063

Authors:

 Edwards, Barry. Paper and performance Collaborating artists: Simon Humm (performer), Hannah Seaton (performer), Terence Tiernan (media).

Title:

 What Might Lie Beyond

Keywords:

 restriction singularity presence contact human, experience binary world, potential OBS: What follows is an ambitious proposal that takes the spirit of your Conference leaflet welcoming innovative forms of contribution. As a presenter at this year's Consciousness Reframed II I want to develop the presentation of our work a stage further. It involves a paper, but crucially also a participant session (workshop) and a live performance. This is in keeping with the emphasis in the proposal on the nature of experience. And so to set up experiential events seems a necessary move! I am in the process of investigating the possibilities of performance spaces in Sao Paolo itself, spaces that would lend themselves to an open, complex performance piece (ie not traditional theatre spaces). If you have any thougths / leads on this I would like to hear them. I am also investigating sources of funding what would be a party of four from the UK.

Abstract:

 The contribution as a whole explores the complexity of nature in the
context of our experience of the singularity of being human. It aims
to address the question posed by the Conference: 'what might lie
beyond' .

Paper
It will be argued that even in the new emergent paradigm(s), human
beings retain a desire for a 'direct and primitive contact with the
world' (Merleau - Ponty Phenomenology of Perception ). The
paper will describe how this desire is explored via a particular live
performance practice developed by the author and his collaborators.
Examples of key propositions: position and velocity can be engaged
with as relative and undetermined elements, there is a dynamic link
between potential and restriction. In conditions of live presence, as
experienced in live performance, these propositions are not
understood conceptually, but are felt, explored and above all,
experienced. It will be argued that this involves the dynamics of
physical presence, emotion and risk. The paper will explore the
implications of the idea that each individual is at the same time in the
world and an independent agent in the creating of that world, and
that this 'way of knowing' is an active incorporation of uncertainty,
probability and other key elements in the arts-science paradigm.
Workshop/ Demonstration
This element can be observed or participated in directly. It will
demonstrate the physical and mental techniques that are used in the
practical work of Optik performance: how to work with probability
in relation to position and velocity, how to engage impulse in space-
time via a binary code of physical options, how to work with such
things as perception, bio-feedback , proprioception, and contact
'with the world'.
Performance
Performance given by artist collaborators who constitute the Optik
Performance Group.
Edwards, Barry. Barry.Edwards@brunel.ac.uk Optik Performance Group London UK Faculty of Arts Brunel University UK Barry Edwards is Reader in Drama at Brunel University, and director of the performance group Optik. He is a director - maker of live performance, which is his core practice. In dynamic relation to this core Edwards has developed a programme of performance research, training and publication. Recent performances include Balkan Theatre Festival Sofia (1998), amorph performance Festival Helsinki (1998). Recent training and demonstration work includes Arts on the Edge Perth Western Australia (1998), Summer Academy of Performing Arts Sofia Bulgaria (1998). Publications include Watching What People Are Optik 1997, and CD / video titles based on Optik performances.