Documentation

Convener(s): Miriam Murtin

Participants: Dick McCaw, Nick, Alex, Fiona Watt, Adam Bennett, TV, Ray Bowler 

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

This is some documentation on documentation.  Dick McCaw also has an audio recording and you may want to hunt down any of the above participants and ask them to give you their version of the discussions that took place.

Perhaps Devoted and Disgruntled is best recorded on human hard drive and simply passed on when the time is right?

To which extent is documentation interpretation?

Who is it for?  Who is it of?

Who is going to read this documentation? Wordy autumn leaves…

We may document a performance.

We may document a rehearsal.

We may document a teaching process.

We may document for research.

Dick aims to be as invisible as possible. Ah… See-through McCaw. Have you seen him today?

Documentation can be a sketchbook.  Julian showed us his sketches of Devoted and Disgruntled participants.

Sentences struggle to describe a changed physicality of listening to each other intently, hunched over, straining because of the acoustic of the space. Sheathes of corn. Crop circles.

Documentation can be a DVD ROM with several layers of reflection. Dick and Peter Hulton have produced DVD ROMs, which show theatre practitioners reflecting upon their own process over a number of years. 

            Sed – i – men – tat – ion.

Invisible but present, Dick does not ask questions but lets them comment. Meanwhile, back at the BAC, Miriam is scribbling notes on flip-chart paper, sitting on her knees.

Thick, treacly balsamic vinegar matured in oak barrels.

How can documentation reflect internal processes?

Keith Johnstone delivers fascinating insights but he refuses to be filmed.

Is documentation a snapshot or can it be representative of a lifetime’s work?

Documentation is about detail.  In the case of documenting process, for example, the architecture of an existing exercise may already be there but you could be interested in honing in on a particular element. 

Can documentation be objective?

Can documentation be organic?

Self-documentation can help the devising process.

Documentation involves trust.  Who is the documentalist and which agenda does he/she bring?

Snap! Last night I saw Rapunzel’s mother cut of her daughter’s long hair. The power of scissors!

Writing can get in the way.  Relying on kinaesthetic memory rather than a pen and paper.  Can kinaesthetic experience be translated into writing? Who are the best translators?

The camera sees everything but it does not register a change of atmosphere.

Did you know? Julian has known Dick for 23 years!

Phelim asked Dick to just turn up for this event and find out how to document it.

Having things that you didn’t know or forgot reflected back at you can be helpful.

What is documentation?