desired, at irregular angles. If video or computer are used, the words
can move around the screen.
- Create a text and combine it with strong visual images. These images
may work with or against the semantic implications of the words. They
can appear on paper, slides, video or computer.
- Combine words and physical gestures. The gestures can be quite
simple ones, such as stamping your feet or making facial expressions.
You should also consider whether the gestures reinforce or move in a
contrary direction to a particular word or set of words. A student in
one of my classes produced a piece in which a friend read out a series
of words from a list (the order of the words could change). Each time
a word was read out, the performer made a gesture to go with that
word. Sometimes the gesture illustrated the word, for example, the
reader would call out ‘look’, and the performer would make a specta-
cles sign. But sometimes she made a gesture which contradicted the
word, or seemed to have very little direct connection with it. The ges-
tures can relate to the meanings of the words, but they can also relate
to their sounds. Again the relationship might be one of contrast: if
you perform a very rhythmic text, the gestures could be smooth and
continuous. For TranceFIGUREd Spirit, a performance work in which
I was involved in 1991, I composed rhythmically notated texts with a
strong musical element (Smith, Karl & Jones 1990). Bodyworks
designed by the artist Sieglinde Karl were worn by artist and dancer
Graham Jones. Graham sometimes moved synchronously with my
rhythms, but sometimes worked asynchronously against them. Also,
when the rhythms were jagged, his movements might be smooth and
vice versa. For pieces which bring together dance and words, see
the work of Richard James Allen and Karen Pearlman documented
in Performing the UnNameable: An Anthology of Performance
Te x t s (1999).
- Combine text and objects. Choose an object (it can be quite simple)
and consider how integral the object will be to the performance. For
example, take a chair, place it in different, possibly unorthodox posi-
tions, and also adopt poses in relation to it. Invert the chair, tilt it on
its side, place it with its back to the audience, and move it about the
space. Place objects on or over it. Position your body on it, at a dis-
tance from it, or underneath it. Keep the relationship between body
and chair fluid and kinetic. Compose a text which interrelates the
words and the movements so they become inseparable. There is a huge
range of ideas that you would be able to express through this kind of
interaction between text and object. I saw a stimulating performance
piece some years ago by the writer Anna Gibbs. It was called ‘Running
Tongues, talk and technologies 223
