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Robert Wilson and an Aesthetic of Human Behaviour in the Performing Body

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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by University of Gloucestershire Research Repository Robert Wilson and an aesthetic of human behaviour in the performing body JAMES BROOK A thesis submitted to The University of Gloucestershire in accordance with the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Media, Arts and Communications January 2013 Abstract This practice-based research investigates movement and gesture in relation to the theatre work of Robert Wilson. A group of performers was established to explore Wilson’s construction of a code of movement during a series of over fifty workshops and films including: a feature film Oedipus; a live performance Two Sides to an Envelope; and a theatre production The Mansion’s Third Unbridled View. The creation of an embodied experience for the spectator, perceived through the senses, is central to Wilson’s theatre. Integral to this are the relationships between drama and image, and time and space. Wilson’s images, in which the body is presented in attitudes of stillness and repetition, are created through these transitional structures. Taking these structures as a starting point for my own performative work, the research led to an abstracted form of natural behaviour, where the movements and arrangements of bodies defined specific movement forms. Subsequently, the relationship between movement and images in Wilson’s theatre was reconsidered through Deleuze’s analysis of the cinematic image. Deleuze identifies subjectivity with the ‘semi-subjective image’, in which traces of the camera’s movements are imprinted in the film. In films made to register these movements, images of moving bodies evincing a sense of time passing were also created. This led to my discovery of film as a direct embodiment of performance, rather than as a form of documentation. Critical to these films, the theatre production, performances, and workshops was the relationship between images and continuous motion predicated upon Wilson’s idea of space, the horizontal: and time, the vertical. This idea enabled me to consider Wilson’s theatre and video works in relation to Bergson’s philosophy concerning duration. The research discovered new ways of interpreting Wilson’s aesthetic through Bergson’s idea that motion is an indivisible process which can also be perceived in relation to the position of bodies in space. Through this understanding, an original performance language was created based on the relationship between stasis and motion, and the interplay between the immersive, semiotic and instrumental modes of gestural communication. Author’s Declaration I declare that the work in this thesis was carried out in accordance with the regulations of the University of Gloucestershire and is original except where indicated by specific reference in the text. No part of the thesis has been submitted as part of any other academic award. The thesis has not been presented to any other institution in the United Kingdom or overseas. Any views expressed in this thesis are those of the author and no way represent those of the University. Signed......................................................................Date................................... Acknowledgements I would like to thank the following people for their support, assistance and generosity during the research: My supervisors – Nat Goodden, Paul Rosenbloom and Professor Andrew Stonyer; The technician Roger Puplett for his expertise and technical assistance; Croome Park and the National Trust for allowing me to film on their land; also to Lorna Pilkiewicz, Christina Poulton and everyone at Parabola Arts Centre who assisted me during the staging of The Mansion’s Third Unbridled View in their theatre; Phil Layton for his extraordinary ability and assistance as a cameraman, editor and composer on the film Oedipus. This research would not have been possible without the generous, creative and extraordinary contribution made by all the performers who took part in the workshops, films, performances and the theatre production. In particular, I would like to acknowledge Mark Unsworth, Stuart Wilding, Caroline Tate and Mary Brazil for their commitment and stellar abilities. I want to acknowledge the following performers who took part in the research: Mark Candlish, Olga Przysuszynska, Kamila Wisniewska, Abi Ponton, Stephanie Parker, Innes Brook Parker, Sian Hemmings, Chie Konishi, Felicity Hammond, Martina Sabadasz, Belinda Bell, Jo Hale, Mia Carlsen, Luke Op den Brouw, Lesley Hoyle, Rose Hoyle, Sian Prior, Claire Holland, Sabina Fiebig, Harriet Meeuwissen-True, Uta Baldauf, Kirsty Limburn, Kassie Shortell, Tinguaro Garcia, Peggy Baldwin, Paul Boocock and Rosalind Loveluck. And the following musicians: Pete Robson, Stuart Wilding, Mark Unsworth, Chris Cundy, Troy Hewson, Tim Flack, Ron Davis, Julia Price, Tony Restrepo, Belinda Bell, Sian Hemmings, Caroline Tate, Mike Adcock and the soprano Julie Seville. Contents Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 1 A historical contextualization of Wilson ......................................................................................... 2 Wilson’s influence and legacy ....................................................................................................... 10 Personal research into Wilson’s aesthetic of human behaviour for the performing body .......... 17 Methodology ..................................................................................................................................... 24 Chapter 1: Movement produced through a process of abstraction: abstract and narrative form. Workshops in walking, internal counting, the senses, and composition ....................................... 26 1.1 Wilson’s code of movement: abstract mobile forms ........................................................... 26 1.2 Wilson’s code of movement: narrative forms ...................................................................... 32 1.3 Wilson’s walks ...................................................................................................................... 35 1.4 Internal counting and prescribed gestures .......................................................................... 36 1.5 Movement and the senses ................................................................................................... 39 1.6 Images and composition: diagonals and the arrangement of bodies on the set ................. 41 Chapter 2: ‘Movement scores’ and scripts: Wilson’s ‘interior screen’ of the imagination; the role of memory; the relationship between language and movement ......................................................... 48 2.1 The ‘interior screen’ of the imagination and Wilson’s idea of ‘filling in the form’ .............. 48 2.2 The creation of movement-scripts as a response to Wilson’s ‘movement score’ ............... 52 2.3 Anthony Howell’s use of the term homeostasis: order and chaos as material for the workshop performance The Line .................................................................................................. 55 2.4 Paul Carter’s ideas on movement inhibition: crowd formation, speech, and gestural communication in Gangs and Agora ............................................................................................ 56 2.5 The role of memory: the relationship between writing and movement in The Literature Olympics ........................................................................................................................................ 59 2.6 Mimetic behaviour and memory in The Letter and On the Other Hand .............................. 61 Chapter 3: Movement and the relationship between structure and improvisation: workshops in slow movement and the four modes of performance. Dislocation between sound and image ...... 65 3.1 The imposition of a structure and spontaneous action ....................................................... 65 3.2 Slow Movement ................................................................................................................... 68 3.3 The four modes of performance: stillness, repetition, inconsistency and transition .......... 73 3.4 Dislocation. ........................................................................................................................... 78 Chapter 4: Re-construction of performance in film .......................................................................... 84 4.1 Tracking shots, slow motion, and montage as a way of applying Deleuze’s ‘movement- image’ to the re-construction of performance in film .................................................................. 85 4.2 Capturing the ‘affection-image’ as a preparatory phase in Hat Check Girl. Use of the close- up in Fugue States ......................................................................................................................... 92 4.3 The mobile camera in its capacity to realize ‘semi-subjective images’, and as a method of realizing Deleuze’s indirect ‘time-image’. The gesturing camera in Passing By and Docking Station ........................................................................................................................................... 98 4.4 Wilson’s video-portraits in relation to Deleuze’s idea of the ‘time-image’ ....................... 109 Chapter 5: Performance in Film: the direct ‘time-image’ ..............................................................
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