Map -- Week 4
EHB
Popular posts from this blog
Late Map-T.Dawson
Why were we in the dark?
The question is not, “Why did Josiah give his presentation in the dark?” The question is, “What happened when we were sitting in the (almost) dark?” What was it like to sit in the dark and listen to a presentation, or to ask and answer questions in the dark? What did it feel like, and where did those feelings come from? By “feelings”, I hope to evoke all possible meanings, so, physical and emotional feelings as well as thoughts, attitudes, or associations. How was it different from Laura’s part of the class, and why? What happened in the dark, and what didn’t happen? It was the first time in this class that we have been in the space together without being able to see each other clearly. Why is that not common?
Josiah's performance brought a refreshing, perhaps mildly uncomfortable, sensation to the classroom experience. I thought his approach (lights out in room, light on text/himself) was, among other things, an important tool for commanding the room and creating an audience. This brings to mind how performers think about and engage with the space in order to get their message/s across, or at the minimum—received. It was interesting to observe how some of the audience accepted the darkness, and others made use of their own lights. One goal for performance might be to stimulate thought and questions; Josiah's performative presentation did that for me. I wonder, how the focus on text/one speaker performs this text or not? What about the audience in the dark, feeling-out unknown objects, without a text, or light (which gave focal/speaking access). I really liked this. I will say that it was no surprise to me that a long gap occurred when the transition from performer/speaker (with text and light) became conversations, meaning, Josiah asked us to speak from our seats in the dark, and his invitation was met with silence. I wonder if the light had been passed, if that had been different? If the light signifies 'speaker' and the dark represents audience/silent, what symbol/signal/declaration signifies shared speech?
ReplyDelete