THE LIQUID ACTOR
Performing and living in the liquid modernity
Copyright HumanLab.studio -
Anna Carla Maria Penati in the show Terminus
"Progress has turned into a sort of endless and uninterrupted game of musical chairs in which a moment of inattention results in irreversible defeat and irrevocable exclusion. Instead of great expectations and sweet dreams "progress" evokes insomnia full of nightmares of being left behind - of missing the train, or falling out of the window of a fast accelerating vehicle."
Zygmunt Bauman "Liquid Time: living in an age of uncertainty", P. 10-11, Polity Edition
- HOW IS THE ACTING PROCESS AFFECTED BY THE LIQUID MODERNITY OF OUR TIME? HOW DO THE NEW TECHNOLOGIES AFFECT AN ACTOR'S LIFE ON AND OFF STAGE?
- HOW DOES OUR LIQUID LIFE AFFECT THE THEATRE PEDAGOGY? I EXPLORE THE POTENTIAL OF WAITING ROOMS AND WAITING TIME IN THEATRE PEDAGOGY: FROM ENTERTAINMENT PEDAGOGY TO BOREDOM PEDAGOGY.
- WAITING ROOMS AND WAITING TIME IN PERFORMANCE
Inspired by Zygmunt Bauman's philosophy ("Liquid Modernity", Polity Edition, 2000), I ask myself:
Can we talk about a new shape of actor, which I name the LIQUID ACTOR?
An actor whose thoughts, constantly interrupted by a new notification, always travels into the future in a new project where he is asked to produce a new innovative, experimental shape.
"Fluidity is the quality of liquids and gases. What distinguishes both of them from solids is that they can not sustain a tangential, or shearing, force when at rest and so undergo a continuous change in shape when subjected to such a stress."
Source: Encyclopedia Britannica
Extreme flexibility. Flexibility of schedule. Be dynamic, oh yeah.
Travel, move, change. Self-tape workshop.
Don't know how to edit videos? Learn it.
And by the time you have learned it, there will be a new, fundamental skill to learn not be left behind.
So that what you have just done seems already old, expired, ready to be replaced.
The concept of identity has been replaced by the concept of "personal brand". And the more we want to survive in the modern liquid life, the more we need our identity to be vague, flexible, and able to be everything and nothing at the same time: a liquid identity.
Today I'm an actress, but tomorrow I could have to become a mover, a performer, a multimedia artist.
Today I'm European, in a year I could not.
Change. Don't get left behind. Learn how to reinvent yourself.
Produce more, create, and create new forms!
"We need new forms!"
Kostja, The Seagull, Anton Chekhov
But do we really need to constantly create new forms?
Who are they for?
To art consumers, to art producers or to art sellers?
As an actress my job is to stay in the present moment reacting to what is happening in that moment, in that space where my body is breathing.
On the contrary, in my daily liquid life, I live constantly projected into the future and in another space.
I'm interested in exploring this conflict.
What kind of strategies we, as actors, can implement to live a sustainable artistic and personal life?
How does our training need to be shaped today?
Sources of references:
- "Liquid Modernity" by Zygmunt Bauman, Polity Edition (2000)
- "Liquid Time: living in an age of uncertainty" by Zygmunt Bauman, Polity Edition (2007)
- "Liquid life" by Zygmunt Bauman, Polity Edition (2005)
- "Non-places" by Marc Auge', Verso books (2009)
- Videocracy (2009) documentary film by Erik Gandini (Italy-Sweden)
- Active Analysis/L'analisi della piece e del ruolo mediante l'azione, by Marija Knebel'(a cura di Alessio Bergamo), Ubulibri (2009)
- "Vertigo", an exhibition at Aros Museum, Denmark. In particular: the video you find in my video portfolio is by Jeremy Shaw: "Phase-shifting index" (2020)
- "The Transparent Society" by Byung-Chul Han, Stanford ed. (2015)
- Videocracy (2009) documentary film by Erik Gandini (Italy-Sweden)
The Liquid Actor in accelerated Time and Space:
Concept and Directing: Anna Carla Maria Penati
Actors: Anna Carla Maria Penati, Marco Zavarise, Eleonora Angioletti
Playwright and Multimedia: Elizabeth Torres Hansen
Tech: Domenico Mannelli
Scientific Lead & IT Project Coordinator: Mariano Pugliese
App development: Bogdan-Alexandru Mezei, Daria Popa, Natali Munk-Jakobsen (VIA
University College, DK)
Produced by HumanLab (humanlab.studio)
TRIC - "The Real Insight Challenge" is a show that questions “augmented democracy" and civic participation, reality and representation, character and persona, visibility and intimacy through the lens of a game show.
TRIC is also an app, ad hoc created for the show, which allows the audience to vote and affect the development of the show. The play follows two contestants as they compete in a series of challenges, inspired by the legacy of Greek democratic practices, reflected on the mirror of our contemporary existence.
What is true and what is not? What is reality and what is representation? What is acting and what isn’t?
PLOT:
In a dystopic near future humanity got rid of politicians: “they were too corrupt, selfish and detached from the problems and needs of ordinary people” Humanity, therefore, created a new technological form of the democratic decision process: the digital app “TRIC" which will select two completely ordinary citizens to lead the political debate: Mat, a very shy, awkward guy who has a background in technology and programming and Jess, a housewife trying to be an influencer but not really sure why. The play follows the two contestants as they compete in a gameshow, i.e. a series of debates (regarding climate change, sustainability, and global resources). Here the app TRIC invites the spectators to vote for their preferred candidate...
Concept and Directing: Anna Carla Maria Penati
Actors: Anna Carla Maria Penati, Marco Zavarise, Eleonora Angioletti
Playwright and Multimedia: Elizabeth Torres Hansen
Tech: Domenico Mannelli
Scientific Lead & IT Project Coordinator: Mariano Pugliese
App development: Bogdan-Alexandru Mezei, Daria Popa, Natali Munk-Jakobsen (VIA
University College, DK)
Produced by HumanLab (humanlab.studio)
TRIC - "The Real Insight Challenge" is a show that questions “augmented democracy" and civic participation, reality and representation, character and persona, visibility and intimacy through the lens of a game show.
TRIC is also an app, ad hoc created for the show, which allows the audience to vote and affect the development of the show. The play follows two contestants as they compete in a series of challenges, inspired by the legacy of Greek democratic practices, reflected on the mirror of our contemporary existence.
What is true and what is not? What is reality and what is representation? What is acting and what isn’t?
PLOT:
In a dystopic near future humanity got rid of politicians: “they were too corrupt, selfish and detached from the problems and needs of ordinary people” Humanity, therefore, created a new technological form of the democratic decision process: the digital app “TRIC" which will select two completely ordinary citizens to lead the political debate: Mat, a very shy, awkward guy who has a background in technology and programming and Jess, a housewife trying to be an influencer but not really sure why. The play follows the two contestants as they compete in a gameshow, i.e. a series of debates (regarding climate change, sustainability, and global resources). Here the app TRIC invites the spectators to vote for their preferred candidate...
THANK YOU FOR EXPERIENCING MY DIGITAL PORTFOLIO - SECOND ASSESSMENT- JUNE 2022
SPACE AND TIME IN acting
