Refresh 01: Exploring the built Environment thru a Culture of Play

ReFresh

Exploring the Built Environment through a Culture of Play

Workshop 01

Architecture + Devised Theatre Workshop Downtown Aurora Visual Arts (DAVA), 1405 N Florence Street, Aurora CO Nov 27-30, 2017 A Collaboration between: Mare Trevathan, Theatre Maker, Denver Susan Jenson, Executive Director, DAVA, Aurora CO Shubhra Raje, Architect, Denver | Ahmedabad Funded by: Cultural Services Division City of Aurora, Aurora CO

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Report prepared by: Shubhra Raje with contributions from: Susan Jenson Mare Trevathan Workshop Coordinators: Mare Trevathan (maretrevathan@gmail.com) Shubhra Raje (www.shubhraraje.com) Instructors: Diana Dresser Gabriella Cavallero GerRee Hinshaw Mare Trevathan DAVA Support: Susan Jenson, Executive Director, DAVA Rudi MonTessario, Job Training in the Arts, DAVA Jessica Gross, Administrative Assistant, DAVA Photographs: Shubhra Raje Luzia Orneales, DAVA

No part of this report may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording, or otherwise, wothout written permission from the workshop coordinators.

INTRODUCTION Our interest in exploring play as a mode of probing is in that it allows us to begin not with a literate reading of a place, but with the physical acuity and specificity that accompanies inserting oneself into an environment. Play is a multi-sensorial experience of space; through play one explores the built environment not only with one’s eyes, but up close, with the body.

With our desire to explore play, we are moving into architecture’s expressive culture of the intimate, the fragile, the hidden and the ephemeral. There is a sustained allusion: the work of architecture be returned to the stuff of life. Not all elements, or even all of the structures of everyday life are always evident. They become part of our “habitus” as conceptualized by Pierre Bourdieu as part of the experience of lived practices.

Play momentarily reveals the facade of these structures.

To that extent, working with play as a methodology is akin to doing a form of archaeology. What is revealed is the enduring; a glimpse of a buried or underground river. In this, ‘play’ is difficult to capture, and is fluid in its nature. Through the practice of play, we look at revealing everyday practices fossilized by their very “everydayness”; or through sheer repetition of habit and forgotten possibilities within the built environment. In revealing the possibilities playing enables a critique from within, a critique through which we develop new relationships within the everyday context.

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THE WORKSHOPS The ReFresh workshops are conceived to work with, and within, local urban organizations and facilities. They are one week long resulting in a performance, engaging the community both as participants and audience.

The workshops seek to reveal the pleasures and possibilities of built environments otherwise hidden due to habitual use and familiarity, by inhabiting them creatively - through physical games and bodywork - emphasizing an active, performative experience of space. In collaborating with theatre-makers, the conditions of play are set up along the lines of site-specific devised theatre, a form of theatre which is collaboratively made over an intense period from scratch, and where the architecture of the building is a creative partner and an instrument of investigation.

Through the workshops, the participants become creative performers who create, edit, design and perform short pieces of original site-specific theatre work - urban meditations that help to discover and activate built environments, thereby cultivating a sense of collective inheritance (patrimony) within communities.

The theme of each workshop is chosen to loosely scaffold the content of the devised plays, and is specific to the collaborating organization and the physical site. In the case of the workshop at DAVA, for instance, the collaborators decided to work with the theme of “belonging�. The theme creates an opportunity to investigate a vernacular inclusive for adolescent populations discovering city structure for whom much of the experience within urban centers is one of disruption and dislocation.

The three main components to the workshop, explored through various exercises, were: Body Work Explores the physical expressiveness and sense of space.

The participants work towards developing an awareness and the physical expressiveness of the body, which is important for the creative process, stage presence and performance; they begin to explore how stylized movements and the three-dimensional performance space can be used for story-telling Spatial Interaction The participants begin working with the building and its formal and functional components. The ways of using objects in imaginative ways beyond the idea of “props” will be examined; the focus is to explore how the conventional understanding of space, its components and uses can be transformed by altering our associations with them.

Building Content a) The Dimensionality of Text: The theme and a rudimentary notion of scripting is explored, along with the different possibilities of using text in a performance, e.g. dialogues, inner voices, narration, sound collage. The poetry, metaphorical meaning, musicality as well as the economy of text is also explored, as also the connection between text and body movements. b) The relationship of form, purpose and content: The synthesis phase, or what we call the “recipe” in order to devise a short-piece/ performance.

Sessions: 4 sessions @ 2-1/2 hours, each 4p-6.30p

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THE TEAM

1. LOCAL THEATRE COMPANY, BOULDER CO Based in Boulder, Colorado, Local is a non-for-profit theater company specializing in original works of exceptional quality.

They engage audiences through innovative performances that spark camaraderie, learning, and contemplation, and provide a resourceful environment for theater artists to take creative risks, and develop their work.

2. SUSAN JENSON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, DAVA, AURORA CO Susan Jenson, MA , has almost twenty years of experience with DAVA (Downtown Aurora Visual Arts) working in community based arts education with a focus on youth.

Under her leadership, DAVA has actively involved thousands of young people in free arts programming, resulting in a series of state and national awards from 2006 through 2010, including the 2014 National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award (NAHYP).

Susan brings an extensive background in arts and education, along with strong commitment to urban youth. She says, “When we invest in safe creative spaces for kids, we create culturally sensitive bridges within our urban communities. The stabilizing force that comes from programs like DAVA, imbedded in neighborhoods, offers more than an arts experience: it is a place kids come for a wider view of the world and a way to become part of it.”

3. MARE TREVATHAN, THEATRE-MAKER, DENVER CO CREATIVE DIRECTOR, ReFresh Workshops Mare Trevathan has performed Inupiat folk tales in Barrow, Alaska, stage managed dance theatre in Tokyo and studied Chekhov in Vladivostok, Russia. Colorado tamed her wanderlust and has been home since 2001. As the associate artistic director of Local Theater Company, she develops new plays and organizes artist training. Mare is an audio book narrator with more than 400 titles recorded for the National Library Service.

4. SHUBHRA RAJE, ARCHITECT, DENVER CO CREATIVE DIRECTOR, ReFresh Workshops Shubhra Raje is an architect and educator with a practice based in Denver (USA) and Ahmedabad (India). Her work is the product of several intersections – of cultures, interests, scales and geographies - and involves making places of learning, living, healing and work through renovations, interventions and re-use, as well as new construction. She is is inspired by the exciting shift in the longstanding dialogue between architecture and its context, in which the architect’s methods and approaches are being dramatically reevaluated. She also ascribes to an expanded definition of sustainability that moves beyond experimentation with new materials and technologies to include such concepts as social and economic stewardship. Together, these undertakings not only offer practical solutions to known needs, but also aim to have a broader effect on the communities in which she works, using design as a tool.

She is the architect for DAVA, the site of the first ReFresh workshop.

1: GeRee Hinshaw | Local Theatre Company

1: Diana Dresser | Local Theatre Company

1:Gabriella Cavallero | Local Theatre Company

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CONTEXT THE DAVA PROGRAM

DAVA (Downtown Aurora Visual Arts) provides a communitybased solution for youth success, welcoming over 900 children and youth annually into a progression of programs that combine art and technology, along with positive youth development and leadership. We have served as a free after school resource for young people and families since 1993. All children and youth are welcome, regardless of their arts background or art related ambitions.

Daily we see the results of consistent quality after school programs in the arts that build the skills necessary to succeed in the 21st Century. This requires a low student to teacher ratio, full time staff, and absolute dedication to quality arts programming. Ours is a center for experiential learning with creative strategies applied used in different ways for different age groups.

DAVA is a shared practice, inclusive of the needs of its community, and the expressed interests of youth. Co-learning ensures programs are driven by DAVA students who, along with staff, shape yearly themes and project cycles. Select Junior Staff stay on through high school to assist in teaching and project management.

Within arts education, the capacity to think creatively is often seen as a series of steps as opposed to the isolated “a-ha� moment of insight. In other words, creativity can become part of everyday practice; it can be taught. Elementary students thrive in an Open Studio atmosphere with many projects offered daily.

As students progress into Job Training programs, experimentation with artistic media and technological tools vary by project, with a method that includes dialogue on a given topic, research, production, and exhibition. This process maximizes application of skills and cultivates ownership of learning. Youth bring their own perspectives to each project, and bring their creative vision to life.

- Susan Jenson

9 LOCATION MAP & IMAGES OF THE COMUNITY School

Colfax Avenue

Colfax Avenue

DAVA

School

School

DAVA

Colfax Avenue

The Mountains

Golden

Downtown Denver

Aurora

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CONTEXT THE DAVA CAMPUS

DAVA is situated one block off East Colfax Avenue, a major urban corridor linking Denver to northern Aurora.

The campus is located at a corner block in what was originally a l950s strip-mall, acquired in its entirety by DAVA in l996. Although by 2010, the organization occupied the whole structure, spaces lacked correspondence with each other. Added to this, as DAVA matured, its building aged, and that burdened the organization financially in terms of repairs and decaying infrastructure.

Committed to its location within the community, DAVA has undergone four major renovations/ new constructions to its physical campus; the most recent being a complete overhaul of infrastructure, teaching studios, entry and outdoor spaces.

The new design, completed in 2016, manifests the nature of the shared and colearning practices of the program. The campus retains its original L-shape building, and the plaza as a space for parking (during the day) and events for the organization as well as the neighborhood. Studio spaces form the backbone of the complex, running along the rear alley, while gallery and open-studio spaces form the other arm of the “L�, with storefronts along Florence Street showcasing student work done at DAVA. The spaces are simple wood framed enclosures.

Externally, the tongue and grooved cedar wood facade facing the plaza ages gracefully with the extremes of the Colorado weather, whereas the surfaces facing the streets and alleyways are panelized, with individually replaceable cement boards absorbing the abuse of urban life. The ambient light for the art studios is brought in through skylights, and the enclosing walls on the inside thickened to accommodate smaller windows and seats that frame the cityscape as well as house storage, and utilities. The walls can be easily painted and repainted, to meet the changing needs of working art spaces; floors and ceilings are left exposed. The overall architecture is one of economy of means and material, subject to the experimentation and improvisation implicit in the DAVA method.

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East entry from sidewalk South entry from sidewalk Outdoor plaza-parking Main entry to building Lobby Sequential Learning (Job Training)studios Community Arts studios Open Arts studios Gallery

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PROCESS

Components: Body Work Spatial Interactions Building Content

Introductions Building Content 01/ Ideation “This is not a stick, it is a...”

Timeframe/ Strucutre: The exercise takes place with the participants standing in a circle, as a stick/ branch is passed around. The object was passed around the circle twice. Each participant associates a characteristic, attribute, function, “thingness” to the object other than a stick, and using the object as a prop, acts out the attribute while the rest of the group tries to guess what is imagined.

An exercise inducing an estrangement from common things in an unfamiliar way in order to enhance perception of the familiar.

Body Work 01

Timeframe/ Structure: 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Loosen the body, from simple individual stretches progressing to collective coordination. First by following visual cues, then moving into “soft focus”1. In this way we begin to develop a sense of ensemble - that is, an awareness of the presence and movement of others in the space.

Spatial Interactions 01

Timeframe/ Structure: 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Identify something within the space that you may or may not have noticed to begin with. Now explore how you may engage with it physically, in that moment.

Examples included turning a ventilator grill into a sound instrument, sloped sill became a climbing/ balancing surafce, shadow patterns cast by overhead lights became a tightrope etc.

Spatial Interactions 02

Timeframe/ Structure: Continuation from the previous phase, but this time three participants at a time engaged with the the space, but also began responding to each other in a fluid and reactive choreography where semblances of a narrative emerged and receded.

Through the various preparatory games, we were beginning to approach inabitation through a blurred vision - one which activates the peripheral vision, through which we think less about what we want to do in order to find an appropriate response to what is happening to keep the games ‘in play’. So finally, when the participants began working on a rudimentary “script” on the theme of “I belong...”, one had already prepared the ground in terms of cultivating the space to receive the inhabitation (of the script).

1 Soft focus” is a phrase coined by American theater director Anne Bogart.

By moving from a direct and narrow focus to a wider/softer focus, the eyes become a less dominant source of information gathering and other senses are allowed to be more active.

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Building Content 02/ Scripting “I belong...�

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Timeframe/ Structure: 15 minutes

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Spatial Interactions 03 “Constructing a Machine” 20

An exercise in response and repetition, attempts at extending the play; a “low risk” way of involving kids who were electing to just watch and not participate.

Body Work 02 “Line Exercise” & the concept of “Soft Focus”

Moving in space between the two points; following the limitations imposed by walking back and forth along a path while exploring other possibilities that open up in terms of pace, posture, narrative, response to the physicality of the path etc.

Body Work 03 / Sculpting “Oh, Mighty Isis! Make me a...”

One participant from the group desires an object, which the rest of the group collectively makes with their bodies in space, without external props. A letter “T”, a football, a square, an aeroplane...

The making is to be done without talking. Without any one person consciously taking the lead. Without directing one another, or giving instructions.

When the group eventually settles into the shape is when the shape is deemed fully formed. Observation and response withing the group is a critical aspect to this game.

It was observed that a complex, but specific shape like the aeroplane, was easier than a simpler shape that could have many possibilities, like the letter “T”. The specific object has many parts which lets participants assume them individually to form the overall; the individual part remains distinct.

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SYNTHESIS Building Content 03 “The Recipe” Timeframe/ Structure: In groups of 4, 15 minutes to create a 3 minute piece on the theme of belonging, using the actual architecture of the space to situate the piece • 3 Acts:

a. Beginning

b. Trouble

c. Belonging • Clear instructions for the audience (where do they sit or stand? How do they know when you start and finish?)

• 3 Tableaux (one in each act) • 3 or more spoken sentences (distributed in ANY way throughout the three acts) from the “I belong...” scripts • At least 5 of the following:

a. a surpise entrance

b. a song

c. music from an unexpected source

d. extreme contrast (high/low, loud/soft, near/far, fast/ slow, laughing/crying, calm/chaos, light/dark etc)

e. a “machine”

f. 20 seconds of unison action

g. “lanes”

h. Gramalot

i. music from an instrument

j. a dance

k. puppets

l. a job for one or more audience members to do

Iterations

The first 3-minute “utterance” was subsequently iterated upon multiple times, as participants, many of whom were new to theatre and body work began to take ownership and inhabit their performance pieces.

Building Content 04 “Overlays”

Timeframe/ Structure: Participants worked on overlaying their performance pieces with further extracts from their “I Belong...” scripting.

Even though the scripts were made separately, before the pieces were devised in-situ, the reiteration of the theme of belonging facilitated in a grounding of the piece as a whole, to both the body work and the built sites.

PERFORMANCE

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Performance of 4 short site-specific pieces November 30th, 2017

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1 Audience Start Here

GROUP 01 Front Porch & Plaza

GROUP 02 JT Corridor & Media Arts Studio

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GROUP 03 Threshold between JT Studios & Lobby

GROUP 04 DAVA Lobby

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Performance 01: The audience were gathered in a halfcircle on the upper plaza level, witnessing the unfolding of streetlife, as devised by the participants, along the “L” of the building: chance encounters within the evening shadows of the thick facades, seats and porches, strangers turning into friends, after a [minor] conflict.

Performance 02: A fluid series of improvisational games circumscribed within the enclosure of a studio space, where the ending of one game created the beginning of the next. It used the windows, sills, walls, slanted surfaces, floors as well as light and shadow as instigators of the games. The audience here was both spectator, but also “stage manager”, enabling the shadows with their phones, or setting up boundaries defining the arenas for the games.

Performance 03: Participants explored, through bodywork, notions of divisions and continuity. The performance space was tight, transitional and the audience could only see the performance in parts, depending on which side of the threshold they were situated. And so, sound became a major component of holding the performance together, with surfaces and equipment used as musical instruments.

Performance 04: The most scripted piece of the evening, the participants integrted the many objects within the lobby space - ones placed there by design or left there by accident - as characters and props for their play, and the interior space became a setting for the very contemporary feelings of inadequacy and uncertainty that come with growing up.

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REFLECTIONS

SJ - Susan Jenson, Executive Director, DAVA RM - Rudi Montessario, Instructor, Job Training in the Arts,

DAVA

MT - Mare Travethan, Creative Director, ReFresh Workshops SR - Shubhra Raje, Creative Director, ReFresh Workshops On the process & the context: SJ: There are so many steps we take to keep programs fluid and engaging at DAVA, historically, always active listening, a low student to teacher ratio, and the inclusion of youth driven ideas for project cycles.

Community engagement. As student interests have changed over time, so has our emphasis. We do not confine ourselves to a strict “curriculum” but rather adapt and respond to a variety of prompts from youth. Thus have projects evolved on transportation, the environment, the use of video, robotics…

We dream of enhanced interdisciplinary programming at DAVA with performance at the top of the list.

The occasion to integrate a short term experiment was quick, required a level of funding and coordination, and then happened. That said, we offered a grant to the Cultural Services Division of the City of Aurora and solicited their input—what is the gauge of success? How can this point the neighborhood forward and include local audiences? It was granted at half of our overall expense. Several members of the committee were present for the final presentation which occurred after only four days of preparation.

The truth is that for all the planning that goes into a proposal up front, the ability for a small staff to respond with marketing materials and widespread build up to a one night show is limited. Many more questions were raised, and we all adapted in ways we had not considered. Staff, used to some interruption in normal events, took immediately to the concept (why not?) and yet a small teacher to student ratio

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overall at disruption encourages readily to

DAVA was key to success. Staff is open to is not unusual. Also, as a program, DAVA dialogue and communication, so kids adapt new experiences.

RM: I think that most of the students that took the workshop, are very shy and the different exercises they learned including the improvisation warm-ups, helped students to relax, move out or their comfort zone and have fun. I think also having the four people teaching them different techniques made the process very interesting, because each of them was teaching different skills and warm-ups instead of one person doing all the teaching.

I think that the process for acting is a very important skill to learn not just for acting but for public speaking or any other public interaction. I also loved the idea of learning to look at spaces that we know and see every day and learn how to see it and use it in a new way. I saw how students started to have fun and be even more willing to participate after the second day. I would definitely do this project again. I think that two or more weeks would be more productive and would allow students to practice more.

MT: The majority of students were receptive to the visiting artists, supportive of one another, able to step out of their comfort zone, willing to both accept leadership roles and to accede control when necessary.

They committed to their small breakout groups and their performance pieces, showing tremendous growth in 4 days. Rudi’s supportive spirit and willing modeling of the exercises was instrumental, I believe, in the students’ quick acceptance of this abstract and unusual creative process.

SJ: Could the recipes be incorporated into seasonal sessions to give kids additional tools for communication and courage?

31 What is the possibility for replication, would the mystery and surprise remain the same?

Or does it morph into another set of recipes?

Ultimately, there was a l to 5 Actor to student ratio and that contributed to the success of the reveal.

And, again, kids here are open to experimentation, exploration, and communication.

Would working with other populations of non DAVA students manifest in different ways? Would it take longer for students to establish trust?

On the inhabitation of the site: MT: Classes elsewhere in the building limited the number of viable indoor performance spaces. A restriction to put “on the radar� for next time.

SR: An outcome of organizing the workshop in the Fall (autumn) was the preference for indoor spaces, which were both warm and lit. As a result, the roof, the plaza (parts that were further away from the building) or the alley remained unfavored as possible sites of inhabitation. The presence of light, or its absence, similarly began to assume less of an aesthetic significance; warmth and the perception of comfort and safety taking precedence in the manner of inhabitation and a response to the built. A set of seasonal workshops for every location/ site could perhaps better set up the many conditions of inhabitation and play.

SJ: The short term interruption of normal pre-holiday arts with theater was magical. Suddenly there were bits of violin, discussion and concentration, with kids appearing to have a secret of their own that was shared as a group concept. Groups each had their own professional actor. Not knowing the outcome was touchy at first, but again, because students are not being graded or judged, they have a better chance of

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participating in an atmosphere where teaching staff is fully engaged. Rudi Monterroso, who leads his students in fine arts projects, has a background in performance, so his attitude was of curiosity and support. His only fear was that there would be no audience and in the end, there was a “full house.” Parents, kids, city.

On the performance, and measuring success: SJ: Youth seemed pretty confident overall.

The performance was quirky, seemingly spontaneous, with the building, and the darkness of the evening, engaged as elements. Having four separate sessions that bled into each other added to the fun.

As adults we felt included more as confidantes (witnesses?) than audience; many youth stayed over from the six o’clock end time in other classes to witness the revealing.

Eat a few cookies, grab a cider. Most of the improv that led up to the event was under cover: we used the media room as a separate space for the “recipes” to be introduced and so staff was just as much in the dark as invited guests.

SR: An unanticipated condition on the evening of the performance, one that each of the four devised pieces had to adapt to, was the size of the audience; many more people showed up than anticipated. The shape and scale of the performance areas needed re-evaluation and reconfiguration. Further, as the audience began to realize that on occasions, the performances would require their participation, they began to retreat from what they perceived to be the “stage”, inadvertantly creating a proscenium when there was meant to be none!

And so, throughout the evening, there was this silent negotiation between the boundaries of the performances and the audience. In both cases, it was the youth that persisted with adapting to the changes in the rules of engagement, and keeping the play alive.

RM: Measure of success? Participation.

It spread

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like a special event for and about youth.

It was a “reveal” for those who weren’t performers.

That elusive ingredient we try so hard to spark - curiosity - resulted in a full audience. Also, the excitement of kids who were players after it was over. Applause matters.

SJ: One measure of success would be the excitement of the kids during and following the performance. They felt they did well, covered for those actors who were not there, rearranged and adapted their performance accordingly. No one was a designated “actor” with a background that preceded the event.

With everyone starting from scratch, a certain camaraderie and sense of achievement was communicated to staff. We planted a few seeds. Had a good time, did something out of the box. The most shy kids stayed with it; the more social kids hung in there. A fragile ephemeral troupe was born and vanished.

My other gauge of success is family/neighborhood participation.

One very shy mother came with her younger kids, a few neighbors, teen friends, sibs.

SR: It was observed in discussions and feedback with the core team and members of the audience that the youth, who “use” the building everyday were interacting with the building in ways they normally would be discouraged to - tinkering with, tugging at, scraping on, resting and climbing over things...in short, they were testing things; playing with(in) the building and exploring it. And thereby claiming, albeit momentarily, not only the right to play, but the right to unadulterated, unsanctioned pleasure and discovery.

Pleasure and play within the built environment directly challenges the current propensity towards hostile architecture in our cities - architecture that is considered too precious to be “touched”, “tinkered”

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or “tampered with” by people, or the environment.

An architecture resistant to change or weathering, ensconced much like sculptures and artwork in cities that are becoming urban museums themselves. It seems that the primacy and pristine-ness of the visual object not only perpetuates how buildings get conceived and designed, but also predetermines how they should be used, creating a detachment between the users (which include architects!) and the built environment.

To be able to once again enjoy the discoveries in the inhabitation of one’s physical space, built or natural, in order to reconnect and reclaim one’s sense of belonging with and in it, is critical to the process of this workshop. I hope that what remains for the participants and audience is the memory of the experience, rather than the edifice.

On documentation: SJ: How best to document when issues of identity and confidentiality are part of making kids feel safe and welcome? The risk factors as related to diverse populations have increased given attitudes toward “legality” in the political atmosphere nationally.

DAVA is very sensitive not just to the latter, but also human trafficking, custody. Parents have to be fully confident that their children are not being exposed to higher levels of risk via social media or unauthorized research. A recent discussion with evaluation professionals in the Aurora Public Schools confirmed how those risks have heated up in the last ten years and they are as careful with issues surrounding research and minors as we are.

We are now evolving in our practices to ensure the safety of youth we serve, understanding that they are our most precious responsibility and trust.

MT: Experimenting with more integrated and artistic means of documenting similar future projects. Using

Poll Everywhere, do audience members text in responses to writing prompts, with those answers projected in real time? (Though with teenage audience members, the anonymous/public nature of this might be too intoxicating a mix-- leading to a preponderance of obscenities and such.)

Might 10+ audience members have Flip Video cameras? Or Polaroid cameras? The photos from which could be immediately integrated into the performance?

SR: An area for further consideration is the role of documentation during the workshop and the performances, given that the modes of investigation and engagement such as play are focused on the present. One of the most recurring definitions of live performances, the ‘live’-ness, is that it is fundamentally ephemeral.

Yet at the same time there is the need to extract and disseminate what we have experienced of the workshops and the performances.

In this first iteration of the workshop, it has largely remained passive and incidental (we mainly took photographs with our smartphones on realizing that we were not documenting our process!). More critical attention needs to be given to the choices of what to record, in the manner of how to record and indeed in what can be recorded. The interest is not in documentation as transparent windows onto the workshop, but in using forms of documentation and representation as an interrogative opportunity to make the method and experience of the ‘live’-ness of participation knowable.

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“I belong when we belong�, says young Christopher (in the foreground), as we wrapped up our workshop with an evening of performances at DAVA.