are the movements, gestures and actions that haven’t been thought of already and can potentially disrupt the spatial arrangement of the place. ‘Displacing Practices’ refers to manipulating set ideas and simple concepts into unknown and hard to understand actions or words. One may think the performance will go one way, but it can quickly change into something very different. ‘It would appear then, that there is something seditious about movement; that movement itself is disorder; that the unruly nature of movement always dis-places’ .The last part of the article discussed an example of theater that used representational ‘performance’ only to disappoint the author because of the lack of ‘liveness’ and the props for blood and gun powder were so obviously not blood and gunpowder that the author felt disconnected from the performance as well the actress seemed disconnected from her work herself due to the extreme amount of representational performing.

INITIAL RESPONSE: Peter Wang

1.	Quick, A. (2004). “Taking Place.” Art and Performance: Live. A. Heathfield. London, Tate Publishing: (pp. 92-99).

Live art operate whthin its sphere, always involve processes of taking place. The taking place might be understood by the word 'live'. It has a double meaning. The live occurs in space and time. It creates a place in which it can be encountered. However, according to Pearson, the destabilisation promised in the interaction with location is denied by the place of theatre. He writes, 'space becomes static object whose structure is regarded as unchanging'. Something occasionally happened in the live disrupts processes of recognition. Place manifest itself through recognition and inhabitation. A space is something that has been made room for. something named a boundary. Everything in the place is known and put into a good position by the need of performance. Theatre is built upon clearly defined boundaries and divisions. Helen X describes as a ' TERRIBLE TERRIBLE PLACE'. this terrible place is a theatre, a stage within a stage. Helen attempts to find a way back into the world. Helen X continually admonishes her performers to get it right and do it again. The theatre is possible a house, a home and a place of placing, promises to construct a site where there is orientations in the world.

INITIAL RESPONSE: JACK WANG AND XIAO CHAO MA

1.	Zimmer, Jacob. "Admitting Where I'm At." Canadian Theatre Review 126.Spring (2006): [PAGES 27-31].

INITIAL RESPONSE: YIBIN WANG (JACK)

In my opinion, this article mainly discusses the differences of performance. Performance should be different even though it is the same one. Also, performance should be site-specifically. From the beginning of the article, the author says different set-up of space means different in rehearsal as well as improvisation of performance. Then, she sets her own examples. She is not quite the same and not quite different when she moves to Vancouver from Halifax, and the Cafe is different in these two cities. Both of these are about replacement. Replacing is different from making do and it is also different from symbolism. I think replacing means real change. If replacement happens, the same thing can be totally diverse. For performance, performers would replace each other using systems which are ways of understanding a performance. A system can be lots of things. In other words, performers can choose any materials no matter what kinds of them are. On the other hand, the author mentions the familiar, in a different place, might be strange. We also wonder about the inverse. I think this point is relevant with the previous one. The familiar things, if they are in different places, they could be very different. For example, the dumpling is big in China and there are lots of sorts of stuffing. However, the dumpling in Canada is a little bit small. In the end, the author proposes her point. She says performances should be site-specifically and stand for embraced difference especially in digital transmission.

Zimmer, Jacob. "Admitting Where I'm At." Canadian Theatre Review 126.Spring (2006): [PAGES 27-31

INITIAL RESPONSE:XIAO CHAO MA(eric)

This article is talking about what elements may change the performance. We all know that performances are made of by many different elements. For instance: characters, venues, stage properties and etc. In the article, the author tells us that we can make the same show differently by changing the elements of the performance. Moreover, replacement and system two points which are mentioned by the author. “Every choice, every switch is considered and debated, but we are not precious about keeping things the way they were. We are in a different city- things are not as they were.” Things were changed if the places were changed. The same show can create different things in performances. “Systems offer a way to embrace this reality- a way to move toward the not-the-same, to perform site-specifically, to stop pretending we are not mere feet away- we are performing, yes, and that performing can include imaginings and transformations. But we are performing in a real space and that space is different from other spaces.” A movie maybe popular in China, but no body likes the same movie in Canada. Is this movie the same? Yes. On the other hand, the author also tells us that how where you were affected what you did. She had different social habits in different cities, she talked about different things. She found different coffees. She said she was not quite the same and not quite different. Was she a different person in different places? When the places changed, the same person changed too?

Reference: Zimmer, Jacob. "Admitting Where I'm At." Canadian Theatre Review 126.Spring (2006) Page 28, 29.

Site-specific performances are each unique on its own, yet it revolves around the same setting. In the performances, there are numerous variables for the show to turn out different each time, thus it is difficult to replicate an identical show. As mentioned previously, the changes within the setting are bounded by the system; meaning people, objects, and actions change due to the different sites, yet the order within the system continues to be maintained. This is very interesting to me because even if actions, objects and belongings are replaced around a person (the centre), people are never replaced the same way. I think that if the performer is replaced, the show is no longer the same as the ones before even if the settings are exactly the same. My opinion is that people make the show come alive, whether it’s a certain glimpse into the crowd or the gesture of a certain movement.

Response:

I totally agree that it is human makes the site-specific identical, without people or with different set of people, even the settings could be the same, but the play is still changed. Expanding from how Jacob describes his relationship to site, I think I found some useful tips that could be used during site-specific creations. First, find a site that excite you the most first, then learn about the site, the shapes, color, sound, history… Second, Jacob talked about making the site familiar, then strange, then familiar again. The first familiar is to getting comfortable performing there by understanding the physical attributes of the site. Then by look at the site so particularly and alter materials around, the familiar space actually “revealed itself” to the performers in new ways (p. 29), by doing this, the space becomes strange to the performers. After the Space is awakened by deep analysis, and by understanding the strangeness, the strangeness actually is eliminated, and the performers can then fully dedicate themselves to the verity of the site.

Response: Ping Yu

As the response mentioned above: Jacob talked about to make the site familiar, then strange, then familiar again, this happened to me all over this class and every performance I have done. For instance, like the second performance I just done, after choosing the location, I considered to use that entire place which was too big to perform. I came there with what I thought it should be and develop my ideas. However, the idea was not that good because it was not specific to that location, then I tried to narrow the site and looked that space strange again. It was totally new and after tried many things and decided what we can do in that site, it became familiar to me. I would totally agree that the location changes even you are the same person who use it, but the way you look at it will always change every time you try to add new idea on it.

Response: Sijin Chen

Site-specific performance is a genre of performance. Firstly, we should know how to find a site. A good site should have peculiar physical features to interact with a big, open space. As well as, the site should be easier to tell different stories to a small space with many hidden corners. Secondly, it would create what performance in the space. After we find our ideal site, we should think what performance matches this space. We should design the contents of this performance, shapes of this performance, structure of this performance. Thirdly, “everything in this space should be used”. We consider that each object in this space must have a purpose, and how we use these objects is a huge challenge for site-specific performance. We fully utilize this space so that it is a part of our project.

Response: Nathan Hunt (Response to Sijin Chen)

I think one thing that is really important to consider is that when one does site specific performance they do not necessarily need to choose a a site with certain physical features such as a big open space to interact with. What is most important is choosing a site that you believe has some sort of significance. For example, one could choose a trash bin as a site for a performance. A compromise could be made in which individual audience members would have to take turns observing the performance due to its cramped quarters. Confining site specific performance to open areas confines the possibilities of performance. The site should thus inspire and make the performance, and in this process it should define the audience and how the audience perceives it.

response: jiachen wu (response to nathan hunt)

i agreed what nathan said in his response. when we are creating a site specific performnace, physical feature may have effect on our performance, but we should not let the site controls or limits the performance. on the other hand, i just recalled my previous performance project. we want to creat a site performance which is connected with university life. first time, we went to a space where it is wide-opened and bright. Second time, we went to a dark and narrow space. it resulted that a same idea comes with two different performance. i shall say site and performance are alwasys interacted each other.

Response: Huibing Wu

I think Nathan’s point is similar to Jacob Zimmer’s point that choosing a site is significant. I somehow disagree and agree with them. I think physical features are also important for a performance. I have seen some moviemakers looking for a site that have some physical features fit to their movies around the world. If the site has no such special features that the performer is looking for, I don’t think the performance can success. The reason I agree with Nathan’s point choosing a site that has some significance because I have seen a good example. In 1990, a famous Chinese fashion designer (I forget her name) chose to perform her first show in a park of her hometown where people had no idea about fashion. When I read her interview, she said “I think that is the only place I have feeling with, and the only place I will never forget because it was my playground.’’ Therefore, I think both the significance and physical features of a site are important to a site-specific performance.

Response:Yuan Li (Meggy)

If someone asks me that the same event can happen in the different area. I will tell him or her that could be; however, there will come with the different results. Due to there has some new views I know after I read this article, Admitting Where I’ m At. What the Site-specific performance would like to communicate is Site-specific performance artists change their elements of the performance, especially the stage properties, to afresh their sets, and so as to create a totally different feeling for the audiences. Imagining a Site-specific performance, which is a person spend his whole day in a bathroom, playing his computer games, telephoning with friends, cooking and eating, even sleeping. If there are some normal circumstances in our daily life, I will not feel zaniness at all, however, the site-specific performance artists make these movements in a creative room, which is the bathroom, and the result could be changed. There should be a big pleasantly surprised that the site-specific performance artists bring audiences, because there come immensity creative abilities from the site-specific performance artists and the tremendous imagining space for their audiences.

When a performer chooses a site, they are choosing to find ways to animate and transform the original understandings and expectations of the site. Taking into consideration the people who use the site, performers realize that their location has a certain set of rules and regulations which create acceptable behavior within the site. Performers draw their ideas through the sites history, physical elements and structure, and work with the site in the development and final performance. Some performers choose not to interrupt the written or unwritten regulations of the site, while others strive to create a performance which puzzles or angers those who find themselves within the location.

I think the main point of the speaker here is that the space in a sense create the performance. The artists, or performers have certain abilities and outlooks that can help to create a system. This loose gathering of, for lack of a better term, rules create an environment where the same thing can be done repeatedly and be different each time as the space changes. An important side note to this is that the audience should be considered part of the space, as different people will bring different things with them. So even in the same room a performance can be repeated with different results. In reality there is no repetition, that is why the speaker uses the word replace, the space is replaced so the performance changes.

Have you ever thought about debut whether book in a different language is the same book? Well, the fact is, not quite the same, not quite the different. Similarly, even by using the identical script, same perform will vary in different location. People need to consider the factors, such as different stages, how audiences comprehend, and replacement of the actors. Reading this article revoke me the experience in my internship. While we are designing the pamphlet for our new product, we were not just preparing one sample, but several targeting on various customers. To the technologist or engineers, the pamphlet needed to be professional and in detail. Whereas, to the manager or businessman, these non-technical people, it would be more teasing in the fancy way. As we couldn’t alter effect on the different targeting, people should admit and take the advantage of ‘where I’m at’. Just keep in mind, thing are not always as they were.

Response: Meng Shi

Site specific work intervenes into the relationship with a place and the way of your think and look, either esthestically and politically. Those are very important in your performance. In the different site where the audience may have different experence. For many audience, leaving the comfort of their velvet theater seats makes for a much more meaningful experience. What I wanted to do was create a piece where the impact is totally sensory and the audience can carve out the night they want to have, and it stays with them. Creating a strong sense of place goes a long way toward achieving that.

Reponse: Jingyi Chen

First of all, in my opinion, the reason why same objects may be differently presented in different locations is atmosphere. I want to use the same examples as what Yibin mentioned in his initial response, which is why dumpling is different in China and Canada. Like what cheese meant to Canadian, dumpling is the most traditional food in China and Chinese make effects to develop dumpling’s culture. That is why you can find various kinds of dumpling in China, the same as you can find different kinds of cheese in Canada. Second of all, I am agreed with Nathan about site-specific performance. I think site can be anything besides location. Newspaper is a site and has specific meaning to people. It contains text which transforms information to people who read it. Therefore, not only movements in a specific location are performances, so is reading a newspaper.

Response: Chao Jiang

Site is the first element that needs to be decided when doing a performance. Once site is chosen other modification and performance then can be found. Even though the site is an important element in a performance, the performers are still play the main role in performance. Even if the performer only uses his/her voice or lying down on the ground, audience’s focus is still on them because it is human activity that attracts audiences. I think theatre can be classified into an independent category of site because it is empty. Performer can decide everything about the performance, like lights, sound, what to put on stage, who to use, what kind of performance to use.