Progress – Technical workshop

After the last session, I knew that I had a fair few things that I needed to explore. When I arrived in Studio 2, which was to become my performance space, I picked out a frame that was to be hung from the ceiling in front of me, symbolising me as a picture in a gallery. The frame was only temporarily set up to test out whether the vision I had would work. It was apparent that the gap between the top of my head to the top of the frame was unnecessarily too big. I needed to raise myself higher so that it wouldn’t look odd and what was being recommended for me was a chair or a wooden block to sit upon. However, I didn’t want it to spoil the aesthetics so I suggested sitting on a roisterer and the frame being hung at a desirable height.

frame 3

The technicians that I were working with were able to set up the projection onto the tape that I had also obtained to strap across my mouth. When my head made the slightest movement, the projection moved slightly on my face and there was never going to be a way to keep the projection fixed. I had realised that the alignment of the projection that I had wanted to be perfect, actually looked more authentic when it wasn’t. I wanted to use the tape from my mouth to piece together the flower that I would dismantle throughout the piece. I also figured that it was hard to rip the tape from my mouth in strips, thin enough to tape the flower back together. Therefore, I cut up the tape into small strips half way down, so there was just enough left to rip off, which also made it look like my mouth was stitched, adding to the meaning of the piece. The  video projected well onto the white tape and although the photo doesn’t do it enough justice, the focus and quality of the video worked well.

close up mouth

I intend to dismantle the appearance of a flower by ripping off the petals and breaking the stem, symbolising the breakdown of a person. The flower links to the person in a self explanatory way in that they are both beautiful and created naturally. When they are broken, like a flower, the human attempts to mend itself. I use the tape from my mouth to piece together the broken flower and by the time I have rebuilt it, I will no longer be muted and like me, the flower will be rebuilt. I really like the idea of the tape being visible on the flower symbolising that of scars being exposed on a person’s body. It also signifies that once a person is damaged and reformed, they are never completely the same as they once were. By improvising the scene in today’s tech session, I decided that the title of my piece is called ‘Rebuilt’.

flower original   flower rebuilt

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