Luca-thesis outline

Thesis Outline

Question:

IF WE PLAY DOES THAT MEAN ITS NOT REAL(ITY) ?

Description of two previous video works

THIS IS AND THAT IS AND A BIT OF THIS AND A LOT OF THAT (2018) Is a 10 minutes video in which you see a series of moving portraits of Luca. In every portrait, Luca looks totally different. The video is guided by a narration that speaks an repetitive test always starting with the words: “THIS IS ME…..” The person you see in the image always may look different in every scene but the narrator tells you it's always the same person. The video plays with the versatile aspects of beliefs concerning 'identity', a research into the intriguing differences, the moldability of 'being' and in surge of a kind of essence. We search for authenticity. Yet we want to be accepted, to converse, to belong to one another in risk of losing that very authenticity. The complex game that plays with the urge for acceptance, recognition and the need for authenticity is central to this work.

THIS IS THEM (2020) Is a video in which you see Branda and Hilda playing in a room. They play different characters and scenes. Every scene is introduced by the narrator, always starting with the words; “THIS IS THEM…” Branda and Hilda long for a big life worth living but what does that mean a big life? Who influenced them to believe what is worthy? Branda and Hilda have such a grand idea of what life should be like that they are scared to go outside and live beyond their imagination. So they stay and try to create a vibrant life right there in that room. The question that this work raises is if staying in your room and creating words with your imagination is less of a real life compared to going outside into the world full of people where you can not control all that is happening.

Intention for a new piece

Something that fascinates me is how we as humans seek to connect with others and therefore ourselves - what we will do to experience connection and what kind of connection we allow. I think we often try to be "something" so we can belong to a certain group or movement in order to experience contact. This is how we create our story and our identity … In my work, the central focus is on people and their search for identity. Who are we? Where do we belong? How malleable is our identity? Why do we want confirmation from others? I try to show that people never know or possess one identity. Our identity consists of many layers and different "characters" that we discover and alternate in a playful way, in order to create our own story. I am intrigued by group dynamics: which role/identity someone takes within a group, but also that groups create their identity by opposing other people and groups. People are often looking for confirmation, but this search may lead to alienation, isolation and the feeling of "not being alive". These elements (identity and group dynamics) are in line with my fascination for people who constantly present themselves to the outside world. How do we want other people to see us? How do we want to see ourselves? I do not find this self-conscious urge for presentation to be exclusively negative: I think that the human being is a playful being at its core and that the different ways of presenting yourself to the outside world are in line with our urge to play. By self-presentation, people can playfully create an identity and reality with which he / she can approach and avoid the world. I believe playing is both a flight and a search for genuine contact with ourselves and the other. With the making of a new video called THIS IS US I want to further investigate how a small group of people surge for how they are individually and as one.

THIS IS US (2021) In THIS IS US we see a group of three people in five different scenes. Every scene shows how the group wants to be identified as a whole. “ I belong therefore I am ”. The style of the video is characterized by the four performers, wearing distinct coherent costumes in a minimal scenographic setting. THIS IS US has a non linear dramaturgie, and can be seen as a collage of moments. In this film I'm applying the same restrictions to investigate playing but this time going further by questioning how identity is constructed within a group context. I believe this work can build on the previous works, and has an opportunity to show how people change their identity for the sake of belonging to the other. What role/identity does someone take within a group, and how fast can this role change? This work can also make a new step in showing how groups create their identity by opposing other people and groups. Next to that I wish to make THIS IS US to further discover a (for me) form of dramaturgy. That means I want to look for a dramaturgy that offers me the ideal combination of abstract images and a narrative form. The video works that I have made so far are formalistic and visual, and I have a longing to add a narrative layer to it. I am fascinated by narrative structures that are non-linear and are not based on the direct action of a character, but on his or her psychological inner world. After all, the complicated inner world of man is not linear, but fragmented and contradictory. I want to deepen this by investigating the narrative structures of Roy Anderson and diving into the work of Federico Fellini. In the case of Anderson, because his story structure is characterized by a fragmentary approach and Fellini because he masterfully captured both reality and fantasy in his film language. In this way I would like to investigate the following question: in what way (technically and substantively) do Fellini's absurdist scenes enter into a dialogue with the realistic scenes? This can help me with my own video language, as I want to alternate realism and absurdism without the works losing their sense of unity. With the making of THIS IS US, I wish to develop a narrative structure that combines the concrete with artistic freedom, accessibility with innovation and intelligence with emotion. Because how do you create a story that is as clear as possible, while creating a lot of artistic freedom on a visual level? How do you ensure that the viewer does not experience an "anything goes" feeling? That the artistry of the video actually reinforces rather than hinders the story? Where do the suspension of disbelief and artistic wonder meet? I now imagine THIS IS US to have a dramaturgy in which tableaux vivants show the inner emotional world of the characters, in combination with realistic situations. In that sense, the video will play with the dividing line between realism and fantasy, the real world and the playing world, and between story in language and story in images.

What do i what the thesis to do?

In the first video, I made THIS IS AND THAT IS AND A BIT OF THIS AND A LOT OF THAT It started with one person's alternating characters. This person is limited in playing with one's identity, one body. One person could be anybody/everybody. When you present yourself as one, you're the only one deciding what you show or how you believe to be and what you could become. Then in the second video, THIS IS THEM there are two people playing. I noticed that the definition of how they were was an immediate rejection to the other and relayed on the other. Unlike in the first video they could not be everybody they were always somebody else opposite earth other. That means that defining their identities was always in relation to the other. The thesis should become an artistic piece that functions as a script. This script moves throw three different chapters:

Solo *

Duo **

Trio ***

With every chapter, I want to look at the different ways of identifying a self in relation to: oneself, the other, and the others. Therefore this thesis is a resurge in the different ways of articulating who we are, and how many versions we can be depending on the circumstances. And diving into a new dynamic of three characters I want to investigate what kind of dynamics are new and not existing in the previous constructions.

chapters ==

2) duet (we [us -they- their's] mode of address)

This is THEM duo

In a world full of worlds, there is this little place which is a town, and in that town are many long streets, small trees and 33 big houses. Every house looks exactly the same … well actually there is one, just one house that doesn’t look exactly like the others.. It’s that house on the corner to the park It has a lot of windows and is very colorful. it’s ..sss ehhm... well, ehm, yellow and green, and has some touches of pink here and there. And in that. bright. yellow, green, a little bit of pink house are many rooms and many doors Ohh… so many I mean if I wouldn’t have known the place, I would totally get lost. On the second floor, there is a long, long hallway and at the end of that long, long hallway there are two doors. Do you see that one on the left? That’s the door to Hilda’s room And in that room Hilda spends her time with her dear friend Branda Let me introduce them shortly; Hilda is a young energetic, but shy girl. She loves collecting feathers and has a complex relationship with her mother, who also had a complex relationship with her own mother, so maybe there is some connection there. Well anyway... Hilda has one very, very, very very, very close friend. It’s Branda, she’s also shy. But… unlike Hilda she likes telling secrets to strangers. Branda doesn’t collect things, nooo… she is a minimalist. And her parents are never around,.So it's hard to build some kind of, or any kind of relationship.

This is them, Branda is wearing her favorite blue sweater, while clipping Hilda’s nails, which are way overdue. There is one thing Hilda and Branda both deeply love, is playing, yes playing. In this room Hilda and Branda spend hours, weeks, years creating worlds, playing people, day in day out they play, play, play. I’m not even sure if they ever left the place.

This isss themmmmmmmmmm in class

This is them being parents

Being my parents

Telling a big big secret

This is receiving a letter

This is them introducing a self

HILDA: hello you

BRANDA: hallo jij

HILDA: we or me

BRANDA: wij of mij

HILDA: they call me she

BRANDA: ze noemen me zij

HILDA: my sister calls me sissy

BRANDA: mijn zus noemt me zusje

HILDA: have a brother calls me sis

BRANDA: heb een broer noemt me zus

HILDA: or maybe lady,

BRANDA: of misschien dame

HILDA: A young lady.

BRANDA: een jonge dame

HILDA: the delivery guy calls me a little chickie.

BRANDA: the delivery guy calls you a little chickie

HILDA: my mother calls me young girl.

BRANDA: Mijn moeder noemt me klein meisje

HILDA: I have a friend, she calls me baby

BRANDA: Ik heb een vriend, ze noemt me baby

HILDA: boys should call me like that

BRANDA: jongens zouden me zo moeten noemen

HILDA: call me there baby

BRANDA: call me there baby

HILDA: but my mother calls me baby as well

BRANDA: maar men moeder noemt me ook baby

HILDA: only when were in Italy.

BRANDA: alleen als we in Italië zijn

HILDA: when I’m no good she calls me darling

BRANDA: little darling

HILDA: little darling

BRANDA: I call me, “me” whatever that may be or become

HILDA: I don’t believe in the word being

BRANDA: Why?

HILDA: I like poetic words

BRANDA: Being is very poetic.

HILDA: No , not at all, being is an idea.

BRANDA: being is a verb, Present continuous I am being you are being he/she/it is being we are being you are being they are being Present perfect I have been you have been he/she/it has been we have been you have been they have been Future I will be you will be he/she/it will be we will be you will be they will be Future perfect I will have been…….

This is them being attacked, but kinda liking it

This is them waiting for a bus

Trying the unknown

Trying, Trying a..new…look?

This is them somewhere in a French cafe drinking strong coffee smoking ciggies and thinking ooh thinking

HILDA: I move my face slightly to the right I blink my eyes three times, I swallow, I think, I think, and what of all that I’ve decided to do myself? for all i know i've not been the one making the decision to start breathing, it just happened.

BRANDA: All things just happen, we don't decide. I didn’t decide who I am, and it has not been decided for me it's decided along the way ...

HILDA: So are we not responsible for our actions?

BRANDA: OO I think we are, but we tend to forget about that part.

This is them knowing what tomorrow will look like

HILDA: Lately I have been thinking, do you know why God created the world the way he did? I mean so complicated, Because i’ve been thinking about it, and it just get more and more puzzled if there is a divine plan it sure doesn’t look very divine, or plant like. It looks kinda like a mess. That's just how I feel. like i don’t know anything, it’s really scary

BRANDA: I know what you mean I don’t even know the smallest things like the name of the prime minister, I don’t know why the sky is blue?

HILDA: I don’t know what blue is,

BRANDA: I don’t know why i don’t know

HILDA: I don’t know what my dad does at work

BRANDA: I don’t know how many different types of insects there are , can’t even remember if a spider has 6 or 8 legs.

HILDA: I don’t know the difference between good art and bad art. I have no clue what a hostile takeover is, nor why junk bonds are junky, I mean why would anybody want them if they’re worthless? it doesn’t make any sense.

BRANDA: I don’t know nothing about politics, I don’t know why carbs are bad for you, I don't know how to spell carbon monoxide nor the meaning. I don’t know what the recipe for a good apple crumble is.

HILDA: I don’t know how to play the piano, I don’t know how to speak french, I don’t know how to make love, I do know how to make a scrambled egg , I know I like glitter, I know I like money, I know I like to party, I know I like to cry, I know I like to be seen.

BRANDA: I know how stubborn i can be, I know I’m a vegetarian, i know I’m feminine , I know I’m a daughter, I know I’m short I know I’m technically not the smartest person, I know I can smile, I know I want to be successful

HILDA: own a lot of books

BRANDA: read them

HILDA: books about

BRANDA: the world

HILDA: society

BRANDA: Books

HILDA: About

BRANDA: About

HILDA: about people

BRANDA: about me

HILDA: I want to read a book about me

BRANDA: write it

HILDA: write it with my

BRANDA: Secrets

HILDA: my deepest fears

BRANDA: I want people to know me

HILDA: like Nietzsche

BRANDA: like Christina

HILDA: Aguilera

BRANDA: and

HILDA: make movies

BRANDA: Direct them

HILDA: play them

BRANDA: show them

HILDA: I want to make movies about love

BRANDA: About

HILDA: Good

BRANDA: Stuff

HILDA: you see

BRANDA: I see

HILDA: you see we need to have

BRANDA: a purpose

HILDA: a desire

BRANDA: a fulfilling

HILDA: dream

This is Hilda showing brand her costume This is Hilda being proud of her new costume

This is seeking for a strong opinion

This is Branda telling Hilda it’s important to make something of their lives, something that will last forever.

BRANDA: It's important that we make something of our lives. Become something unexpected. we should go out there. do things, I mean big things. thinks that will last forever.

This is them having cake

BRANDA: O god you’re never going to believe what I’ve heard

HILDA: Go on..

BRANDA: You know Brenda and Hilda right?

HILDA: hmm kinda…

BRANDA: Well they have decided to no longer live in the shadows, in that room of theirs. And want to become something worth living...

HILDA: like what???

BRANDA: YYYEEAHHHA This is the best part ,,,, they want to become…. clowns

HILDA: What?? Like a clown duo??! Are you joking?

BRANDA: Well I hope they have some jokes because for all I know being a clown, it’s a tough business

HILDA: My god I can’t wait to tell the girls on Tuesday

BRANDA: I know right, so crazy

HILDA: I always thought they were strange

BRANDA: Oh god George is coming this way, act like we're having fun

This is them looking for some fresh air

This is them in a forest. Ooh ehm no its, its them at the swimming pool

That’s playing football

Staying close to the wall Being the one unwanted

At the audition

This is them at the audition

HILDA: Soo, thanks for coming, is this your first time auditioning?

BRANDA: Yes, well no, well, I had some small roles here and there. But I really want to become serious with acting. It's my dream.

HILDA: Great! How would you describe yourself? As a modern female actress?

BRANDA: Uhm ..

HILDA: No worries, you’re young, and beautiful, (you have) the keys to the kingdom.

HILDA: Now show me your emotions, please

HILDA: Surprised Afraid Wondering Wondering about your name Angry Happy with a touch of suspicion In love Mmm no wait I don't seem to believe that you're in love, please try that one again

HILDA: No something different… Uhhmm give it some sadness maybe that will work Andddd now go to mad More….moo…ore Happy OK thanks, now let’s do some dialogue from the scene at the swimming pool, OK? We’ll start from… .page 7 Oh and move a little bit closer to the wall please, mmm… yeah… eehm… but more yeah OK. Whenever you’re ready. BRANDA: I don't feel like playing football: there's a lot of water around here, I don’t think it's very safe HILDA: Ooh… please come on…, all the cool kids finally want to play with us, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity

BRANDA: I don't know, I’m not even … I’m not even HILDA: …good at football? BRANDA: I’m not even good at football

HILDA: OK! Great, that was the scene. Thank you very much, we’ll send your tap to the director and give you a call, OK?

BRANDA: Oh OK This is knowing small things matter

This is them trying to be complete

This is them HILDA: “what happened? BRANDA: ..don't know”

This is getting ready for granny

This is them taking a break

Having a small break

This is them wandering around

This is them looking for a wonder

Getting a phone call ……. Oh no just missed it.

Getting ready for success

BRANDA: In the interview you gave to Time magazine you were very open about your childhood, especially about that room in which you spent hours. Can you tell us, what was your experience in this room?

HILDA: Well emmmm You know, I remember when I was 5,6, 7, 8 years old and I was very, very happy. Because I lived in dream…..s . I liked my own world. I created it myself and it was very, very peaceful. In that room I was far away from everything. But you know, at a certain point I didn't know if I dreamed things or if they really existed. And that, well yeah became very difficult for me and then my parents of-course…

BRANDA: Well, what about them?

HILDA: well they told me “waarom heb je dat gedaan?” why did you do that or or “je hebt gelogen.” you lied! That was very painful. Because for me it was real you know, I mixed things.

BRANDA: It was at this point that you went off to pursue your big dream to become a clown? How did your parents deal with that?

HILDA: Oo Gosh hmm

HILDA: Well...I remember, I went away from home, to, you know, work on my career. And I didn’t see them for a while but I started to miss them. So I went back ..home. Only the parents weren't parents…..they were just… people.

BRANDA: I don't agree .. .

Ooh This is Branda going off script….

BRANDA: That was your experience. But mine was different. They were there, but they were children.. and I was the parent.

This is being the kind of parent that tries to make a difference

HILDA: Ooh my dear, you wish for so many things but you really don't get any of them do you? because the world has a wish on its own. All you may do, really, is stand by and look at what remains...

This is hilda feeling nauseous and brandy feeling a bit lost

This is them knowing better

This is getting better

feeling terribly sorry

HILDA: “because the world has a wish on its one”

This is them dancing in the middle of a field of flowers with a breeze of wind

This is them wondering

BRANDA: Sometimes I wonder if I'm really named …., and that freaks me out, because if I am not, then who am i? And if I don't have a real name, what am i?

HILDA: Maybe i don’t exist and this is some kind of a cruel joke My family is playing on me but I don’t know if there capable of such a thing,

BRANDA: I think they're all faking it, particularly our parents, our social betters, people in positions of authority.

HILDA: even in the middle of the night, when we are all asleep. I had a dream last night

BRANDA: a dream

HILDA: I dreamed I had a baby

BRANDA: a baby? ..the mystery of babies.

HILDA: the mystery of babies.

BRANDA: of having babies

HILDA: the mystery of a baby

BRANDA: of having

HILDA: of wanting

BRANDA: of wanting to have

HILDA: a baby

BRANDA: the mystery of wanting to have a baby

HILDA: a tiny

BRANDA: dependent

HILDA: a very tiny

BRANDA: very dependent

HILDA: Iddy biddy

BRANDA: widdoo widdoo

HILDA: baby.

BRANDA: the mystery

HILDA: of wanting to have one

BRANDA: of wanting to own one

HILDA: of wanting to have one’s own

BRANDA: baby.

HILDA: I want to have a baby

BRANDA: why?

HILDA: I want to hold t in my arms

BRANDA: here hold mine.

HILDA: I want to have one, one baby

BRANDA: here have this one. This extra one

HILDA: No, I want to have my own.

BRANDA: why?

HILDA: To be like me.

BRANDA: To look like you?

HILDA: Yes, yes, I want a baby.

BRANDA: To look like you

HILDA: Yes, yes, I want to look

BRANDA: at that baby

HILDA: and see

BRANDA: yourself

HILDA: Yes, and my mother

BRANDA: Father.

HILDA: Yes, yes Yes I want my baby to be

BRANDA: Your history

HILDA: Oooh, my history yes

BRANDA: your history and

HILDA: Yes my history and

BRANDA: Your legacy

HILDA: Yes, my legacy, my history and my legacy

BRANDA: Okay, ho dear

HILDA: whatever you want Here’s your baby

BRANDA: My baby??

HILDA: He’s going to grow up

BRANDA: Oh, not too fast I hope

HILDA: to be an artist

BRANDA: Oh my dear

HILDA: you wish for so many things…

BRANDA: And you really don’t get any of them, do you?

HILDA: because the world has a wish of its own…

BRANDA: all you may do, really, is stand by, in a kind of horror, until the world is finished and you can collect whatever remains.

HILDA: It must be awful to believe that.

BRANDA: Hilda, you revise and revise and revise the thing you want… and what are you left with?

HILDA: the other things you want, the trick is wanting a lot of things.

BRANDA: What if, maybe, I only think I'm Branda and that in fact I'm Hilda and you’re Branda and that somehow we got it all mixed up, tragically.

This is them on the ground

HILDA: what happened to us

BRANDA: Nothing

HILDA: Should we do more?

BRANDA: I don't know

HILDA: What do you know?

BRANDA: All I know is I want to go home take off this uniform and leave the show there will be a thousand performances like this you wouldn’t remember.

HILDA: You think we will be useless and forgotten if we do nothing. if we just lay here?

BRANDA: i don’t know, all i know is we will not

HILDA: what?

BRANDA: we will not just lay here.

HILDA: i see

BRANDA: you're looking?

HILDA: i’m looking

BRANDA: at what?

HILDA: You. i am looking at you

BRANDA: do i fit the description

HILDA: I think you do.

This is waiting , waiting for a ….miracle ?

This is them at the end of a day

HILDA: Aaaah I’m exhausted

BRANDA: Yeah i'm broken into a million pieces but it was all worth it

HILDA: What a night. What a crowd!

BRANDA: And what a performance!

HILDA: We were..

BRANDA: Amazing..

HILDA: We were!! We were the best thing

BRANDA: Ever!

HILDA: No one will ever accomplish what we just did

BRANDA: We were outstanding,

HILDA: Excellent

BRANDA: Exceptional

HILDA: Extraordinary

BRANDA: Sensational?...!!

HILDA: Seeennnnn Sssssaationnaaalllll!! BRANDA: Ooh and that that part when we

HILDA: OOOh that parttttttttt!!! BRANDA: I never knew

HILDA: We were capable of such a thing?!!!

BRANDA: What a night

HILDA: What a performance

BRANDA: OOh and did you see that man on the 4th row

HILDA: OOh yesss

BRANDA: He was, he was…

HILDA: He was crying ?

BRANDA: Yeah crying,

HILDA: Yeah crying!

BRANDA: Crying and...

HILDA: laughing

BRANDA: Yeahh laughing. Crying and laughing at the same time HILDA: And so passionate like as if… as if

BRANDA: As if he had never cried nor laughed before.

HILDA: And my god did the audience love us

BRANDA: They did

HILDA: They still do

BRANDA: They always will

This is them in a world full of worlds This is them in their little place This is them at the end of a long long hallway Just them, in that colorful house on the corner at the park. This was a day like any other day This was it for now.

Timeline ==

DEC

this is

this is them

intention of new work THIS IS US

What do I what the thesis to do

JAN

1) solo (I (me-mine) mode of address)

2) duet (we [us -they- their's] mode of address)

3) trio (we+ [us -they- their's] mode of address)

FEB First Draft

MAR Second Draft + physical layout

APRIL DEADLINE

Bibliography

Brainard, J. (2001). I remember. Granary Books;Distributed to the trade by D.A.P.

Huizinga, J. (1970). Homo Ludens: A study of the play element in culture. London: Maurice Temple Smith Ltd.

Maalouf, A. (2001). In the name of identity: Violence and the need to belong. New York: Arcade. b. Photography and artworks

Porter, C (2020). What Artist wear.Penguin.England.

Versluis, A and Uyttenbroek, E. (2002-2021). Exactitudes. Holland.