Bridgman|Packer Workshop and Performance

     Monday night’s class at the Bridgman|Packer workshop was definitely a new experience. In my theatre based classes, I am often required to do movement based explorations, so that part of the class was a little familiar to me. However, I am not used to being projected onto different walls and interacting with other projections. Watching a projection of myself on a screen made me somewhat self-conscious of my movements. Despite this, I do think the ideas behind Bridgman and Packer performances are fascinating and I enjoyed learning about what went into their performances. For instance, the two performance artists spoke of the ways in which they attempt to convey meanings and create art by combining live performance with previously recorded footage. Their performances involve both projections of themselves dancing live as well as prerecorded dances and videos. As a double major in both Theatre and Film Studies, I thought the ideas behind their work seemed like a new and interesting way of combining different aspects of each of my majors.

      The Bridgman|Packer performance this past Friday was wonderful. I think that having participated in the workshop before their performance really enhanced the experience for me. Because of the workshop I was able to better understand what the performers were doing and how much work they must have put into it. Ultimately, I think the workshop made their final performance seem all the more impressive. The first half of Monday’s performance was definitely my favorite part. I particularly enjoyed the part where they moved in and out of the screen and projection to create more dynamics and interactions. Also, by watching Bridgman and Packer interact with their own images I was able to better understand some of the ideas they discussed in the workshop. I also really enjoyed the portion of the performance where their images were projected onto each other. We were only able to work with this a little bit during the workshop. I think the images the two created when they projected onto each other were very impactful and interesting. All in all I am very glad I was able to participate in the workshop and attend one of their performances.