ANTICIPATION - Performance, art and design

Sergio Patricio (Valenzuela Valdés)

Santiago de Chile Foundational conference - RCA- Royal College of Arts, London. 29th August 2024.

ABSTRACT My performance art practice as an artist and researcher has become crucial to test ideas that theoretically catch my interest. For example, years ago I was convinced that performance art compositions were a miracle because of the Chaos theory in physics, where organized chaos was so complex that it was too difficult to perceive the origin, development and end of each action in time-space here and now. Within the context of an event of actions and the probabilities, time stretches out in many directions, making the observable constellation of actions more than chaotic, but four-dimensional almost, in a way that the past, present and future of the actions become one: Anticipation. Therefore, Anticipation in actions becomes crucial to understanding that action could fail even in a prediction, as an action goal is scored to be done, performers in present time-space, live simultaneously in the past present and future of the action, the tension between the action-goal is the vibration, but the anticipation is all the probabilities merge with the past and future of this action. Multidimensional perception requires a performer to perform within an action to improve training and work out through several performance preparations. An example is how to cross at constant speed a mass of crowded people and not change direction. Anticipation switches your present to be merged with your past and future. Such a concept is how I improve daily in my performance lab with the participants of my performance laboratory.

Keywords: anticipation, laboratory, art, design, performance.

Part one: Organized chaos or chaotic time.

Decades ago I understood actions as something that has goals and scripts, action lists, or maps of the experience in events that either succeed or fail simple as is possibly staying attached to the goal as much as possible or modifying the trajectory to change the goal and get multiple results.

This idea of the factors involved within the experience of time-space in the very present moment; acknowledgement by the performers modified my perception of viewers, beholders and external agency. These ideas popped up along with the attractor factors, which weirdly modified the experience without planning by the artist or even predicting the scenarios. The last years of my practice and observation return to the initial conditions of the raw and basic elements. They are the conditions necessary to observe variables such as body, time-space, presence, and less chaos.

When we talk about art practice, there is an assumption that the general rule for practice is something that we already know how to do or that we have a little idea of where to start and what to use to complete the goal or task that we want to produce. This rule does not work in arts, especially when we approach such medium as the body within the ecology presented by performance art. So when we establish some idea of how to start a practice in performance if we don’t how to begin. Most of the time it seemed to be a miracle that compositions appeared, merged or became a performance that looked like a performance. When my process opened of processing something I called “Affection” “LogBook” “Manuals - instructions” as examples of what between 2007 and 2010 I shared as a performance - installation, for example, If we could figure a name for performance art compositions for me Chaos theory in physics was the most useful vocabulary to understand how to align actions in time and have a suspension, an unpredictable power that shocked me at the same time that beholders, public, spectator or event guests, as you want to call them. So then this organized chaos was so complex in configuration and equations that my possible explanations made an echo in many corners already filled with other information, coming from various evaluations, and critical and language explanations, anything but the attractors from physics kept my attention for more than a decade of observation within my practice, Behind a blur curtain or layers of them that split practices within the same room to coexist, some of my ideas I found in books and references already made from other countries and decades ago. Marina Abramovic was not the only one doing a great job in performance.

Doing my artistic research applied to my practice helps develop a foundational step and make a difference by creating a singularity, a possible distinction between before me or into my future practice, training to find that it was too difficult to perceive the origin, development and end of each action in time-space here and now.

Part two: the experience of time or modifying the experience to perceive time differently.

This idea of the factors involved within the experience of time-space in a very present acknowledgement by the performers modified my perception of viewers, beholders and external agency. In regards to that, one of the factors involved that I found the most crucial of all of them in terms of practice (as the creative investigation) was looking at the references related to my practice: body art, performance art, bodily practices, action art, ready-made, event happenings, video art, street art and freestyle dance and singing. Behind them, there are many exponents I cannot refuse. I would put them in the same category and without order: Juan Downey, Lotty Rosenfeld, Yeguas del Apocalisis - Francisco Casas, Vicente Ruiz, Gonzalo Rabanal, Alexander del Re, Francisco Copello, Elias Edasme, CADA, Carlos Leppe, Valentina Serrati, Hijadeperra, Felipe Rivas San Martin, Las Tesis, Seba Calaufqueo y Carolina Muñoz Awad. What they mean to me and my practice, the milestones of the past present and future of Chilean performance art and it’s need to be aware of them before starting to do anything. When I started doing my practice I was more supported, funded and established with minimum resources and places with few basic raw materials and time to spend on it physically, I intentionally did not compare my practice only to merge with them, somehow conceptually or even imagining there getting involved in their minds and projects. Finally, one of the constant factors that continually touches my performance is how to make the experience mine and then honestly share it. You will find articles of mine already written about strange attractors that affect the experience. There is something more to add from inside. These are the conditions necessary to observe variables: body, time-space, presence less chaotic? The conditions or conditioning of the practice, in other words, obstruction of the body and actions perhaps release content and finally, the actions in the performance could join them together and make them cohesive to make sense in a way for others, for also for me, I need it.

Part three: Goals and scripts or mapping what to live in the present now

Decades ago I understood actions as something that have goals and scripts. Actions can develop very quickly even if they are short and simple, and can have such an impact that finally their effect could affect us so much, even make us together vulnerable in the moment as we live one experience. Even more, I understood actions, through my practice, as trajectories that change goals and get multiple and complex as infinite possibilities to measure, but making this awareness of the trajectories creates a double sharp, one side is understanding time as a no present, so than living in the success or frustration of what didn’t react and what to consider an expectation of the affection in the future. So then not living in the present and leaving the “here and now” thing is important to consider when we talk about performance practice. The constellation of actions but four-dimensional considering directions but adding an emotional and physical impact on everyone involved, also requesting an implication of past, present and future actions, suddenly I started to understand more than ipredicting as a medium what is going to happen was me tired of anticipating thing to happens and “fail better” once again.

Part four: Anticipation or foretell

Anticipation for me has a very blurred border or limit with foretelling, where I consider a difference. Foretell is something that has a dimension of strange factor a metaphysical force or non-expansion-explanation of something to happen and predict it. On the other hand, for me, anticipation is the thing that I have trained for and it means incorporating the problems of others and in so doing putting me in another position to understand reality, holding assumptions that are not mine, having faith and believing things I cannot, to see in a very vulnerable way what can happen with one action and work with that in real-time here and now.

I would say in very old-fashioned aesthetic terminology, but maybe it’s easier to think of it as anticipation or the tension between the action goal and its vibration where all the probabilities merge with the past and future of the action. So then, the multidimensional perception requires a performer within an action to improve by training and working out through several tasks; a single example is how to cross at a constant speed a mass of crowded people without changing direction. Furthermore, the network or the weft of past present future of the actions that create this anticipatory method is the possibility of exploring time and space not only in the present but also present and future - all at the same time.

Part five: How to fail better in anticipation

Anticipation as a concept improves daily in my performance lab even today with the participants of my performance laboratory or my “performance practices” shared with “student-participants”. When I describe possible ways to share my ideas it becomes evident that communication skills like talking and expressing who you are (or presenting yourself to others) are very important. To be able to be touched and touch other bodies can be understood as sexual. So touchable bodies also include sexual traumas and pain. All these constitute what for me is a bodily practice. When I open myself I become a vulnerable person while at the same time being strong and self-confident, in terms of being super critical of ourselves as we expose our weaknesses with you. The least of the layers. with in anticipation is the shame, and the possible ways that you explore that with others and with yourself. All of these factors are in a suitable possible 4th dimensional editor which is the practice that you can explore with others in something that requires a lot of flow, awareness and an expansion of what we might consider silly.