Major Performance Development

For this week’s major performance work, our group focused on outlining and fleshing out the ideas we wanted to explore in the scenes following what we’ve already done. For instance, we’ve decided that the second scene of our work will be a prerecorded podcast, both as an excuse to use a more diverse range of media techniques, and to provide worldbuilding beyond the scope of the characters. We have also outlined the general situations of the final 2 scenes and will spend our time working on different parts of the scripts before next week’s class. While this method has worked well so far, I believe we could use more communication between each other to have a more cohesive goal, although it could be argued that this week could be treated as an ideation period.

Weekly Reading

For our “reading”, we had guest lecturer Joel Stern bring us to the exhibition “The Hidden Replica”, held at RMIT Gallery. The exhibition is based off a theme or replication and imitation, and featured works ranging from video works to interactable pieces. While many pieces centred around technology and AI, the piece that interested the most was the shadow puppetry meant to mimic the Pontianak, a mythological creature from Malaysia, that represents a vengeful female spirit. Not only was it nice to see representation of the country I come from, I believe it’s play on mimicry was very layered. On the surface, we have the shadow puppetry, but the way it was presented caused the shadows to look both like grasping fingers as well as leaves in the jungle. Furthermore, it could also be interpreted that in the context of the myth, the fear of retribution from the Pontianak caused its “victims” to imagine their own fears of a being that did not exist. I believe a similar multi-layered portrayal of mimicry could be useful for my major performance work.

Independent Research

Lastly, to stay on topic, I researched into mimicry consumption. While past studies has been conceived as impulsive, often the result of peer pressure, Shin and Seock (2022) state that it can and may be more likely to occur in a positive state of mind. They suggest that mimicry consumption on social media is a method in which people influence each other, as positive emotions facilitate more interaction on Instagram. Mimicry at its core is another function of human socialization, and I should keep this fact in mind as I move forward with my performance work centred on mimicry.

(413 words)

References