A system of structure known as âhabitusâ researched by the French Sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, habitus is produced by the individualsâ 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. Â 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. Â 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 Within a working class habitus manual labour could perhaps be a potentially outdated concept for the twenty-first centuryâs working class, however the connotations of manual labour and the working class can still have semiotic relevance. Â
Allotments in many discourses can be seen as âorganicâ and autonomous; they are fashioned with materials to hand and tended using non-machinery based resources. The metaphor of âorganicâ, 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 othersâ relationship to what is happening within the performance moment. One of the strategies taken from other practitioners such as Dee Heddonâs 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. Â
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. Â 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. Â It is the common man that reclaims his own autonomy by his practice. Olsen suggests that:
âThis assumption has its roots in a long tradition of cultural theory treating the streets as the place for opposition, disruption, tactics and protests.â (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 âbreaking routineâ 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:
âThus it prevents the spectators from questioning such concepts as âjusticeâ, âfreedomâ or âhumanity, concepts which are in fact historically conditioned and culturally contingent.â (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 âcommunityâ from individuals having lived in the same area or having characteristics in common and to break it down into the word âunityâ. The definition of unity is something being joined as a whole or even united; there is something I find comforting about the word âunityâ. Â 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 âweâ also resonates within self-identity and philosophical authority. I speak of âweâ as a collective term, but who is âweâ? Â In this case of out this commissioned piece is âwe, the peopleâ a collective community of individuals that question our actions. Actions that have happened that have affected politics and societies. In terms of rethinking revolution âweâ 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.