ONCE MORE, WITH FEELING

“The ultimate behavioural materials are the glances, gestures, positionings and verbal statements that people continuously feed into the situation whether intended or not. These are the external signs of orientation and involvement, states of mind and body not ordinarily examined with respect to their social organisation” (Goffman, E. Interaction Ritual: essays in face to face behavior, 1967).

 

Situations where participants are directly feeding from and responding to signals that the other is communicating, as explored in Dan Graham's Performer/Audience/Mirror, are intinsic to my work.

I started to look at face-to-face behaviour and what particular gestures represent so that I could think about what situations would create these particular gestures. 9” was to be the first development of these ideas. It would be an attempt to get behind the social constructs that could make situations agreeable and artificially rhythmic.

 

Looking at the essays of Erving Goffman, I became interested in his work around Dramaturgy. 
Goffman believed that human interactions were dependent upon time, place, and audience. I began to explore embarrassment within this context and its relation to situations and encounters.

 

“he goes a little out of his way to find situations that will not be embarrassing and to by-pass those that will” (Goffman, E. Interaction Ritual: essays in face to face behavior, 1967).

 

If I could create a situation that would leave a participant flustered I could potentially access the moment where Goffman said “equilibrium or self-control can be lost”. I was particularly interested in an individual's performance when concealing embarrassment and the moment it verges on being revealed. 9” would take this moment and explore it within an encounter. Going forward I wanted to explore more of these dramaturgical elements, looking at performances and their relation to how people interact with one another.