RAW-(Material)
Self as Living Art
a journal of art, life, materials,
performance & process
by
Claire Elizabeth Barratt
Welcome to the RAW-(Material) series.
This is MY
Material Culture!
My approach is
holistic, essential, integral, metamorphic.
I work in
relationship and response to material.
The raw materials
of the Self (body & psyche) and the raw materials of nature and the
environment.
I use the Self to
go beyond the self. To Transform.
I address the raw
materials of Self, as well as the raw materials of nature, as mediums with
which to create.
This project is
part 2 of my investigation as an MFA candidate with the Transart Institute:
The Process and Praxis of Constructing the
Self as Medium
My first year
project was to develop a practical pedagogy for performance art. Through a
series of synergetic workshops I developed a pedagogical method to serve as an
unbiased substructure for individual exploration, discovery and invention.
The project was
entitled:
And the resulting
method I call “Living Art”.
My second year
project has been to prove this pedagogy by becoming my own student and
inhabiting its methodology, using it as a catalyst for transformation. The
transformation of Self in performance, the transformation of Self in
relationship and the transformation of Self in learning.
My process takes
the form of a journal.
“Life is so rich, if you can
write down the real details of the way things were and are, you hardly need
anything else” – Natalie
Goldberg
A journal employs
the idea of a day-to-day journey.
My journal is a
chronology reporting the explorations, discoveries, transitions and
transformations that occur throughout the journey.
My explorations of
Self I call: Body Studies.
My explorations of
Self in relationship with nature I call: Nature Specimens.
The response that
evolves from these explorations is the art.
These are
documented in the forms of text, video, image and sound.
Subsequently,
these pieces of media become the art.
I can then take my
responses into the studio and develop the gestures of body and voice into
choreographic motifs. These motifs become a palette of ingredients for
composition. And the composition becomes the art.
This is a working
method.
The pages of this
journal present a yearlong cycle of the seasons.
With much gratitude to my advisors: Laura
Gonzalez and Linda Montano
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