ACT II: a scratch night

ACT II: a scratch night
Rhubaba Gallery & Studios, Edinburgh
Thursday 5th May 2011

ACT II was an artists workshop organised by Leah Lovett and Rhubaba Gallery & Studios, Edinburgh, in which artists; Laura Cooper | Beverley Hood | Tessa Lynch | Ashleigh Reid worked with actors; Victoria Beesley | Stanley Pattison to devise a series of new performances. The artists participating in ACT II were selected by Leah Lovett and Rhubaba, through an open application process. The workshop culminated in a scratch night of performance on Thursday May 5th 2011 from 7pm.

The performance work I devised, with the contribution of actors Stanley Pattison and Victoria Beesley, was a three part exploration into glitches, attempting to re-describe movement derived from characters in contemporary sports and action computer games.

Gaming characters of the 21st century have an extraordinary embodiment, fluidity of movement and naturalness, becoming more and more realistic and convincing, thanks to constant improvements in technology. However, there are always exceptions; disruptions, malfunctions and glitches, whether through unexpected programming errors, forced “cheats” or the users’ inability to control the characters in seamless game-play, and it is these imperfections that I am interested in.

The workshop enabled me to re-focuses the artificial nature of these disruptions by employing highly trained real bodies i.e. actors, to re-stage them. The performance attempted to interrogate how real bodies cope with the limits of such foreign and unnatural movement and subsequently, how this physically re-enactment can be performed in front of an audience, within the specific spacial environment of Rhubaba Gallery & Studios, as three progressive 'acts' interspersed throughout the scratch night.

The performance later evolved into the digital installation and performance project 'glitching'.