The nature of, and relationship between, intimacy and risk in the context of confessional one-to-one, solo performance practice in contrasting sites

Context:

Confessional, 'one-to-one' solo performance has become a visible form of performance practice in recent years, taking its place in a culture where the personal has become commodified. In this context, it seems imperative to understand, as practitioners, what this form potentially enables, particularly by way of experience (and the potential for exchange) for the spectator. Through the creation of ongoing, developmental practice explorations (using contrasting sites and performance structures) this programme of research will investigate the nature of, and relationship between, 'intimacy' and 'risk' in one-to-one, solo confessional performance practice.

Aims and Objectives:

i) Though performers are increasingly using one-to-one models of interaction, there is no research available interrogating the efficacy or effect/affect of this; this research
project will explore the experiential difference of contrasting structural performance
modes through devising confessional performances in one-to-one, solo structures
but also in more typically communal performances.

ii) Whilst the word 'intimate' is often used to desribe certain performances, there is no
sustained research on the way 'intimacy' is created in performance. Of particular
interest to this project is the relationship between 'intimacy' and 'space'; are some
spaces intrinsically more or less intimate than others? Through conducting practical
explorations and staging performances in a number of different 'types' of space the
research will determine to what extent intimiacy is dependent upon, or affected by,
performance space. The research will also propose models of practice for the
'recreation' of original 'space' in alternative sites.

iii) 'Risk' is assumed to adhere to certain forms of body art, related to physical danger
and pain; my experience of creating confessional performances leads me to think
that there are other ways of conceptualising risk and engendering other forms of risk
in performance. This research will propose what might risk mean in confessional
performance and the extent to which a sense of risk (for example, of revealing
personal material) is dependent also on a sense of intimacy.

iiii) The final practical research undertaken in this project seeks to understand what
purpose confessional performances can play in secular society, where the
confessional has been transformed into a commodity. Key to this research is
exploring the potential for exchange within performance, as a way of 'offering' the
spectator something ( a secular equivalent to 'absolution' perhaps?)

Applications

Given the extent of solo, confessional practice in eveidence in the UK and the USA, and the context in which this practice takes place (a mass-mediated confessional culture), this research project offers a timely interrogation of the solo confessional form. Whilst part of this interrogation will involve surveying existing work, in order to produce a context for my own practice, the primary aim of the project is to explore the potentials and limitations of the form through practical exploration. These findings will be made widely available and targeted to different constituents through utilising a variety of media including performances, reflective writing, critical writing, and a national symposium. Whilst the intentions is not to propose fixed models of practice, the research findings should nevertheless foster debate and exchange between practitioners, researchers and students that will contribute to informed practice but also to further development of and challenge to this emergent form.