As a technician (video artist, cameraperson) who is currently exploring what it's like to be in the performer role,
I am joining the chorus of artists interested in breaking the fourth wall with our audience.

I want to create a performance space where audience members are allowed to approach the performance on their own terms; through which they can truly create their own experience or have an effect on the outcome of
the performance. I want to foster curiosity and non-prescriptive playfulness.

I've spent the past year examining the “supportive” bodies that make up a performance, such as technicians and audience members, and see an opportunity to prevent these critical members of a performance from entering panic mode when faced with the opportunity to participate in a less conventional way.

My solution is the “gentle performance.”

My work fully exploits the video medium considering both its sonic and visual dimensions as well as intertwining the live, telematic and cinematic performance spaces. I draw imagery and sound live from the space at the time
of the performance.

This format opens the performance up to dramatic shifts depending on the other people in the room and how
they choose to interact with the piece. A single performance can shift from a quiet, ambient tableau with sounds
of the creaks and pops of the room paired with layered, abstract imagery that I created during a time when I
was the only person in the space, to a riotous playground with complex layers of sound and imagery with adults and children running around the space laughing, singing, running, dancing, etc.

My work has come out of extensive research which applies post-modern ideas of subjectivity and phenomenology to make a case for how the use of electronic media in performance is changing the way we,
as audience members, understand our role/position and experience our own bodies in relation to the work. However, the final result is a simple visceral experience that has room for intellectual contemplation, but doesn't require a deep understanding of the underlying theories to be a rewarding experience if approached with
a sense of curiosity and playfulness.