Olivia Yan x Michelle Li x Ivor Houlker: Technology Application and Audience Participation
Text: Liang Yan
Speakers: Olivia Yan, Michelle Li, Ivor Houlker
Moderator: William Chan
The Genesis of Zoetrope and Its Motifs
As Olivia Yan recalls, the creators of Zoetrope previously collaborated on producing a short video for a ceramics exhibition by actor Karena Lam. Throughout the creative process of Zoetrope, Yan realised that none of the four actors was seeking to portray reality. The stories are filled with suppressed desires and intense emotions, as they are evocations of dreamscapes. In conceiving the online component of the performance, Yan envisaged the video and the theatre as mirror images. While the two-dimensional videos depict glimpses of the actors' lives, the characters' dreams and subconscious are illuminated on the three-dimensional stage. It reflects two recurrent motifs in her work: dream and time.
The New Normal and Technology
On the use of video and other new technologies in artistic creation, Yan says she is “not proficient” in it, and she needs to learn how to utilise these new tools and achieve specific effects. Technology has thoroughly changed human life, while the pandemic has subverted our everyday routines. In this light, she feels compelled to incorporate new technologies into her creative practice to stay connected with the audiences. For instance, when she took part in the ÉLAN Lost Child Project HK, she did not anticipate that she would present a complete performance on Zoom at the end. As she sees it, she was still telling a story with visuals, except that “the visuals were divided into several frames”. She believes that form and content are intertwined, and it is a matter of aesthetics [when an artist explores] using new forms of expression. From her recent experiences, she has come to see that form is not only an embodiment of content, but it can sometimes inspire or even shape the conception of content.
Recalling her student days in the UK, Michelle Li says there is an inventory at the university she attended that provides various kinds of technological equipment for loan at no cost. Since the biggest challenge for an artist [in incorporating technology into their work] is how to “rehearse with the tech”, she appreciates the university’s arrangement that allowed her to operate and experiment with the equipment. Ivor Houlker says it is essential for an artist to have technology-related experience, which can only be acquired through continuous practice and experimentation rather than imaginary design. This kind of experience is crucial to setting feasible goals and determining whether a particular technology is needed in a production. Li speaks of Houlker and her collaboration with Kenny Wong on Presence: They built a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) and made constant changes to its programming. After they discerned a particular pattern in the ROV's behaviour, they began conceiving the content of the work. Yan laments that it is a luxury for artists to stage this kind of “rehearsal” in Hong Kong, since it requires considerable resources.
The Audience: Control, Design, and Constraints
In William Chan’s view, Hong Kong’s audiences tend to be passive, and he is curious about how the creators engage the audience through the design of interactive logistics and sections in a performance.
As Li remarks, the design of “performance rundown” is instrumental in Houlker and her creations. While it should not overshadow the story, performance rundown determines how different elements of a work come together. “In designing different sections of a performance, my primary consideration is how to make them fun. When there is an interactive section, I want to see real interactions happening,” says Houlker. He recalls something that Thomas Wilson, his mentor at Rose Bruford College, said: A creator needs to “enter into a contract” with the audience from the start. That is, the creator should determine the extent of freedom that is given to the audience and bring it to their attention, so that they will feel free to take part in the performance and be open to interactions. It is the creator’s responsibility to construct an engaging environment by utilising design or the story’s setting, or through the use of everyday objects that inspire a sense of familiarity for the audience.
As Li describes it, the first ten-plus minutes of a work is the warm-up. It is akin to playing a computer game where the player starts navigating with a map fragment before further instructions are given. Houlker adds that creators of similar works may draw inspiration from computer games, particularly the open-world setting that is popular at present. Li notes that it is important to strike a balance between conveying information and interactive participation, and she shares the duo’s approach to balancing control and freedom in design. They start by setting a framework for audience participation; for instance, the audience may be asked to stay on the same street for 15 minutes, during which they are free to do anything. At the end of the time frame, certain happenings occur to entice the audience to return to the work and follow what unfolds. If the audience refuses, other happenings are set in motion to draw them back to the predesigned logistics. This is followed by further alternations between freedom and engagement. This approach applies to the use of predesigned logistics. However, in We Still Dance or Lost Shoreline produced by Rooftop Productions, there was no predesigned logistics. The happenings took place at particular moments, or there were no happenings at all. As Li puts it, “We leave the rest to the audience.”
Coming back to Zoetrope, Yan is asked about the factors underlying her decision to use predesigned logistics. She says the audience capacity came first: Taking into account the presenter’s expectations and those of the creative team, the audience capacity was customised at three hundred. While she considered giving the audience a greater extent of freedom, there were constraints posed by the stage set and the technologies in use. After many discussions with the designer, she decided to employ predesigned logistics to exert greater control over the work. Yan asked herself, “Why should we use predesigned logistics?” The act of setting a time frame for audience participation is a simile to her role as the director, who possesses authority over the production. On the theme of the work, she says, “Time flows forward. When we get to a certain point in time, we have to leave—our lives and our relationships come to an end. In this work, you can only take part in each section for 15 minutes. You do not see what happens before or after your participation. Time is neutral. It is us who project our emotions onto it.”
A Return to the Human Touch
The use of arts technology has been a rising trend in various disciplines in recent years. Apart from new technologies, what is it that instils a new vision into a work?
To Li's mind, the answer is diversity. “In Hong Kong, there is a lack of diversity not only in the theatre but also in the majority of artistic disciplines. The introduction of technology is neutral. Yet it brings a new kind of diversity to narrativity that is born of different practitioners employing different technologies. Another kind of diversity is manifest in the theatre. Whereas text comes first in traditional theatre, we advocate diversity where text and other elements are equally important on the stage. When there is room for different people or mediums to demonstrate their attributes in the theatre, it will generate new discourses.”
Yan believes that storytelling is the essence of theatrical works, while form is what distinguishes different creative expressions. However extensive the use of technology is in a production, the key question is how to bring the work’s humanistic concern to light. “A new vision is not a plan or a set of parameters. When a creator explores the use of new technologies, I think it is not only about exercising creativity, but it should bring a human touch to the work.”
Olivia Yan
Olivia Yan is the Director of Zoetrope. A renowned multi-talented artist in Asian contemporary theatre, Yan is a leading dramaturg, director, actress and educator. She is an Arts Advisor (Drama) of the Hong Kong Arts Development Council. In 2021, she was appointed Co-opted Member of the Performing Arts Committee of the West Kowloon Cultural District.
Michelle Li
Michelle Li is the Artistic Director of Rooftop Productions. She holds an MA in Performance Making from Goldsmiths, University of London. She has returned to Hong Kong to develop her work as a multidisciplinary theatre artist.
Ivan Houlker
Ivan Houlker is the Artistic Director of Rooftop Productions. He is a multidisciplinary theatre artist who works internationally as a director, actor and musician. He specialises in hybrid forms involving technology, as well as physical theatre and site-specific performances.
Schedule
Onsite Programmes
Back
_0830.jpg)
