User:Pleun/project/dissectingbras

Saturday the 23rd of September was the opening of an in-house exhibition I was invited to be part of. There was an experience I had had a month or so before which stuck with me, which I wanted to turn into a scene.

Scene

I've been thinking about existing structures in my life and to which extent I consciously made the decision to apply them. One of them was me wearing a bra every day. This simple action stems from a choice I had made in my early teens to conform to societies norms. Since then I had unconsciously repeated the action every day of my life while I personally practically do not need this piece of clothing. After the realization, I dissected my old bras on my bed in an afternoon where I decided I wanted to get rid of all the unnecessary painful, irritating or parts that are meant to shape or cover up. The action felt liberating as if I was shedding old versions of me who cared about "fitting in" and "conforming to" rather than to actually think about the "why". A small action, but a personal victory. In my head, I had named similar victories by a sentence a person I once knew had said: "Onverwerkt leed hoort niet op het podium", which translates to "unprocessed suffering shouldn't be on stage", which for me meant: I was supposed to figure these parts of life out alone, and share them once they are worked through. A statement that I thoroughly disagreed with.

A few days later I felt the need to open up this conversation, but doing so by repeating the action and taking it further. I was thinking about doing it at the Performance Bar, but it didn't meet the first few criteria that I had set the moment I thought of it as a work instead of an activity alone.

Later when I was asked to join the expo, the personal environment of the expo (a home) really fit the scene, which was one of the criteria. Additionally, the expo gave me the opportunity to try to accomplish a few personal goals I had set that followed previous performance work and created a desire and interest.

A thing I would like to add to this story: This is one of the most personal works I've done until now, as I am used to making work that isn't based on a personal story but rather a personal interest in a structure or network in society and I rarely or actually never refer back to my first initial personal contact with that topic in such a direct way. Other words: I have never directly converted a personal action into a project in such a transparent way.

Goals and criteria

- Create a quick project, which will serve as a test/research method for future work. A work I could build on in the future that helps me with my desire to make more performative work and work that creates an experience.
- Create an environment or "stage" yourself in a way you are in direct contact with your audience
- Create a safe space where the audience feels compelled to speak to you about the work
- Create a safe space where the audience feels compelled to touch the work
- Create a durational piece where you give the audience the freedom to engage to whatever extent they feel they need to.
- Create a repetition which will require certain steps or a certain structure that is set up beforehand

WHY

Repetition and durational performances are of interest to me and have been a part of every performance I did to this point. Structuring the performance to the point where you create a list of ingredients which every maker could follow to create the same performance is a direct crossover with how I would structure a design project. Designing for me means structuring content and creating criteria. I'm basically creating parameters, and pressing "Play". Using this method on a performance piece creates a very different yet similar outcome.

I've been trying to move from abstract concepts to personal experience for a while now. Most projects I'm involved with or create take me a step closer to this goal. A big part of last years experiments with performance where to make the audience a participant rather than a passive viewer. In this case, the audience is allowed to engage within the parameters that I have decided.

In history dissecting an object (or a dead body) was a means for research. I want to not simply destroy the object but see destruction as an inevitable consequence of research. I want to free myself from the object but understand the object at the same time.

Project Method & Structure

PERFORMER (me)

I want to:
- dissect bras
- in a very repetitive, (repeating specific steps)
- durational performance, (2 or 3 hours)
- as myself (not in character: I can act, breath, talk, walk, sit as myself)
- in work-mode. (the version of myself I'm representing in that moment is me as a worker)

I will:
- not leave my work-area for the duration of the piece,
- talk to my audience, but only about topics related to the piece by consciously steering the conversation and asking questions,

I want to:
- bridge the distance between work and visitor, with tools like communication and by creating the vibe of a safe space
- engage with the audience while the performance take part

THE AUDIENCE (the other)

The audience:
- can walk in and out of the room as if I'm a work in the exhibition,
- can touch the materials,
- can talk to me and expect an answer to start a conversation
- can not sit in my work-area, but can sit anywhere else they want (the cats can sit in my work-area)
- can not remove my workers tools or boxes meant for materials
- can not help me with my task
- can bring me drinks if they like

THE SPACE

- A bedroom, to give the audience the feeling of being part of a personal experience of the maker

Configurations of the space to be able to reach goals:
- Small space (goal: direct contact with audience)
- Personal space (goal: safe space where personal stories could be shared. goal: recreating my personal scene)

I want to:
- Finding a balance between creating a generic bedroom by changing as little as possible, but keeping it Jo's (owner of the house) personal bedroom.
- Create a clear workspace
- Create a clear space for the audience
-

ATTRIBUTES

(Tools I will need)
- A tool that rips threads in clothes
- scissors
- Fabric scissors
- 7 pots to put the different materials in.

The 7 pot categories:

1. metal (underwires)
2. plastic (hooks, buttons, etc.)
3. fabrics
4. lace
5. foam
6. elastics
7. additions (bows, instructions)

The bedroom will have:
- A bed,
- A small space for audience (5 ppl max)
- A little table for my tools
- A ticking clock to give everyone a sense of time
- Two lights, one to light the tools and one to light the bras that wait for me to dissect them
- A hanging system for the bras

THE ACTION

The repetitive action:
- For each bra I will work from left to right (to give the audience a sense of where in the process I am) - I will only use the tools I decided on beforehand - The audience will not help

TOPICS OF DISCUSSION

(Broad outline of topics I want to talk to the audience about)
I will let the audience lead the conversation, but I will steer the conversation back into the subjects or introduce topics where I need to.
- Personal experiences with bras
- Dealing with societies norms
- Gender
- Views on wearing them
- Bras in public space
- Breasts in public space #freethenipple
- Different materials, craftmanship
- Bras and sex
- Bras and sexualisation

NOT INCLUDED

In this version I thought about but decided not to include:
- the owners (or stories from the owners) I collected the bras from, (this was still about the personal victory which I first felt a need to share)
- any form of documentation, (as I want to centralize direct contact with my audience it wouldnt work to tape this and repeat it in any form later)
- a workshop form (I need to figure out the exact steps myself first, a workshop could be formed later if I felt it would add to the work, but my ideal would be to inspire people to repeat this at home)
- any form of added media, (the action and communication is the center of the work and the simplicity and directness of the action is stronger on its own for this work)

Conclusions

- It takes about 1 hour and 10 minutes to take apart 1 bra
- People relate easily and quickly by this personal project and simple action of dissection
- By including talking with the audience in the performance in a conscious way I could steer the conversation give context to the work in a very direct way.
(Under construction)