Immersive Performance for Contemporary Society 

 

In the multimedia ensemble work, Meniscus, Ghost and John have been incorporating the formation and movement of their audience into the general landscape of the whole performance. The audience is placed on the same ground as the performers and is welcome to rove around as they wish. In such condition, there is almost no barrier between performers and spectators, and the spectators are actively engaged as they constantly decide where to go, where to look and what to do. 

 

This technique is an attempt to mimic contemporary society in performance work, where we are also constantly making choices every day. We expand our imagination into what performance can do for our world now and prepare us for more challenging in the coming future. How we can further utilise contemporary performance to be a tool for the betterment of our community would be the final discussion topic for this workshop.

​

Body, Material and the Scene

​

In the double bill, I’M NOT SURE ABOUT YOU, BUT I NEED…, Ghost and John built scenes through an internal logic between, their bodies, the materials they used, both physical and digital, and the space they shared with their audience. 

 

In this workshop, we invite participants to find new methods to connect to their bodies, hence to different materials, spaces and their audience. From edible to metal, digital to clothes, we learn how to categorise these "objects” and understand what roles do they play in relation to our bodies. 

 

By doing so, we re-organise strategies and methods in building theatrical stenographies and moments, to generate powerful and impactful performance visuals and impressions for a greater meaning to our contemporary society. 

 

Tech and Art: First Steps in Technology for Artists

 

In I’M NOT SURE ABOUT YOU, BUT I NEED MY PHONE, Ghost built a networked chatroom using web programming. The audience used their smartphone and entered text to the chatroom which influenced the landscapes of performance.

 

The involvement of digital technology, i.e. our phones and other gadgets, has been a major element in our lives, connecting us to the world. Using digital technology is one of the effective ways to have greater interactivity in participatory art.

 

We will look into some simple tools and techniques to build basic systems and programmes which build connections and induce interactions between the performer/artwork and the participants, generate animation based on data or information from the participants, allowing further interactivity and engagement to happen.

 

From Science to Art: Applying Logics into Artistic Processes

 

We are taking steps, small or big, that progress us towards something. It could be intentional. It could be accidental. We are wired to observe patterns, understand cause and effect, comprehend situations in order to survive. As artists, there are ways for us to grab hold onto this natural ability, to see the world through a different lens and examine our own works differently. 

 

As Ghost and John was trained in science since young, they brought over this mindset into their artistic journey, into making, into presenting and performing. They are constantly aware of how their works are formed by a constellation of different happenings and events, which later became a signature style of theirs. 

 

Looking into methods and processes in scientific models and frameworks, we compare that to how we, as artists, devise works. And we find new perspectives into understanding how our own art relate to ourselves, what can our arts to our communities and the world. 

 

Gazing Bodies: Movement Workshop

 

One question that Ghost and John constantly ask is: what is the point of all these movements anyway?
 

Trained in a wide variety of dance style, Ghost and John are taking steps back to re-configure their understanding in what movement means to them, why do we need to move and how can we move more efficiently and effectively. When presenting a move to the spectators, our bodies become apparatus for the others to investigate and scrutinise. We are simultaneously at a highly sensitive state, being aware that we are presenting image after image. 

 

At Gazing Bodies, we dissect how a body performs and be seen in the space, figure out a new mindset to generate movement and understand how that function under different contexts. Starting from tools, such as breathing, gravity, isolation and fluidity in body, we swing, jump, fall, spin, step, training our bodies to watch and to be watched: the gazing bodies.