workshops

sshrc application '24

Title: When is my body a performance, and when is my body authentic?Current level of study & qualifications: I am in the first year of my MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts at the School for the Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University. I hold a BFA in Theatre Design from the University of Victoria, where I focussed my study of theatre in relation to national, political, celebrity, and personal identities.Project description: In our daily lives, we give a performance in the way we allow our bodies to appear. The performance we give is perceived by ourselves as well as the spectators of our daily lives. “A person builds an identity by being around other people, who in turn allow a person to distinguish personal aspects of their character” (Richardson 2018). How is scenography linked to personal identity or sense of self? Every physical body is uniquely its own. The way it is shaped, the way it moves, the lived experience it has, all elements together create a performance composed by the individual. Marvin Carlson claims that performance is highly socially-engaged, and is therefore blurred the boundaries of what performance is. (Carlson 2017) I will create a performative fashion runway which showcases the human body and its relationship to scenography which will question: When is my body a performance, and when is my body authentic? The goal of the project is to challenge how performers carry a relationship between themselves and the daily performance they give, as well as challenge how what individuals carry with them (both literally and metaphorically) impacts our audience’s perceptions about our lives. Each personal situation presents itself as a different performance, and “in each interaction people put on different identity” (Zaure 2023).Theoretical approach & method: I will create the runway through a devised process, building the world of the performance through the performer. This type of creation process will allow a personal connection between the performer and their garment. Each garment showcased on the runway will be individualized to the performer who is wearing it. The garment (or even lack of) will in some way accentuate the performance that each body gives, hoping to make the audience think about how they play a role in the performance of life. To individualize each outfit, the performers and I will engage in a devised process involving group meetings and exercises focussed on discovering parts of their body and mind that can be accentuated in a physical and material form. We will work together to create a symbolic garment that emerges from past personal experience, working with their individuality as a material, bringing it from the non-physical realm into the physical. My creation method will loosely follow that of the Estonian Academy of Art’s The Lab of Figurative Thought: You Only Have A Moment showcase at the 2023 Prague Quadrennial (Semper 2023), as well as the work shown in The Dress Series (Dempsey and Millan 1994). The runway will accompany a research paper exploring the different performer’s themes, and how their identities (as well as the audiences’) link to scenography.Contributions & significance: At present, there is little research exploring the links between scenography and personal identity, this research will develop an insight into that link, allowing other scenographers to examine the relationship further. The pursuit of this research aims to create a better understanding of people’s perception of performance and daily life. What aspects of each daily experience does one perceive as performance versus authenticity, and what parts of your own life are you fabricating to put a performance on for those around you?

Works Cited:

Carlson, Marvin. 2017. Performance: A Critical Introduction. Vol. Third edition. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. http://proxy.lib.sfu.ca/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=1620915&site=ehost-live.

Dempsey, Shawna, and Lorri Millan. 1994. The Dress Series. http://www.shawnadempseyandlorrimillan.net.

Richardson, Vanessa. 2018. “Developing an Identity Through Theatre.” The Baseline (blog). December 14, 2018. https://medium.com/the-base-line/theatre-is-the-one-place-you-can-always-count-on-to-express-yourself-freely-and-without-judgement-17d80b975736.

Semper, Ene-Liis. 2023. Lab of Figurative Thought: You Have Only A Moment. Fashion Show.

Zaure, Franklinv Pyokpung. 2023. “Scenography and Identity Patterns in Design: A Performance Review of ‘The Meeting,’” January.

Selected Bibliography:

Goffman, Erving. 1978. Gender Advertisements.

Houlihan, Barry, and Grace Vroomen. 2021. “A Stage of Transition: Locating European
Identity, Culture and Memory at the Gate Theatre: Frank McGuinness’ ‘The Thrupenny Opera’ and Peer Gynt and Hugo Hamilton’s The Speckled People.” Review of Irish Studies in Europe 4 (1): 99–120. https://doi.org/10.32803/rise.v4i1.2634.

Janicka, Iwona. 2015. “Queering Girard—De-Freuding Butler: A Theoretical Encounter between Judith Butler’s Gender Performativity and René Girard’s Mimetic Theory.” Contagion (Greenville, N.C.) 22 (1): 43–64. https://doi.org/10.14321/contagion.22.1.0043.

Piqueux, Alexa. 2022. The Comic Body in Ancient Greek Theatre and Art, 440-320 BCE. 1st ed. Oxford Studies in Ancient Culture and Representation. Oxford: University Press, Incorporated. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192845542.001.0001.

Prague Quadrennial, dir. 2023. Costume Agency: Artistic Research.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_06OECsHR-k.

Rixon, Tessa, Jennifer Irwin, David Walters, Jeremy Neideck, M’ck McKeague, Richard
Roberts, Anthony Brumpton, and Latai Taumoepeau. 2021. “Shaping Our Australian Scenographic Identities: A Visual Essay.” Scene 9 (1-2: Australian Scenography): 133–55. https://doi.org/10.1386/scene000413.

“The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life / Erving Goffman. - Simon Fraser University.”
n.d. Accessed November 21, 2024. https://sfu-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=01SFULALMA51421579390003611&context=L&vid=SFUL&lang=enUS&searchscope=defaultscope&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&isFrbr=true&tab=default_tab&query=any,contains,erving%20goffman&sortby=date&facet=frbrgroupid,include,624915490&offset=0.

credits

land

This project was created on the unceded traditional territories of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish), səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations (colonially known as Vancouver), as well as the traditional and unceded territory of the Syilx Okanagan people (colonially known as Kelowna). We would like to thank these nations for their stewardship, care, and leadership on these lands.

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