Output details

Mind Out

• PaR (DVD and portfolio)

This project investigates mindlessness through a performative practice. ‘Mindlessness’ in this context is seen as the conscious withdrawal of directed control over the behaviour from the body. Each performer acts as the mind of another, giving simple instructions for action, formulating speech and expressing otherwise silent thoughts, while their own body responds to controls given by someone else.

300 word statement -

Information about the research process and/ or content

The research inquiry of this PaR project investigates mindlessness through a performative practice. ‘Mindlessness’ in this context is seen as the conscious withdrawal of directed control over the behaviour from the body. Each performer acts as the mind of another, giving simple instructions for action, formulating speech and expressing otherwise silent thoughts, while their own body responds to controls given by someone else.

Mind Out thus explores how an alien mind - one physically disengaged from the body of the performer - may be allowed access to the control of another performer’s body. The investigation explored the acquiescence of bodily control or ‘agency’ to another mind, and the effect that automatic, affective and physical forces might be imagined to have on a body with no conscious control.

As an exercise in performance, the inquiry revealed how certain self-regulatory responses, on the part of the performer, can lead to ‘drift’: for instance, the muscles slowly either under- or over-compensate for the effects of gravity; or reflexes may remain undiminished while unconnected with any other organised behaviour. Animating the body with a mind neither integral to it nor prioritising its welfare gave rise to behaviour that could at times be largely without the quality of bodily self-preservation. Equally, at other moments the mind was engaged in a stream of consciousness at odds with its physical appearance.

These findings were developed into a rehearsed performance piece and a workshop programme presented in various educational contexts. The practice itself was first presented at Nuffield Theatre, Lancaster in 2008 and in Britain, Germany, France and Belgium between 2008 and 2011 as a live performance accompanied by workshops. It is submitted here by means of a DVD recording (made at Battersea Arts Centre, London) with related documentation.