Performance "bears the hallmarks and scars of the process that created it"
Henry Bial The performance studies reader
On Threeness and Process
Of Goats and Starlings: a study of collaboration in response to 'Sky associated with no immediate change'
3
The amount of people in collaborative groups drastically effect the working process. The collaboration I am talking about is one where there are no designated roles or hiarachy, the group work together to create the final work as equal as each other with no defined roles. Having worked in groups made of two, four, five, seven and nine people the final project I found myself in for the first time, a group of three. As we began our process I noticed how significant the grouping was, being part of a three caused all sorts of subtleties of relationships and social and movement dynamics to become apparent. By drawing on common ideas, concepts and beleifs around the notion of the number three and its symbolises I will hope to shed a light on the grouping of three and why people may say that three is a crowd. I suggested we all three worked together, after some conversations as we assimilated how we saw the world and our places within it we decided to stick with the three of us. It was this period where the three of us where most equal and stable, as we began to gauge the social structure of the group and for fear of trespassing and disturbing the other accidental, our relationship held itself in friendship.
The amount of people in collaborative groups drastically effect the working process. The collaboration I am talking about is one where there are no designated roles or hiarachy, the group work together to create the final work as equal as each other with no defined roles. Having worked in groups made of two, four, five, seven and nine people the final project I found myself in for the first time, a group of three. As we began our process I noticed how significant the grouping was, being part of a three caused all sorts of subtleties of relationships and social and movement dynamics to become apparent. By drawing on common ideas, concepts and beleifs around the notion of the number three and its symbolises I will hope to shed a light on the grouping of three and why people may say that three is a crowd. I suggested we all three worked together, after some conversations as we assimilated how we saw the world and our places within it we decided to stick with the three of us. It was this period where the three of us where most equal and stable, as we began to gauge the social structure of the group and for fear of trespassing and disturbing the other accidental, our relationship held itself in friendship.
The third as an opening outwards – groups working in threes tend to work with participatory performance. Much of Rimini Protokoll's (a collaborative theatre company made up of three core members) work, for example, explores large scale participatory performance. Narratives are made up of personnel lives and experiences from the participants as the members of Rimini Protokoll remain distant. The breaking of the two starts an endless flow outwards. We have kept to a three, perhaps because we love the politics of it, the intricacies that become much clearer, navigating the difficulty between a crowd and a friendship. In hindsight much of our improvisations were simply an exploration of this unusual social dynamic, becoming unified as a three, breaking into a 2 vs 1, separating into 1 vs 1 vs 1, and attempting to glue ourselves back together again. Below is an extract of a conversation as we try to understand this unstable experience.
Form
The beginning of our process was founded in conversation, talking through our ideas of almost everything we could think of sharing our dissertations to find what we may all share in some kind of commonality. As we navigated through topics certain ideas were clearly in tune with the group as a whole and the conversations would then more often gravitate towards this ideas;
i. weather,
ii. clouds,
iii. construction,
iiii. the future,
iiiii. planning,
iiiiii. preparation.
We set about physicalizing these in a studio space. However we did not jump straight in and try to represent these ideas, instead we began with a very free improvisation. The prior conversations would slowly mutate into expressions of something other than the words that were spoken. These improvisations lasted for some hours at a time giving us freedom from constricted ideas and thoughts of what we individually wanted.
The beginning of our process was founded in conversation, talking through our ideas of almost everything we could think of sharing our dissertations to find what we may all share in some kind of commonality. As we navigated through topics certain ideas were clearly in tune with the group as a whole and the conversations would then more often gravitate towards this ideas;
i. weather,
ii. clouds,
iii. construction,
iiii. the future,
iiiii. planning,
iiiiii. preparation.
We set about physicalizing these in a studio space. However we did not jump straight in and try to represent these ideas, instead we began with a very free improvisation. The prior conversations would slowly mutate into expressions of something other than the words that were spoken. These improvisations lasted for some hours at a time giving us freedom from constricted ideas and thoughts of what we individually wanted.
We take 3 as a starting point and find who fits in what category: I am the beginning, Akitsu is a middle and Jacob is an end. Then by holding onto those essences throughout break apart the linear structure to make it more fluid.
Outside
As I listen to these clips of our conversation again, I am somehow in a different perspective than I was during the conversation. The combination of words each person uses to express themselves becomes more apparent, In watching the conversation back, I see how each thing that the others said is so much fuller with meaning than I had original been able to perceive. I was caught in the act of forming my own thoughts as the other was speaking, unable to fully wonder at the wider context of the others thoughts. It strikes me how everything we say is loaded with a history and context that is unattainable by an-other. Listening back, as an outsider occupying the third space, I am able to see the meaning of thoughts more clearly.
As I listen to these clips of our conversation again, I am somehow in a different perspective than I was during the conversation. The combination of words each person uses to express themselves becomes more apparent, In watching the conversation back, I see how each thing that the others said is so much fuller with meaning than I had original been able to perceive. I was caught in the act of forming my own thoughts as the other was speaking, unable to fully wonder at the wider context of the others thoughts. It strikes me how everything we say is loaded with a history and context that is unattainable by an-other. Listening back, as an outsider occupying the third space, I am able to see the meaning of thoughts more clearly.