Thoughts after reading "The way we perform now" by Shannon Jackson". Notes.

The way (for me the way can translate to the method) questions the : medium, technique, skill, material, as they interface with conceptions of duration, spectacle, amateurism, virtuosity , conceptualism, experience and rigor.

The way forms the "we"

"Immaterial turn"

performance friendly context for museum participators.

"experiential service" performances in museums

"activities without end product"

"totalising experience" economy

"experiences", "services" and "affective relationship" as a primary product.

The article has helped me pinpoint a few problems my research practice has.

Up to now in order to come in terms with this problem, I have tried to keep a small, intimate, experimental character, in the way the work is done (method) , among the people involved, in the choice of venues that the work is presented, and in the way the audience is included.The first problem is an ethical one, and it is related to the fact that I don't want to make my work another "experiential service product" in the totalising experience economy.

This lead me to collaborate and seek supporting networks in communities of artists that work collectively, in a more amateur and/or experimental way. Consequently, this partially solved my ethical problem, and part of my practical one, because those supporting communities have provided me with space to work, (sometimes) people to work with, and space to present work whenever I wanted to.

(In Zurich finding space to work and show work is a major issue among artists and big houses' residencies are mainly covering this need).

Within this frame, another decision seems to have been taken, partially consciously but mainly not in a conscious way.

It seems that I have stopped working towards the goal to relate my work to artistic institutions and/or systemic networks of support.

Which leads me to a few practical problems. If I don't connect my work to systemic networks of support and therefore to artistic institutions, I can't sustain my work financially. I also tie myself to groups of artists who work collectively and stand in-between amateur and professional practice, artists who have limited time for working because they are forced to do other jobs that occupy most of their time, and whose knowledge on the artistic practice is limited. This actually seems to raise another issue, which is that I spend too much time trying to keep groups of collaborators together by providing space and material to work on, that leaves me with limited time to actually make performances. Of course here I need to re-visit my relationship to archiving as a form of artistic practice in-itself, and see how I can use it in ways that are working towards the making for the stage.

I also relate my work to a limited audience, which needs to be explored further. (Do I want it to keep it this way? or do I want to open my research and performance work to a broader public?).

All of the above, have reformulated my research question as following:

"How can I find ways to relate/connect my work to artistic institutions and systemic networks of support, by preserving, (or by not losing), a small, intimate, experimental character, in the way the work is done (method) , among the people involved, in the choice of venues that the work is presented, and in the way the audience is included".