Avery Plummer on the Public Performances
Out of Site’s Flow Symposium culminated in a two-night performance event. Participants were invited to take what they learned from the symposium’s workshops over a three-week period and create a live stream performance. The event was hosted on Twitch, an online streaming service, and was open to participants, workshop leaders, and the general public. For a full list of the performers, as well as the links to their performances, please visit the attached link.
Carron Little, the organizer of the entire symposium, began the evening of May 7th by addressing the audience directly. The following performances, she noted, would be responses to various workshops, many of which revolved around space and bodies within space. Even the online nature of this event spoke to the notion of space, as the performers of the evening spanned far and wide, beginning in Australia, jumping to Minnesota, and visiting Tokyo, Canada, and the UK. Though the online platform was necessary due to COVID travel restrictions, it did not at all take away from the performances, and even created a sense of intimacy as viewers were able to “travel” the globe to watch participants perform in their home areas. Some performers even incorporated the online platform into their performances. Rene Meyer-Grimberg held a camera as she danced about a four-way crosswalk, yet a man operated a second camera, giving a different viewpoint of Meyer-Grimberg that was only achievable online. Daisuke Takeya similarly used the platform to his advantage as he incorporated being stopped by police officers into his performance, moving the camera about as they questioned him on what he was doing.
Each performance on this first evening seemed to operate under a similar notion of grappling with how the body moves in public space, perhaps as a response to the similar themes that ran through each workshop in the symposium. WeiZen Ho raked leaves with her hair as outside spectators looked on, Surya Tüchler explored bodily movement in an open field, and Daniela Ehemann invited the general public into her performance by asking them how they defined art. Each performance was intentional, and each performer thoughtfully responded to how their individual bodies moved within spaces. The final performers of the evening, Calum Eccleston and Yvette Teeuwen, even seemed to expand the idea of what public spaces could look like, perhaps as a reaction to COVID restrictions. Eccleston placed himself in front of a digital background, turning his live broadcast into a public space and flipping the notion of online privacy. Though he was not performing in public, he invited online viewers into the intimate space of his computer and moved his body accordingly. Teeuwen, on the other hand, chose to experiment, doing a performance on both nights in which she moved her body underneath a cloth that bound her arms. The first night she was not in a physical public space, and the second she was, exploring how actions may be perceived differently depending on the spaces they are done in.
As the second night began, many of the same viewers returned. Eccleston’s performance made the point that public spaces did not have to be physical, and this feeling carried over into the second night. The online space that developed over the three-week symposium became one of intimacy and community. Participants were able to form bonds with each other just as they would in a physical space, and the atmosphere of the second night reflected this. The Twitch platform allows for an online chat to be active during streams, and participants were intermittently giving performers feedback and compliments for the entire evening. For a list of all performers from this second night, please see the above link.
The locations of performers for the night of May 8th were also spanning, with streams coming from Canada, Amsterdam, and more. Similarly to the first night, performers seemed to be responding to site, grappling with how the body moves and behaves in various places. Yvette Teeuwen’s second stream occurred, showing just how much site can affect the body. Other performances included Beau Coleman’s release of “pandemic losses” into a ravine, as well as Jolanda Jansen’s midnight romp among the trees of Amsterdam, and Jada-Amina Harvey’s exploration of online space creation. Storytelling seemed to be a big theme for this evening, as many artists explored their personal connections to place. Gao Yujie’s powerful piece looked into what the notion of home means, and also touched on the sadness of those not able to physically be in their homes. C.R. Cooper and lo bil developed pieces that mostly revolved around them speaking, Cooper telling a story of disturbing experiences individuals can have in work spaces, and lo bil taking the viewer on a journey through their home streets, making spontaneous commentary along the way. Tomas Jonsson also included this element of storytelling, beginning his stream with a calm voiceover about the importance of communication before peacefully watching the wind blow paper about. The inclusion of these intimate stories emphasized how each individual experiences affect space differently.
As previously stated, the overwhelming theme for these two nights of performances was space and the body’s response to it. Though performers spanned widely in how they chose to grapple with this theme, the performances were all delicately connected through an intimately curated online platform. This symposium taught that space does not always have to be physical, and that meaningful connections, ideas, and art can be passed on in a plethora of ways. Workshop host Dimple B. Shah shared in the Twitch chat that she had recently lost an artist friend, and that one of the performances resonated with her for this reason. Carron Little verbally expressed this to the viewers, emphasizing that sympathy and comfort can be passed on in many ways, even online. Out of Site’s Flow Symposium brought together a talented group of artists and students and proved that if art is intentional and powerful, it can move seamlessly through society’s newfound online public spaces.
#averyplummer #lobil #daisuketakeya #dimplebshah #GaoYujie #JolandaJansen #jada-amina #carronlittle #callumeccleston #danielaehemann #WeiZenHo #SuryaTüchler #ReneMG #YvetteTeeuwen #livepublicperformance #outofsite
