This is a work of choreography. Which is to say, this is a work of literature. The Audience Watching the Audience is an investigation into inscription—that is, how relations within a theatrical context are inscribed as well as how these relations are administered. This is a work of administration. Which is to say, this is a work of choreography.
A series of discussions among 7 artists—Filipino choreographer-curator Donna Miranda, Filipino poet-critic Angelo V. Suarez, and Australian dance artists Sam Chester, Matthew Day, Alexandra Harrison, Nikki Heywood, and Dean Walsh—have led to this collaborative production. A fact that needs to be underscored is that these discussions were initiated by Julie-Anne Long, former curator of the dance program at Campbelltown Arts Centre, and enforced by Emma Saunders, the current curator of the said program; another way of saying it is this project was prompted by Long who then passed it on to Saunders, as per administrative procedure. The discussions are also framed within the economy of an international exchange, a type of economy that either enables artists to become mobile and productive, or disables artists to be forced into mobility when they do not choose to be mobile and into productivity where they produce works they do not necessarily choose to produce.
As cultural workers who flit in and out of art-related institutions, the 7 artists have come up with a choreographic work in and out of the process of which they could also flit, as per administrative procedure: For 3 weeks prior to the show, The Audience Watching the Audience was conceptually and physically assembled according to a pre-set schedule that marked when each collaborator would be present—a means of allowing the work to carry on even when some of those who worked on it were absent. One could even say that part of what constructed the work—the process of construction being “a careful symphony of comings and goings,” as Harrison described it—was one’s conscious and occasional absence from it. How telling that the 7 artists have agreed to not join the audience, further administrating and inscribing themselves into the performance thru their absence.
The Audience Watching the Audience does not consist of the halves of Campbelltown Arts Centre’s seating bank facing each other, although certainly the bank positioned that way is a sculptural sight/site to behold. Neither does The Audience Watching the Audience consist of an avoidance of spectacle, although that was certainly a thought that was considered while the work was being constructed. Instead, the work is what its title says it is: the audience watching the audience—except that the work also bares the notion that the audience in any performance is choreographed, if only by their very designation as the audience. That physically the other half of the seating bank is deployed to substitute the stage—as the locus of the watched—is meant only to underscore this gesture of designation, that the audience is administered, that those who watch are also watched. The 7 artists who have conceptualized this work will not join the audience not so much out of choice but out of inevitability: Having witnessed the work’s construction, they will end up having watched more than the rest of the audience could have watched, and therefore are disqualified from being integrated into the audience. Accommodating them into the audience will effectively change the work into “The Authors and the Audience Watching the Authors and the Audience” or other variously nuanced options. Unfortunately, an excess that the title cannot account for is the presence of someone documenting the proceedings—an excess imposed by administrative procedure—unless the audience considers the person tasked with documentation as a member of the audience as well.
Audience members who have traveled a long way to Campbelltown Arts Centre expecting to watch moving bodies other than their own and each other’s may hopefully be comforted not only by the comfortable chairs but also by the measures of safety that have been considered—as per administrative procedure—in the arrangement of the seating bank: the sides are bordered by rails, and the steps that lead from one tier to the next have been calculated to minimize the danger of the climb. This expectation has been expected: The apparent absence of pre-choreographed bodies creates nostalgia not only for the movement onstage that audiences have become accustomed to but also the end of this apparent absence—the end being a familiar trope that signals that the performance is over. The irony of nostalgia in a theatrical context derives from the fact that “nostalgia” etymologically comes from “nostos” which means “to yearn for home,” and yet audiences leave their homes to come to Campbelltown Arts Centre precisely out of this same yearning. They come to the venue to find out that they do not have to be at the venue, but it is necessary to be at the venue to find this out.
There was also the temptation to make the performance 10 minutes short. But as a mark of their showmanship, the 7 artists have agreed to make the work long enough to make it worth the audience’s while. The duration of the work hence is 40 minutes, starting with a cue then ending with a cue. Any member of the audience may flit in and out of the work anytime. While flitting in and out of it is nevertheless discouraged, admittedly the 7 artists would flit in and out of it themselves had they been permitted to join the audience. Who among us has not at least occasionally dropped out of a book or performance we were in the middle of reading or watching—even if the book or performance were made by ourselves?
This is a work of criticism. Which is to say, this is a work of choreography.
You may watch the full-length work here.
You may watch the full-length work here.
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