WHAT ARE OTHER PEOPLE LIKE WHEN THEY ARE THEMSELVES - PART 1

(Improvisation Audio Guide, 4 mins 20 secs, JUNE 2016)

The improvisation session is based on Think Of Someone You Know and takes each participant into their living memory to access attributes, behaviour and feelings of someone they know. As was seen in the previous version, the idea is for the participant to really embody that person. I am asking the participant to both disconnect from their immediate environment, by delving into their imagined thoughts and memories, and also connect to it, through body awareness tasks.

The improvisation sequence is slightly different to the one used in Think Of Someone You Know, as rather than being dictated by the artist present in the space, it now takes the form of a recorded audio guide. I decided to shift from the artist being physically present to presenting a mediated version in order to increase the level of control. The most important task of part1 is to move the participants to part2. I felt that by removing the face to face exchange I am more likely to get the participants to take my intended journey through the work. They cannot reason with me and will hopefully feel more obliged via the mediated instruction, similar to Say Hi From Me. Although I am no longer present as artist to lead the participants through the improvisation I am still in the space, posing as an invigilator, to ensure that I can fill any gaps left by the mediated presence.

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With Part1 I am interested in the role I must play in trying to assemble this group of people together and the challenges faced in my attempts, mirroring the complexities of assumed togetherness and the questions surrounding relational art and enforced utopias. Given that, i'm interested by all manifestations of achieving or not achieving a group in this particular artwork.