I particularly appreciated this lecturer where Zhuo explained the quite abstract and theoretical thought behind her very interesting performance practice.
She started by questioning what happens when there is discordance between sonic and visual cues. By hiding what is making the sound she provokes the audience and creates a metaphorical boundary. What if there is nothing in the box? The classic Schrödinger thought creates a feedback loop and meaning can be derived from flipping the typical seeing without hearing to hearing without seeing.
She also explained that In a situation ‘there is no stasis’ – The atmosphere, people, shadows… sound? are all constantly moving. Literally vibrations but figuratively flow. She plays with this idea in her performances exploring positions, positionally, relative positions to the audience and other performers. Later on in the lecture she mentioned Feng shui – literally meaning wind-water is the practice of using energy forces to harmonize individuals with their surrounding environment. Although she does not practice it the flow of energy is important to her and I can see that through her almost architectural performances which ultimately evoke a sense of life.
She also discussed one to one performance, interactivity, intervention, choice, dialogue, composed, intimate, task based performance/movement, scores. This links to what she said about language and translation. Fluxus-inspired scores. Sign and signifier. We did a very interesting listening exercise involving everyone in the lecture hall which was almost surreal – the feeling of more than 50 people listening and counting to themselves silently, eyes closed.