Victorian College of the Arts

This study closely observes, articulates, and expressively renders the intrapersonal dimensions of an artistic practice and the capacity and means by which a practice can reveal itself and meaningfully render the lifeworld and the artist in multimodal form. The methods are those of a primary source heuristic study attending to the experiential interplay and multimodality of an artistic practice and its changing states of assemblage. The practices and performative actions are undertaken and recorded in a wide range of settings. These include walks in suburban streets and parks and in rural forests, spoken annotations amidst everyday life, and occasional assemblages of materials self-witnessed or presented to one or two others. The collected raw data includes sketches, diagrams and drawings, poetic responses, vocal soundings, piano and multi-track audio recordings, photographs, and bodily-recorded movement gestures. A performative assemblage of selected materials was presented to a small audience in December 2018. It included the live performer placed in a range of multi-layered constructions, automated lighting effects, and objects present in the research and emerging performative canvas. The combined outputs of the study comprising the live performance and contextualising writings suggest that artistic practice can be a series of imaginal and physical actions and experiences that occur beyond and without, as well as through more formal studio or instrument-based activity and that an artist can be concurrently forming themselves as a poetic subject in the process of creating an artwork for meaningful reception.

This practice-led research, some aspects of which are informed by heuristic methods (Moustakas, 2001), adopts a phenomenological stance and seeks to understand, in Singapore’s contemporary dance pedagogy and practice, the phenomenon of presence in process and performance. According to Trenos (2014), definitions of presence can vary from the intangible or mystical quality possessed by the actor (or performer), to “the actor’s most important creation”; and to “the most significant interaction in theatre” (pp.64 – 65). Debates on the fundamental nature of a dancer’s presence have been at the heart of dance practice and theory since the late 1950s. As a significant area of inquiry within dance and performance studies, the metaphysics of presence has also been touched on by philosophers from Aristotle to Heidegger and Derrida. Is presence an ineffable and captivating quality, or a buzzword in the dance scene referring to a mysterious ‘something’ escaping words? This research hypothesises that presence is neither the exceptional dancer’s prerogative nor property, but rather, is a quality involving a vigilant, rigorous moment-to-moment attentional effort, an investment of disciplined attention and awareness. In other words, presence demands a focused application of self in the moment, in terms of the mind and body. This hypothesis is interrogated by asking what the Singapore contemporary dancer’s experience is when optimally immersed in dancing. By focusing on their embodied experience, being attuned to what and how of this experience: what they are attending to; how they feel; the processes or activities they engage in; and what they deem to be of potential significance, I attempt to also uncover factors that enhance or inhibit the dancer experience. While this research outlines a range of notions of presence, drawing attention to the ambiguous and often imprecise use of the term in the performance world, it does not, in the main, attempt to validate any particular theories of it. Rather, as a reflective practitioner deeply engaged in the creative process and research, my aim is to use the phenomenon or notion of presence as a springboard for interrogating and interpreting the experience of the dancers involved in this study. While not arriving at a universally accepted definition, this research can yield important insights into what presence means, or might mean, in the Singapore contemporary dance. My research findings can contribute to new knowledge in the field of Singapore’s dance research, currently in its nascent stage. They potentially have a specific, twofold impact. Firstly, they can yield meaningful insights into the complexities of contemporary dance performance as an artful, embodied practice. Secondly, they can usefully and strategically inform dance pedagogical approaches in Singaporean schools and dance companies. This thesis is complemented by films featuring choreographic works developed as an integral part of the research process. These films are interrelated and respectively illustrative of the creative process and areas under investigation. The weightage of the creative component of my submission is 50%, and the written component, 50%. The final choreographic work, 'For Reasons Undisclosed,' was to have been performed ‘live’ (with audience) at the Victorian College of the Arts as part of the examination. The global pandemic and air travel restrictions unfortunately necessitated a pivoting to the performance video approach instead. While there will be exposition in the thesis on 'For Reasons Undisclosed,' the focus of the thesis is on 'Insistence and Burn' created in 2019 during the formal 4-month research period, when data was first gathered and analysed.

Victorian College of the Arts - Theses

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