The Entire City 3

This episode has taken me back to my theatrical roots, to Bilbao (Basque Country -Spain-) and in specific to my old drama school the BAI and my old collaborators and their company LaRessistens.






The process was intense, we only had less than two weeks to create a performance from scratch. We had talked and established before my arrival some ideas and concepts, but the main creative work was going to happen during this short period of time.



First day we look at the spaces available and decided which space to use and the setting for the show, once these decisions were taken, we started to built up the screen and rig the lights for the creative process to start.



For this performance I was equipped with a back projection screen of 4 meters by 2 meters. I just had to create the structure to rig the screen.
I decided to used stretchers. After positioning the top three stretchers I realised that it wouldn't be necessary to use any more.



The lighting system from that venue was limited to 12 channels, and there was an acute shortage of lamps and cable, so I had to reduce the lighting concept to a minimum, just to support the acting and the projection.




By the early evening of the second day, the screen was ready and we had a minimum of lighting that allowed us to start working.
We sat down and had a look to the videos I had in my video bank and selected the ones that we thought could give us possibilities to play with during the rehearsals, videos that could create interesting connections and interactions with the performer.
That night we draw the plan of action for the next few days and established a calendar until the day of the performance, thinking of it more like a guide but also as a path to follow and never to lose in order to complete the mission. We understood the limitations of time, and by following that calendar we knew that it would indicate when we were running out of time and when it was time to start simplifying.

From the next day we started to work on interactions and reactions from the performer with the videos, then creating scenes, then links and transitions between scenes and after we start to think on the structure of the piece. The idea behind this process, was to follow a logic path on creating from the smallest of the elements and then starting to combine them, to finish with the structure as the final element to create.

Along the creative process we realise the differences between parts and scenes, differences in atmosphere, intention and energy, we decide not to force the process by choosing a theme or structure on an early state, to leave it until when we could see that the parts were more concrete and consolidated by themselves, and then we could try to find a thematic or storyline. By doing this, we avoid to force the intentions and concepts of the individual piece towards an specific theme or idea, and to allow these intentions and concepts to become or to happen freely.

The whole process was very relaxed and felt natural and not forced in any moment. This is due to have a magnificent performer and the connection I had with the co-director due our previous collaborations.
























This experience was extremely enriching and had taught me ways of incorporating dramatical elements to my practice. Those dramatic elements had transformed and evolved The Entire City into a new and more complete performance.

Laboratory.

Tomorrow afternoon is the first presentation of the laboratory module.

For me it has been a quite painful and agonizing experience.

For weeks I have been desperately looking for ideas; the hardest I was reaching the farthest they seemed to escape from me.

Nothing seemed to be good, loads of little ideas came and went without inspiring me or indicating a path to follow.

Finally I came back to one of the first idea/setting that came to my mind during the process.

The interaction between projected media and performers.
Allowing the projected media to play the role of scenographic elements and/or performative elements (i.e. as characters).

One of the main interests in my practice is the evocation of atmospheres, feelings or emotions.

One of the most interesting elements of theatre is its evocative quality.
the pursuit of this quality is strictly related to the mastery and dominion that the creators have in their specific fields.

The research I undertook about the work of Josef Svoboda show how important is the practical experimentation and the taking risks in such experimental process.

Svoboda created an workshop for experimentation in the National Check Theatre, where a permanent team of technicians, chemists, engineers and others carried an extraordinary process of experimentation and investigation to find new ways of producing visually striking performances.

That is inspiring.


coming back to the lab...

This laboratory will allow me to try out some visual ideas and images I had in my mind for quite some time, and evaluate its effectiveness when trying to emote and transmit specific emotions or sensations.

It is quite unusual to have the chance to put up a setting as the one built for my laboratory, without the pressure of having to produce a show from it.

It is indeed a great opportunity for experimentation; whether the circumstances were not very favourable regarding to the time-scale and other inconveniences, it still a great chance for try outs.


My urgent questions on this occasion will be related to the performative qualities of the projected media elements or techniques.

The concept behind this experiment is the juxtaposition of performative elements created by Projected Media and the dramatic qualities resulting of this interrelation.

The feedback session that follows the performance is an idyllic place for the analysis of the efficiency of the experiment.

I will try to lead the session towards the emotional responses of the audience.
Since the performance lacks in purpose of story-line, the elements to analysis are:

If the performance's elements has engaged the audience towards the emotion intended.

The efficiency and versatility of the interaction between projected media's.

Does the does the group (interaction of elements) creates the unit (emotional response)?


For this project I have focused all my attention to the "projection" leaving the lighting design to a mere practical concept. To show what it needs to be seen and "hide" what needs to be hidden.


Wish me luck.

Another friday

And another Friday just went through.

This time we had the chance to show our pieces, but not without the traditional bit of haggling (thanks Ilka for your assertiveness).

This Friday I presented a little installation, which mainly was a visual gag, inspired somehow by Gary Larson.

The setting was the next:


An image of the real Louvre museum where the original Gioconda is exhibited, having replaced it with a version from some graffiti artist (whose name couldn't find) was projected. Four drawing mannequins were placed in front of the projection representing shock and loath.




The text next to the display said:


"It finally happened.

It wasn't Banksy but another graffiti artist who took over the Louvre museum, and changed the original Gioconda for his own version.

Clouds of confused American and Japanese tourists admired how well ahead of his time Da Vinci was.

The roaring of the camera flashes muffled the screaming of the French connoisseurs..."

On the right side of this note I placed a notebook where I asked the audience to continue telling the story.

This is how the story followed:


...and they started throwing their coffee soaked croissants at it in a blinding rage
as the crowds of screaming tourists ran from the museum a lone figure stood and admired the masterpiece
and then, he took his knife and took the drawing off the wall, put it in his luggage
looking around, everyone staring at him. Suddenly he begin to run but as we can see the guy in the middle is looking left, he saw an original Banksy
and it's a work in progress! -, he wondered.."-. I think I will never make it -
The American took pictures in front of it
and then a Greek "connoisseur" tears apart the "fake" picture and puts in its place a statue of ancient Aphrodite.. cause Leonardo Da Vinci was a Greek. Didn't you know it?

Double reactions from the audience:

Some people did believe that that story really happened, and sadly I had to burst their bubble and explain that still a dream no one had achieved yet.

Some people didn't get the role of the mannequins, and ask what did they represent?
Is pitiful when you have to explain the joke it looses the surprise factor, is not funny any more.

But the fact that some people didn't get it, made me think that maybe the way of staging it wasn't the right one.

In specific the short talk I had with Douglas (who by the way wasn't very impressed with the whole thing) put things more clear.

The aim of this experiment was to try to bridge the gap between visual languages via action:




The action represented by the mannequins: shock, loath, confusion, disgrace...
was intended to merge the different languages ( projection and figurines), but this action wasn't intense and powerful enough to lead the imagination to ignore the difference.



Instead what happened was confusion and misunderstanding for the representational role of the figurines, is like they didn't belong to that setting.


This issue brings me back to Appia and his discourse about the materiality of the performer and the materiality of the scenography:

His main argumentation is against the use of painted backcloth:

The body (of the actor) is alive, mobile and plastic; it exits in three dimensions. Space and the objects used by the body must most carefully take this fact into account...
...Our stage directors have, for a long time, sacrificed the physical and living presence of the actor to the dead illusion of painting. under such a tyranny, it is obvious that the human body could never develop in any normal way its means of expression.

Adolphe Appia, Actor, Space , Light, Painting (1919)



I'd like also to quote Erika Fischer-Lichte on her book the Transformative power of performance:

"..products of technical and electronic media. While they might simulate effects of presence, they are unable to generate presence itself...they create impression of presentness without actually bringing forth these bodies or objects as present... Human bodies, their fragments, objects, and landscapes are made to seem present in a particularly immediate manner but they remain constituted only of moving lights or pixel arrangements on a screen. Real human bodies, objects, or landscapes actually remain absent anywhere on the movie, television, or computer screen."






Is like coming back to Magritte's pipe.

We know that is just a drawing of a pipe but we want to believe is a pipe.







From here I reclaim illusion. Illusion as part of the theatre, illusion as part of the performance, illusion as part of life.

One of the most powerful weapons Theatre has is the power of make-believing.

From the classical concept of character, to the set, lights, sound and everything that composes theatre, we playing with illusion.

Even in performing arts, in way or another there is always an element of illusion or make-believing.

I will continue preaching about this issue, is not over




By the way this is Douglas' work

Clouzot's Inferno

Monday night I went to see Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno in the ICA.
Looking for things to do in London can be such a confusing, over-whelming and risky (there is so much crap around) task.
But when I looked at the little information about this movie somehow it lured me.

The film is a kind of documentary-reconstruction of the filming process of the unfinished movie "Inferno".

"Is a film about a film that was never made"  Richard Pena, Film society of Lincoln Centre

Inferno is the story of a man suffering paranoid jealousy over his newly married wife.
Clouzot experimented for a long period on hallucinatory effects in order to transmit the delirium happening in the main character's mind.




At the start of the film in an interview with Clouzot, he talks about his almost sickening interest in representing the different mental illnesses by visual effects and making the audience to feel them.
He says, "you can transmit ten different mental illnesses via visual effects, but you can only tell one in two hours"
He believed that in order to transmit and make the audience feel the specific illness, as a creator he needed to find the visual triggers in everyone's latent illnesses.
That is why he spends such an incredible amount of time and energy investigating and experimenting with ways of expressing those emotions in a cinematic way.
He managed to mix kinetic art and Op art in a cinematographic media, collaborating with visual artists such as Joel Stein and Yvaral, and gathering a creative team composed of the best cinema visual talents of the time.
During the 28 weeks of investigation the images he achieved were astonishing, enigmatic and highly effective when transmitting the paranoid jealousy of the main character.



Clouzot had a pre-production process so detailed that every frame from every shoot was thought and planned to the minimal detail. But it was during the production time when things started to go wrong.

It seems that all that organisation, material and ideas wasn’t enough for Clouzot.
The rest of the creative team thought that he got lost on the way to organize the material, to choose and select what it was need to be screened, and what was just part of the creative process and it was meant not to be part of this film.

Unluckily he had a heart attack so he couldn’t finalize the project. So no one could see what he wanted to do.

What I can take from this film and apply to my practice is:

To keep as one of the foremost priorities the attention to the detail and to the composition. How the effect fits on the moment and to pursuit to achieve the realisation of the concept.

The importance of the investigation and experimentation of new or old but appropriated visual languages and/or strategies according to the needs of the project.

And as the last and the obvious one, to keep a realistic approach to the overall elements of the project.

Friday and friday and friday.

Life is full of surprises, and not knowing what's going to happen next is one of life's best gifts.
While three Fridays ago we had our first show as a group, just two Fridays ago we had our first fight against the "Man" also as a group, and last Friday what it seems to be the reaction to that fight.

These experiences are equally positive and enriching for us as a collective, although one of them was more enjoyable than the others.

First, I will talk about the shows experience:
Weeks of confusion, of not knowing what was going on, of what we were suppose to do, and how the whole thing was going to be assembled.
But there was also loads of creativity, expectations, hopes, dreams and personal and group motivation. I saw amazing ideas and pieces of work that show me the high level of artistic creativity that my classmates have, and it made me feel honoured to be in this group.

After an intense last push on the last few days before the show, we finally saw the result.
The performance was a confusing experience for me.
The shadow elements were beautiful and very effective, and I could see within it the involvement and creative input of my classmates. They created them.
The projection side was also a beautiful display of visual composition and rhythm and very rich in content of social and political statements.
But what confused me was, that that part of the show, was pretty much completely Douglas' creation.
I completely understand the pressure from the limited time and the fact that we work faster working in our own way (i.e. preference of creative dynamics, choice of content and visual styles)
But I also have to say that in the projections I missed to see my classmates' images that I saw during the creative process, images that surprised me, inspired me and gave me so much to think about this whole climate change issue.

Maybe because I was in the front and got to see the show three times, I was the only one to realise that; or maybe other people had realised it too, but I haven't heard anything about it yet, and I don't expect to hear about it again.

The second one of these Fridays started again with confusion and nerviness.
First time we were presenting individually, not enough time to feel like we have something good, and of course stage fright.

And then, when the first performance just had started, it happened, the unpredictable, the surprise:
We were kicked out of our performing space, not a chance to negotiate, off you go, find somewhere else for your stuff.
The frustration, the anger, the confusion, the frustration coming back at you.
What to do? where to go? should we perform? should we allowed this? what can we do about it?

Let's have a meeting in the Meeting Room, that ironically was our alternative space to perform.

In the meeting, with almost everyone, I felt that everyone was of the same state of mind, we were feed-up with the situation and we needed changes,

What changes we want? What aren't we happy with? How should we achieve these changes?

We found the appropriated solutions, wrote these ones down and planned the next steps, and once we were done organising and planning we went to the pub.
It was just the right way to finish this tumultuous day.

After doing something so "Un-British," such as creating a little revolution we ended up in one of the finest and more welcoming of the British traditions: The Pub

I felt that the group was getting together, that we had gone through some hard experience and now we were enjoying each other company on a pleasant one. And it felt good.

And the last but not the least, last friday.
As a conclusion for what happened the Friday before, we had a meeting with the Dean the vice-Dean, Douglas and Edwina.

I dont think any of the students really knew what was going to happen in this meeting, or even what we were expected to do in it.
We meet before, we organise as good as we could our thoughts, and the key word was "Assertiveness". Let be calm but firm, because we have the right to.

The meeting went extremely well, too well in my opinion, someone called me paranoid, but we'll see.

And now, we are waiting to see what will happen next regarding our needs and queries.

The future is unpredictable and surprises are life's best gifts, and whatever happens it'll happen. But so far I'm glad all this is happening, for two things:

One, is better for these issues to happen the sooner the better, so we know how things work and how to fight back for the next "fights"

Two, the group is communicating and working as a team, without the need of parenting or external help, we still Douglas' pets, but we are growing up.

Work in progress

My current practice is taking me through an investigation on the performative qualities of projection and lighting in conjunction with flexible and movable scenography.

Following the ideas of Adolphe Appia and Edward Gordon Graig, the emotional response achieved when abstract and objective pieces of scenography combine with music and lighting is the main interest of my research.

Due to the technical limitations, I haven't been able to advance on the practical side of these ideas.

My practical exploration has been so far on scenic visual composition on the field of projection.

The next pictures are taken from a basic model box.

My first project is based on the Hungarian tale called "The Death and the old woman"

 This tale narrates the way an old and greedy woman tries to trick Death so she can stay alive forever, and how thanks to fear and luck she achieves it.

These are images from the, still in progress, development of my concept of the visual representation of the tale









The most representative image of what I intend to achieve with this practical experimentation process is "The Glass Mountain"

The mixture of textures and media creates the oniric and surreal visual quality that I intend to achieve for this piece.

Internet Pirates

While i was at home,(Spain)I had the chance to watch a cultural TV program dedicated to new and up-coming artists.

They show an interview with a new band that gave me something to think about.

This band called Delorean, which organizes Jam Sessions on Internet starts to be internationally recognized and their set is heavily based on electronic instrumentation.

What interested me the most from them was a remark the main singer did while asked about their influences.
He said that most of the music that they had listened and have influenced them, has been "obtained" thanks to the internet.

Internet has been an inspiring and fundamental source of materials for them, and also and I quote: "even the software that we use for our music, comes from the internet, pirate style"

This interview was broadcast on national TV, for me is the first time that anyone recognize so openly and publicly an illegal use of material and a breach of copyright laws.

As a young creator, as many young creators, I use pirate software, music, pictures and other materials. If these illegal materials weren't there, i wouldn't be able to afford them, which it would be a big problem on developing my practice, as i guess it would be for many other young artists.

I don't intend to open a debate about copyright laws, but I think it's important that we realize the social consequences of these actions and even to feel proud of our little pirate attacks.

Arrg, my hearties!!!