School of Performing Arts - Theses
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ItemChoreographic imagination( 2014)This research explores the role of the imagination in choreographic practice. More specifically, the research has looked at how imagination contributes to the creation, performance and memorisation of movement in ‘set’ choreography. Drawing from established discourses between dance and somatic practices, philosophy, anatomy, visual perception and the moving image, this research explores the imagination as a phenomenon that is anchored in the body’s sensations and perceptions.
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ItemThe breath of empty space: looking for the remnants of God in the ('postmodern') cultural landscape of the secular West in the twenty-first century( 2014)The intention behind this research is to conduct a dramaturgical excavation of a specifically curated sample of the medieval English Mystery plays in order to analyse their thematic currency in a contemporary, secular context. This ‘excavation’ is conducted through an original, evolving and dynamic dramaturgical process that I here name ‘re-visioning’, in which the source material – stripped of its historical, cultural and religious context of origin – is re-made using the frame of contemporary (postdramatic) theatre. In their original form, the Mystery plays were a spectacular and comprehensive profession of the Christian (Catholic) faith. I contend that traces of this faith remain embedded into the foundational thinking of contemporary Western liberal democracy and thus that, while the outward dramaturgical shapes of these plays might easily be dismissed as irrelevant, fanciful and naïve in a contemporary context, their inner structures and thematics are intricately and dynamically linked to moral, political and social assumptions which underpin contemporary Western society. The thesis is realised through a combination of theoretical research and theatre practice and is weighted as 55% written dissertation and 45% creative development. The task of the creative development phase was twofold. First, to act as a laboratory in which experiments emanating from the research of scale, duration, image, physicality and performance style could be manipulated and refined; and, second, as a site for a three-dimensional exploration of the potential of stripping, replacing and re-sequencing classical and contemporary dramaturgical constructs. The written dissertation focuses on an analysis of the principles of postdramatic theatre, the ideological/aesthetic aspects of the source material, its cultural and historical context, and the subsequent dismantling of that context with particular reference to Nietzsche and Foucault. It develops a series of dramaturgical principles informed by Nietzschean and Foucauldian perspectives and then examines the outcome of the application of those principles with specific reference to the practice. The application of the theoretical research to the practice resulted in a series of public showings at the School of Performing Arts, VCA (October 2013). The outcome of those showings, in combination with the reflection and the research, led to the conclusion that the ‘dramatic paradigm’ and the Christian paradigm are linked though a common desire for order and pre-determination, qualities thoroughly destabilised by postdramatic practice and the general paradigm of postmodernism.
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ItemHalf - Living between two worlds( 2014)Half – Living between two worlds is a practice-led inquiry into the term ‘half-caste’. Through an investigation of personal and intergenerational lived experiences the research aspires to interrogate the authorship of stereotypical perceptions of Aboriginality. Connecting to dance, song and community the research seeks to emphasise the diversity of Australia’s Aboriginal peoples in the 21st century.
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ItemNarrative aesthetics: sound design in story development: a case for pre-auralvis( 2014)Audio plays a role in most storytelling endeavours, yet treated as an enhancer of the image, its value more cosmetic than narrative or aesthetic. Despite an increasing awareness of sound design many filmmakers still neglect sound’s potentials, particularly within early stage development. In later stages of production making picture changes is expensive, and the cost of audio postproduction prohibitive, especially for independent filmmakers. This limits the narrative-aesthetic potentials, therefore success of a project. Sound and image collaboration has a tendency to result in highly successful and innovative films. If early involvement became a production standard the filmmaking process would become more collaborative and advance the audiovisual relationship. This thesis articulates how sound design can contribute to the narrative-aesthetic development of a film when considered in preproduction as opposed to postproduction. The aim is to develop a working methodology for integrating sound in early stages of production. This is demonstrated through preproduction sound design of an animated film (Trap), as compared to postproduction sound design of a live action film (Milk & Honey), sound design of a stage play (Dropped), and examples from other works to illustrate specific points. Films and audiovisual materials are used to illustrate concepts throughout the body of this thesis.
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ItemRe-imagining Kassandra( 2014)This exegesis examines possibilities of re-thinking current approaches to the relationship between the practices of writing and directing within the field of Australian performance-making. The basis of this research project is the bringing to bear of directorial practice on the practice of developing new work as a playwright. In this case, that practice involves a re-examination of the role of text generation in a contemporary theatrical framework, in which the primacy of the text in the determination of both process and reception can no longer be assumed. From this re-examination, the question of the relationship between writing and directing is posed in terms of their potential for mutual - and perhaps productive - resistance to one another’s habitual practices. This project’s research into directorial practice involves the conception of a playscript - as spoken language and as a blueprint for action - which is placed in a tense and subversive relationship with both visual composition and the performative apparatus. It includes an account and analysis of the creation of an original 100-minute performance work, Kassandra, from script to production. The work investigates placing the mythographic titular figure in a problematised and self-reflexive relationship with the performance event. The concept of ‘productive resistance’ between the practices of writing and directing for performance is theorised in the first section, and thence reflexively investigated through practice, in order to to demonstrate how the re-investigation of received models of praxis at each phase of development might be best arranged and conducted so as to create a ‘productive resistance’ between text and performance.
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ItemDistilling an essence: the structuring of the recorded pop/rock song form( 2014)For the last fifty years, in Western culture, the recorded popular song has found expression in myriad styles and evinced rich and diverse responses, while adhering to consistent underlying structural conventions. This practice-based research project examines these conventions from musicological, semiotic and phenomenological perspectives and explores how an approach attuned to the conventions can result in an expressive realisation of the form; an ineffable ‘essence.’ To this end, the methodology will extend Roland Barthes’ concept of the grain of the voice to include the songmaker’s experience of the materiality of the composition and also the sonic surface texture of the recording.