Artist Toolbox: Fizz/Bang

In my personal practice and as a teacher too, I've always been inspired by the making process of the performance company Goat Island. In their books Small Acts of Repair and the wonderful but hard-to-find School Book 2 you will find a wealth of ideas, advice and reflection on the process of devising performance. Both books continue to guide me in my development in this world.

There are two resources that are particularly useful though and these are as follows:

Firstly, the idea of directive-response-response is an important one for me. It often defines the way I work when devising. Simply put, the directive is a starting point; a stimulus. It can be anything; a picture, a poem, an idea, a provocation...

From these directives, each person in the collaboration creates a response; a piece of art, dance, song, writing, performance, etc, which is inspired in some way by their own directive or to a shared one. They then present this first response back to the group in an informal sharing. Each person then responds to there presentations with a new response, in the form of a new presentation. This second response, can reproduce, develop, change, contrast, combine (see the Richard Serra verb list for more ways) the first responses in some way (including your own response). Then repeat this with other responses and/or new directives, to build a piece.

It is this way of responding to another's ideas again and again that results in performance material being created which is inextricably linked from every thing that has come before it in the process. Everybody in the collaborative has an equal share in what is created and what is created could not have existed in the same way with out every individual's contribution. It is a beautifully organic way of devising which delivers many surprises along the way.

What I have for you then, is a short list of directives, that you find useful as starting points. Some of them are Goat Island's and some of them are my own.

Create an event of bliss.

Create an event of terror.

Invent an arrival.

How do you say goodbye?

Describe the last time you were kissed.

Create a shivering homage.

Make imbalance.

Describe a perfume.

Give a gift to someone you have lost.

Before, when you looked up, what did you see?

Present your recurring dream.

What will you be when you are 60?

Be your mother.

Why are you nailed to that wall?

Remember your ghosts.

Can you kill this animal? TRY.

Examine a part of your body.

What was your first mistake?

Who is waiting outside?

Describe falling.

Make something of abhorrence.

Window.

Sing of loneliness.

Is she innocent?

Is he wrong?

What are you holding on to?

Describe losing faith.

Describe awe.

Make an escape.

The second awesome list, that I use from Goat Island, is their list of Dynamic Oppositions. Like the Serra verb list, these are great for applying to physical and spoken material to change various qualities of it. 

Give them out in pairs, or mix them up and let the makers pick, and you'll be fizzing, oozing, chasing and rattling in no time!

rocket

topple

meander

sidewind

cradle

still

chase

dart

wind

slip

rattle

roll

shudder

stick

twirl

grind

rupture

lean

startle

boil

blend

trip

glide

slide

dart

fizz

spread

wobble

ooze

bang

splatter

squirt

stitch

rip 

moan

rumble