Project Puppets

Experimenting with distant viewing, telecomunications, skyper-performer interaction and many more!

Day 1. I observe, I witness, I reflect…

Not so much fun :-/

 

I DO! The joys of phenomenology! Much more fun 😉

 

 

 

 

INFORMATION ON PROJECT: PUPPETS

Having provided a research proposal on this project, I, as researcher, choose at this point to refrain from submitting another formal essay, mainly because it does not reflect the nature either of the project at this stage or of myself as an individual artist/researcher/student.

I do however feel the necessity to provide all those of you who could not be here with us during this week, with guidelines so as to facilitate you in making the most out of the relevant information provided in various forms (i.e. texts, video footage, skype recordings, pictures).

Let me walk you through the steps of my journey from the conception of the research project, to current events and all the way to future follow-ups:

The lazy days before Lincoln

The idea came to me after sending in my initial REALLY GRANDOISE AND HIGH TECH proposal, getting “wow, yes, but…” feedback. Somewhere between reading articles and enjoying the sea and sun in Greece the downsizing came to me and project “PUPPETS” was born.

You can read more about the specifics of the project in my draft proposal.

 

The crazy days in Lincoln

A hectic week of thinking, deciding, jotting down ideas, rethinking, rejecting, re-deciding and finally experimenting, pondering results, discussing with fellow artists and collaborators is coming to an end.

I chose a trial and error iterative approach.

I started with a PLAN A that was very soon abandoned due to lack of participants/ audience.

Thus came my first lesson of the week: BE ADAPTIVE! When time is pressing and plan A does not work, move it to the back part of your mind, save it for later, discard it, do anything you like with it but MOVE ON TO PLAN B!

Plan B consisted of experiments similar to the one done on the final day.

Documentation is included in the form of pictures, video, participant feedback and text.

I did two sessions of experimentation, PUPPETS DAY 1 and PUPPETS DAY 2, two 15 minute takes each time with a break in between to rest and give further instructions.

Terms and details:

I did the distant audience version (see draft proposal).

The people involved are:

• Performers
• Skypers (distant audience members on skype who instruct performers as to what to do
• Music operator
• Observer (to witness and take notes/photos)
• Camera operator

Before each session a tech skype call took place to set up and make sure everything ran smoothly.

After that the performers contacted the skypers and “performance” took place.

From that moment on the skypers received only written communication between takes.

In the end feedback was given in the form of drawing writing and talking from the live participants and via e-mail from the skypers.

DAY 1

For the first session I took on the role of “Observer” for the first take and the role of “Camera operator” for the second take.

I had two performers and two skypers. The skypers where kept at a distance and switched performers for the second take.

The music played mostly randomly.

It did not go very well… But research wise was very useful to me.

(see anything labeled PUPPETS DAY 1)

 

DAY 2

For the second session I took on the role of performer for a phenomenological approach.

I had therefore two performers (one being myself on both takes, the other changing).

Two skypers but together in the same place, on the same computer.

One music operator.

One audience member free to move around in space and take notes or pictures.

One observer on Take 1.

One camera operator on Take 2.

 

This time it went much better, the process was overall smoother, the acoustics better and we had a lot of fun (see anything labeled PUPPETS DAY2).

More food for thought for me as a researcher seeing as the parameters changing had a strong effect on human nature!

So the final day has come and the presentation will come to you on video.

I propose to do a final run, with:

One skyper as Puppet Master

Three performers

One music operator

One audience member (unless more choose to come) free to move in space and interact with the space and/or the performers, take notes and/ or pictures

One camera and potentially one of the performers as operator.

 

My reflections, conclusions so far…

I was trying to see how many degrees of freedom can be given to viewers and how many things left to chance before chaos was reached. I was also investigating the impact of all that on the participants and the intricacies of human nature. As a result I came to realize that it is not so easy to create chaos BUT human nature in itself IS chaos…  ( see also ‘My thoughts as self-appointed Puppet-Master’). I do not feel safe to provide results at this point as the process does not end here in Lincoln…

 

The hazy days after Lincoln

 

The iterative nature of my research requires that I continue on… I plan to try and explore all the versions described in my draft proposal as well as any that pop up along the way. I plan to speak to psychologists as part of the human nature research branch, see how perhaps my PUPPETS can be used as tool or even just as a game in this field (remembering Developmental Transformations). I plan to do site specific versions, and versions with people of different ages. And finally I plan to include all of you in any way you like in future versions, just for FUN!

 

Welcome to University of Lincoln Blogs. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!