Summer 2022
TMA 115 Intro to Performance Studies
TMA 115 - Intro to Performance Studies
Course outcomes common to all sections of TMA 115
- Students will identify many of the key figures and movements that have contributed to the history of Performance Studies.
- Students will utilize the vocabulary of Performance Studies to analyze various performances in the world around them.
Learned about the ways in which performance and theater influences our daily lives in a myriad of mediums.
Shelley Graham
8/3/22
Emmalisa Horlacher
Performance Final
Why do we have eyes in the front of our heads? In nature it is a common experience that predators have eyes in the front of their heads facing forwards while prey has eyes on the sides of their heads. In exploring the concept of life as performance, this phenomenon could be explored in a way that explores both the practical and artistic needs for this eyes-in-front concept.
Starting with a basic understanding of performance we find that it can be defined as an everyday occurrence as well as a communally accepted event with rules and sometimes even symbolic meanings. We use performance to explore our world and our life and to expand upon our understanding. Even our bodies are a type of performative aspect, our hands used to work, our legs used to walk. These things incorporate both functional uses and artistic expression, just as the eyes can be used as functions of the body or expressions.
In a technical sense the eyes are used to see. Just as a stagehand helps set the lights for the audience, the eyes take in light and use it to create an image that we can rely on for spatial awareness. We use our eyes as tools, only for the functional purpose of accomplishing our tasks of living; To see, to look, to visualize, these are all codified words in which all people must learn starting from childhood. Being able to see allows for the ability to focus on a subject.
An important thing to note is the presentation and position of the eyes on the body. Notice they are on the head, the place of control. They are facing frontwards, naturally directing focus to that which is coming up ahead. When you see what is in front of you, you can be ready for what is coming but even more than that, you can chase after what it is that you want. The idea of goal orientation is an essential part of play as the reason for play to receive some kind of rewards, whether that’s just having fun or winning a competition. In agon play specifically, it is obvious how forward set eyes are important since there is a set goal. Actions are then scored in movement towards that goal. Alea and mimesis play both have no controlled outcome as the ultimate goal is to attain the high of the experience. (Yes gampling type alea has a perceived goal but it is unrealistic to think that attaining the prize is the sole purpose of the experience. We chase the feeling of the win, not the win itself.) It could also be said that mimesis has no real focus which is true as exploration is key, but in the context of forward facing sight, you no longer take in what is directly in front of you. In a metaphorical sense, you must now move your body and look around you to explore concepts and images/ideas that perhaps are foreign to you. Your focus is expanded to a larger field.
The last version of play is illynx which is meant to completely disorient your senses. This experience is perhaps the most liminoid version of play for the concept of the eyes. Illynx play forces one to have their focus taken away. Perhaps because of this one could argue that there is no need for forward facing eyes in illynx play. There is no focus, and thus the importance of eye placement is not constative. Some might even argue that it would be better to have eyes all around because then the experience of disorientation can be felt in a greater extreme. I disagree because the eyes provide a starting and reference point from which we can go off of. We do not know how dizzy we can get unless we experience what it is like to be stable. As for the placement of front facing eyes, while it may be true that we cannot see and therefore experience everything in our sensory capacity, it is also true that the experience of mystery may be more vital than the ability to see everything.
With front facing eyes you know that there is more around you than what you are able to see. By moving your head and allowing for exploration within your focus, you create a liminal experience as your view of the world is changed by a new understanding of what you find to be around you. When you start to see what is around you, you can evaluate where you are presented and placed within that sphere. The more you allow yourself to see, the more you can shape and adapt to what you find to be around you.
In these ways of exploration, focus and goals as discovered through the lens of performance we find that the front facing eyes are truly a forward driven experience. Perhaps the most important way in which we move forward is by attaining experiences. Movement itself is what helps us to go towards the place that we see in the distance. Runners see their goal and run towards it, though it is important that they look around them to be aware of how they are performing in the space in which they exist.
Glossary:
Liminoid - transportation
Liminal - transformaction
Performative - create something into being accessing a change of day
Speech act - commitment, command, promise
Constative - things you can prove as right or wrong
Cotified - set movements that have established meanings groups of performance/performers with established vocab
Scored - set movements and actions that happen every time
Agon - competition, rules, beginning/end, winner/prize, stakes/pressure
Alea - chance, no skill, no controlled outcome, pure play, high adrenaline
beginning/end
Illynx - destabilization, disoriented/dizziness, physical stimulation, suspense, no skill
Mimesis - simulation, character, setting “other world”, imagination, beginning/end fuzzy, constantly changing/evolving
8/3/22
Emmalisa Horlacher
Performance Final
Why do we have eyes in the front of our heads? In nature it is a common experience that predators have eyes in the front of their heads facing forwards while prey has eyes on the sides of their heads. In exploring the concept of life as performance, this phenomenon could be explored in a way that explores both the practical and artistic needs for this eyes-in-front concept.
Starting with a basic understanding of performance we find that it can be defined as an everyday occurrence as well as a communally accepted event with rules and sometimes even symbolic meanings. We use performance to explore our world and our life and to expand upon our understanding. Even our bodies are a type of performative aspect, our hands used to work, our legs used to walk. These things incorporate both functional uses and artistic expression, just as the eyes can be used as functions of the body or expressions.
In a technical sense the eyes are used to see. Just as a stagehand helps set the lights for the audience, the eyes take in light and use it to create an image that we can rely on for spatial awareness. We use our eyes as tools, only for the functional purpose of accomplishing our tasks of living; To see, to look, to visualize, these are all codified words in which all people must learn starting from childhood. Being able to see allows for the ability to focus on a subject.
An important thing to note is the presentation and position of the eyes on the body. Notice they are on the head, the place of control. They are facing frontwards, naturally directing focus to that which is coming up ahead. When you see what is in front of you, you can be ready for what is coming but even more than that, you can chase after what it is that you want. The idea of goal orientation is an essential part of play as the reason for play to receive some kind of rewards, whether that’s just having fun or winning a competition. In agon play specifically, it is obvious how forward set eyes are important since there is a set goal. Actions are then scored in movement towards that goal. Alea and mimesis play both have no controlled outcome as the ultimate goal is to attain the high of the experience. (Yes gampling type alea has a perceived goal but it is unrealistic to think that attaining the prize is the sole purpose of the experience. We chase the feeling of the win, not the win itself.) It could also be said that mimesis has no real focus which is true as exploration is key, but in the context of forward facing sight, you no longer take in what is directly in front of you. In a metaphorical sense, you must now move your body and look around you to explore concepts and images/ideas that perhaps are foreign to you. Your focus is expanded to a larger field.
The last version of play is illynx which is meant to completely disorient your senses. This experience is perhaps the most liminoid version of play for the concept of the eyes. Illynx play forces one to have their focus taken away. Perhaps because of this one could argue that there is no need for forward facing eyes in illynx play. There is no focus, and thus the importance of eye placement is not constative. Some might even argue that it would be better to have eyes all around because then the experience of disorientation can be felt in a greater extreme. I disagree because the eyes provide a starting and reference point from which we can go off of. We do not know how dizzy we can get unless we experience what it is like to be stable. As for the placement of front facing eyes, while it may be true that we cannot see and therefore experience everything in our sensory capacity, it is also true that the experience of mystery may be more vital than the ability to see everything.
With front facing eyes you know that there is more around you than what you are able to see. By moving your head and allowing for exploration within your focus, you create a liminal experience as your view of the world is changed by a new understanding of what you find to be around you. When you start to see what is around you, you can evaluate where you are presented and placed within that sphere. The more you allow yourself to see, the more you can shape and adapt to what you find to be around you.
In these ways of exploration, focus and goals as discovered through the lens of performance we find that the front facing eyes are truly a forward driven experience. Perhaps the most important way in which we move forward is by attaining experiences. Movement itself is what helps us to go towards the place that we see in the distance. Runners see their goal and run towards it, though it is important that they look around them to be aware of how they are performing in the space in which they exist.
Glossary:
Liminoid - transportation
Liminal - transformaction
Performative - create something into being accessing a change of day
Speech act - commitment, command, promise
Constative - things you can prove as right or wrong
Cotified - set movements that have established meanings groups of performance/performers with established vocab
Scored - set movements and actions that happen every time
Agon - competition, rules, beginning/end, winner/prize, stakes/pressure
Alea - chance, no skill, no controlled outcome, pure play, high adrenaline
beginning/end
Illynx - destabilization, disoriented/dizziness, physical stimulation, suspense, no skill
Mimesis - simulation, character, setting “other world”, imagination, beginning/end fuzzy, constantly changing/evolving