BODY, IMAGE & LEGIBILITY

Source / generator

Day 1: body-scan / minimal-change exercise. Day 2: discussion of body, clothing, make-up, scars and fluids, including Jérôme Bel examples.

Mart's proposition is that the body does not end at the surface of the skin. What I wear, where I am, who surrounds me and the environment in which I appear all participate in how the body becomes readable.

In the Day 1 exercise, performers worked individually and explored: What is the least I can change in my body to change the meaning of the body image? Small changes in hands, gaze, posture, orientation and distance can transform what the audience believes it is seeing. Meaning does not require large action; a very small physical change can completely reframe an image.

Mart used a Jérôme Bel example in which lipstick marks could exist on parts of the body while becoming invisible when the body returned to a neutral standing position. This opened the relation between visible and invisible. A body may carry scars, history, marks, identity and political conditions that the audience cannot see unless the performance creates a particular filter through which they become readable.

The questions are: What do I allow the audience to see? What do I withhold? What code do I give them for reading the body?

What the protocol trains

Precision of image, awareness of framing, awareness of visible / invisible information, and understanding of the body as contextual rather than isolated.

Artistic problem

How can a minimal alteration transform bodily legibility without relying on expressive excess? The body is not only a visible figure; it is a history and a set of relations made temporarily perceptible.