reformto-reACTION

The Haymarket Ballads Part 3

The workers all crowded, fists held high Stop this now, stop bleeding us dry We want out, now! Down with this structure! If money was dead, you’d be the vulture, We don’t believe this manufactured culture!

Now you’re aware of what happened here on the second of May Which is why we decide to put on this display Today isn’t just about maypoles and flowers or welcoming the spring It’s about solidarity, and socialism It’s incredibly left-wing

And from left-wing you may think Mohawks and nose rings But it’s more than that, It can be told in any form and style that anyone sees fit

Lure us in with empty promises you make, With sharp dressed suits and flimsy handshakes, To work us to death, your first mistake, You may be the man but we can be the snake,

We picked you up when the future wasn’t bright Took you in from the cold and held you tight And the second we think everything is alright Then you lash out from our breast that you bite

You know what they say, what you can’t deny, Once bitten twice shy, But you don’t know if you don’t try

Get up, dust yourself off and try again, no point to moan and complain, stand up straight, set your body upright, Remember, we’re workers we can put up a fight

We’ll pick ourselves up from the dirt When the future doesn’t look so bright We’ll hit back and make it hurt We’ll do what’s right This isn’t just a statement About dressing in white You may be the snake But the workers, we bite

From the words of the punk poets damn right we are history writers, freedom fighters, and flame igniters, Writing out stories from electric type writers, clutching our fists with cigarette lighters, We are speech writers speech shouters every minute of every hour we are getting louder And the workmen of the past are looking down getting prouder We come to stand for nothing but their solidarity But what came from that day, was a public display of vulgarity

- Jessica Chaney 2016

Radican’t? Radican! pt2.

The discourse of politics and performance shifts between happenings and memory, these happenings within society and culture lead to produce radical theatre in the form or protest aimed to promote socio-political and liberal demands. And this politically charged energy of radicalilty is what we were interested in focusing on in terms of a re-telling briefly of The Haymarket Affair. From within the space there were political elements that resonated within the making of the performance such as the Haymarket Rally and the essence of organic labour within the allotment. Halvorsen suggests that:

“Today’s allotments are neither a form of pure rebellion nor a harmonious antidote to work-related stress but a many-layered and contradictory discourse on wage labour and its alternatives. These portraits are a celebration of the creative freedom, ingenuity and self-reliance that thrives alongside our careers but they also reflect tension and possibility as we negotiate how best – in a society capable of co-opting all our emotional and physical resources – to spend our time.” (Halvorsen, 2015: 401-417)

Implying that the discourse of working-based labour and organic labour. An allotment in itself is a space of creative resistance against already made structures by using it as an escape from the consumerist demands of work-based life. Throughout the process of collaboration and my own independent practice, these concepts of the everyday and radicalism from moments of ruptures were all associated towards the contribution of commission. On one aspect, like activism the development of the initial commissioned process had sank into routines of the everyday. However, for the performance to have its radical sustenance it needed to experience the everyday that goes with the development of a moment of rupture. This development that was paired with the organic manual labour that was semiotically expected working in an allotment environment.

The performance was in itself a moment of rupture theatrically. Of all who witnessed it event there was an awakening and for us as collaborators being present throughout the whole process were new developmental ways of learning.

Halvorsen, S. (2015). Taking Space: Moments of Rupture and Everyday Life in Occupy London. Antipode.

A rhizomatic image. There is no hierarchy. We are all equal.

Performance of Thanks Allot(ment) (2016)

Photo Credit: Samuel Gray

Radican’t? Radican! pt 1

The subject of politics often is used as ammunition for theatre makers and artists to provoke statement or change. In moments of rupture, anarchism can be a method that questions all authority that is already established from hierarchy in societies. Understanding that moments of rupture from a rhizomatic approach should be taken as a whole collective of we and also within self-identity and philosophical authority. The performer or spectator in a radical act or performance expresses this on a spiritual level through experience and actions; is this something that “we” as human beings embrace within the moment and movement. Radicality, a subjective mode of expressionism, it is argued to be a modernist term as it socially re-examines current political situations within culture. To dissect the word “radical” it originates from language and music as denoting or relating to another word, being the “root” of the word. Another sub-definition of “radicality” means being an actual root, otherwise known as a rhizome. This process taking into consideration French psychiatrist and political activist Deleuze and Guattari’s (1987) philosophies of rhizomatic theory which proposes that society adapts the same function of an actual rhizome root, which is that it grows horizontally and then stems upwards, adapting this theory into collaboration states that there is no person that is considered of hierarchical importance. There are in fact members of the group that have different specialties than others but they are all in fact equal towards the development of material and that it is considered healthy and important to shift in roles. This system of collaboration is a more negotiated group process and it takes time for the work to be nurtured and grows over the process. Sally Mackey, professor of applied theatre and performance, states on devised collaboration: “This creative process is unique and differs from the more prescribed roles usual in non-devised theatre forums.” (Mackey, 1997: 113) This supports the rhizomatic based system that as collaborators we set up the foundations for throughout the entirety of our process as collaborators. Although there were many paradigms of rhizomes that were encountered in this commission but in terms of the contexts within the performance Thanks Allot (2016) the focus of moments of rupture within society was present. However, in terms of politics moments of rupture professor of performance studies and anthropology, Soyini Madison states that: “A radical act is a confrontation with the “root” of the problem” (Soyini Madison, 2010: 18) As human beings in society, there is generally an act of exposure in attempt to change the current structure. Radicalism politically and socially reforms classes and cultures considering that radicalism aims itself at institutions from the inside, rhizomes are spaces within that pop up and grow. Deleuze and Guattari state: “A rhizome ceaselessly establishes connections between semiotic chains, organisations of power, and circumstances relative to arts, sciences, and social struggles.” (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987: 7) To an extent rhizomatic ideologies are evolving and progressing as they grow. What I mean by this is that rhizomatic theory is only still developing within our hierarchy based culture and it is how a rhizome can infiltrate from the inside to deconstruct institutions. However, from a theatre based perspective it is encouraged to adapt a rhizomatic structure when creating devised theatre collaboratively.

Taking into consideration modes of philosophy when trying to articulate rhizomatic structure within collaboration and developing process of material, Aristotle states: “A thing seems to be nothing other than its own substance, and something’s substance is said to be its essence” (Aristotle, Irwin & Fine, 1996: 157) Aristotle’s philosophies is that the object that being contained from within the object itself possesses a substance of matter and form. Of which gives sustenance towards the performance moment that is genuine and organic and provides the moment with an immediately apparent impact, whether that may be a physical or emotional one. For example, a radical moments matter is charged from ideas of resistance and anti-establishment. In this case it could be the idea of political ideologies that makes the substance of the moment radical. However, most of the time a radical moment only exists in attempt to form itself into something else. Reformation of these radical moments can never be reciprocal; a crowd in a protest for example can reform and take the shape it once was but can radical moments resonate previous moments of radicality? Such as our performance moment can resonate with the rupture of the Haymarket Affair?

Aristotle, Irwin, T & Fine, G. (1996). Aristotle: Introductory Readings. Indianapolis. Hackett Publishing.

Deleuze, G & Guattari, F. (1987). A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Introduction: Rhizome. The University of Minnesota Press. United States of America.

MacKey, S. (1997). Practical Theatre: A Post-16 Approach. Sally Mackey. Stanley Thornes Publishers. Cheltenham. United Kingdom.

Soyini Madison, D. (2010). Arts of Activism: Human Rights as Radical Performance. Cambridge University Press. New York.

A reformation of the original Haymarket affair poster of 1886.

The Performance of Thanks Allot(ment) (2016)

Photo Credit: Samuel Gray

2/5/2015

Radical Radican Radicant Radicunt Radcunt

- Jessica Chaney 2016

The Performance of Thanks Allot(ment) (2016)

2/5/2016

Photo Credit: Samuel Gray

The Haymarket Ballads Part 2

Originally the ballads were seven sections long but on the final performance they were condensed down to three.

Once the dust settled, and everything was clear, But police were nowhere near, They were quick to save their own bacon, Even though the peaceful protests was shakin’

Confused faces, “Get back to your workplaces, This protest is over” It came crashing back to us workers like the world’s worst hangover

Workers once again exploited, Just wanted better conditions, but left disappointed.

Eight men labelled as anarchists stood on trial for a crime they did not commit Sure, the man will make mistakes But we are at the disadvantage and we are taking no chances We will stand our ground Stand through this disaster or what you know as The May Day Massacre

From the riot from Haymarket Square To across the world, we are everywhere Across the waters we are Labour

Cut us and we bleed red, We are labour through and through So stand up and help thy neighbour We stand to make the world greater So come on now, put pen to paper with our sheets we can build a skyscraper Of all the ideas of what can be and what will be to join forces hand in hand for our voices to be heard and to take a stand We will not let anybody tell us to give in Cause we can make a difference we can change everything

- Jessica Chaney 2016

Ecology & Moments of Rupture

Moments of rupture can be considered temporary and rhizomatic, meaning that the moment happens and effectively leaves a trail and happens elsewhere. If we consider politics as its own language, societies and cultures have distributed their own language of politics over centuries. If combined in terms of moments of rupture with “echo-dramaturgy”, that there is always a relationship between performer and audience members through their cultural surroundings. Echo-dramaturgy is the connection between all materials and concepts that had been discussed throughout the process. It connects the ecology of the land and its politics and theories based around a more socialist or communist philosophy. I can also demonstrate how rhizomatic moments can be present and then shift to then reappear elsewhere. In moments of rupture, anarchism can be a method that questions all authority that is already established from hierarchy in societies. Boudreau et al (2009) notes on a moment of rupture:

“ They claim that in examining moments of rupture, such as a demonstration, it is important to reflect on the bridges from the ordinary to the extraordinary and back to the ordinary” (Boudreau et al, 2009: Cited in Halvorsen, 2015: 4)

Moments of rupture such as protests for example are an act of a demonstration, a formation of a group to object towards means of oppression. Within the context of our research the protest of the Haymarket Affair was a group of anarchists, socialists and communists that came together to campaign against low wages, long working hours and child labour in industrial work places. From the context of labour was a practice of everyday life, this routine based function in order to be sustained in societies had been exhausted extremely towards current working conditions. Through this movement of change there are the moments of activism that are rooted towards everyday practices. Political and urban geographer, Sam Halvorsen states that: “Activism, rather than simply being a moment of rupture, is an ongoing set of everyday practices through which the transition to post-capitalist worlds takes place. Everyday life is thus not only important for mobilising activism, but is central to the ongoing production of activist spaces.” (Halvorsen 2015: 401-417)

Suggesting that when a moment of rupture occurs in society there are tensions between how others practice the everyday. If this is acknowledged then the everyday is an essential function that allows societies to mobilise and form into a moment of rupture socially. A moment of rupture is often most referred to in social movements, or what can be also known as a transformative event. What I mean by a transformative event is that it is a turning point in the history of the social movement and although movement has resisted its memory still lingers. Halvorsen defines a transformative event as: “a particular temporality of protest that provides a turning point in the development of struggles.” (Halvorsen 2015: 401-417)

In context for the commissioned process of Thanks Allot (2016) we were interested in temporary movements that were considered autonomous and transformative. Even though there was no possible way that we could perhaps make our performance piece a transformative event. However we could find elements that resonated with a transformative event. From this we were able to liberate previous moments in history by re-forming the original moments from history and the commissioned process. This can be also associated with anarchist writer and poet Hakim Bey and his perspective of the Temporary Autonomous Zone (TAZ). The Temporary Autonomous Zone seeks to preserve creativity and its organic nature. It is a mode of a philosophical post-modern idea of revolution that can often be “romanticised”. Bey’s theory places emphasis on moments of rupture. In his section of Waiting for the Revolution. Bey suggests that moments of rupture rise and then disappear before higher governmental powers can extinguish them. Bey defines TAZ as: “The TAZ is like an uprising, which does not engage directly with the State, a guerilla operation which liberates an area (of land, of time, of imagination) and then dissolves itself to re-form elsewhere/elsewhen, before the State can crush it.” (Bey, 1991: 101)

With social and radical movements and moments constantly disappearing, and reappearing such as The Haymarket Riot, Bey also describes them as a “moment of intensity” that liberates the moment so that when it disappears what is left resonates within in others to then create a similar moment with the same intensity. This can be related towards the actual performance in Thanks Allot, how that moment of intensity had invaded the space of the allotment to then disappear but to how its memory resonates there. For us and our audience members involved will be there to carry through the resonation of the performance and its many concepts of organic-ness, rhizomatic structures and echo-dramaturgy that then entwines all of our learning together.

Bey, H. (1991). T. A. Z. The Temporary Autonomous Zone, Ontological Anarchy, Poetic Terrorism. Brooklyn, NY: Autonomedia.

Halvorsen, Sam. (2015). Taking Space: Moments of Rupture and Everyday Life in Occupy London. Antipode.

MacKey, S. (1997). Practical Theatre: A Post-16 Approach. Sally Mackey. Stanley Thornes Publishers. Cheltenham. United Kingdom.

The Haymarket Ballads

Through out the process of devising material for the allotment my main practice lies within poetry. With influence of re-telling The Haymarket Riot from a loose-English ballad form and punk literature I created the ballads. Below is a sample of ballad one.

The year is eighteen eighty six and we, the workmen are coming out, On this Day of the second of May, hear us say hear us shout, For the demands of shorter work hours and no child labour to be made, On this day soon to go down in history as the first May Day Parade. Workmen all gather round to rally in Chicago’s Haymarket Square, For eight hours of Work, Recreation and Rest. For better health care, A date to be made, All across the world As our crusade!

When the revolution comes, We will crawl out from our slums, To come up with a solution, To de-construct this institution, From the inside-out! Take the Fat Cat’s down no-doubt!

No more low wages, for long days We’ll rattle your cages, We’ll break this phase, Until we get what we want, You bite we taunt, Just remember that we are the people, socialists, communists and anarchists We want the revolution.

When revolution comes, we’ll be at the front banging the drum, Bringing home the bacon, make sure you’re not mistaken. While you call us mindless, but our problems are timeless, When the revolution comes, The bacon better run when the revolution comes

Towards the end of our Haymarket rally, The police come to disperse the crowd A bomb thrown at the police with no warning, protesters attacked..

Beaten with bats, boiling water, homes were booted, Women & children screaming, heads were shooted, Swinging from windows screaming “Down with Them!” stand outside the streets; stand up to the mayhem.

- Jessica Chaney 2016

WE ARE NOT GARDENERS!

A system of structure known as “habitus” researched by the French Sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, habitus is produced by the individuals’ position in social structure. The social structure that was present in all of our practice as research was the actions of tending to the land. Distributing labour within the space without any technology or machinery to benefit made us more human towards the land. Actions that come from allotments are articulated with the structure of farming activity, with an allotment generally having commitment, its practices can become ritualised. Associated norms and tendencies of the allotment habitus can arguably be a representation of the working class habitus. This is a general build of theories within society and power towards the development of social change. A habitus is not fixed or permanent; they are always ever changing and temporary within social structures. Within a working class habitus manual labour could perhaps be a potentially outdated concept for the twenty-first century’s working class, however the connotations of manual labour and the working class can still have semiotic relevance.

Allotments in many discourses can be seen as “organic” and autonomous; they are fashioned with materials to hand and tended using non-machinery based resources. The metaphor of “organic”, which is used often in collaborative devised theatre to reflect on the process, uses material derived from organic matter, living beings and the world around them. At the beginning of the process we all naively were attempting to change the appearance to the allotment of what we all thought would be an idyllic picturesque space of the pagan tradition of May Day.

As a collective we had all became ethnographically curious about our backgrounds, the context of May Day and International Workers Day. In western societies a method of devising theatre is using strategies that associate the process as interconnected with the self, the others’ relationship to what is happening within the performance moment. One of the strategies taken from other practitioners such as Dee Heddon’s One Square Foot exercise as an example of adding another layer within the process. As theatre makers we use exercises that interconnect us to the process to help us define what it is we are researching. For us it was to define our ecology with the allotment and the relationship other beings have with it. It became apparent was that we had to value the land and work alongside it and to attempt not to just perform on top of the land a piece that could be just as easily be performed in a studio.

The Allotment plot we had, had also contributed the development of material and theatre images. We had performed with land numerous times to develop a relationship in nuance towards our innate and social responses to the land. One workshop method in particular that was developed within our process as collaborators previously. The performance that Charlotte had coordinated was a task that was able to let us respond to the land more instinctively. Thinking, performing and doing but just simply reacting to our surroundings.

Image below of Simon responding to the land

This also was another concept of overlay to explore our political stance with the allotment. Using things that already exists and even the act of transferring of material could also be an argument of tainting the organic-ness of the space. The structure of tending and responding more naturally to the space was weekly practices that lead to us understanding different traditions of ethnographic culture within the site-specific space and art practice. Concepts such as the histories of May Day and that the everyday and politics are entwined within functions of everyday life. It is the common man that reclaims his own autonomy by his practice. Olsen suggests that:

“This assumption has its roots in a long tradition of cultural theory treating the streets as the place for opposition, disruption, tactics and protests.” (Olsen: 2013)

Practitioners and artists tend to critique social and political movements by making art and theatre to be used as ammunition for politics to question Institutional structures. Referring back towards the everyday, experiencing routines are the beginning point for resistance to begin. Social structures such as the working class resist mundane practices as a form of social reproduction or re-formation. Social reformation is what can make activism possible to create movements and actions such as protests. Working with the allotment, there were ways to specifically deal with the politics of the working class spatiality. Actions of labour and devotion towards an allotment can become to an individual an escape and resists the routine of the everyday whilst reverting back to a more organic method of routine. By resisting or “breaking routine” for us was interrupting the routine of turning the soil weekly to keep it rich in winter weather. Realising that no matter how much we tried to make the allotment seem like a representation of an idealistic allotment, we decided to burn the remaining bits that were made for composting on the realisation they would not decompose quickly enough.

In one aspect we had exhausted our commodities by placing ourselves in an almost fantasy land of our material by using the allotment as an ever changing space that allowed images of the Self, Other, who is present and who is not present. Philosophical outlook towards the space, Borowski and Sugiera, State:

“Thus it prevents the spectators from questioning such concepts as ‘justice’, ‘freedom’ or ‘humanity, concepts which are in fact historically conditioned and culturally contingent.” (Borowski and Sugiera: 2010: 20)

Expressing images of the self and even autobiographical stories from our parents, each of them were represented in a working class ethic. The surroundings and context of the allotment in that aspect would in fact reach towards our main audiences that were present in the showing of Thanks Allot (2016). Many members of the audience were mainly members of the working class or from working class backgrounds, through families that have been affected by governmental cuts over the years, demonstrating an act of the representation of labour, was an aspect of our show I believed that most members of our audiences could relate towards as a whole unified collective. And as a collective that shares the same ideologies can form a socio-political movement for what they think could benefit towards the community.

To dissect the word “community” from individuals having lived in the same area or having characteristics in common and to break it down into the word “unity”. The definition of unity is something being joined as a whole or even united; there is something I find comforting about the word “unity”. It means not alone, a collective and a community that reflect on where they are placed within the world ethnographically. Working together as collaborators and even performing to audience members, there is a nuance of unity. As we perform as a collective, as a collaborative commission, as a representation of the working class and in memories of our self in adolescence in attempt to understand the world. In terms of “we” also resonates within self-identity and philosophical authority. I speak of “we” as a collective term, but who is “we”? In this case of out this commissioned piece is “we, the people” a collective community of individuals that question our actions. Actions that have happened that have affected politics and societies. In terms of rethinking revolution “we” is a suggestion of unity and community that seek alteration or change that develops into a moment of rupture.

Borowski, M & Sugiera, M. (2010). Worlds in Words: Storytelling in Contemporary Theatre and Playwriting. (Ed.) Mateusz Borowski and Malgorzata Sugiera. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Newcastle Upon Tyne.

Reacting with the allotment in Thanks Allot(ment) (2016)

Photo Credit: Samuel Gray

02/05/2016

In Response to Michael De Certeau

Whilst working at the allotment either to tend the land or to make material, these tasks became routine based every time we entered the space. It was mundane, monotonous but also organic. Michael De Certeau (1988) has been often mentioned when there are questions of how to deal with spaces we work in or even the mundane practice of the everyday. Works from The Practice of Everyday Life (1988) discusses how the “everyday” can be altered, how we are able to utilise objects, to make them their own by, for example resisting their intended function.

Even though the everyday or everyday life is broad and difficult to define, it has been related to social movements and acts of resisting. It can be also argued that allotments have a connection towards the working class; the function of a general allotment is that it helps with insufficient wages or being able to sustain food during unemployment. They can be an everyday escape towards other means of working labour and while there the space of an allotment represents cooperative spirit and solidarity. Schoneboom suggests that: “Allotments represent a complex discourse on rebellion against and accommodation of an intensified labour process.” (Schoneboom & May, 2013: 137) Suggesting that the space of an allotment resists the function of necessary labour and resorts to a more nature based method of work, by the nature of human experience of working with the land to reproduce and nurture. This already becomes a space of creative resistance against work life, by resisting constructed inside of institutions that have a specific order or routine. Within the everyday orders, routines and trajectories are fundamentally a connection towards understand the resistance of a change of movement. As collaborators we aimed to parallel resistance outside institutions as well working with objects accordingly. Through this lens of responding to the nature of the space we were simultaneously nurturing the development of the allotment and the process of the commission, attempting to adapt art practices alongside the practices of the land, such as turning the soil. We were effectively working with the allotment, not on top of it, developing and growing organic and natural material.

By embodying the space and using “fixed” behavioural strategies that the space had already provided for us, it utilised its own rules and constructs that already exist within its culture. We spoke to other people that came to tend their allotments, sharing spades, stories and labour. A political essence had already existed within the space. An allotment space is a public space which allows us to speak more environmentally political. From research that was assembled about the context of an allotment, or a community garden, Schoneboom also suggests: “Although much of the actual labour is solidarity, it is interwoven with the fabric of the site as a supervised and regulated social space.” (Schoneboom, 2013: 145)

Schonebooms research lies within organisational theory and behaviour within culture, particularly in the ecology of allotments and working life. With our own practice based research from within the allotment, we were creating material both in tandem of already responding to the actions of labour in an allotment which is a “fixed” space of social behaviour. As well as an element of labour, in The Practice of Everyday Life (1988) Certeau expresses other concepts of how to manipulate an already made structure to create material on a new level, of which Olsen states that public space: “In effect comes a certain expectation of what the arts can do when going into the streets, how it then becomes political and should contest the power systems, and engage in and change the social realities of a place.” (Olsen: 2013)

From Olsens perspective of re-visiting De Certeau’s Practice of Everyday Life is that theatre and arts can aid into drawing more attention of structures within politics that need to be altered. From moments of social disruption such as protests or happenings, that once that have happened are out in the world to connect to others. Social actions of rebellion I believe complimented towards our surroundings of the allotment. The allotment itself represented being within the “edgeland”, which we were using as a public space as a point to resist against structures within a more external system. The politics of the space being a community garden, the unified act of sharing a plot of land to grow self-sufficient produce. The values of the space felt equal, and there was a sense of working together even though there was allocated spaces of land. Even though there were different allotment plots that surrounded our space there was a collective unity of the collective plots. The process of everyday life has been understood as mundane, and practiced of activism that derive from the everyday can be a concept that drives social movements and was able to sustain them for a period of time.

Olsen, C S. (2013). Spatial Thinking and Artistic Practice Re-Visiting Michel De Certeau. [Online Link]. [Accessed on 20th February 2016]. Available From: http://commonthejournal.com/journal/konjunktur-und-krise-no-2/spatial-thinking-and-artistic-practice-re-visiting-michel-de-certeau/

Schoneboom, A & May, J. (2013). Working Through the Allotment. [PDF File] [Accessed on 25th May] Available From: http://www.ephemerajournal.org/

De Certeau, M. (1988). The Practice of Everyday Life. (Ed.) Steven Rendall. Berkeley, California. London University of California.

First Glimpse at the Allotment (2016)

Taken by Jessica Chaney

One Square Foot Response

A task was presented to us the on the first day of visiting the allotment. Dee Heddons One Square Foot (2003) exercise which is a strategy to think about the self and the memory of space and place, was also an example of a method of creating material that sat on top of the context of May Day Allotments. This performance task provided us with an “overlay” of a quality or emotion which becomes more prominent laid on top of something. This concept comes from Lucy Lippard’s Overlay (1989) which is a concept of how contemporary theatre and places can be connected. In the context of the allotment space with the addition to the One Square Foot (2003) from Dee Heddon, with these two methods of connecting the space to ourselves an autobiographical layer from all of us now present within the initial process of making material as well as the contextual research that was conducted of allotments.

On the way to our first experience of the allotment we all walked in silence, considering the following phrases while we walked, which were:

- A point that vanishes

- A voice that fades

- A gesture that shrinks

Thinking about Dee Heddon’s One Square Foot (2003) exercise we each thought of our own personal square foot to keep in mind through the course of the day. Of course this was a component of theatre making where the autobiography would be present, but just how would this be relevant towards a commission at an allotment? At first I questioned what was the significance of bringing in an absent memory into the process? Most of the memories I recalled were from my adolescence, which were in fact a learning curve in finding “the self”. I believe that what is experience in adolescence are the fundamental roots towards your development into understanding the world, or possibly I just romanticised about my naivety as an adolescent a little too much. But it is in fact the point in life where you are neither “man nor boy”,”women nor girl”. It is generally the beginning point of where a person’s identity unravels. The experiences of adolescence in literature are often known as the term Bildungsroman, which is a novel about the psychological growth of a main character that deals with their formative years through experience or a “spiritual journey”. This story arc is directed at teenage based, “coming-of-age” literature, where the lessons learnt from experience carry the main character through life, something that was compatible when we were each discussing stories about our adolescences throughout the process of the allotment commission.

What later became interesting was the term “edgeland”, which although has no dictionary definition, means to us, as collaborators, the “in-between”. The edgeland sits between two known stages and is a paradoxical phase which is described as neither one nor the other. It is difficult to know exactly where collaborators position themselves. It became relevant that in the One Square Foot exercise each of our chosen squares had resided within each of our adolescent experiences and given our commission impetus of making a designated site specific show. This compositional strategy was another layer or overlay in thinking about the development of the work. McKean Suggests on composition: “Individuals might compose a text for performance: however, the work doesn’t become theatre until it is interpreted and shared in real time, person to person, with audience.” (McKean, 2007: 503) By sharing material and performing events that occurred in our lives to each other, even as collaborators we were also audience members for each other in the retelling of stories from memory and experience. From this medium of live performance that McKean (2007) suggests, the composed text or images do not become present until it has been witnessed by others, making the performed moment more authentic and genuine. From the development of material to the actual performance shared with our audience’s across the process moments of each of our personal edgeland, representations of the land and its fertility of labour. All of our thoughts of the concept of edgeland our space soon became known as conceptual edgeland. It was a space we had felt where nature had met industry; we were more conscious of the fact that our surroundings were also in-between, neither in the city nor out of, or neither industrial or rural. The space became our edgeland, which connected all of our stories together to make sense of the ecological process we had to embark as well as a contextual process to understand the celebration of May Day. Another overlay on top of the allotment space was the surrounding of labour and industry, by witnessing the work that goes into tending to an allotment and the industrial surrounding of industrial factories. Perhaps it is the edgeland that is the focal point of the process and is also our compositional strategy that is being in the unknown of what lies ahead for us as four practitioners and collaborators. There was a constant ecological overlay that surrounded the process and an autobiographical one that created entwined commodities that constructed our process towards devising a performance. It was possible is was the material that was contributed to the allotment makes the term “devising” in this process a lot more prominent. The process was all combined from our thoughts and imaginations that came to us about around the agricultural environment and its various contexts.

McKean, B. (2007). Composition in Theatre: Writing and Devising Performance. In: L.D, Bresler. (Ed.) International Handbook of Research in Arts Education. Springer. Arizona, U.S.A.

Lippard, L. (1989). Overlay: Contemporary Art and the Art of Prehistory. Random House Publishing. USA.