The Empty Space Book ReviewsWalking, Writing & Performance: Autobiographical Texts by Deirdre Heddon, Carl Lavery and Phil Smith, edited by Roberta Mock (Bristol, UK / Chicago: Intellect Books, Oct. 15, 2009), ISBN: 978-1-84150-155-0, paper, 184 pages with photos, notes, and sources. $35.00
Walking, Writing & Performance makes us rethink our perception of space; not our definitions, but rather our understanding of how spaces connect into a narrative as we move through them. Walking, Writing & Performance explores our walking through our space (even if it is but one small spot as in Deirdre Heddon's Tree) through the venue of performance supplemented with commentary on the walking, or more specifically, that form of destination-less walking known as "drift," or dérive. What I found intriguing as I read the text of each performance, was that each was the performer becoming their narrative. Not just merely in an autobiographical sense – that is the simple retelling of their story – but how in each performance the narrative took on a life of its own, and in so doing became part of a larger narrative. In a real sense, each performance is in itself, a "drift."
The geographer, Doreen Massey, suggests that space is the "dimensions of multiple trajectories, a simultaneity of stories-so-far (For Space, Sage Publication, 2005, p.24). It is this concept that Walking, Writing & Performance brings to the fore. Will Self writes in The Independent Magazine ('PsychoGeography. Moterway Madness,' 25 Feb., 2006) that "walking slows us down " and when walking slows us down, we begin to see not only the stories unfolding around us, but those that we ourselves are raveling, and in a real sense adding to those stories unfolding around us. Roberta Mock, in her thought-provoking introduction, examines both the concept of walking and how walking creates performance.
Phil Lavery reminds us that space is not a "timeless substance in which the truth of the human subject is written, it is historically conditioned and dependent upon the performances that have given rise to it in the first place (p.46)." Obviously, although there are formal performances in the book, "performance" for Lavery and the other contributors is more than theatre. Lavery writes, "Accordingly the value of pedestrian performance is not to be found in the way it supposedly unveils the truth of the world, but on the contrary, for its ability to highlight the essentially performative quality of landscape (p.46)." Although the temporal and spatial nature of walking differs within each performance recorded, each highlights the "performative quality of landscape."
The "writing" of the title, Walking, Writing & Performance, is a bit misleading if one is expecting to learn something about the process of performance writing in the sense of putting something down on paper. "Writing" in this work refers to an embedding in the psyche the relationship between the drift, the landscape, and the narrative, or as Phil Smith writes, "... my body became the map of my journeys (p.97)." For each contributor, both the drift and the performance are sacred acts, or what Lavery calls, "Enchantment."
Deirdre Heddon's "Tree" serves as a foil the the drift-inspired performances of Lavery and Smith. In "Tree," taking place in one square foot of space, it is the mind that goes wandering. Heddron, who finds the ability to span continents and centuries while standing on square foot of sod, emphatically reminds us that the "writing" takes place "on the body," it is the psyche that demythologizes our bodily – physically and mentally – interaction with the landscape into narrative.
Heddon ends her commentary with a quote from Doreen Massey, a quote that, I think, neatly sums up Walking, Writing & Performance:
The book jacket describes Deirdre Heddon, Carl Lavery, and Phil Smith as "performance-makers who generate autobiographical writing by taking walks." Carl Lavery, Senior Lecturer in Theatre at Aberystwyth University, contributes, "Mourning Walk," made to mark the anniversary of his father's death. Phil Smith, a member of Wrights & Sites and a dramaturg, contributes "The Crab Walk" and "Crab Steps;" performances that come from his drifting about the South Devon area where he spent his childhood holidays. Deirdre Haddon's contribution flows out of the One Square Foot project, a project designed to explore different creative methodologies within a limited physical context, and secondly, to explore how a performer might retain the sense of initial site when the performance is moved to a different site. Heddon is a Reader in the Department of Theatre, Film, and Television Studies at the University of Glasgow.
Roberta Mock, the editor of Walking, Writing & Performance is Assistant Dean for the Faculty of the Arts, University of Plymouth, where she also teaches theatre and performance.
Walking, Writing & Performance makes us rethink our perception of space; not our definitions, but rather our understanding of how spaces connect into a narrative as we move through them. Walking, Writing & Performance explores our walking through our space (even if it is but one small spot as in Deirdre Heddon's Tree) through the venue of performance supplemented with commentary on the walking, or more specifically, that form of destination-less walking known as "drift," or dérive. What I found intriguing as I read the text of each performance, was that each was the performer becoming their narrative. Not just merely in an autobiographical sense – that is the simple retelling of their story – but how in each performance the narrative took on a life of its own, and in so doing became part of a larger narrative. In a real sense, each performance is in itself, a "drift."
The geographer, Doreen Massey, suggests that space is the "dimensions of multiple trajectories, a simultaneity of stories-so-far (For Space, Sage Publication, 2005, p.24). It is this concept that Walking, Writing & Performance brings to the fore. Will Self writes in The Independent Magazine ('PsychoGeography. Moterway Madness,' 25 Feb., 2006) that "walking slows us down " and when walking slows us down, we begin to see not only the stories unfolding around us, but those that we ourselves are raveling, and in a real sense adding to those stories unfolding around us. Roberta Mock, in her thought-provoking introduction, examines both the concept of walking and how walking creates performance.
Phil Lavery reminds us that space is not a "timeless substance in which the truth of the human subject is written, it is historically conditioned and dependent upon the performances that have given rise to it in the first place (p.46)." Obviously, although there are formal performances in the book, "performance" for Lavery and the other contributors is more than theatre. Lavery writes, "Accordingly the value of pedestrian performance is not to be found in the way it supposedly unveils the truth of the world, but on the contrary, for its ability to highlight the essentially performative quality of landscape (p.46)." Although the temporal and spatial nature of walking differs within each performance recorded, each highlights the "performative quality of landscape."
The "writing" of the title, Walking, Writing & Performance, is a bit misleading if one is expecting to learn something about the process of performance writing in the sense of putting something down on paper. "Writing" in this work refers to an embedding in the psyche the relationship between the drift, the landscape, and the narrative, or as Phil Smith writes, "... my body became the map of my journeys (p.97)." For each contributor, both the drift and the performance are sacred acts, or what Lavery calls, "Enchantment."
Deirdre Heddon's "Tree" serves as a foil the the drift-inspired performances of Lavery and Smith. In "Tree," taking place in one square foot of space, it is the mind that goes wandering. Heddron, who finds the ability to span continents and centuries while standing on square foot of sod, emphatically reminds us that the "writing" takes place "on the body," it is the psyche that demythologizes our bodily – physically and mentally – interaction with the landscape into narrative.
Heddon ends her commentary with a quote from Doreen Massey, a quote that, I think, neatly sums up Walking, Writing & Performance:
This is space as the sphere of a dynamic simultaneity, constantly disconnected by new arrivals, constantly waiting to be determined (and therefore always undetermined) by the construction of new relations ... Loose ends and on-going stories (p. 107).For me, the value of Walking, Writing & Performance is that it has caused me to think about how we might use the emerging field of walking as generative practice, and the related concepts advanced in the book, as tools in our understanding of the evolution and devolution of space, and then, how do we practically apply our new understanding?
The book jacket describes Deirdre Heddon, Carl Lavery, and Phil Smith as "performance-makers who generate autobiographical writing by taking walks." Carl Lavery, Senior Lecturer in Theatre at Aberystwyth University, contributes, "Mourning Walk," made to mark the anniversary of his father's death. Phil Smith, a member of Wrights & Sites and a dramaturg, contributes "The Crab Walk" and "Crab Steps;" performances that come from his drifting about the South Devon area where he spent his childhood holidays. Deirdre Haddon's contribution flows out of the One Square Foot project, a project designed to explore different creative methodologies within a limited physical context, and secondly, to explore how a performer might retain the sense of initial site when the performance is moved to a different site. Heddon is a Reader in the Department of Theatre, Film, and Television Studies at the University of Glasgow.
Roberta Mock, the editor of Walking, Writing & Performance is Assistant Dean for the Faculty of the Arts, University of Plymouth, where she also teaches theatre and performance.
Labels: derive, drift, performance, review, Robert Mock, The Empty Space, walking
posted by Frank A. Mills, M.Div at
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