South
West PARIP Meeting
Back
to Region-Based Working Groups
30 June 2002, Jolly
Porter, Exeter
Present
Roberta Mock (coordinator), Graham Ley, Anthea Nakorn, Ruth Way, Rebecca
Loukes, Pam Woods, Jerri Daboo
Our
Practice
The following practice-based research activities are undertaken by those
present:
- dramaturgy
- movement practice
and dance as total artform: moving away from a consideration
as a separate discipline; working with text; finding voice;
non-verbal responses to sites; use of improvisation; training
voice through the body; collaboration with visual artists; dance film
work; body/mind awareness; the relationship between physicalization
and psychology
- directing practice
- collaborative
performance practice and live art
- performer training
- researching
body/mind process as metaphor for practitioner/theorist split
- clothing &
fashion in performance
- the performance
of cultural identities
- negotiating
and articulating practice-based experiences
What
do we feel PARIP could be doing? Where can it go from here
- state case/lobby
to raise profile of, and issues important to, practitioner-researchers
- act as an interface
between individual practitioners and institutions
- work towards
challenging and clarifying RAE expectations regarding assessment of
practice. This includes making it imperative that the matter of practice
in relation to the RAE is clarified via SCUDD.
- develop into
an association of practitioner-researchers: archiving and defining
is probably not as important as establishing an identity,
forming a group to enable discourse, focused discussions and networking
- to help negotiate
the positioning of academic practitioners within the profession
- lobby for the
recognition of studio-based performance work
Postgraduates
- although postgraduate
students do not fall strictly within PARIPs brief, it is important
to recognize and incorporate their experiences: they represent the
grassroots of a potentially large practitioner-researcher
base in the UK; they will soon be teaching and doing research at universities;
the debate over practice as research in terms of degree assessment
mirrors, and perhaps sets the agenda for, the wider debate (that is,
the position of post-doctoral practitioner-researchers, etc.)
- most of those
present are either engaged in practice-based PhDs or are currently
supervising/examining them.
- the issues raised
at this meeting are as relevant to postgraduate students as they are
for practitioner-researchers already established at academic institutions.
Issues
for Practitioner-Researchers
- need for safe
environment in which to experiment
- but, simultaneously,
we need to produce good practice as well as good
theory; that is, at least some of our work must be sustainable
in the market place, find an audience, be commercially viable
- art vs craft
debate
- need to recognize
and identify the importance of process and development as well as
their relationship to practice
- funding
- difficulty in
articulating practice
- within universities,
we need support managing time and prioritizing; our practice must
be valued within our organizations; we require an acknowledgement
that we need time and space to train regularly, to keep up skills,
etc.
- there is a tension/suspicion
between many in the theatre profession (ie, practice)
and many in academia (ie, theory). Where are we located? How do we
differ from both? How do we meet using the same language?
- practitioner-researchers
work to different patterns and different rhythms than those in professional
theatre (eg. evenings and summer).
- we need to be
able to describe the limitations, actualities
and potentials of practice-based research in terms of
real logistical and structural problems that create forms
of work that are culturally valued
- comparisons
to practitioners based in Europe, for example, shows much wider support;
there are issues of anti-intellectualism and work ethics in Britain
in particular that must be challenged from the inside.
What
can we do as a regional group?
- it was agreed
that it would be most beneficial to pool our resources
in some way and that the group could support work in risk-taking
situations
- we could form
a network of friendly touring venues in which to show
our work, disseminate our practice, and gain feedback. This would
enable funding in many cases.
- we could tour
programmes of our work to organizational members (eg.
an evening consisting of short productions, works-in-progress, films,
etc.) as well as full-length pieces
- this would enable
a form of peer-assessment (eg. two members who facilitated
and saw work during one of these tours could jointly write
a review for a journal such as STP)
- the network
could extend to providing venues for workshops and other forms of
presenting and researching; this would provide an opportunity for
artists to do practice with no particular need to produce
- the group can
act as a network to facilitate collaboration.
- as there are
only representatives from Exeter and Plymouth universities present,
this must be more fully discussed with members from, for example,
Bristol, Glamorgan, Dartington and perhaps some of our partner colleges.
We will do this in the first instance via email with those who have
expressed interest in being part of this group.
Next
meeting
mid-November.
Back
to Region-Based Working Groups
|