The Senses in Performance (2007), edited by Sally Banes and Andre Lepecki, seeks to explore the dynamics and uses of senses in Performance Art. Banes describes perception and the sensorium as being continuously “activated and repressed, reinvented and reproduced, rehearsed and improvised” (2007, p. 1), and pushing the audience’s senses constantly to the limit is something we wish to explore in our experimental work.
It is stated that a performance is the perfect concept to investigate possibilities where senses can be tested, and “performances of the senses reveal histories” (Banes and Lepecki 2007, p. 2), and through extensive experimentation and rehearsals we aim to use the audience’s senses to create a piece of theatre which successfully brings up individual memories for each spectator.
Emotion is prominent in memory, so our dramatic objective is to bring out these concepts through a performance rich in detail, relevance to each audience member’s preconceptions, and opportunities to explore each senses apart from sight, as the audience will be blindfolded.
Contrast to our beliefs, Banes and Lepecki state that “a descriptive language for tastes, textures, aromas, and sounds that is as rich and detailed as that for sight and musical or verbal sounds has yet to be developed” (2007, p. 2). We aim to disprove this theory, and provide the audience with a performance so dense with opportunities for different senses to emerge that it draws out personal memories for each audience member.
These personal memories may be the smallest detail of a recollection, as it is smell, touch and taste that will bring these to surface. For example the taste of cake would surface memories of a child’s party and the food you ate there, or the feeling of being cold would remind you of the weather on a New Years Eve years ago; these minute memories according to particular senses is what we wish to expose for each audience member.
Caitlin Clark
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WORKS CITED
Banes, S. and Lepecki, A (2007) The Senses in Performance. Oxon: Routledge