Discussions

Creative Workshops verses Artist led process

I am embarking on a project through Suffolk Artlink to explore the creative processes of Artists.

It has been a big confidence boost to be approached on the small success of my Arts Council recognition and therefore valued as an emerging artist..

The project will bring several artists together from different fields such as poetry, textiles, performance Art, visual art and drama. The aim as I understand it so far is to create an on line database of creative thinking, where people can come and get some starting points for creative projects. We are targeting people who may want to create a workshop with vulnerable people but I am sure it can extend beyond this...

I have been really excited by this project as it will allow me to evaluate my processes as an creative Artist and develop workshops from an artist led stand point.  Usually I would approach creative dance projects from the angle of a 'teacher' and create a workshop based on a theme. My approach would be:

What is the theme
How can I fit the activities from previous themes into this new theme?
Action words that come from theme
Deliver workshop

I find that I do not allow myself to indulge in the theme for very long before I have done my plan, when i have my 'I am a teacher' hat on.

So now I am being asked to "shed the teacher" and start working from an artist led approach. This however relies on me understand how I work as an artist. What are my creative processes? This is where my creative journey begins and I suppose why I wanted the funding in the first place.

I must also be careful that I do not just bring my work that I have created to the creative table as it is the practise(process) that they are interested in!...

I am learning to: (god I'm such a bloody school teacher!....)

Feel comfortable NOT knowing and having all the answers
TRUST in my process or journey (if the ideas don't enthuse me anymore then I know its no longer working!)

When is a performance a workshop?

So I also wanted to look at the difference between leading a workshop and audience interaction; and when is a performance really a workshop?
 It links in to this theme well as we change roles between, workshop facilitator, Artists, performance. The topic of audience interaction has been one of my research questions and is a big discussion that will go on and on and on, until we all get really bored of it!..

Last year when I performed an experimental version of my burial piece outside in a wood, I tried my hand at a more audience interactive version. As I gathered the audience around I discussed and chatted to them about gardening and invited them to draw flowers for the garden. The performance was very intimate and some elements worked really well and felt honest and true. On reflection I started feeling like I hadn't done a performance at all but led a workshop! It was also because I didn't feel like I was performing and being a character at all..

Neutral performance
This brings in a new topic of being neutral within a performance and presenting ideas as yourself. This seems very popular within an Live Art arena and I am keen to learn more.. It reminds me of going to the Hunt and Darton Cafe and watching the Artist as a waitress. Her performance was very subtle and the performance quality was neutral.(I keep using this term which comes from my theatre background). As the waitress took your order she also invited you to think about how you were feeling,and gave a list of different emotions to look at. I was amazed how many emotions there are, and it was nice to indulge in all of them in front of your very  eyes. I found that as I read them, they were influencing how I felt as I explored each word. The waitress came back to take our emotion and logged the time that we felt it. She was very open to discussions and at times I was unaware that we were in a performance. She wore a chalk board around her neck which she changed according to her feelings. She was now feeling "strong". What a great way to feel I thought as I sat and ate my array of cakes and cup of tea!.. So was this piece a performance? or a process towards creating a performance, or indeed both? It is comforting to know that there really are not any right or wrong answers to this question or any of the Live Art questions I may ponder! The questions create an open dialogue of discussions which hopefully help inspire peole to create work or just look at things differently..