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This booklet aims to reflect upon my compositional strategies in the making of Fragments of a Teddy Boy.

My composition is cross disciplinary and I borrow strategies from across art forms. Music, creative writing, map making and storytelling are blended together in this booklet as a personal compositional strategy. Bogart & Landau ((2005) suggest the key to compositional work is to do a lot in little timewonderful work often emergesfrom our impulses, our dreams, our emotions.(138) As an artist who creates work based on storytelling and anecdotal experience my practice seemed to blend perfectly with the process of developing fragments of material. The fragments are joined through the connective tissue of self despite them being created impulsively. The fragments can be read inter-relationally, as they have all developed from related stimuli, or they can be read alone. It is important to remember whilst reading this booklet that the artist, by definition is someone who works in an expressive idiom, rather than a cognitive one, and for whom the great project is an extension or development (Schon: 1983) Fragments are the fragments of the memory, my memory, her memory, his memory, your memory, fragments of biography and of autobiography. They are fragments that I want to be whole yet the pieces dont quite fit, bits are missing. Fragments of a Teddy Boy is a reflection on memory which all began with a loss in my family. This happening in my personal life triggered a visual memory which kept playing over and over, in my mind, like a tape recording on repeat

Music

The C.D is the instrumental version of the song Running Bear Loved Little White Dove.

The song played over and over like a tape recording on repeat in my visual memory. The song became the heartbeat to the performance and played a vital part in the process, in both composing material and generating material. The repetitive agenda stayed with me from the beginning to the end, becoming a compositional strategy in itself. Lone Twin discuss how music is often integral to their performances and central to their storytelling practice. They explain how they associate songs with trying to feel at home and seeking the familiar in an unfamiliar place. We often associate particular songs to particular memories of experiences in such that every time we hear that song we are reminded of that particular experience. (see Williams & Lavery: 2011) Anne Bogart identifies a slight dilemma in her viewpoints which I can relate to as part of my process using music How long, How short do you leave a piece of music? When do you change and in response to what? (Bogart: 2005: 102) Early in the process I considered removing the backing track completely from the performance but decided it was either all or nothing. When I removed the music there was a flat feeling to the performance, something was missing. The song in practice seemed to set a particular tone and tempo and this restricted the rhythm of the performance. Performing alongside a constant, repetitive instrumental felt like being stuck in a rut, there were no highs and lows in the performance, it was all on the same level. Toward the end of the process I decided to use the song alongside every new fragment of information (see repetition) in order to mirror my material generating processes. As emphasised by Donald Schon (1983) these decisions are difficult to reflect upon he (the practitioner) is dependent on tacit recognitions, judgements and skilful performances. (1983: 50)

It is often difficult to discuss my compositional practice as it is an embodied knowledge, a knowing from doing and often my reasoning behind certain decision making is difficult to articulate, it is just a feeling, a knowing I cannot describe. As part of the process I began experimenting with the compositional structure of the song in order to structure my material. Some of these influences still reflect in the overall compositional structure of the performance. (Introduction, verse, bridge, chorus, verse bridge chorus, verse, bridge, chorus, finale) The song is similar in terms of structure to a story and the song tells a whole story of its own. The story that the song tells made an impact on the compositional strategies at play in the performance. It is the story of two starcrossed lovers, a real Romeo and Juliet story. The story ends when the pair drown in a river in their efforts to be together. (see distortion) The fish bowl, which came into play initially through automatic writing, aimed to substitute the rhythm of the song which I removed away from this fragment. As a strategy this was difficult to sustain and could have been polished more in the rehearsal process. As a non-musical individual it was difficult to sustain the rhythm of the song and continue telling the story at the same time. The compositional element explored through the fish bowl could be further explored, the bowl made some beautiful sounds as an instrument..In reflection I would like to use the song as a literal heartbeat (particularly in the Elvis Station) and have it decreasing as the fragments progress, reflecting the story of Running Bear and Little White Dove, but also the nature of the personal stories I am sharing (my initial starting points reflected death and loss.)

Distortion I would like to tell you a story. It is the story of two starcrossed lovers. A real Romeo and Juliet story. Distortion as a compositional strategy is discussed by Simon Waters in his article Living Without Boundaries. (1994) in the section entitled Masking he suggests the essence of masking is therefore that something is concealed, but that it is still present, and that its presence is somehow sensed, despite the intrusion of the second (masking) element. In line with Waters discussion the story became the concealed element whilst the fish bowl filled the role of the masking element. The story became distorted as it was told underwater. The story of the song is the story of two star-crossed lovers, a real Romeo and Juliet story. The story ends when the pair drown in a river in their efforts to be together. My head submerged in the water aimed to reflect the star crossed lovers fate and their experiences of the water which was keeping them apart. As their hands touched and their lips met the raging river pulled them down. Now they will always be together in their happy hunting ground.

I have begun to think of the distortion evident in memory and how stories are changed over a course of generation. The stories are subject to multiple translations, memory storage and, repetitive telling and are filtered through beliefs, behaviours and ideals. In this light the telling of the story through distortion reflects modes of storytelling in that each time a story is told it is tampered with and parts are lost, leaving only a small fragment of the story. The story is based on layers and layers of trace and becomes about what is left rather than what is lost as Pollock adds Liveness means articulating the multiple layers of translations and draft that make up (for) memory (Pollock: 2005:11) Initially when I began this it was the chorus of the story which was on repeat in my mind, I have filled in my memory gaps but the distortion through the fish bowl reflects these gaps. I was particularly conscious of the storytelling in a fishbowl and as a performer this strategy was a challenge as I was unable to see the audience reactions and responses. This made it hard to judge the impact of the storytelling process. As a performer I can normally intuitively sense the success of individual strategies through the reaction of the audience. With my head in a fishbowl there was no awareness of my surroundings and it became difficult to measure the impact of the fragment. I did experiment with holding the fish bowl rather than placing it on the floor to make it more visible; however this was un-practical the fish bowl was too heavy. Additionally I experimented with my feet in the fish bowl in line with the personal anecdote One toe goes in the fish tank. However the mode of distortion supported both the cognitive nature of memory and the story of the song.

Repetition Repetition as a compositional strategy seemed unavoidable when developing these fragments. Firstly the process began with an experience which played over and over in my head. Secondly the influence of the concept of habitus as a repetative matrix of perceptions (Bourdieu: 1968: xx) transposed through the multigenerational line. Thirdly the nature of storytelling, we tell and re-tell episodes both minor and major to colleagues, loved ones, therapist and priests, strangers on the train, a wedding guest. (Bolton: 2010: 7) Finally the influence the repetative nature, attached to the rehearsal/ compositional process, has on the development of ideas. Professional practice also includes an element of repetition. A professional practitoner is a specialist who encounters certain types of situations again and again. (60) I hoped that the repetetive nature would become familiar with the audience in order to set the scene/ repaint the picture in the build up to new snippets of information (see accumilation.) as Goulash identifies What we call learning may arise through repetition (2000:37) I hoped repetition would enable audience members to remember specific parts of the story, the parts of the story that are repeated are essentially the backbones to the performance. The bits that are solid memories. I have always been a little weary of repetition in performance and my composition is not solely repetative. A slight change in the narrative is added each time reflecting Mcgowans statement Everytime we remember, it seems, we add new details, shade the facts, prune and tweak. Without realising it, we continually rewrite the stories of our lives. (Mcgowan: 2009)

Repetition also challenges the material as a process strategy. Repeating and repeating material allows me to recognise the habits, restrictions and familiarities that re-occur through the practice and material. The music also reflects the looping of these stations and as Waters interprets the loop has much to do with narrative, acting as an essential component of memory and recall (Waters: 2004: 88) Accumulation reflects narrative structures and 4 as Waters adds can be used to great 3,4 effect in combination with 2,3,4 fragmentation . The following is a map of an accumilation of The story Elvisin the composition. Elvis movement Accumilation process evident the visual
Sideburns, 1, 2,3,4 glasses, The chorus on repeat. wig. I am not Elvis, he was not Elvis. iconography. image .

Repetition is discussed by Freud in his discussion of the death drive. Repetition helps aid our experiences and memories of the world in which we live and is a strategy evident in the storage of memory and memory retrieval. What appears to be reality is in fact only a reflection of a forgotton past. (Freud: 1920: 19) We constantly repeat experience, we educate ourselves particularly through repetative modes of behaviour Repetition as a compositional strategy aims to give the audience an embodied version which can then be subject to multiple layers of further translations. T

Created on 02/02/2012

Mapping Mapmaking fulfils one of our deepest desires: understanding the world around us and our place in it (Harmon: 2004 1) I often map my work and material as part of my compositional process. A map becomes part of a story to be created and enactedit becomes a subjective imagining instead of an objective tool (Perkins: 2003: 6) Mapping can be seen as a strategy to compose, a strategy to edit and a strategy to document. As Waters emphasises mapping as involving the making of diagrammatic

or symbolic representation of a route or journey. This sense allows mapping to become a form of trace leaving or documentation in itself, or to function as a stimulus for more metaphorical interpretation. (Waters: 2004: 87) Mapping forms an overseeing position in order to fragment reorganise and play with the stations and material practically This particular map demonstrates images, actions, ideas and texts halfway through the process of developing Fragments of a Teddy Boy. The performance space is split into three, mirroring the stations evident in the work. Some ideas, text, images objects, movements overlap and these are the materials I am undecided on categorising. Reading diagonally the material divided in each station defines how the material currently exists alongside the other material. (e.g. fishbowl, coughing, a flask of peppermint tea) Some of the materials are developed at this stage, some are not. Mapping as a compositional strategy and research methodology is widely discussed as a process in social sciences and history and there is much discourse centred on maps as related to lived experience. Maps of my practice include cognitive maps or mind maps, geographical maps, spatial maps and material maps. I map for multiple reasons, to push my composition forwards, to generate ideas, to visually define the composition in written form and to understand. Mapping is a process, it is a composition, I could give it to someone else to perform, It is a way of interweaving material, of interweaving stories, it is overlooking, it is reflecting, it is constant editing, it is playing, it is breaking up

the pieces and putting them back together again, a compositional jigsaw. My journey with material can be documented through these maps and each map is a separate composition in itself. Stations are also another compositional strategy I favour in that they allow me to incorporate multiple fragmented narratives in my work. This idea of stations as a compositional strategy was introduced in the first weekend after bringing to the table four separate pieces of material, (two stories about my life, an automatic writing text, a flask, and a text borrowed from Scar Tissue by Grewel.) I improvised with the material using stations. Changing the shape, size and placement of the stations allowed a lens to challenge the material. Stations are also realised through mapping strategies and the pair are interdisciplinary in my compositional process. For the purpose of discussing stations I am going to continue my discussion on mapping as a compositional strategy. The following are a series of simple station maps which record multiple compositional ideas for placing initial material into space.
Station2 Station1 Auto-writing. Flask as an interruption Recital of Scar tissue autobiographical female perspective A 21 year old woman discusses the abuse she has suffered at the hands of her partner. 2 3 2 1 3

Created 03/10/2011 Station3 Two stories of my life. An Elvis lookalike singing running bear on Karaoke. 1 2 3

This method of composing material allowed a lens for me to explore material, edit material, construct new material and blend existing material There are several narratives at play throughout the performance but they are fragmented through the composition of the stations. The following is a map of my final stations and a breakdown of the material.
1.My visual window
Who he was. Who he became. The life of the King. How it is. The zooming man Interrupted by the Story of Running Bear and Little White Dove distorted by the water. And the creation of the raging river.

2.Chorus.
Elvis. I am not Elvis. Iconography The story of the story. Memory Fragment Hard Bastard. Memory Fragment Ibiza. Memory fragment lobster Memory fragment dual carriageway.

2. 4. 1. 3. 4. List of inheritance. (intro) 3. When I was an egg. Teddy how she became. Interruption Christmas time

Teddy how she is

The station maps I created on the previous pages are a way of not only experimenting with my material and layout of stage space but also a way of collectively documenting and placing the stories of the performance space. I aim for the maps to provide a graphic stance on my performance but also to communicate my performance to an outsider. Mapping is certainly a process I would like to explore further in that there are many other maps I can develop in regards to memory and storytelling. There is much more to be said about mapping as a process, as an experience, as a cognitive process, as a document (of both memory and event), as a composition and as a space. Mapping binds my arts compositional practice to scientific practice and to geographical practice. The relationship between the social sciences and mapping is of particular interest to future projects and perhaps can be implemented in other areas of my practice. How can I develop ways of mapping? How can I measure my results differently as a process? How can I map stories in different ways?

Moving forwards with mapping it is important to note Jake Bartons works Barton explores maps as a collective storytelling memory. In the work spectators are asked to enter a tunnel like structure and attach a memory to the place on the map where it occurred. As a compositional strategy the spatial and geographical areas of mapping can be explored further as a personal compositional strategy alongside the concept and material structuring maps presented in this booklet. How do collective multigenerational histories and stories sit on a geographical map. What shapes, patterns, lines (if any) do they encounter? And how, then, can these reflect in final performance structures?

Images from Winter: 2006)

TEXT Here are 26 letters ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWQYZ Now write a text for performance. (Etchells: 1999) 01/10/11 A method for generating automatic texts (exercise with Claire Hind) 1) Face a wall.

2) Talk non-stop even if it is repetitive, do not stop talking, if it helps imagine an open window. Talk for five minutes. 3) Jot down anything you remember from talking

The following is a fragment of the response.

AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH An old man on a mobility scooter zooms by the window. IT MEANS GOING FAST. He is wearing breathing apparatus and there are wires coming out everywhere. There is an elderly lady holding a stack of paper. She looks exhausted. Ash hangs to the ceiling. And I am stuck on a supermarket slide.

And my shoes are missing

And my feet hurt.

These methods for composing material sit alongside Dadaist notions of developing discourse. write quickly, without any pre-conceived subject, fast enough so you will not remember what youre writing and be tempted to re-read what you have written. (Breton quoted in Meizer: 1994: 168) The text on the previous page was developed through a series on rinses and re-writes and elements of the initial text sit in the final performance of Fragments of a Teddy boy. The text is a complex collage of perspectives on people, experiences and self. And although generated impulsively still can be related to experiences of self as Butler argues There is no I that can stand apart from the social conditions of its emergence. I began to relate this text to my own recent experiences in line with the material I had already composed. The stations began to connect via the connective tissue of recent selfrelated experiences. The thought process for generating text around improvisation techniques is problematic in linguistic articulation. Etchells(1999) discusses this language as not concerned with linguistics and discourse but with the event, in that the speaking of an improvised text brings about different textures which are important to the final outcome of the performance text such as thought, repetition, self-correction, hesitation and so on These elements are evident in the initial automatic composition as I consider the ways in which the text is documented alongside the way in which the text is spoken. This is articulated in the score of the automatic writing through the way I use different fonts, bold lettering and so on. I use language in my performance as a way of painting a picture and entering the audience into a mimetic contract (Culler: 1975: 193). The final performance text, circulated through repetition, was a way for spectators to re-imagine and re-imagine, through Barthes notions on the realism effect, the scenario I was painting with language.

OBJECTS A Teddy bear, seemingly un-precious its innards spilling out, A handwritten list with no meaning, A Visual image playing over and over like a tape recording on repeat, A mirror and brush filled with precious few tangled hair, A bible scribbled with crayon. A porcelain doll neat in her box, A photograph hanging on the wall, An insubstantial chair empty.

Memories will begin to surface as you go away to hunt through treasured belongings and personal memorabilia. Says Elaine Aston she goes on to discuss memory props as ways of getting started on autobiographical performance projects and lists clothing, childhood toys, popular songs, childrens books and teenage magazines, images of icons and family photographs as examples of these aids. (Aston:1999: 102)

I began bringing objects into my work initially as an improvisation tool and this process stuck as a development tool. The initial objects were the teddy bear (used in the final fragments) a statue of a fairy and some string. I was also toying with the idea of objects as associated with people, such as inherited items or gifts and used this notion to develop stories based upon personal histories and stories. Similarities in this method can be highlighted in Walter Benjamins discussions on childs play theory in which he suggests a process of bringing oddly found materials into play to be creative with such as a web of stories. And my web of stories in relation to the objects can be seen below in the form of a mind map. The many stories associated with the objects could form many more performance fragments.

Created on 24/11/2011

Developing Movement. My strategy for composing material normally associates itself with the transference of the somatic into the semantic and in order to develop movement sections for the performance I reversed this strategy. Beginning with a list of ten words (semantic) I sought to develop embodied movement sequences (somatic) realising the linguistic word. I then recorded and monitored movement sequences by placing myself in a witnessing position and using automatic writing as a textual document. The first and final results of this strategy can be seen below as a textual record. Ten Action Words - 14/11/2011 - Knotting. Crumpling. Forgiving. Arguing. Persevering. Zooming. Paddling. Breaking. Neglecting. Leaving. A Movement Based Response to the Sematic with the Somatic Backward fast, left arm signal wave. FSR - BSR. - Right leg wrap round left leg, arms stretch to touch floor (balance lost) BSR. Sprint fast diagonally, chest jump up. BSR - FSL. - Bang hard attempting a conversation with the floor, monkey like. FSL - Fall to CS. - Attempt floor star sideways. Stand turn to side, lift left leg, point foot, place to floor, lift right leg, point foot, place to floor, repeat. CS. stand, mimic 'oar sequence. A Dialogic Response to Movement- Reversing like a ticking clock tick tock tick tock. Vines entwining, ducking below. A breaking free from all thats pulling down. Banging like an ape, melodic,

rhythmic. Scared to dip a toe in the water in the fishtank and fight with a sword. A Final text - 30/4/2012 She ageing beside a ticking clock tick tock tick tock vines entwine and she struggles against balance. Scared to go near the fist tank in case she is reminded Movement material was later developed through research into the 1950s teddy boy culture, rock and roll dancing, observations of Elvis and personal observations and memories. These movement sequences sit alongside the teddy boy image. The movements throughout the process have mainly been stylised, restrained, gestural movements which lend themselves to the performances of Meg Stuart. The development of movement sequence particularly borrows from dance choreography. Many of these ideas realised themselves in the second weekend with Beth Cassani. Instrumental in this weekend was automatic writing responses to fellow artists work. The responses aided a moving forward compositionally. The following text demonstrates a dialogic (Bakhtin) response relational to the initial performance movement work.

The smell of burnt mince, running bear goes on for a long time, like the chocolate game, confetti becomes something, a shape a word. (Response by Holly Johnson)

A story generally speaking has a gist, something that the whole story is about and I can relate my gist to the visual image, the visual image and sound of a man who I didnt meet till four years later, singing in the pub on the Karaoke. It is a story of him through my eyes. A story generally speaking is a linear structure, something constructed with a clear beginning, middle and end with highs and lows in-between. (see diagram) Although my practice, I would say, lends itself to this form the straight line seen in the diagram is broken, the lines do not quite join up. I tend to leave gaps as a performance strategy in order for them to be filled by the spectators. I fragment the telling of my stories so that they are never read with certainty and so that they they reflect the nature of memory, I can not remember everything! The fragmented methodology challenges the general structure of a story and lends itself more leniently to storytelling through the form of a diary. But I did generate some of the text with the structure of a story in mind, a beginning and middle with a climax before the end. (see story structure map http://www.musiktherapie.at/PederHill/images

/Struct1.gif) How he was, the beginning. A fully fledged ted thick ginger sidies way passed each ear an original teen rebel. Combining strands of hair the comb is used on a regular basis like a routine the right side is combed first, the results an overblown quiff with a ducks arse at the back. How I remember him, the middle. A chorus of swear words, a love for a dog, a ropey cough, an arm in a bandage, you better have plenty of food in he is coming to eat you out of house and home. How ironic. How it is now, the end. Everything as it was nothing moved museum like, nicotine hangs from the ceiling and the ashtray overflows with an essence of nicotine hunger the chair is empty and everything is silent, eerily silent. The story as a whole is fragmented as part of a particular station, and a different part of it is told each time the station is entered. The telling of multiple short stories, or fragments of stories in line with memory amnesia lend themselves to the compositional structure of the performance, in that fragments of stories are told, broken up, mixed back together and split across four separate stations. I would estimate that there are around 40 fragments of anecdotes from different times,

perspectives and settings evident in the performance Fragments of a Teddy Boy. However I would suggest truth is a compositional strategy at play in the development of my work. The stories I tell are to the best of my knowledge the truth and up until now I have stuck to the strategy. Perhaps it is time to break this familiarity, to twist the truth, to manipulate the autobiography, after all oral strategies are made problematic by the influence of self- perception, the nature of storytelling (Chinese whispers), and memory storage. So what truth are they anyway?

Collaboration 03/03/2012 - 30/04/2012 Whilst working as part of an ensemble I used my collaborators in order to further open up the qualities of my objects. (see phase 1) The objects at this stage included Elvis accessories, 12 eggs, a fish-bowl, a mirror and brush, a flask, a teddy bear and a ball of wool. Because I had been devising with these objects for a long period of time, and because the objects were all of significance personally, I began to believe that they were over-coded or as Barthes puts it readerly. In order to open these objects up to further meaning I devised a workshop with prime focus on improvisation with the objects in order to open them up further to interpretation or as Barthes put it writerly. The group helped open up my imagination to the possibilities of the objects through the development of a three minute performance piece using the objects as stimuli. The results are as follows The Fish Bowl The pair focused on the sounds you can develop using a fish bowl. Their three minute piece was a sound composition using the fish bowl as an instrument. The Teddy- The pair focused on childhood and childhood games you can play with the teddy bear, using a common skipping game in which the bear became the rope. This could have been added to the ensemble piece alongside the string on the floor. There was

also a quite sinister approach added through personal stories of their childhood innocence. Every night I made sure I kissed every bear, if I thought one had more kisses than the other I had to start again and felt terribly guilty afterwards They take it in turns to sleep with me. (Clare Henderson: 2012) The Eggs The final pair focused on many connotations of an egg, through the individual identities of each of the eggs raising the debate surrounding stereotypes through clever language play. Elements of these mini performances realised themselves in my final fragments and many of the other ideas such as the identities of the eggs were experimented with personally. I played around with the identities of the eggs and decorated them in line with a different identity and upon reflection I realised they were no longer eggs and by giving them identities they were no longer serving their purpose as eggs; When I was an egg, When I was an egg, When I was an egg. The decorated eggs also have too many connotations with Easter. Even decorating eggs reminded me of stories which are untold Every Easter my school held the decorated egg competition and every year me and my Nan would decorate eggs to try and win the Easter egg prize. We decorated a bunny (which might I add won.), Santa stuck up a chimney and Elvis. We also decorated

some for fun after being inspired by a craft magazine, these were ornate eggs. Working as part of a larger group allowed me to sit as part of a circle which as a solo artist I have missed. It made me feel like I was in the right place for sharing stories as oppose to on my own trying to recall memories. Describing the knowing in action (Schon: 1983) evident in the collaborative process is easier than defining my own practice I think this is partly because I stood in the role of dramaturge orchestrating and developing form and compositional strategy whilst also directing and assisting in the writing of. The reflective position this role placed me in allows me to write more at ease about the process. The compositional process has already been shared.

The Process Plan. Phase 1) Introduction to my materials, objects and concepts. In pairs engage with the object and develop a three minute composition based around the object as Stimuli (collaboration and objects.) Phase 2) Develop an automatic writing text whilst listening to an instrumental (Running Bear loved Little White Dove (karaoke version by Johnny Preston.)) Phase 3) Develop an automatic writing text whilst observing the sound wave document (Running Bear loved Little White Dove (karaoke version by Johnny Preston.))

Phase 4) Group improvisation incorporating phases 1,2 & 3 with an on/off space for discussion. Phase 5) Adding Rules to the improvisation Performers can only move in a certain way. Performers have to follow a specific floor plan. Play the game Grandmothers footsteps as part of the improvisation. Only one person is allowed to speak at a time.

Phase 6) Write a story about your own life (this could be anything such as what you did yesterday.) Phase 7) Replace engagement with my materials with collaborators autobiographical texts and materials. Phase 8) Map each individual journey (reflection of sound wave) with a different coloured string. (aesthetic)

Phase 9) Direct, map, organize and rehearse materials and form. The Sound wave as a Compositional Strategy Lines, Lines, Lines Up Lines Down lines All around lines Actually, no all around lines Only up lines And down lines My line Your line Our line Our family line Our washing line Youre a line Ya

mas a line Your mas my ma ya stupid line Sound line Little bit blurred line Stop it line, youre making no sense You never make any sense you stupid line Mum, he called me a line Sam, stop calling your sister a line (Automatic writing text in response to the sound wave by Clare Henderson)

The sound wave became instrumental in the collaborative compositional strategy. It provided a basis for the composing of text, a way of moving through the space and reflected as a floor pattern highlighted by the multiple layers of string. The floor pattern works as topography, a way of visibly recording ones movement through the space. This way of moving developed from workshop sessions surrounding the sound wave as a stimuli for generating automatic writing text. The performance, documented in map form, has similarities with Samuel Becketts documentation of Quad however the actual pattern cannot be pre-determined as there is an element of chance and unpredictability in the collaborative performance. Chance elements are added through the structuring of the performance as a game of Grandmothers footsteps. Grandmothers Footsteps as a compositional strategy developed after being involved in workshop sessions playing with the mathematical concept of Pi as a compositional strategy (Claire Hind). As part of my practice led research I have been focusing

on theories of habitus as a multigenerational disposition of thinking, feeling and behaving; the idea that we follow in the footsteps of our ancestors. Grandmothers footsteps was a strategy for reflecting these ideas. Initially I added Grandmothers footsteps as an improvisational rule (phase 5). Come with me my little innocents, theres a game that we can play. See how much we can change your world whilst you look the other way. I have been toying with following in the footsteps of my own mother line and the idea of Grandmothers footsteps seemed to compliment the stories that the group shared. Each individual brought differing creativities conceptually and the challenge was in making them sit together as part of the same fragment. One collaborator in particular shared his autobiographical experience of the violin. (phase6) He described his hatred for the object, how useless he was with it and the awkwardness of it underneath his chin. The particular story he shared told of the first time he played for his parents after dinner, how nervous he was, how he spent time shuffling the papers and how he played it that dreadfully his dad left. I took the visual imagery from this autobiography and realised it in the collaborative fragment with the violinist in the role of Grandmother. In reflection there was so much more that could be done with this collaborative piece and it is something I am interested in revisiting in the future. I think I should have placed more faith in the capabilities of my collaborators and incorporated more of the texts that we generated in the workshop process. The decision to use Grandmothers Footsteps as a compositional strategy added comedic values to the performance and the girls sneaking behind a crazy violinist and freezing when he turned around certainly

added to the humour. I dont think I realised its humorous content until the performance and this could have further potential to play a more integral part to the fragment. In saying this, the performers did increase their performance levels in the final performance, this poses the question to myself in the role of dramaturge how do I push my collaborators to work at performance level in the rehearsal process? The violinist sat in contrast to the girls whose movements in the background were slower. The string under the lights omitted an aesthetic glow which made the routes more prominent in the space and the darker lit areas in the middle provided a void space between the girls and the violinist. The gender positions, the male as grandmother orchestrating three females, is something I didnt think much about in the process (there was another male initially involved in the process as a sneaker.) However it became prominent in my witnessing of the performance. The male appeared to be orchestrating the females but was not in full control over them and perhaps this is something I could play with more as part of the compositional ensemble process.

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