The Presentation

The art academy is sold to us as a place of unrestricted imagination and creativity - yet the institution has prescribed boxes and structures that attempt to value and grade this creativity. For my end of semester presentation, I use the protocol we are expected to follow for our presentations as a script/score for a performance. Through role play and reenactment, the non-neutrality of this institutional ritual emerges.

As the audience enters an empty room, they are given character cards and instructed to connect to headphones and a live radio broadcast. The instructional script is read live through this broadcast.

One key line from the script is missed out: “return to your normal roles”. As the 15 min performance ends and the feedback round begins, an unexpected blurriness between who is being earnest and who is still performing emerges. Conflict and confusion arise.