MA tutorial with geraint evans, 26 june

ok- so back to the MA show!!

notes from my tutorial with geraint which raised a whole load of things i'm not sure about and clarified others;

am still exploring intimacy and trying to see what happens in not only from dark space to natural light, but in thinking back to the individual, what happens when the story is told, mediated, through an ipod as a highly personal, more internal experience? after the post grad forum last week, i decided to experiment with the video of my story (up to moment before i got the cat wreath photo out) from the forum, putting it onto the ipod, and taking geraint on a run through of an idea. we walked a provisional route from where usher could be sited on the top floor of the theatre building, down metal stairs and past the site where sheds would be on the gravel, and up the concrete ones to the second floor. i asked him to stand in the corner looking down and imagining sheds there, and to watch my story, before coming back down to me at ground level. after this i explained that the person may then pick a flower of choice form outside the sheds, and go if they so wished into the shed and tell a story about it as a photogrammed trace.

so- we then went back into the studio and the feedback was this;

• geraint thought my story was really boring- wasn't grabbed by it at all, it missed the being in the moment, it wasn't being told to him, to camera.the moment has been transformed through technology and he wasn't really wishing to be engaged with it.
• story lost the conversational togetherness where you react live to the audience, and which alters the pace of it.
• he found himself too visually overloaded on the stairwell- the stairs, railings, looking down over towards where the shed would be, and looking at the ipod screen- too easily distracted,visually and aurally, mind wandering. why on the stairs?
  
• look at raymond carver for short story structuring, style, scripting ideas, or charles buckawski- thinking about these things would have held him more
  
• think about the extraordinary in the ordinary anecdote and speaking form the top of your head alongside the more edited, scripted
• possibly just audio?
• i mentioned my other idea about people being physically in the other shed listening to ipods, with the film of me in the little shed, that this would allow less visual distractions, more intimate, private, personal, confessional.he liked this idea much better.
  
• siting of the sheds- direction of door, the physical relationship between the 2 sheds crucial- eg doors face each other, or face away?
• wasn't sure about the flower- not engaging for him- can see the memorial links but seems very morbid idea
• consider when anecdote given, whether audience sees all the production of the work
• consider more the relationship between the two sheds and use of stairwell, being overlooked- why?
• how to direct the audience to then participate
• how use objects in the story-embodiment?

Reflections:
Ok- so a lot to think about here- the most startling at the time was geraint's reaction to the story compared with it live last week in the forum. would he have thought it was boring in the forum? or was it more about the way it was presented, in the video you couldn't see my objects, or the photo erasing at the end, or that i wasn't looking to camera. i had intended to re-shoot looking to camera but ran out of time, i can see now this would have been better.you were aware in my video the presence of another audience though moments of laughter so it becomes more like watching tv.

the live feed really interests me and i think i might need to think about this more- the ipod relies on using pre-recorded.the sense of togetherness- can i achieve this through the mediated? football matches down the pub watched on sky- everyone feeling the joy, pain, triumphs and disasters, singing along with strong sense of camaraderie, or annoyance and disappointment- vocalising and sharing your own reactions. this could be good to explore in the big shed with a group of people witnessing my story.

was sited on the stairs as wanted to explore the extremes of being in an alienating environment yet with the intimacy of the ipod- personal to engage you away from your environment like on the tube?

the flower reaction might just be a personal taste thing- kira and jordan liked it and since the tutorials i have though more about this- i ain't going to please everyone, nor would i want to!

relationship between a two phase show- the group experience then into a one-to-one- how and why?