PARIP 2005

International Conference | 29 June - 03 July 2005

Daniels: Robert Jude | UK

score 0:

"think of a name for a game, that is also a performance, and explicitly involves the use of scores contributed by others"

My proposal involves a game.

The participants of the conference, and other artists, critics, and scholars, will be invited to offer scores and instructions for movement that contribute to a performance event where I will perform (to my best ability and the time permitting) all the tasks suggested. It will be a movement-based performance that (potentially) ALL of the participants will be (credited) authors of, set within a structure of  a performance event defined by the rules of the meta-score (that the performance is made from a collection of scores/instructions and is responded to and executed by a myself, and any willing participants)

Throughout conference events, participants will have the opportunity to contribute by:

• Text messages/phone instructions
• Emails
•  ‘suggestion boxes’ placed around the venue
• Postcards/letters
• Participating (performing) in the event itself
• And any other means of communication

Primarily written or verbal scores, this game aim to call into play a number of issues and concepts:

• Authorship and collaboration
• Interaction and participation
• Implications of playing with linguistic boundaries: What is the gap between the intention and interpretation?
• (the relationship between ‘open’ and ‘closed’ scores)
• possibilities of transgression: censorship and boundaries for the performer and task, audience and performers, and performer and director/choreographer/author

Prior to the projects start I will supply (to ALL potential participants):

• The meta-score (rules/instructions of the event)
• The score (rules/instructions of the task) to offer a contribution to a performance; which I’m unsure of in terms of wording, but want to open up the potential of contribution to create a breadth yet close to perhaps focus on exploiting my skills base and ability.)
• Suggestions and rationale (examples of scores, that whilst offering the breadth of possibility in terms of ‘what to offer’, also suggest a stylistic location and imply an immediacy to the event)
• (my body/self)

(I will supply postcards for the conference packs, and ‘advertise’ throughout the venue)

Outcomes beyond the conference (the project in phases and as a whole) could include:

• Performance event/s and Documentation (schematic/creative)
• Documentation (theorizing)

I’m also keen to realise the project’s potential for dissemination in other ways.

This event, and project is inspired by a workshop I participated in with Choreographer Xavier Le Roy, where in a series of exercises we explored the potential of creating instructions for movement in order to create a ‘score’ that could be both a game (searching for the presence of playing) and a form at the same time (be part of what constructs a 'performance aesthetic/attitude').

Le Roy’s aim was to, ''open up the possibilities of seeing HOW (rather than WHAT) one does what one does.'' This interrogation of ones own process as a choreographer is what drives Le Roy's practice and research. He is looking to interrogate his own process each time a new production begins (and throughout) in order to open up the possibilities of 'new' forms to emerge.

Part of the reason I want to make this investigation is to satisfy a similar agenda. (Specifically, and beyond my engagement with Le Roy, and others such as Lehman and Goat Island) I am trying to question whether ‘scores’ are in fact a major aspect in my practice (by explicitly locating them as the practice itself, and reflecting on whether my engagement with scores is axiomatic), and (to begin with) if an explicit engagement with ‘scores’ can in itself make ‘performance’. Framing the research project within the proposed ‘game’ encourages critical investigation via practice, and also develops and clarifies my own creative methodologies.

The long term aim of this project is to span across disciplinary boundaries of Theatre, Dance, Music and the Live Arts with an aim to identify key principles of scoring performance and scores for the performer. I want to examine the scoring practices between disciplines and look into the dimensional properties of these concepts.  The aim is to locate the work in my own practice and try to find essentialist possibilities that one might be communicable, or at least 'apply' to an interdisciplinary environment. As such, the material outcomes are unknown - but its clear that this study aims to discover whether: scoring is a key part of interdisciplinary performance work; scoring is in fact a key part of all/any disciplines - explicitly or otherwise, and whether the second point proves useful to foreground in the context of performance making, where there is no concrete acknowledgment as such in available sources.

Whilst there are a number of indeterminable sources that implicate the process of scoring in their work; it also seems that there is no explicit relationship between the score - which is inherently subjective - and its physical appearance (the difference between metaphor and action, and the duality of language and writing; 'I' the author, and 'I' the reader). The relationship between the codified terminologies and subjective ‘mapping’ of performance work is an interesting one; and I want to be able to connect and share these techniques with a view to recognising the value of creating work in an interdisciplinary environment, which I believe the PaRiP event will provide.

(Additional information)

My project relies mostly on (collaborative) participation from the conference attendees. The practice will hopefully be culmination of different techniques and forms derived from each participant’s (unique) practice and as such will be a product of the conference itself. I want to be able to connect and share these multiple practices with a view to recognising the value of creating work in an interdisciplinary environment, which I believe the PaRiP event will provide.

Mostly, the creation of the (performance) work will be during the conference event itself. Before and after the event I will continue to work/research and collate scores (etc.); allowing for contributions to be gathered over time and deconstructed/ assimilated into the process.

Artists Involved

In addition to myself, I want to invite contributions to the ‘scoring game’ from as many different artists as possible: inside and outside the Lab’s sphere of activity. This will involve invitations to submit scores, instructions, tasks and propositions via post, email, and text message (and direct). Conference attendees will also be able to participate in the performance event and will play an important role in supporting and developing my practice and this project. This will assist in the creation of artistic excellence and encourage an innovative approach - challenging me to think and practice from new artistic perspectives.

Robert Jude Daniels