I met with my supervisors, Dr Troy Innocent and Dr Clare McCracken, on Wednesday, and they helped shape my thoughts about and approach to the project. In a blog post from January 27th, I was in a conundrum with structuring the Honouring Mr Stevens (HMS) experience variations spreadsheet. Troy suggested untangling the knot I had generated by adding in “wildcard” sessions. This loosens up and solves the number crunching problem and, more significantly, frees up the creative process and investigation. Using “wildcard” sessions, I can follow my instinct and alter installation or experience elements to see what happens/how such alteration might impact or influence the participant experience.
I have also struggled with the work’s premise. It is not my usual practise to begin creative development without a premise in place. HMS has come about in an inverse order to my normal way of creating. I needed to generate an idea in order to develop and apply to RMIT’s Human Ethics. Without Ethics approval in place, I would not be able to invite audiences - participants - through. I came up with HMS based on a story used in ‘The Memorandium’, (Barking Spider Visual Theatre 2012), although in this story, Mr Stevens was human. Normally, I respond to site with my works, using site as a launch point for premise. In this case this was not possible. Without Ethics, the project couldn’t proceed, and at RMIT, booking a space for a project such as this is made easier with an Ethics approval in place. I am lucky to have secured the 4.2.3 space, at RMIT, but it’s too late in the process to create site reponsively and as I have outlined the project in my Ethics application, I need to stick with that plan (more or less).
Since the Ethics application, the idea has further developed. This is the project overview I have shared in January with collaborating artists:
HMS is a live, immersive installation experience set in a room of a (seemingly) abandoned house. HMS is created through a technique known as “assemblage”. For this project, assemblage elements are domestic, household items that have been collected from op-shops. There is a 1940-1980s bricolage aesthetic. These are arranged in response to space/site - sympathetic to the space.
The HMS room has usual human habitation trappings: couch, bookshelf, table, photos - a life’s detritus. But, for the participant, they may uncover the uncanny by exploring. Supported by subtle lighting and sound design, installation and assemblage elements draw from a liminal and Wunderkammer aesthetic. Assemblages include discoverable kinetic elements. For example, a participant opens a cupboard and interrupts a miniature world going about its business (a puppetry inclusion), discovers a shadow-puppet world in a walk-through wardrobe, and may meet Mr. Stevens, a changeling (Minotaur) and can choose to join in on the activity the he is undertaking.
What is missing in this project overview is a premise. What do I mean by premise? I will write about this tomorrow.
JANUARY 31 REFERENCES
Barking Spider Visual Theatre (2012) The Memorandium, Barking Spider Visual Theatre website, accessed 31 January 2025.https://barkingspidercreative.com.au/the-memorandium/