PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

Performance Management was a day-long performance master-class that explored the notion of invention within performance, led by Turner Prize nominee, Marvin Gaye Chetwynd at the ICA. There was debate and discussion on the politics of performance, the architecture that often houses it, and the limitations that often inform it.

 

My practice had slowly revealed itself over the MFA as investigating encounters in terms of performance/enactment and situations that house these relations. The work I have created is either rooted in my physical presence (Here is Where We Meet, What Are Other People Like...) or activated by participants who are provoked to perform (Say Hi From Me, For Bravado). Theatrical structures had come to my attention for their use in this provocation and for housing intuitive behaviour.

 

Chetwynd's master-class brought up the importance of parameters, facilitation, orchestration and letting go, in creating performance. It looked at the process behind bonding, whether it be group exercises or collective trauma. The master-class made me seriously consider my physical
presence within the installations/performances I create. After Here Is Where We Meet and
Say Hi From Me I had been questioning my live presence within these situations.
After the master-class I was certain that I would need to be present as a facilitator in upcoming work and also go through what I expect the participant to go through.

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Following the master-class there was a panel discussion, which included Marvin Gaye Chetwynd and Nicholas Ridout (Professor of Theatre in the Department of Drama, Queen Mary University of London). Theatrical structures were looked at in more detail along with their relation to performance art and participation. From the discussion I started to think about improvisation processes and the building of a world beyond the individual performer. These thoughts would lay the foundations for What Are Other People Like...