House/Light -The Wooster Group/ DVD Review

“The biggest thing for us in House/Lights was that thing about learning not to anticipate what you are going to see on the televisions - in the same way that a lot of acting teachers talk about not anticipating how you are going to feel in a certain scene and to always be open and responsive.” - LeCompte

House/lights (1998), which is directed by Elizabeth LeCompte was regarded as one of the wooster group’s signature productions. The play based on Gertrude Stein’s Dr Faustus Lights the Lights(1939) and film Olga’s House of Shame which directed by Joseph Mawra. Some reviewers described the play as deconstructive; some as neo-cubist (Brantley, 1999). LeCompte talked about their Faust interests said “On one level it went seamlessly into the Olga’s House of Shame film beacause of the relationship with Olga as leader of the girl-gang. The voice-over even calls Olga ‘the devil herself’. And then there’s the power struggle with Elain and Olga and Faust and Devil. It had a symmetry to it ”. This dynamic link has helped me to define the use of footage for my final work. I will continuous working on editing footages and trying to raise relationships from it.

The play reinforced for many Stein’s own deconstructive understanding. Sten’s own deconstructive reading of Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights evokes sense of nostalgia for a golden age of American avant-gard art. It was acknowledged that Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights is considered to be one of Stein’s landscape plays, and the play nevertheless evolves of the earlier work and shares many dramaturgical features with it. The group’s work examined the undertaking of Sten’s concept “theatre as landscape”, which Fuchs calls “a signature style of contemporary experimental theatre”in American. (Callens: 192). Indeed Stein’s work concentrated on the materiality of language, entity writing.

Moving on to visual perspective, the set was a mechanical grid. Ramps and rails divided the playing area into a series of parallel tiers. Televisions displayed the editing footage which reflected a similarity of performers‘ actions. It evoked the audience realize the true value of performance screens. The action, occurring on rails behind the monitor, pushed the performance to an new level of energy and excitement.

In its exploration of new media, it has also made audiences aware of the process of the work. LeCompte sliced off the audience’s gaze, mentally broken down the time and the space into “screen” and “off screen”, real and surreal. Valk's intelligent performance, controlled humorous and charismatic. The play have delivered an deconstructive reading of Faust’s legend.

16 June 2010

Lecture Review

‘We need a set that satisfies the demands of
the text.’ - Christopher Oram

Review my notes after the set designer Christopher Oram’s Lecture, what I found in his speech is Functionalism and Minimalism. From the design perspective, Christopher discussed about the theatre developed in the age of media, and the way of theatrical performance interact with the audience. As the boundary between cinema and theatre are blurred, they both more present multi-layered narrative than a literary text, and provide more possible interpretations of the language. Based on the text, all the elements on stage have to get a response to the initial story line. Christopher attempted to reduce performance’s culture background in his work.

Related to his practice work, I watched one of his product Red which took place in Donmar Westend on January. In this play, Mark Rothko experienced his painful art career who suffered from the art critic with low expectations. It reflected most of the artists whose experiences about creation and perception. “The play’s about the commission of the seagram’s murals, and they’ve been in the Tate since I was a kid” Christopher Oram said. The whole performance followed a sort of traditional conflict of dramaturgy, with certain intense and certain end, which is not surprised to me too much.

In this tiny size theatre, Christopher made it definitely like a art studio, and dramatic atmosphere. There are some simple settings such as a Bauhaus’s style chair, work tables and Rothko’s big size abstract drawing, it turs out to be a gloomy and lonely space where the artist requires. That have linked with all my memories about artists and their workshops together. I agree with the ideas that emphasized simplification of forms, by use of symbolic colors and objects.

More over, one of Christopher’s another work I watched last year in Donmar Warehouse is Hamlet. Jude Law played the main role, who represent a modern version of Hamlet . “The set is a big castle with big sliding doors upstage, and great height,” explains Halliday. Christopher chose some cold color like blue, black and grey to set up the whole atmosphere whatever costumes or settings. Although it was a new creative approach to the interpretation of Hamlet, the debate still revolve around the simplicity style of design.

The lecture did open up to me a multitude of new view points from a set designer’s perspective. It has encouraged me to think about the balance of the visualized object.

5 July 2010

Revolution Now! - Gob Squad

Incidentally the revolution will be televised
With one head for business and another for good looks until they started arriving with their rubber aprons and their butcher’s hooks. - Elvis Costello

Gob Squad’s Revolution now! is the second performance I have seen during the Lift Festival at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA). Gob Squad launched a revolution from the inside theatre building to the outside wold, attempt to break the “participation rules”, between the audiences, the potential audience (who outside the theatre) and performers. “Gob Squad take the dreaded words of “audience participation” to a new level in their performance” Jake said.

All of the audiences and performers dependent on cameras, monitors, microphones and speakers to communicate with people who walk on the street outside ICA. One camera and one TV are set on the street where the TV displays our stage and auditorium. “Gob Squad want to electrify the masses and take advantage of the capabilities of a large media production: cameras, live links, big screens, wireless transmitters and very long cables”. The goal of this revolution is to get a member of the outside world to join us. This is really a big challenge that Gob Squad tried to ask people to make change, but who beyond a certain theatrical context. Especially who do not believe the little change and do not want to have a change in UK.

By broadcasting to the outside world, we desire for a revolution right now. It is fact that few people stopped and tried to understand what was happened in the theatre, what informations we want to convey. Gob Squad shown up the specific aspect of our negative audience. Most of the audiences don not like to shift the position with the performer, instead of sitting and watching the show. But the task is finally successful. Gob Squad have break the audience’s conventional believe about theatre. Obviously we all experienced a fantastic night.

What’s more, Theatre is getting wise to the digital age, high tech holds the power to engage audiences to interact with performers within live performance. The performance reminded me another example: that is Rimini Protokoll’ Best Before, which is also one part of the Lift Festival. The Canadian based company created a virtual realm video game, allowed all of the audiences play a role in this game. It was quite exiting because everyone do interact with each other via a game pad. Both of the two performances got a relative point of view: performance is about what the audience was actually experienced.

29 June 2010

Continuous City -The Builders Association

“In an age in which many of us have hundreds of online E-friends‚ we've never met, digital media has arguably transformed not just the method but also the meaning of human interaction. ”

On the South Bank Centre, New York’s company - The Builders Association present their multi-media project Continuous City in london for the first time. The show tells the story of the network issue, using social networking technology to keep in touch with people. For all of us, the way of communication and human connection have changed a few years ago, since the high-tech exists. A generation who have grown up with the internet might find the following questions, are we having a real relationship through video chat, or losing real connection because of physically absent?

Back to the process of analysing my practical work, I am thinking about the issue that online social networking has become a really important way for people to maintain connections with both friends and families. It is clear that the Internet extends the possibilities for the intimacy of relationship. However, our embodied experience are increasingly disconnected from the convenience and immateriality of online communication. Turning this idea into theatrical performance, I will continue to examine the nonlinear relationship between physical place and virtual space. In other words online communications are whether building communities or fragmenting personal relationships.

"At first you feel you're in touch with someone you love, and then you feel almost deceived by the technology, because it can be a hollow feeling," says Sinclair, who's also a co-writer of the play. The situation like young people chat with strangers by using MSN or Skype, an intimacy grew up between the two may just take several hours. But the virtual reality may not equals reality. it hard to identify the relationship due to the crash and non-physical communication. People struggle with our real world personality and our online identity which is quite an interesting point of view.

The company make use of the technologies also raise a question about the technologies. That is also my interest with the idea of intimacy and distance. The intimacy promised by the technology impact which is fantastic but unstable. “I started thinking about how specific kinds of technology are being implemented and marketed to the developing world. I'm particularly fascinated by how social networking translates to other cultures.” the director Marianne Weems said in an interview. Both the Wooster Group and the Builders Association explored cultural symbols within their performance which insprit me a lot.

PPD continuous

work on my website last week. based on what I did last term. I made it too rush at that time, too many mistakes and its unprofessional anyway...

progress:

http://www.disong.co.uk/

start to think about our MA-show poster when I design my site, as font and color was already decided. I'm looking for an abstract image which may give public a simple taste of our show. cause we have enough text and informations, but not visual elements.

progress

sketches for my final show

still think about how to structure these elements. struggle with my dissertation as well...

Outside Exhibition

Our first Exhibition took place in Brike Lane !
I have to say we got effective communication with public. It is a substantial experience that we all gain a lot. Good to received different point of views from audiences.

My main idea was created a serious of fragmented and blurred images. Reflecting my own memory about family, which has also presented on Interim Festival. The shaped paper evoked all of the memory of childhood. A game you can found many countries all over the world. When I tried to project my footage on it, the effect was just what I want.

Temporal Effect

Temporal Effect

Proposed area of work
Temporal Effect is one part of a performance series called RENDERING 53% which presented in MA-Visual Language of Performance Interim Festival. The project brings issues surrounding multimedia and installation, especially the effects of interactive digital video to examine notions of deconstruction of time during performance. Comparing different visual components of a whole storytelling through being process linear time structure and nonlinear time structure, such as movements from dream，memory and real performance time. My goal is to bring multi-dimensional non-linear arrangement of visual language to audiences, created atmosphere and context from visual clues. The performance are intended to stimulate a sense of family relationship from personal manner.
Reasons for the project
The resulting performance inspirited from Chinese traditions and superstitions. For example you have dreams or nightmares it may indicate that you have some emotional worries. This idea tried to blur boundaries of dream, memory and real time. As a test, I present visual fragment by using curve screen, television and lighting. Which is really challenged me to play and frame these crossed and intersected images. Each of the element revealing the absent and present of our life ritual. In other words, these elements existed for real or surreal time on stage, build a multi-angle trust in a relationship. Dreams with symbolic meanings and mythic associations offers performance non-linear narrative possibility.
In addition, to practice idea about my research subject “Time”, I am also interested in this thread that what was once here but now has gone. I was particularly thinking about how to challenge the audience experience past and present time symbol. From this point, I created videos about street scape, candle slightly fade out, things continually move behind the actor.
Processes and Methodology
From the visualized perspective, my creative inspiration comes from the Wooden Gear Clock. Clock as a time machine transforms the notion of objective time. It reminds me the rhythmicity and continuity of life time. As an alternative approach, I want to design an installation on the stage which move with its ordered and continuous following with time (as can be seen from the 3D drafts). And also, a curved screen on the backstage offered no seams from video’s editing. It stand more than one meter of height above the ground. So a shadow from the back of screen could interact with videos and actor at the same time.

Furthermore, the idea of using curved screen may given audience a strong visual impact experience in order to leading them involved. But it still not big enough to offer audiences a wide-field. In analyzing this work, I was really pushed to think how to put concept of this project into practice. It raised many issues that some of my idea still have to get further development. One of the issue is how to make the video works well as my original idea. This work have to be an ongoing investigation into the question of presenting nonlinearity time of the performance through participation in multi-media activities.

Performance laboratory

Waiting For - Interim Festival

Proposed area of work

To start the performance laboratory, I began working with the intension of deconstructing text, attempted to leave for classical narration. Which relates to my research, exploring important performance art form of deconstruct time. In this piece Waiting For, I draws a comparison between Waiting For Godot and an animation to the extent that they both explore the meaning of waiting, revealing what would otherwise remain hidden among these text. Godot’s absence, as well as numerous other aspects of our life, being kept waiting for anyone to come back, for anything good to happen.

Therefore my question is regarding concept of time structure within deconstruction of text, do I need a certain beginning and ending plot? If not, what necessary formation do I have to convey. There could not have conflict in each part of the performance, but each scene revolving round the last scene. Creating a kind of circle structure, the ending is the new beginning, as well as today is to repeat yesterday. As can be seen, fragments presents a sense of absurd meaning.

Reasons for the project

Examine the capabilities and limitations of these forms, live performing occur in alternate clues which also affect the development of a story. That resulting in a dramatic atmosphere as the surface tension. To enhance a very powerful emotions throughout the performance, I intend to combine texts from a animation. As a metaphor, a girl waiting a flower blossom and waiting for Godot comes. She feel like she can waiting for her flower blossem, as well as she can waiting for Godot comes. My original intention which is specific purpose in doing actions like kept walking on a road and sit inside an abstract wood frame, in order to reveal current culture. Reflecting on our life with influence of the concept of simple and fast culture. It is within this framework that I locate my own practice.

Method and Feedback Review

The most important consideration in this case is sounds. I used recording sounds with editing music to structure the whole performance. Actor’s speech also leading audiences into story telling. The pick of famous text from waiting for Godot made audiences realized dramatic context，nobody comes and nothing happens. But as a response to what is currently happening on stage，it created a sense of lonely.

Moreover, the process and discussion feedback has been an important journey for me, and I have to express my idea more clear. The lab question is about ‘have the audience feel got a certain begin and end plot from the performance, Is there a conclusion revealed at the end’. From the audience perspective, it looks no single conclusion and there are a lot of interpretation to be given. That made me more clear about deconstruct text, the information from text itself needed to be interpreted which required critical and analytical method. I have to search more initial question in order to avoid missing the reference point and culture intention.

200% Bloody Thirsty

200% Bloody Thirsty by Forced Entertainment
DVD recording, Review

200% Bloody Thirsty produced by Britain’s leading experimental theatre company Forced Entertainment in 2005. I watched a recording of this piece when I do my research. Forced Entertainment raised many questions concerning contemporary life and performance. The group struggled to find new performance and theatre forms in order to reveal contemporary urban culture. They explores ideas of myth, death and life’s attitude throughout the performance. A strong impression of this piece is the waking up movement in the beginning of each scenes. As a metaphor , it means two angels drop down to the world. This scene seems like a switch to change time and space. It shown me a hint that the next section is going on, and also the waking up action repeated a lot of times.

One of the idea is that the group use of video and monitors offering the audience different view point. Such as Two angels also displayed on their own monitor. When they standing on the “heaven” frame, looking down over the scene and one spoke to one another which discussed what was going on below, that created a sort o f ‘not presence’ like cinema language. There is a sense of playing this moment intimately to canera, leading me focus on its close-up. Tim Etchells point out “I’m interested in how these concerns with mediation inform what the performers themselves are doing, because it seems related to this sense that the performer’s actions and texts are somehow second-hand or being re-phrased or quoted through the performance. It’s as if the performer engage in actions, each of which they sooner or later wake up from”.

Furthermore, 200% Bloody Thirsty move from sequence to sequence, arranged with prerecording sound to live performance, then combine with live sound. Constantly presenting the stillness and chaos movements. Thus from the two angels’ view, drunk people lived in a total chaos and mess world; from the audience view, the two angels trying to evoke dead people looked absurd. Like Etchells indicated “We don’t seek a meaning that has been placed but seek rather the sense of meaning falling into place. A meaning that happens to happen, a feeling that tumbles, a feeling on the very edge of accident”. In a other word, audiences perceiving this work that values the moment where you saw and connected.

Many of their pieces attempted to deconstruct cinematic traditional language. These stage performances employed microphones, sound and visual material, whilst texts came from video and prerecording tapes. Compared with the work from The Wooster Group, they are starting from different intention to play with deconstruction fragments. Forced Entertainment talking about real experiences, set up a prying life space，which have continually come up with something that challenges audiences and also challenges the notion of performance itself. Etchells stated that “you have to think about technology, you have to use it, because in the end, it is in your blood”. However, it is clear that Forced Entertainment is not fascinated with hi-tech equipment. The reason they use of media equipment is to reveal the essential of performance. Because no conditions on stage could be more important than body, language and storytelling.

Six Degrees of Separation

Six Degrees of Separation
Old Vic Theatre, Review

It is good to see the drama version of Six Degrees of Separation at the Old Vic Theatre. As same as the film version which I watched before, it is present an issue that anyone on the planet can be connected to any other person through a chain of six people, which means that you can scrape up an acquaintance with anybody. In this piece six very different New Yorkers realizing the impact they're having on one to another slightly. This production reminds me to rethink my work. When I planning my Interim project with the idea of family relationship, I do believe there is a connection between people and his family throughout any life moment. as a kinds of six degree of separation rules, the relationship of family seems more stronge. But I still have to explore how to present the tension between one to one.

Focusing on the character of this play, is the people really what he seems? How can anyone be sure that people are who they say they are? Six Degrees of Separation is reflecting our society phenomenon. It can not deny that the script logic is clearly defined and apparent. Compared with film version, The long monolog delivering actors inside world to audiences, it exposing people’s self-confidence and imagination. It obvious that the script has a good characteristic aspect of drama or theatrical event. Its good to see how the director develop these clues. I feel like there still remain some cinema language within the performance structure.

Moving to another point, the play use a doble side painting as a metaphor for society's calmness and mad, well-ordered and chaos. The painting feature on Kandinsky’s style, which exploring his own ideas of abstractionism and impressionism painting. He applied streaks and blobs of colors onto the canvas, sometimes structured good balance seriously, sometimes colored with passion and conflict. By the turn of the doble side painting, the relationship on stage turns to another side, from order to chaos, fram balance to confusion. This scene impressed me, it evoked my understanding of the single image.

Furthermore, Six Degrees of Separation utilizing a revolving stage to shown the scene changes. The main stage extended into apron stage as a thrust area which more close to the audience. There is a curved wall stand around the revolving stage, becoming a semi-obturate space. However it does not apply to each scenes as well as the story lines developed. There set a sofa and a tea table represent a family house, and present the other house when stage turn to the backside. I’m not convinced that these set could represent outside scene as well.

Interim show plan

Enumerating these relationships, we will lead readers to concern about the non-linearly narrative characters, including dream space, memory space and real space involving with each other, which has its own specific time axes, therefore both space and time bears the different and multiplex quality .

Performance Lab plan

Actually the most difficult part for me is how to find the way of telling informations. I raised question to make clear what I’m going go achieve.

No.1
What is your understanding or associating about waiting?
No.2
Have you got a certain begining and ending plot of this performance, do you think it is necessary or not?

No.3What is the girl's characteristic within this performance. Is there need a single conclusion to be revealed?
No.4
A metaphor in this performance is that the girl waiting a flower blossom and waiting for Godot comes, are they matched?

Emanuelle Enchanted

Emanuelle Enchanted by Forced Entertainment
DVD recording Review

“In the summer when the earth changed, it rained for five months and on the night the rain stopped, a silence fell like we’d woke up in a silence from a dream…”

Emmanuelle Enchanted set on a crude wooden stage which hang up a curtain of electric stars. And the action of this piece was divided by five performers that using the curtain to change scenes optionally. They were using the curtain to set up and cut down scenes they were presenting. While one actor pull the curtain on in order to start his performance, but another draw the curtain again trying to stop it. By playing this game there are obvious disagreements about how are they supposed to being presented.

Another interesting idea from this performance is that actors appeared on the scene in a way of dressing up and showing the cardboard signs. such like a title sequence of the film. Characters presented using cardboard signs, such like ‘The Ex-wife of the Ex-president of the USA’, ‘Miss Deep Freeze’ and ‘A Boxer with a Torn Retina’. When actors changed costumes and changed the signs, they became a different characters. As can be seen, a lot of clothes and cardboards on the clothing rack on the side of the stage.

Besides, Forced Entertainment continually used media tech as a tool into performance. In Emmanuelle Enchanted, the monitor and camera were positioned in the middle of the stage, the characters on the monitors talk directly or read news. So the video material takes on a new framing function, giving the meanings of each sections. At the same time, it runs a movement that people running and walls moving with sort of emotion. These walls arranged and assembled in a way of let characters relieve their feelings. It inspirit me using these simple and raw materials as setting could present a third dimension of authenticity. Also the group placed the camera on the stage and all that’s shown on monitor is live. From the audience perspective, all we see is reframed by ourselves. I do like this kind of freedom to observe informations which controls selectivity.

“As its central methodology, the piece uses the act of arranging and rearranging texts, images and space so that new patterns, narratives and meanings emerge.” spoke by Tim Etchells. Emmanuelle Enchanted was like a kind of endlessly game, continually making stories. Based on the set of rules, performance can kept running several times. It may go for a no time-limit performance then. However I fell like it probably need some exciting moment about breaking these rules. That is to say, we work in these rules we set, and attempting to find a way of edit them and tighten them. Emmanuelle Enchanted influenced me to find ways of thinking which articulate the dynamics of our current condition.

Interim festival

performance lab

11 & 12

11 and 12 , Barbican, Review
The latest piece from famous theatre director Peter Brook

"The storytelling is didactic, po-faced and slow," says Hitchings. The intention of 11 and 12 seems like how a small component influence a large issue, especially in this religious context. It bring issues of faith, truth, and relationship between govement and common people. "I would not want to engage directly with the criticisms but say something parallel to them," says Brook. All the storytelling addresses profound spiritual and political issues. However, it is hard to really got involved in, maybe because of the serious religion subject.

Although, the live music of this performance is really fantastic. It reminds me to think about my interim project. My colleagues discussed about how the sound effect create a rhythm of live performance, compared with cinema and television program. It raised a question for me that how prerecording sound and music tie in live performance. In Brook’s piece 11 and 12, he used a musician who plays a group of instruments, such as a kinds of percussion instrument. That was strongly impressed on my memory. The music could play many different properties for each scenes. What is more, because of its simple sets , props and lights, the music becomes extremely important. It leading us to a serious religious atmosphere.

Tracing back to Brook’s earlier work. Brook as an explorer of theatrical performance raised the revolutionary issue “deadly theatre” which inspired a lot of experimental theatre artists. Citing his book The Empty Space "I take an empty space and call it a bare stage. A man walks across this empty space and someone else is watching him, and that is all that is needed for an act of theatre to be engaged." Brook believe that language own the biggest power to convey informations. The more to make the stage empty the more audiences has a great view. That is why live performance have its unique pureness quality that compared with film and television. In this piece 11 and 12, obvious body and language were also more important than other elements.

Brook’s work experience shown me the consideration of the essence of drama. Theatre artists have to give up the priority of spectatorship from audiences perspective. What we need at present is plays that get inside the minds of love, peace and tolerance, Do not hiding our professional thing, build on a boundary in between audiences and actors. He argues that, “the theatre should be about touching something of the hidden feeling behind certain events, of bringing the invisible into palpable life. For one moment, one's own emotional prejudices can be opened”. From this point, I argue that while created performance work is about sharing experiences, showing the simplicity and understanding easily without any masks, thus the audience could put their trust in our work. Performances could become absorbing.

Red in Donmar

The story happened in Rothko's painting studio. American painter Mark Rothko was an abstract expressionist. he was eloquent, keen on dispute with other artists on Art. and used to pain and suffering because of his aggressive and ambitious personality. thus he always felt himself was in competition with other artists, whoever living or dead. Rothko said that his work was about the expression of human emotions with the means of colour. “I’m not an abstractionist. I’m not interested in the relationship of colour or form or anything else. I’m interested only in expressing basic human emotions: tragedy, ecstasy, doom, and so on … The fact that people break down and cry when confronted with my pictures shows that I can communicate those basic human emotions … ”

In this play, Rothko always argued with a young artist who was employed as a craft assistant in his studio. the way they think about art and explain something reality to themselves had exposed the significant aspects of Art industry. I don't really know too much about the artist. but I am rather concerned about artists' social life differed in many interesting points from the normal people's social life. how could they balance advantages of chase their dreams or their business? how could they suffer from the failure and keep on being paranoid insistence?

Tis is a very traditional Donmar style performance.

Öper Öpis - Barbican Theatre

Stanislavsky point out actors have to identify the character as a possible side of the actor themselves. by contrast, physical theatre based on physical activities, play with the interaction of the body and the space. it shows on a surrealistic theatre event which different from daily life. through this nonverbal performance, actors action and behavior are hugely magnified, body language create a meaningful symbol itself. Performers usually do a serial action, but do not reveal their motives and consequences. thereby, the audience was pushed to speculate and imagine.

This time, london international mime festival gave me a lot of inspiration. The continuous development of physical theater is no longer just dancing piece. Contemporary Physical theater have increased and become more diverse. It combined with changeable stage, lively characteristic and ingenious music cooperated. it really catching the eye of audiences.

In the Barbican Centre, the performance Oper Opis completely changed my understanding of physical theater. the use of slope Stage and props were extremely skillful. on the stage everything is being an object, of course the actor's body itself. it produced a strong visual impact to me.

Pop Life: Art in a Material World

Taking Andy Warhol's notorious provocation as a starting point, "Good business is the best art." it explained the important issues raised by the exhibition. All my knowledge about pop art is its popular and commercial characteristics. It is really one of the most accessible art form historically by public. A large number of pop art works can be copied, sold easily, due to Artist's creative purposes are based on a high market acceptability. As an result, pop art raised a debating point: can Art be equated with normal life?

In the exhibition Tate Modern collected some of the well-known Pop Art artists’ work, includes Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami and so on. visually, It shown a brief history of Pop Art. I got an up close and personal look at the art history and craftsmanship, there are three representative artists strongly impressed me with their works, they are Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons and Takashi Murakami. To begin with, Andy Warhol as one of the most influential American artists really push pop art onto the top. He created a completely revolutionary method of making art work, directly printed photos onto the canvas such like a serious of celebrity portraits. Certainly Warhol goes on an extraordinary exploration the relationship of art and business in morden society. One of the room The Gems, which present the celebrity culture in the disco culture ages. And meanwhile, Warhol turned himself into a brand, also Filmmaker, Commercial illustrator, Music producer, Writer, Fashion model.

The next artist Jeff Koons. I have saw his Popeye series exhibition before in Serpentine Gallery. I really like his inflatable toys which typically used by children, I engaged with his works and that remind me of my childhood. Koons has explored notions of consumerism, childhood and sexuality through cartoons which is brilliant. However his Made in Heaven series displayed in Tate modern noticed me the same question ‘Could art just show true portraiture?’

the third artist is Takashi Murakami. He and his Japanese company created vast number of attractive and accessible cartoon characters. His work combines both Eastern and Western culture, entertainment and art elements. While he worked with fashion brand as a artist that succeed and attracted most of the young generation.

On reflect thinking, Pop Art is a good example, making art engage the imagination of the average person. for this purpose,It has been an important journey for me in which I have developing my independent project and research. It has, however, been challenging at times. Moreover contemporary performance changes the way in developing deeper concepts and new technologies, both of which try to arouse audience’s curiosity and interest. As a result, public tends to become more involved. In my future work I will continually develop my idea of how performance convey dramatic time experience to audience that mirror their lifetime.

Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake

This was an new season for Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake. I've seen it in Sadler's Wells Theatre last month.

Someone commented that the premiere in 1996 seemed to be really attract a lot of men and gay to look at the male swans. But now its obviously that a real mixture of ages and types of audiences loved this play. For me, my understanding of ballet, it is absolute not the female dancers' exclusive work. So, I do not felt surprised when I see the male version of Swan Lake. Mention of Prince and swan’s affection to each other, I dont want to define it from gender perspective.It was useless to argue with point of Bourne's homosexual creation. Its kind of feeling that ranged between real and imaginary. It conveyed a irreplaceable beauty of male dancer’s subtle strength. Bourne creating the magical worlds for the audience.

"I think you're always going to get people who think it's about a homosexual affair. They have a real problem with the fact that the Swan is a man. It's not a man. It's a swan. Whether it's male or female, who cares? It's a creature not a gender." Adam Cooper also explained.

Lez Brotherston's designs for Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake © Bill Cooper

DECODE -Digital Design Sensations

In modern society, more and more contemporary art created based on the development and the application of digital technology. It was not only gradually affect artists’ work, but also stimulate view’s sensory perception and visual experience. The exhibition Decode: Digital Design Sensations left me a deep impression on the creativity of digital arts.

This exhibition is a collection of the latest digital and interactive design work, based on screen, projection, interactive installations. most of the art work aimed to make a great breakthrough in communication with the audience by using new tech. Be different from traditional art form，in this exhibition the audience is no longer just a viewer who enjoy the art work, they are becoming the participant and even creator at the same time. As an example, interaction designer and creative technical director Ross Phillips designed an installation that allows viewers to record short videos broadcast in grids on a large screen. All the people who were invited to pose in front of the camera enjoyed themselves. He describes his work as mainly ‘real world’ interactive installations, that ‘giving people a blank slate and a tool to be creative with’. The work are directly influenced and gave viewers a good acting experience.

Moving on to the next stage, when the photography and video tools have become readily available for everyone, then it will become a new communication language. Artist allow public to participate in their works. In deed, Contemporary art are not mysterious and isolated. It will be an great opportunity for artists learn more about themselves and the public. From this side audience is not a mere passive viewer anymore.

In addition, another interactive installation named Exquisite Clock is based on the idea that time is everywhere and that people can share their own vision of time through internet. The project connects time, play and visual aesthetics, designer Joao Henrique Wilbert invited website users collect and upload images of numbers that can be found by themselves onto a website data, then he created the clock by using these number pictures. It is interesting that it combined social interaction and network technologies on the clock screen, and make sense of dynamic time conception. As a result this work remind me a question that how to enhance the relationship among arts and the public. New technologies allows information transmit and share with the public through the network. The way become more popular and easy to understand, also, this feedback loop is more changeful and free.

From then on, I will continue to develop my project research Playing with Time. The idea of create new visual transmission to examine theatrical time concept and the possibility of an interactive performance. While in terms of Decode, I improved my idea that designer and audiences both can enrich its content and method of artwork expression by using technology. These activities have been inspiring and fruitful, and have helped me.

The Weighting Frame - collaborative multimedia performance

During the first term all MA visual language of performance classmates and our course leader Douglas spent two months as a team created a multimedia performance in Wimbledon College of Art Theatre. We used the vast creations as a research base examine the idea of ‘liveness’ and ‘interactive’ limitative possibility in multimedia performance, explored the relationship of artist and audience. We named it The Weighting Frame.

The resulting one hour performance inspirited from Hitchcock’s film Rear Window. Four roles Miss Torso, Mr Thornwald, the Composer and the lady Miss Lonely heart, represent the theme of sex, death, fame, insignificance respectively. We decided each theme have a room in different ways to invite the audience participate in the performance. As a test, this idea tried to break the audience's inherent concepts of theater and gallery space, tried to blur the conventional distinctions the 'fourth wall' boundaries between the performer and the spectator.

Some of the audience were invited to enter each room and participated in events, saw what was happened in the space. but also they were become a part of the performance who were viewed by other audiences out of the room. The audience is given right to choose to see or not to see, to participate or not. This really a challenge for us.

In my work, my colleague and I as a team responsible for the theme of Sex. We spent a long time to find an alternative approach. The aim was to present sexual information in a metaphoric way during feed audience food. All the events in ‘Sex room’ are highly stylized and symbolic. for this purpose, In the performance, object often have appeared in scenes containing sexual activity within Eastern culture. We created a serious event such as preparation, invitation, feeding, and interaction. Some of my creative inspiration came from the Japanese genius photographer Nobuyoshi Araki. He gave me a very special taste of sexual impress which shooting things detailed. such as flower, fish and people’s mouth. Women are the photographer’s very important theme. Afterwards, I shoot some videos about people enjoy chewing his food, and cutting food to make sushi.

In addition, to practice idea about my research "the aesthetic of time" in performance, I was particularly thinking about how to challenge the audience experience true and false visual effect in time. The projection screen play the role of ‘time machine’ which transfer the conception of "Real time" and "performance time". From this point, I combined the live performance projection and pre-prepared video projection to created an surrealistic atmosphere.

In analyzing my work, I feel that this project compelled me to find inspiration from so many various sources, I was really pushed to think conceptually and worked with different ways. In fact, I play the role of female actor who understanding of the Eastern culture in this performance. The process has been an important journey for me which challenge my creativity. It helped me improve myself for the future work.