Chronographies: Performance, Death and the Writing of Time

PhDThis thesis explores the interconnecting themes of time, death and the subjective in relation to performance, the performative and the critical act of writing. It is structured as a heterogenous series of case studies of a range of performed and petformative events, each offering a focus for an investigation of how the key terms of time and death operate in and around that event, and of how those terms lead to other areas of investigation. It deploys analytical and conceptual frameworks from, amongst others, the disciplines of psychoanalysis, queer theory, cultural studies, the visual arts, literary theory and performance studies to develop a series of interdisciplinary readings of subjects including the perfonnative construction of subjectivity, the temporality of photography, the temporal and spatial aspects of domestic architecture in relation to performance and installation, and the epistolary exchange as performance event. The thesis also addresses the problematics of how to engage in the process of critical writing in response to the ephemerality of performance, and theorises "performative writing" in relation to the broader themes of time and death. A range of textual forms are deployed in the text, including fictional autobiography, love letters, instructions for scientific experiments, prose poems and fragmented essays in multiple voices. By repeatedly reinventing the form through which the writing is presented, the thesis also implicitly explores the limits of textuality in the context of the creation and presentation of the doctoral thesis itself

Analysis of gas constituents from sealed containers of plutonium oxide materials.

The safe storage of pure and impure plutonium oxide materials in sealed containers is a current Department of Energy (DOE) concern. Plutonium oxides sorb moisture from the atmosphere, and the subsequent radiolytic and/or chemical decomposition of the water has been thought to generate excessive hydrogen pressures inside sealed containers. Eleven sealed containers with ten grams each of plutonium oxide materials have been studied for up to four years. The sealed materials were representative materials from the DOE complex and contain less than 0.5 weight percent water. The samples were kept at ambient conditions. We report the final gas analysis of the headspace gas of these containers using gas chromatography, mass spectrometry and Raman spectroscopy. The results show that none of the containers have pressurized significantly, and that hydrogen was not generated in significant quantities

Gas generation over plutonium oxides in the 94-1 shelf-life surveillance program.

The Department of Energy (DOE) is embarking upon a program to store large quantities of plutonium-bearing materials for up to fifty years. The Los Alamos National Laboratory Shelf Life Project was established to bound the behavior of plutonium-bearing material meeting the DOE 3013 Standard. The shelf life study monitors temperature, pressure and gas composition over oxide materials in a limited number of large-scale 3013 inner containers and in many small-scale containers. For the large-scale study, baseline plutonium oxides, oxides exposed to high-humidity atmospheres, and oxides containing chloride salt impurities are planned. The first large-scale container represents a baseline and contains dry plutonium oxide prepared according to the 3013 Standard. This container has been observed for pressure, temperature and gas compositional changes for less than a year. Results indicate that no detectable changes in pressure and gas composition are observed

Somewhere between remembering and forgetting: Working across generations on The Middle

Inspired by Hamlet, The Middle (2013) is a one-man show devised for a theatre foyer - a liminal space between the outside and the inside, the real world and the theatre. Hamlet is a character caught in a limbo between ?To be or not to be? and by casting my father, Tony Pinchbeck, to play the title role, I sought to explore time passing, staging ageing and the relationship between father and son. My father studied Hamlet when he was at school so he is stuck in the middle between the fading memory of reading that play 50 years ago and reading it now. He is trying to remember what it was like to be Hamlet while I continue my struggle to stay in the wings. For this article, I reflect on the complex dramaturgical process of working with my father to revisit his performative memories. The dramaturg?s job is to look for and after something that is not yet found. As Williams tells Turner and Behrndt, ?you don?t really know what is being sought?.1 As such, the dramaturg is in a limbo, or in the middle, between finding and looking, knowing and not knowing. For The Middle (2013), I spent time playing with the material I wanted to use physically: a table, a chair, 40 metres of bubble wrap. I found I could create interesting images with this material that could speak about the themes of liminality, ageing, stasis and mortality and the archiving of memory. The older we get, and the longer the show toured, between 2013 and 2016, the more the notion of father and son resonated. A retired solicitor, my father is 75 this year, and as he grew older and the show toured for three years, his memory of playing Hamlet faded so the text he spoke was always further from events it described. As Matthew Goulish writes, ?Some words speak of events, other words, events make us speak?. These were the words my Dad?s memories made us speak. For this article, I reflect on concepts of memory, time passing and ageing with Professor Mick Mangan, who explores these themes in his publication Staging Ageing (2013). The article weaves together my dramaturgical experience of making the performance with my father, and Mick?s experience of watching it through the lens of his research, and touches upon recent casting choices in order to explore issues of age and ageing and reminiscence theatre

Invisible Things: Documentation from a Devising Process

Invisible Things is a book about devising new work for performance. Taking the research, development and performance of Fevered Sleep's An Infinite Line: Brighton as its focus, Invisible Things is structured as a series of themed chapters intercut with case studies of key elements of the creative process. Through a combination of text, photographs, drawings, extracts from artist's notebooks, critical commentary and dialogue, Invisible Things offers a rare and personal insight into each stage of a creative journey, revealing all the complexities of a devising process from the point of view of the people at its heart. The chapters explore areas such as collaboration, dramaturgy, working with animals, developing conceptual frameworks and design. Case studies cover things such as light, sound, structure, organising rehearsals, and roles within a company. Invisible Things is also an experiment in how to document and remember a live event in another form: how to turn an ephemeral performance into a book

Stilled

Inspired by the scientific process of X-ray crystallography, Stilled is a durational dance (performed for between 3 and 12 hours) and an exhibition of pinhole photographs. The dance is performed not only for a human audience, but also for an audience of pinhole cameras. During the performance, these cameras take long-exposure photographs of the movements taking place, which are developed and then displayed as part of the event. In Stilled, the audience witnesses the performance taking place, and they see the strange, often abstract images that bear witness to earlier improvisations. Stilled is a meditation on the nature of perception: of taking time to become visible, taking time to be present, taking time to look, and taking time to see. Stilled features live, improvised music by Jamie McCarthy and live lighting designed and controlled by Hansjorg Schmidt. Audiences are free to come and go throughout the duration of the piece. Stilled is a durational dance piece for 3 dancers, which is performed for anything between 3 and 12 hours. It has a live electroacoustic music score and a live lighting design, both of which are improvised in response to and as stimuli for the improvised movement within the piece itself. Ali Beale - Production manager & design Sam Butler - Darkroom processing Theo Clinkard - Performing company Laura Cubitt - Performing company Robin Dingemans - Performing company Valentina Formenti - Performing company David Harradine - Direction, design & photography Sachi Kimura - Performing company Jamie McCarthy - Music Matthew Morris - Performing company Hansjorg Schmidt - Lighting Design Petra Soor - Performing company Charles Webber - Lighting & music cove

Sheep Pig Goat (REF 2021 Practice Research Submission)

Sheep Pig Goat is a performance-based research project, commissioned and presented publicly as a “creative research studio” by Wellcome Collection (the public engagement arm of Wellcome Trust) during the exhibition Making Nature (December 2016–May 2017). The project brought together performers from across artforms (dancers, singers, musicians), a number of livestock animals (sheep, pigs and goats) and academic researchers from various disciplines (history, design, philosophy, political theory, biology, literature) to explore, in public, a set of interrelated questions concerned with interspecies empathy, understanding and communication. The key methodology of the research was a series of improvised performative encounters between human and non-human agents. These were framed by public conversations involving visitors to the research studio (members of the general public) and a series of panel presentations and discussions with visiting academics. Following this initial public presentation of the research, a short film was made of the project. This was screened in the galleries at Wellcome Collection as part of a follow-on exhibition, ‘A Museum of Modern Nature’ (June–October 2017). Subsequently, an extensive archive entry for Wellcome Library was commissioned and created. The project was further developed at the University of Surrey School of Veterinary Medicine in 2020. This iteration expanded the multi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary reach of the project, bringing the perspectives of veterinary scientists into the project for the first time. Key findings of the research concern methodological advancements in Human-Animal studies, specifically the need for multi- and interdisciplinary approaches, and multivalent perspectives, in order for non-human animals to begin to be seen as active subjects rather than passive objects. The project also impacted pedagogies and practices in a Veterinary School setting. It has led to numerous creative and scholarly outcomes and responses, including a published interview, podcast and three symposium presentations

Above Me the Wide Blue Sky

A man whose memories are carried by birds. A woman whose children have grown with the trees. A family whose garden is the fathomless ocean. If who we are and what we call home is inextricably linked with nature, what happens when everything starts to change? Staged within a multi-screen film installation, with a soundscape of birdsong, electronic music and a new score for string quartet, Above Me The Wide Blue Sky weaves together images, movement and sound with stories of love, loss and belonging from an ever changing world. Ali Beale - Production Manager & design Synne Behrndt - Dramaturg Samantha Butler - Direction & design Laura Cubitt - Performer Will Duke - Projection Design David Harradine - Direction & design Jamie McCarthy - Music Hansjorg Schmidt - Lighting Design Charles Webber - Sound Design Beth Hoare-Barnes - Company Stage Manager Sam Evans - Technical Stage Manager Dominic Bilkey - AV Programmer Scientific Advisors Robin IM Dunbar, Professor of Evolutionary Psychology, University of Oxford John Pickering, Lecturer in Psychology, University of Warwic

On Ageing

Performed by seven children aged between 7 and 13, On Ageing was a performance for adults which explored, through image, sound, light, text and the choreography of hundreds of objects, what it is to change, to grow, and to age. Cast: Georgie Barnes Madeleine Jones Joe Chanyacharungchit Theo Peters Tsipora St Clair Knights Vaughn Clark Phillips David Harradine & Sam Butler - Direction and Design Ali Beale - Design & Production mangement Ged Barry - Music Hansjorg Schmidt - Light Mark Webber - Film Sam Evans - Technical stage manager Synne Behrndt - Dramaturg Beth Hoare-Barnes - Stage manager On Ageing was created through an eighteen-month devising process, working closely with children, parents, grandparents, other artists, elders, and an advisory group of gerontologists. We also worked closely with Professor Maria Evandrou, Dr. Athina Vlachantoni and Dr. Rebecca Johnson at the Centre for Research on Ageing at the University of Southampton, to curate a symposium about theatre and ageing at the Young Vic

This Grief Thing (REF 2021 Practice Research Submission)

This Grief Thing is a participatory arts project that encourages people to talk, think and learn about grief, by creating new public spaces, physical objects, visual materials and mechanisms for interpersonal engagement. Historically articulated and experienced in social, relational ways, grief has been rendered largely absent from public, social settings by shifts in societal attitudes as a consequence of two World Wars, developments in medical technologies and consequent disengagement with death. This has resulted in a lack of developed skills for communicating about grief, with recognised impacts on health and wellbeing. This Grief Thing renders grief visible, through material cultures, through social encounters and by interventions in public space, and develops new partnership and participation models for engaging diverse publics with grief, helping build resilience in individuals, families and communities. At the heart of the project is a collection of clothing and accessories that incorporate words and phrases about grief, proposing new strategies to think about it and communicate it. These objects are distributed via temporary shops which also function as spaces for meetings and exchange, through which people engage with the subject of grief. A billboard campaign and a free leaflet, distributed through spaces such as libraries, cafes and print distribution channels, make grief even more visible in public spaces. In a context where the social invisibility of grief diminishes opportunities for engagement with it, research and creative projects which offer mechanisms for learning and exchange are increasingly necessary. In development since 2015, the project appeared in UK towns and cities from 2018–20. During this time, over 3569 participants directly engaged with the project by visiting temporary shops, 351 people participated in structured conversations about grief, over 1400 free leaflets were distributed and over 535,000 people encountered the billboard campaign