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The concept of identity has been replaced by the concept of "personal brand".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)
- "The Viewpoints Book: A practical guide to viewpoints and composition" by Anne Bogart, Nick Hern Books (2014)
- 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)
TWO UPCOMING SHOWS BASED ON THESE REFLECTIONS:
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The Liquid Actor in a suspended Time and Space:
TERMINUS “Non places” as they are defined by the French anthropologist Marc Auge ', are spaces in which millions of individualities cross each other without entering into relationships, driven by the frenetic desire to consume and accelerate the daily routine. Non-places are spaces like airports, shopping centers, or train stations: they are places that have similar characteristics all over the world and where every traveler feels reassured in their anonymity. People pass through the Non-places but nobody lives there. A man, an old man, a homeless, lives in a train station's waiting room: every day he sees hundreds of people passing by. They pass and do not stop, like the time: flies away to never return. If instead, for once, people slow down and even stop? What would happen? Terminus is a show that explores the infinite facets of human relationships and their unexpected surprises. |
The Liquid Actor in accelerated Time and Space:
TRIC - THE RIGHT CHOICE What is TRIC? The word TRIC is an acronym for “The Right Choice”. What can be considered “the right choice”? Should it be a choice made by the majority of people only because it was a result of a democratic process, even though this choice leads to a bad result or an unfair treatment of some minorities? Should it be a choice made by a few technocrats, who go against the majority of people’s will through a non-democratic process in the name of “The Common Good”? An App: In collaboration with the software engineering Dpt. of VIA University College – Campus Horsens I'm developing an app, which is going to be used by the audience to vote to live how the dramaturgy should evolve during the show and simulate therefore an augmented democratic process. A theatre show: In an imaginary near future the global society has developed the ultimate tool, in order to ensure civic participation: TRIC, an augmented democracy platform, accessible to everyone, which gives to the population direct power over global decisions. This platform, in form of an app, is going to exist for real and be at the audience’s disposal to intervene and influence directly the action on stage. In this way, the show will simulate a democratic process, which will give the audience the perception of the impact of a potential “Augmented Democracy” in the real world. |
THANK YOU FOR EXPERIENCING MY DIGITAL PORTFOLIO - SECOND ASSESSMENT- JUNE 2022
SPACE AND TIME IN acting
