Chapter three/theoretical view on project 2

The chapter Multiplying Media from Nick Kaye’s Multi-Media had discussed the inter-relation that various medias and forms of presenting those medias. The chapter also discusses multi media, specifically those medias that intrinsically deal with the ephemeral, and the various implications that artist have discovered in using those medias with performance. “ Since the mid-1970’s and following the close link between video art, video installation and performance, the implication of the media’s division of presence, action, place and representation has been integrated into overtly theatrical practices.” (pg. 163) As Kaye describes several different artist who exemplify this mixing of media and theatrical performance; one group of artists had stood out the most to us. The Wooster Group, a theater group under the direction of Elizabeth LeCompte, began intergrading the ideas of theater and of video art together in the late 1980’s. At first commenting on the practices of ‘Living Theater’ the group created performative pieces in  which, “the focus on authenticity of the performers commitment, experience and presence in performance also responded to the politics of living theater” (pg. 165) The Wooster Group had begun to film their rehearsals and included the clips into the final performance. Their pice titled Rumstick Road had emphasised their previous performances where their personal history as theater company and their process of creating the final work is displayed simultaneously with the recordings of the past rehearsals. Their performance called the Trilogy a performance and stage play about performance and stage plays. “The Wooster Group’s re-use of material plays between ‘repetition’ and ‘reproduction’, as live and recorded performances are layered to articulate the group’s re-staging of their own and other’s work.” (pg. 168)
For our project we took these ideas quite literally as speaking about the nature of performance and of the process of developing a final product. We began with the idea of layering our process on top of what ever our final result was. So in a similar fashion of the Wooster Group, we starting filming our discussion of our process. In doing so we had also used something from popular culture that had also created something self referential. In an episode of the Fox animated television show Family Guy, the characters strive to create their own cartoon. Being that the show is itself a cartoon, their process is self referential. Similarly the dialogue of the characters plays out their thought process and endeavors in creating the cartoon. For our performance and process we have recorded ourselves parodying the Family Guy script literally, as well as including pre-recoded clips of our own process. As the various video clips play before our audience, we will simultaneously be talking in a scripted manner about our whole process in creating the project and performance. As the various video clips and performance begin to overlay both visually and audibly over one another, a deconstruction of these various processes begins to happen. The audience begins to recognize the circular narrative, pointing to that processes of art and creation do not truly have a linear form. We are questioning the nature of creative process and of so called ‘low brow’ art and popular culture in our project. As well as the ideas of liner narratives in performance.

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