Object placement

Objects in performance really bring a richness to the work. I had the opportunity to play with an exercise I did quite a few times in many of my past movement and theater practices. One of them is object placement, or placing objects/items in a "certain way." The objects used were personal, non-personal, food, liquid, even bodily fluids such as saliva. The motivation and idea comes from a crime scene; what happened there; who was there; or did it just happen and when. The way it works is one person takes any amount of objects/items and places them in a specific space without thinking about it as best as one can. Then everyone else looks at the scene, taking time to take it all in, and look from different angles and levels. Then another person arranges the objects/items in a certain way, either adding or taking away objects. My partner and I did this for 15 minutes. The first two photos above are examples of what we created.

Next, we, individually took 10-15 minutes, found a space to set up our own scene with any amount of objects/items. Then we viewed each others' scene. The second two photos are our individual scenes.

The 3rd photo can depict a scene from an accident, car or bicycle; where someone's stuff was just scattered after being hit. You may not be able to see it, but there was saliva and crushed/bitten pieces of food. The paper was from CPR/First Aid training exam, where the phrase, "attempted to give breaths" was circled. Although, it seemed like it could be an accident scene, the pen impaled through the paper, gave it another perspective or feeling. So anyone can ask, "What happened here?" "Why/How was the pen impaled, instead of just lying down?" "Who was this person and where were they going?"

The 4th photo can depict a memorial or burial for someone. What gave me this idea was the text, "In Silence and Visiting." There was also objects in front of the buried book that looked like an offering: a lipstick and then flowers and a watch encased in pebbles. Also the altoids laying next to text about bad breath, which I thought was clever; then the binoculars, for me, gave a sense of being seen or watched. I felt some sadness while being with this scene. A sense of longing to know more about this person, who has passed on. "Who were they?" "Did these objects represent this person's character?" "Were they loved and/or hated?" And with the watch encased in pebbles, "Was time frozen?"

Also, you have to think about the archetypal images as well for the one who created the scenes. Was this scene made for them or someone else? Did they have intentions before creating the scene or not? It really delves into the unconscious.

Overall, I think this exercise can do many things for creating and developing work. It can also be therapeutic. The binoculars spoke to me a lot. It was kinda creepy the way the binoculars would show up in the scenes. For instance, it's as if you're always being watched; or it's as if they say, "always remember this or whatever happened here." The environment and atomsphere also played a huge role in this exercise and made it better in a lot of ways. There are other objects/items/greenery/concrete around the space to get inspiration, along with sounds and smells.

This embodied memory in objects is quite interesting. I feel lots of objects have embodied memory, for example, the person who made or designed the object; the sentimental value that came from the object if it was a gift or handed down; and if it was old, what was going in your life when you obtained the object/item? Objects can have memory just like people and animals. We can also put our own memories and stuff into the object without even knowing it.

I'm sure I'll be visiting this exercise again.