PRACTICE OF EMOTIONS / CONVERSATION LABORATORY

Tsuchimoto led a one-week performance art workshop for students at the Market Theatre Laboratory in Johannesburg. The workshop approached the subject of emotion/participation in both the analysis of performativity and the practice of audience engagement. The students explored the structure of social interaction and conversation and learn how to apply their findings to artistic practices. They also carried out collective actions researching collaborative/antagonistic engagement in the public realm and obtained critical tools to investigate regimes of normative control over the emotions, identities, and behaviors present in contemporary society.

Every day the workshop started at 9:00 with a warm-up exercise and ended at 16:00 with a group reflection. During the workshop, the students experimented with several formats of conversation: dialogue, discourse, debate, diatribe, etc and analyzed different styles, purposes, and outcomes. They also explored different ways of using eye contact and body posture in conversations. As well as how to converse, they practiced how to listen to speakers and portrayed their oral stories through performances. From the second day, the students went outside to investigate in the neighborhood, the Market Theatre Precinct, by observing the surroundings and interviewing local people. Through collective performative actions, they tried to figure out how affirmative and negative emotions can be affected in public space. They also reflected upon different ways of audience participation, for example, voluntary-, non-voluntary-, involuntary- participation and normal-, directed-, creative-, collaborative- participation. After several social experiments, they talked a lot about social engagement through performances from ethical perspectives: how and how much artists can intervene in people’s lives with acting. For the last two days, the student brought up some provocative topics such as gender and sex and discussed them earnestly. They went through different levels of understanding each other’s points of view, from talking “nice” to generative dialogue.

On the last day of the workshop, the students made public performances for two hours. For this final presentation, they decided to work as individuals or groups. One group made a circle with chairs in front of the Market Theatre and discussed mental health problems in South Africa. Unexpectedly and gladly, many people joined in the circle and kept the conversation for 1.5 hours. Another group simply invited people to “play”, such as jump rope, football, and hopscotch and created a positive atmosphere in the place. The third group approached people as a fake Youtube channel crew and interviewed them with challenging questions. Contrary to their expectation that people might feel uncomfortable for the questions, many people were very open to answering and willing to contribute their opinions, which was meaningful for the local community. While the three group performances were carried out, four individuals made both visible/invisible performances, acting as a local “hobo”, asking people to take photos with funny poses, carrying too many bags, having intimate conversations with strangers, etc. Gradually, the groups and the individuals united together by doing speed dating performance. In the end, two female students made a creative open discussion about gender roles in society by reading and translating a provocative manifesto by an American feminist Valerie Solanas.

Performance workshop at The Market Theatre Laboratory, Johannesburg, South Africa (October 5-12, 2018)

(photo by Remofiloe 'Fifi' Sebobe)

Final presentation by artists/students:

Chris Djuma

Dintshitile Mashile

Kamogelo Walaza

Khanya Zibaya

Khanyisile Malatsi

Khethukuthula Jele

Lefa Jack

Mamello Maphate

Mandisa Mgeyi

Miriam Mayet

Mbali Ndebele

Mosehlana Mamaregana

Mpho Khoabane

Ndumiso Mazibuko

Sicelo Buthelezi

Violet Moeng

COLLECTIVE EMOTIONS & PERFORMATIVITY performance workshop

This workshop provides an opportunity for participants to become more aware of the modalities of emotion through physical and conversational exercises. We investigate the subjects of individual/group feeling, meta-emotions, emotional performativity, (limits of) empathy and (non-) existence of collective emotions. We also conduct discussions about topics including: identity, sense of belonging, mob mentality, mass-panic, group-based shame, membership guilt, etc. The workshop leader navigates the participants toward creating intimate conversations and collaborations, and carrying out group performances. The aim of the workshop is to facilitate critical observation of the participants' own emotions and performativities, and to give them sufficient confidence to present public performances.

Performance workshop at Bag Factory Artists Studios', Johannesburg, South Africa (April 4-6, 2018), The Market Theatre Laboratory, Johannesburg, South Africa (April 17, 2018)

(photo at Bag Factory Artists' Studios by Solomon Moremong, photo at The Market Theatre Laboratory by Rudy Motseatsea)

Final presentation by workshop participants (Bag Factory Artists Studios):

Bongekile Nguza

Myer Taub

Isabella Chydenius

Anthea Pokroy

Bathusi Maqina

Carolyn Massey

Luella Jacobs

Neo Diseko

Khotso Motsoeneng

Althea Nzima

Zeno Jacobs

SITUATIONAL FEELING / TILLSAMMANS? / EMOTIONAL MANAGEMENT workshop

This workshop investigates emotional management and group behavior. The aim is to make the participants become more aware of situational specific feelings in a group and to create critical awareness of our behavior in public space. We also want to challenge the individualistic auteur tradition in fine art, give tools and prepare students for collaborative artistic practices.

Performance workshop with Sonia Hedstrand at Österlenskolan, Sweden (September 25-26, 2017), Valand Academy, Gothenburg, Sweden(BA course "Emotions in Public" conducted by Andre Alves, September 29, 2017), Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden (Museum Museum project coordinated by Kristoffer Svenberg, October 13-15, 2017), Keio University, Tokyo, Japan(Department of Sociology conducted by prof. Masayuki Okahara, October 26, 2017)

PROBLEM(S) x PERFORMANCE workshop

Although we are all trying to build smarter, happier, healthier lives, we constantly face numerous problems, such as unsustainable development, global conflict, poverty, natural disaster, unemployment, gender inequality, addiction, sickness, depression, misunderstanding, endless technical disruption... etc. It seems there are already too many problems in the world, therefore, people may not want to see or hear about any more problematic matters. However, there are problems we don’t notice or recognize as problems. It is impossible to solve problems without identifying and defining them, and it is impossible to makes our situation better with ignorance. Let’s find more problems together before we become confused and get desperate.

About the workshop: The topic of the workshop is "PROBLEM(S)". It is an important task for artists to notice concealed issues as problems and set out to address them. In this workshop the participants got an opportunity to talk about, be aware of, and identify, invisible/undiscovered/hidden problems around them. The workshop introduced several practices to learn to notice problems and investigate these problems as subject matters. The participants experimented and presented the subjects in performance art form, through diverse assignments and exercises: both in the studio space and in public, as solo work and in groups. The goal of the workshop was for the participants to find and develop their own methods through dialogue and physical experience and finalize their ideas through the medium of performance art.

Performance workshop at Nafasi Art Space, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (April 6-8, 2017)

DISCOMFORT performance workshop

A prevalent tendency in the times we live in are the many possibilities that facilitate avoiding discomfort. Noise-cancelling headphones - freedom from undesirable sounds -, the “echo chambers” of online discussion (Have an opinion on refugees? Gather a digital army of like minded individuals who serve to further cement that opinion), how the internet is only displaying search results that it thinks you will like (Because you listened to X, we have calculated you should like Y), the frequent pampering and over-protection of today’s children, “trigger warnings” (an adult version of the aforementioned over-protection?), the endless possibilities of smartphones (You never have to be bored ever again!), the hand-holding in many modern video games, participation trophies... the list goes on.

ABOUT WORKSHOP: This 3-day workshop (2-days practice, 1-day presentation) was mostly practical, introducing the participants to different exercises to approach the subject of discomfort and facilitating a comfortable, dialogue-based, non-judgemental setting from which to work. The various assignments and exercises enabled the participants to grow as performers. The goal of the workshop was to investigate the subject of discomfort through dialogue and the medium of performance art. To let the participants experiment in the studio and in public while also giving them tools and advice to confidently pursue their own performance work.

Performance workshop with Hans Christian van Nijkerk at Fylkingen, Stockholm, Sweden: Co-production with NKF, Nordic Art Association & Fylkingen (February 2-4, 2017, photo by Hironori Tsukue, video by Hans Christian van Nijkerk)

Performance works by workshop participants:

Alen Ksoll

Annabell Chin

Anna-Karin Svedjestrand

Binyam Haile

Cecilia Runesson

Emma Clayton

Frida Sandström

Iivi Meltaus

Indra Linderoth

Kimiya Faghih

Louise Stiernström

Nathalie Wuerth

Tony Karlson

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