“The power of art”, art can invoke a
change and create the affect with a performance or a political spectacle.
“Be a critical Spectator”, it is
important to be a spectator that critiques their surroundings and the current political
moment that they are living in. Do not just be a bystander in the turmoil.
“Identification”, being too connected
to a performance can be dangerous, because it goes further than just engaging. In
grooming a political candidate a narrative/scenario is created and it is combined
with an “origin story”.
“Empathy”, empathy is a very
problematic emotion because it is very easily manipulated, we could often give
up our emotional strength to someone else, this is why Boal deems “empathy” as
a dangerous tool.
“invading the spectacle”, it is important
to penetrate the spectacle in order to become more active and responsible
spectators.
“Creating a Us and a Them”, creates
certain political structures that manipulates a spectator’s emotion to sway
them in the direction that they would like.
“liberal thought”, a liberal thought
process in the political spectacle is blind to the politics because it is very
individualistic.
“conferring of rights in the
politics”, politics is an ongoing struggle between who has rights and the
people that think that they have these rights.
“Reiterated power”, we have all seen
everything that has already happened in politics, all things in political
performance has been done before, how it is always reiterated with more power (“twice
behaved behavior”).
Beginning with my first point, I would like to ask the question, how is theater an instrument of colonization? During class, Professor Taylor had made this statement and got me interested in knowing more about it, then I pose this, is theater an instrument of weaponazing spectators and spect actors? It reminds of museums being built in in communities where it will gentrify in the name of “art.”
Performance, as we discussed during class, is a way that follows conventions, that is, it followed rules. Churches, dances, or even a class can be a performance, they have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Performance usually refers to reiterated behaviors, twice behavior, happening more than once. This is something that has been already seen or experienced and performance is “reviving it”
Performance is and Performance As. Ballet is a performance, a theater piece is a performance. A political spectacle as a performance, memorials as performances, classrooms and churches as performances where there is a reiteration or twice the behavior.
As spectators, when we watch a ‘theater piece” we give the protagonists the role, where as the spect actors, we feel empowered to act and change the ending of a scene. Therefore, performances are neither true or false, they are either effective or not effective.
The condition of possibility of politics is the definition to go back to “betweeness” to those who have rights and those who think they have rights but they have been constituted by the “not has”. Its the consternation of the exclusivity of the has. The universality of the emancipation of the model “impossible”. If the world emancipated, we would not have the struggles. For example, being a felon, you are being deprived of rights, who can take away rights? This question is part of the “political spectacle” and a constant struggle. The whole history of emancipation is not so much beyond demanding human rights as of the real struggle to enjoy the rights that have already been declared, theoretically we should be able to enjoy these rights. Who declares these rights? An example is migrants, they do not exist within the realm of rights, and under the United States, they are declared as criminals, its always an open struggle and an open debate. Resistance is a way of becoming contingent, it is opportunistic, you have to find the way to crash and push the limits and pick up on something towards as if it seems it can’t happen where you need to push and make cracks (the role of the spectator changing the scene in a theatrical piece).
During the ancient times in Greece, theater was developed as a healing practice and Artistotle talks about art about what could happen. In the previous readings we talked about how art, as a mode of resistance, mobilizes communities for social justice. Alfredo Jaar is an example of how his master piece of burning the space the community built to bring awareness of “taking space.”
Dialectical Materialism: unearthing societies laws of motion treating social situations as processes, and traces all inconsistencies. The human feelings are in disharmony with themselves, opinions and attitudes.
Alienation effect: A representation that alienates is one which allows us to recognize its subject, but at the same time makes it seem unfamiliar. How does it become a barrier for showcasing empathy? and why, according to Brecht, theater must alienate what is shows if, in essence, theater is a pleasurable experience ?
Without politics there would be no “us vs them” so, there would be no performance with no spectator.
When Boal talks about “rehearsal” I think about the conversation we had in class when politicians are trained in television, because they “repeat” (twice behavior; performance) and show to their audiences (spect actors) what they believe, making spect actors act to their “speeches”