panto

7 mins
49 mins
In relation to my practice, pantomime seemed like the next step because it seemed to reflect some of my actions and research. Both swatting flies excessively and nose picking (and the other actions such as running in a circle or catching imaginary thing with a net) seem like they would fit perfectly within a pantomime setting. Pantomime is all about absurdities and exaggeration which is reflective of the way i present my thoughts in my work, almost because i am taking the mick out of myself. I know they are ridiculous so i am playing off this.
With the idea of madness there is special seeing powers of ideas.
With the fly swatting, I panic the same panic in the run, but it is a paradoxical panic, panic for no reason, it is another mission destined to fail. This is prevalent in pantomime a sense that the audience already knows the answer, what is the come, but they go along with it anyway.
Bas Jan Ader - Set up to fail, pathetic as he cannot succeed in 'accidentally falling off the house for example.
PARABLE OF LIFE - PANTOMIME OF LIFE.

Youtube channel

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqxmPMBAJHafk3X2UbjRK7g

John Raffman

Fictions are realities to come

interactive performance

LIVE ACTION ROLEPLAY GAMES - ADAM JAMES

I got involved in the piece, I was actually surprised at how many volunteered. We then began the workshop with everyone not participating as an audience, this was difficult at first but then I became mostly unaware of everyone else. I felt at ease around the strangers. We invented and became creatures in small groups, simple concept but was interesting to be part of and see how it was fabricated... mostly without group verbal interaction, feeding off each others physical thoughts, sort of like how a whole body might work, each of us being a section or organ. We had to sync up with each other. Reminded me a lot of drama games I used to play, where we had to improvise situations, or games where we had to meet a goal without speaking. I really enjoyed the non verbal communication, no planning we just had to get on with it, people couldn't take control as easily. There was a strange sense of team work with out creature and competition between other creature, why and how this happened I do not know. I guess it was a collective creature. We all had to take on an embody the creature. ours was odd as its function was to absorb others, so we kept trying to consume parts of the other creatures, so we became misunderstood. It was also very strange afterwards talking as our creatures and not in our creatures language, we were all back as ourselves physically but still had to talk about the creature as if we still were, like an interview? There is something very exciting about the live unplanned element, where the outcome is not controlled. Also it feels less selfish, the art becomes something enjoyed in the moment, by others, more than just yourself.

The artist Adam James often looks at the outsider, however for me this performance was all about inclusion. Yes we were playing outsiders ( although why does a creature have to be an outsider it can be anything no?) - it was the complete inclusion of individuals
His aims were for us to loose ourselves... did I loose myself... no of course not? but I couldn't have lost of myself otherwise it wouldn't have worked as a group piece, if we had all lost ourselves then we couldn't have collaborated together. I was very aware of the presence of others. If I lost myself that would be selfish and this work felt very unselfish.

I am really inspired by this experience, once the performance art society is in place, I would love to introduce things like this, I am also interested at working with fellow class mates in situations like this, but realise this will be more difficult. Improvisation is what I want to explore.

The hairy ape

@ THE OLD VIC

 Reflecting on the class system and mans status compared to ape.
Highlights of performance :

upper class dressed in white balaclava style masks with drawn on faces, alien and robotic look, mirrored in their dance, contrasted against frustration of the 'YANK' trying to communicate. They almost speak another language.

APE SPEAKING TO 'APE' , APE beating ape- pathetic image of man,  he doesn't belong anywhere, delusional hug to real ape who crushes in then leaves him in the cage.

Being and Time - Heidegger

I am currently trying to read the passage of this book about death, but am finding it very hard to read, so am using guides from the internet to help understand it.

'For human beings, time comes to an end with our death. Therefore, if we want to understand what it means to be an authentic human being, then it is essential that we constantly project our lives onto the horizon of our death. This is what Heidegger famously calls "being-towards-death". If our being is finite, then an authentic human life can only be found by confronting finitude and trying to make a meaning out of the fact of our death. '
Extract from Guardian article. (http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2009/jul/13/heidegger-being-time

The notion of becoming is still something i am very interested even though i have put it on pause for now in terms of a 'project', it is still something i think about a great deal. Especially death, earlier on in the term I was looking at ways to surpass human existence and started to focus on death, questioning whether this was indeed our ultimate limitation or if in fact it was the point in which we transgressed our human selves, through becoming non-human, experiencing feelings in death we had never experienced as humans.Or whether the way to surpass ourselves was to accept death, when we had truly accepted death, it could no longer limit us, as surely something you are accepting of is not a limitation? Or maybe not etc.... I agree with Heidegger in the sense that we exist out of death, we need to 'constantly project our lives onto the horizon of our death' Being towards death is not morbid and it is through our acceptance of being finite that we become passionately aware of our freedom.  I have spent so long thinking about death negatively, however it is only being towards death that one can become the person who one truly is. I am keen to continue reading this part of the book using guides to help me understand further. Currently I'm not sure how it can physically lead into my practise, but I see how it can affect my everyday outlook, as it is letting me see a new way to see life with death, as the two are married, rather than being separate states. 

MY MOTHER - GEORGES BATAILLE

A short story, which has an Oedipal nature, I am still quite confused by what I read. I gather that it is about celebrating the insanity of life and the pleasures of the flesh. The book has a strange pace, everything feels really high up in the air, the whole time, lots of very strange things are told in such a way it becomes normal, like the sharing of women with his mother, its treated very casual and after reading the book for a long period of time it strange when I would stop and think about things normally realising the absurdity. But in that sense its quite beautiful through normalising madness. I am particularly drawn to the mothers character because of her energy portrayed through text, she is portrayed as the mad but tragic heroine who people seem to love but also are sickened by. When she speaks i imagine her voice to be quite high not in tone but in energy all the time, but in a dead false way. It reminds me of the style of acting in many John Waters films, especially of the character 'DIVINE', everything is on the same level, so it constantly feels like something really exciting is going to happen to the point where you realise it never is. Its an absurd contradiction. The mother is wild in her actions but because of the way she speaks about them she becomes dull but in an intoxicating sort of way. In performance perhaps I could explore her character, or like the character of DIVINE explore the very 'high' way of speaking and acting. Recently I have been watching a show called 'RuPauls Drag Race', all about competing to be americas next top drag queen, in this a lot of the acting is the same, everything high, but i have felt very inspired watching it because this style is enchanting to me, its absurd how the constant tone which in moderation would be exciting becomes dulls but then it becomes exciting through its absurd dullness, its a paradox.