“Moments”: a Theater-based Method for Prototyping
by Arawana Hayashi & Ricardo Dutra
In this article, we look at a loose adaptation of a theater-based method called “Moment Work”, and how it might inform prototyping, as a design practice of making something together. Arawana originally learned this method from Greg Pierotti, a co-creator of the Tectonic Theater Project. Theater in its original sense signifies ‘where something significant is made visible’. We recently prototyped the use of this method during a social art residency, in the Yucatan, Mexico. The question we investigate here is how could a performance-based practice be used for prototyping?
The argument is that this improvisation-based technique can be adapted and used as a prototyping method for supporting groups of people in making something together. Below, we describe the context in which we tried out this possibility, and outline some of the learnings regarding how we might move it forward, as a method for prototyping.
1. Context
In the 10-day Social Art Studio in Mexico, a group of 7, mostly non-theater/non-poet artists, created a haiku (Japanese poetic form) performance. The wonderful thing about performance is that it is not just about thinking and talking, but it is actually about doing. The making process involves doing things quickly, without much of a plan — not knowing exactly what or why. It involves directing others — telling others what to do, where and when. It involves following directions, suggesting, trying it again, trying something different, sleeping on it, wondering if we are making any progress. Not everyone’s cup of tea. The discipline of this social presencing theater was in doing things together, making an “end product” called a haiku performance, and sharing that with others.
2. What we did
In this method, each of us would bring some “moments” of movement, haiku, image, or ideas to the group and direct each other in activities that would explore that “moment.” We then looked for themes or potential “lines through” and arranged the sections according to the Japanese aesthetic principles of jo ha kyu. Jo is an “orderly beginning, ha is breaking, and kyu is a rapid conclusion.
These principles live in the haiku form of poetry and in the more extensive group poetic form called renku. Since we were collectively making multiple haikus, the renku form of jo ha kyu seemed like a suitable structure.
Ricardo had introduced us to the practice of writing a haiku (a short 3 line poem reflecting our direct experience) after our morning 20 Minute Dance practice. In the beginning days of our Social Art Studio, we took learning journeys to a Mayan village. During the residency we learned about the prototypes that our colleagues were creating to explore questions they were holding. Creating the performance gave us an opportunity to reflect on what we saw and sensed. The haiku form invited us to be in touch with our perceptions and to get to the essence of our experience.
Each person in our team hosted the making of a section of the whole. The ensemble co-created this for the community. Ninni and Penelope began with an installation of carefully placed beautiful objects from nature on a rock formation with haiku by John. Daniela welcomed the community into the spectacular amphitheater designed by James Turrell. The stage performance combined movement, haiku and film. It began with a tribute to the ancestors and the land, it continued with reflections on social spaces and on the role of a social artist, poignant films by Miguel on impermanence and continuity, a ritual expression of the relationship between the moon and the milpa (traditional garden), followed by an invitation for those in the audience and community to offer a haiku and a 3-phrase Field Dance. The evening closed with Ninni inviting us to make a mark with natural pigment on banners that we attached to trees with a pin made of a thorn. The full moon appeared.
3. Moments as a method for ‘prototyping’
During 4 days, we worked cyclically in a flow of: doing/showing or rehearsing (by alternating in directing others)/getting feedback (notes)/’cutting off material’/doing.
In this flow, ‘doing’ is prioritized over ‘talking’. ‘Doing’ would account for at least twice the time spent in ‘talking’. People would make up “moments” and come back. A “moment” is a single fragment of idea, sequence, or art piece that is shaped in time and space.
The group evolved something, arising from nothing. People would go on their own, make up stuff, and bring back, and the group tried to put it together in some form. The method is basically about
a. collecting all material/ generating material, and
b. stringing parts together, seeking for some coherence. It works like a “potluck”.
- generating lots of material (i.e. moments)
- plunging straight into ‘doing’: learning from doing, not from ideas
- cutting off: skimming through to pick up something that could be put together
- stringing emerging parts together into some cohesion
- repeating/rehearsing from the previous day, and keeping on adding
4. Key learnings
“Change is itself a creative process. And we are artists. The materials are people”.
a. Moments allow for making something out of nothing. This means it works as a future-making practice operating from a fundamental view of emptiness. That is, from no independent, permanent, separate identity. Form arises from freedom.
b. Doing is prioritized over talking. By directly plunging into ‘doing’ (and here, it doesn’t quite matter whether it makes sense or not), we learned that whatever is not coming from our direct experience is, instead, a concept or an abstract idea. The ‘doing’ is about engaging with the raw data and facts of our direct experience (in the now), and substantially reducing the ‘talking’ around what ‘we think works best’, or the ‘grand idea for how this should go…’
c. Always ‘YES, and…’ never ‘YES, but…’ is a basic rule of improvisation. In this method, nothing is thrown away straight away. All is included. However, “what’s the point?” was a common question during the parts when “moments” were initially suggested.
d. Directing others is encouraged. This method introduces the role of the director. Which is then shared from one person to another, as they direct their own “moments” within the putting together of the larger piece. The director asks for permission to direct, cut, and throw away.
e. The ‘stringing together’ of the seemingly disparate parts allows for emergence of fresh sense. Although some “material” may be cut off, the key aspect of this method is about stringing together the parts, so that clarity and cohesion emerge from this very process, rather than from a pre-conceived idea, or concept.
5. Thank you
Much gratitude to Claudia Madrazo for inviting us to this Social Arts Studio Residency, and to the haiku performance ensemble — Arawana Hayashi, Ninni Sodhal, Ricardo Dutra, Daniela Ferraz, Penelope Phylactopoulos, Miguel Labas, Kobun Kaluza, with special poet, John Stubley.
6. Acknowledgement
Moment work is a theater method developed by Tectonic Theater Project. We are thankful to their pioneering work, and offer this loose adaptation as a method for prototyping in social systems change. More on their project: www.tectonictheaterproject.org
*This written piece is a part of a larger practice-based research initiative involving Monash University, and the Presencing Institute. Ricardo Dutra currently pursues a PhD in Design at Monash University, and works with choreographer Arawana Hayashi developing methods of action research for systems change, within the Presencing Institute.
