With the performance over, it felt appropriate to look back at our questions;
What is intimacy and how do we create it?
Can you create a meaningful encounter with a stranger?
As discussed in a previous post, each of us had a very different experience during the performance and therefore the responses to ‘how the experiment went?’ will differ vastly.
Jordan Tallis’ Response
Intimacy itself is a very subjective term because there are many forms of intimacy. I do feel that intimacy isn’t something that can be fully understood unless you experience it for yourself. It’s important to remember that different relationships within a group of people can have different levels of intimacy. A intimate relationship between a wife and husband would be different compared to a friendship or a common stranger walking past you in a street. Our performance showed a vast dynamic of intimacy, as the jouney through it became more and more intimate, especially with the concept of kiss. I did think through the physicall acts however such as touching shoulders, holding hands, cuddling and kissing became the main force that enabled our connection into creating the intimacy between stranger and friend. It allowed us to break free from social boundaries and limitations of what we can and cannot do, in essence to be intimate with strangers. The way in which we delievered a line in asking them to be intimate with us was also very important, and although the audience were reassured it was a performance from the clothes and framing of the stage, it was a great way to make them feel welcome and to feel belonged and comfatable.
I noticed the male to male dynamic was a lot different in terms of a male and female dynamic, intimacy tends to be more common between male and female’s, as it is the social norm. I could sense that at times they would pull away if they felt uncomfatable with the idea of touch, especially with a stranger. However with males that I knew, it was different. I found they stayed longer with me and touching wasn’t something that made them uncomfatable. Which brings to question, is intimacy based on levels of trust and affection towards a person? However it’s safe to say that intimacy is very complex term with many hidden layers of depth to it. Although I do feel we created intimacy, I didn’t feel however it was a natural intimacy because everything was deviced and set up, which made it feel artificial.
I do think that creating an intimate encounter with a stranger is possible and that we did create some connections with strangers on our performance. But this relies on whether the person wanted to be intimate, intimacy cannot be created unless both individuals are in an agreement psychologically to be intimate with one another. The performance in essence relied on the audience most of the time, we could only really try to convince them to want to be intimate with us. We hoped through the use of framing and darkness surrounding the stage would also enable the audience to respond and consciously think intimate thoughts and feelings. Intimacy is something that can be created through natural conditions and artificial conditions, it is something as human beings that we cannot run away from. It is in our human nature to want to feel belonged and loved, and to feel accepted.
Jessica Smith’s Response
I feel that we tried to answer the first question more in the development process. We initially tried to define what intimacy was. Although I have heard and even used this word before, I have never really thought about it. However, after thinking about it I now understand that there are different types and levels of intimacy. As said before, friends, lovers and parents and children can be intimate with each other, but affections felt between each of them feel differently. For example, friends do not have the same type of intimacy levels as a parent and child. Although we have explored the meaning of intimacy to a certain degree, I feel that it is more complex than we first though so I do not think that we ever completely answered this question. The things that we used to aid us in creating it was things like tone of voice and what we actually said in the beginning speech and then how we framed the performance. The main way was through ourselves, actually being there and for however long the audience decided to be with us, we focused all of our attention completely on them. This hopefully made them feel important within our performance.
As for the second question, we can only analyse and explain our own feelings and views on the performance. We do not truly know how the audience felt, we can only guess through judging their reactions that they portrayed during the duration of the piece. As I have already stated in the reflection post, it felt differently depending on the other person. Some seemed extremely comfortable while others seemed a bit tense. I could not only see it on their face but I could also feel it by the way that they gripped my hand. The people that I felt most intimate with held my hand loosely and our arms rested comfortably on the arms of the chair. While the people who seemed slightly awkward, held my hand tightly and seemed very rigid.
Overall I personally think that you can create intimate encounters with some strangers. However, some people are more reserved than others which will make it harder for them to even feel comfortable in the company of strangers. It entirely depends on how much each person is willing to involve themselves. If both parties are fully committed, and want to build that feeling, I think that creating intimacy is definitely possible.
Leanne McKettrick’s Response
After reflecting on the performance and how it went, I feel that there is no straight answer for either of our questions. As rehearsals progressed I knew that this would be the case with the first question, because the more we researched into intimacy the more I felt it couldn’t be defined. There are not only various types of intimacy but everyone has their own definition of the term, therefore answering this question was problematic. However, the latter question I had always felt the answer was yes, as with the right circumstances and the commitment from the performer I believed this could be done. However, I soon realised that the answer to this question was entirely dependable on the participant. And each participant came with a different answer.
During the performance, it felt that some people possibly found the cuddle uncomfortable, and remained stiff like throughout the encounter. These moments left me feeling disappointed, as the answers to the latter question particularly were not the responses I had intended.
On the other hand, with some members of the audience, as we stood cuddling I would hear the beating of their heart slow down and as we both relaxed into the action our breathing would become in time, and I thought to myself ‘this is intimacy’. It felt like we were connected, even though I did not always know the person I was cuddling I felt close to them, for me the encounters which were like this were meaningful.
Demi Morrison’s Response
The questions were the basic outline of the performance and it was where we began our improvisation on the piece. I do not know what the answers to these questions are, especially in response to my section of the performance. I never truly felt intimate with any of the people who came to our performance. Therefore, I could argue that you cannot be intimate with strangers, however our audience was not strangers and that may have been our problem in this case.
Do we even need to answer the questions? The importance of us having these questions was so that we had something we could create a performance in response to, hence how the first question was used more in our development of the show rather than the show itself. I agree with what Jessica and Leanne have written in terms of this so it does not need repeating. The only thing I would like to highlight is that in regards to my one to one experiment with the spectator; I felt that the audience reached a level of intimacy with Leanne’s experiment and then when reaching mine, most of the audience felt slightly awkward. Obviously I cannot state this as fact as I am gauging this on their reactions to me.