Sighle Bhreathnack-Cashell

Tentative Title

The Arena

Introduction

Form: Private 'experience'/'encounter' for an individual in a setting associated with public gatherings, with an emphasis on an audience and a performer (such as a cinema/auditorium/theatre/circus/ballroom)

Research:

The individual within a group in particular settings and contexts. The performance of the self in public and in private. Psychology of group dynamics, the history of public entertainment, temporary and permanent spaces for group activity/theatrical spectacles.

Questions:

What effect the group has on the individual and vice versa. How this is reflected in architecture and design (use/absorb/mirror) Experiment with various 'set-ups' for encounters, based on visits to existing spaces/situations and reading/writing research.

Relation to previous practice

'Scenarios' – Volkshotel

Using chairs and diagrams created potential 'scenarios'

'Dinnerdate' – BuroRotterdam

Huis Sonneveld group crit

Relation to a larger context

History of staged events where the performers are 'real' people in scripted reality scenarios – Gladiators, Dance Marathons, Reality TV Architecture/Interior Design/Music as tools for manipulation – Neil Leach, Bryan Lawson, Alain de Botton Psychology of group dynamics – Asch, Milgram, Zimbardo Performance of the Self - Erving Goffman

Practical steps

Will simultaneously research the history of staged events and visit buildings/rooms/events such as cinemas, theatres, stadiums, lecture theatres, meeting rooms etc. Photograph/film/interventions in these spaces in order to record/analyse/understand them. Construct my own scenarios using furniture/sound/lighting. Invite people to spaces I have visited potentially for a screening/interaction

References

Renz Circus Fellini They Shoot Horses Don't They Black Mirror Adam Curtis Neil Leach Alain de Botton Erving Goffman Soloman Asch Stanley Milgram Philip Zimbardo Ivan Pavlov John Bowlby

Steve Suggests: This is the reference list from methods seminar last year: I think you should follow them up:

Perform or Else, Jon McKenzie (steve has pdf)

Reality TV: The Work of Being Watched Andreovitz

'Better Living Through Reality TV' by Laurie Ouellette and James Hay

'Archive and Aspiration' by Arjun Appadurai

'Governmentality, Biopower, and Everyday Life' by Majia Holmer Nadesan

'We Live in Public' - Josh Harris (documentary)

Also: Governing the Soul - Nikolas Rose

The Man Who shocked the World - T. Blass (Biography of Milgram)

Opening Skinner's Box - Lauren Slater

I also remember discussing your work in terms of 1) the theatre of the social psychology experiment (clasically Milgram and Zimbardo) 2) self performance in social life and in the media. This is rich territory and I'd like to see you describe your own work in terms which draw on these elements. The modalities, drugs &c.