Background

Enactive Interactions and Performance Training Without A Tutor was a workshop I co-developed with Dr Göze Saner and ran at the Theatre and Performers Research Association Conference (TaPRA) at Bristol University in the summer of 2017.

The objectives were to create a workshop to interrogate different ways in which performer training texts can be transmitted in absentia through enactive interaction. Focusing on interactions with located audio technology through a number of experimental structures, we investigated the following research questions: What kind of mechanisms can enable us to replace the human presence yet still ‘deal with the specificity of the body’? Is it possible to activate a relational encounter with the environment and arrive at the particular textual instructions of an exercise? How is  the content of a form affected by the gestures of interaction? What new modes of training can this open up?

Approach

We spend four sessions in a studio developing the research through practice addressing the four research questions. The process was frame heavily by our use of  'experience prototyping' which entailed a partner simulating the enactive space for the participant. At the time this was a purely practical decision so the workshop was less reliant on prototyped technology. Technology choice was also guided by cost. Most experiments were conducted though a free iPad app, 'Launchpad' and bluetooth speakers. Six experiments were created that can be categorised into two themes; interactions with audio located within objects; interaction with audio located within a movement.

Result

The workshop ran at the Tapra Conference 2016 in Bristol. Our use of Embodied Experience Prototyping took my research in an unforeseen direction. It was presented as the major practice in my thesis upgrade report and has continued to orientate my PhD research.