Unveil inter-species relationships through an experimental practice of scenography

Charlene Dray

State actually about animals and artistic creation (particularly the case of Circus)

Modern horse riding in France was consider as an Art by Antoine De Plusvinel42 since the Renaissance. From this period until contemporary creation, horses are presented on stage as a trained animal. Today, the ethical questions raised by animalists call into question the living conditions and training methods used for artistic creation. However, it is relevant to observe the reasons for these abolitionist approaches. The exotic animals exhibited on stage presented the spectacle of man’s domination over nature. Beyond animal rights, it appears that the artistic forms induced by the constraints of training and their spectacularization43 constitute a repertoire of figures and a relationship with the animal which does not allow renewal of this artistic form.

At the Anthropocene, virtuals animals in Circus, separate the Alive. However, observing the evolution of performings arts and its relationships with animals allows us to ask: “where is the artistic interest today of presenting animals on stage ?

Arts and sciences (a new approch to work with horses) Horses can participating of a new form of living art ? Are

42 Antoine De Plusvinel, Instruction of the King in the Art of Riding a Horse, first published in 1623 post-mortem. 43 Term used by Caroline Hodak in her thesis : From the equestrian theater to the circus: “an enterprise so eminently national” commercialization of leisure activities, dissemination of knowledge and theatricalization of history in France and England (c.1760-c.1860), Paris, EHESS, 2004.

they be able to produce artistic emotions for audience? My thesis project is part of the continuity of the reflections that I have during my studies in art school and about the concrete experiences that I have had. From decor-horse to horse-actor through horse-object, I approached the performing arts as a researcher for whom everything is horse. Accompanied by Listan and Luzio, my two horses-compagnions, her association games allowed me to think of different ways of working with them. We live together. Through epistemological work I propose new status for my horses by naming them: partners.

Together, we do not practice what is traditionally called Haute École, but as Donna Haraway says, “We train each other to perform acts of communication that we barely master. We are constitutively a kind of company [...] reciprocal partners in our specific differences”. Conferring partner status on animals may suggest that we are working together as a team. To enable them to do their jobs, I invent new methodologies and objects that horses can use to produce new aesthetic forms that make sense to them.

From submissive animals they become acting animals.

This research invents a space of representation in which horses can acquire more and more control over their capacity to act. To give an example, during an experiment that I led the horse who learned to use a switch, decides to turn on or off light or sound installations that he likes or disturbs him44. This new status allows the horse to participate actively, which I consider to be a co-writing of the work in real time. The forms he proposes open the way for the creation of a new form of relationship and art.

44 Hippo-Lab #1, Performative Fraction about switch scene, video online at http://www.charlenedray.com/experimentations-21.html

Artistic approach based on care and play (methods and experiences).

Today, I’m designing horse-specific performance environments that make it possible, for the purpose of the creation of live shows, to avoid setting up a training process, and generate biological reactions from audiovisual stimuli instead.

I propose the term hippo-negentropy, and in this context I consider the performing place as a special environment. This environment must be designed for the horse as a potential partner that needs to be stimulated in particular ways, to sustain its behaviour in particular states (negentropic environment) that enable the creation of artistic forms. Using scenography knowledges, I’ve conduced experimentations on stage. These experiences are shared on my website at this address: http:// www.charlenedray.com. To study them in my scientific research, I classified the 152 experiments into seven categories. Each of them corresponds to the type of agency offered to the horses by the device.

The first is about interactives systems where horses can learn and understanding what happens when he decide to participate. The second named “physiologic and biology sensors” is a lot of tests where horses as consider has a energy form. With this systems, I try to transform a gesture in sounds to listen the musicals forms include in the horses. The third “lures and baits” is one of the simpler ideas. I use the gluttony of horses to produce funny situations. For exemple a flying salad was eaten by Luzio45. Her outstretched neck creates a sculptural and strange form. An other type of tests is about “horses and choregraphy”. To explore the relationship between horses body, human body and audience, I invite dancers to meeting my equines partners. Particularly for Listan, the

45 Flying salad, experiment n°64, video online at http://www.charlenedray.com/experimentations-64.html

presence of a human with him on stage reassures him. All of the bodily approaches we have taken have revealed the body’s ability to communicate between humans and animals. The dance technique gives the animal very clear indications and also makes it possible to show their exchanges in a very expressive way to the spectators. To produce shows, I also carried out visual experiments by considering the horse as a support for video projection or on-board visual systems. These tests are mainly concerned with visual reception for spectators and horses are unaware that they are producing anything. They are the carriers of images, of symbols which put the living and the artificial in abyss.

What interests horses? Are they playing on stage ? What happens for audience?

All of his experiences help generate exploratory behaviors. This attitude is described by Konrad Lorenz at the end of his book “The foundations of ethology”46. According to him, we can observe that the horse discovers the devices on stage and uses his memory and his curiosity to understand this new situation. This behavior corresponds to the definition of improvisation in theater: “Technique of the actor playing something unforeseen, unprepared and ‘invented’ in the heat of the moment”

On stage, we observe the horse react spontaneously to a new situation. Through multimedia devices, I play on the modes of translation, of kinesthesia. This mode of creation makes it possible to produce meaning without necessarily translating it. This approach to scenography and theatrical writing lets the horse offer new aesthetic forms.

46 Konrad Lorenz, The foundations of ethology, [1978], Paris, Flammarion, 2009.

Apart from any constraint or spectacular figures, the indeterminate nature of the reactions of our horses formulates puzzles for the viewer. It is because they are truly present and interact with our environment that this attention to the smallest movements tends to produce meaning. If ethology consists of observing animal behavior in order to discover them and sometimes understand them, then it is indeed an experience that plays out here. The experience of listening to the living, in spectacle.

For the future ?

If today the circus with animals disappear in Europe, to keep horses on stage, the new generation of equestrian artists must understand the challenges to come. Indeed, researchers in cognitive ethology explore the minds of horses and develop many concepts such as: intelligence, sensitivity, empathy. We must consider this scientific work and think of the stage as a place of coexistence and co-production that lets the animal offer its expressiveness and sensitivity. The invitation, the agency, these are formulations that engage humans and horses towards new forms of alterity.

Bibliography:

“Animal work in the circus, an exploitation or staging problem?“, written with Jocelyne Porcher, The circus in the universe, n ° 278, September 2020, pp. 24-27. https:// hal.inrae.fr/hal-02957478

“What if the horse inhabits new spaces? “, In The circular scene today, Guy Freixe and Romain Fohr (eds.), L’Entretemps, 2015, pp. 143-145.

“From the performing horse to the acting horse. Reinventing inter-species relationships through experimental artistic practice.“, Circus Sciences, Online scientific journal on Circus Arts, n ° 1, October 2020, pp. 45-52.

The team at work, performance during “cognitive science and performing arts” at Theater La Vignette at University Paul-Valery Montpellier3, 2017. © Charlène Dray

Flying salad, experiment n°64, video online at http://www.charlenedray.com/experimentations-64.html © Charlène Dray

Luzio playing (piano), Piano test and capacitive sensors, research and creation residency at the Manège Cascabel of the Pôle National Cirque Jules Verne, August 2020. © Charlène Dray

Essai Wïloow & Listan, video online. http://www.charlenedray.com/experimentations-07.html © Charlène Dray

Improvises!, watercolor felt-tip pen, 2017. © Joy Dray

Hippo-Neguentropy: experiment 01 - The horse as a screen, 2014 © Charlène Dray http://www.charlenedray.com/videocheval.html