What is "Durational Performance"?

Durational Performance is a variation of mobile visual art; demonstrating how time appears in its natural beauty, whilst designating the importance of time to audience experience. Producers create durational performances, so that time physically (and mentally) affects the performer, thus transforming audiences, the space and performers altogether.

Challenging the audience and their "habitual patterns that fully consume cultural products", durational performances exceed the duration of standard "performing arts and film events", averaging to two hours. This variant of performance defies the laws of consumerism, the act of protecting and promoting customer interests; relating to the duration, tempo, frequency of silence, perception, examining/observing mental and emotional processes, irrelevance and boredom.

However, durational performance also offers time reclamation, or the restoration of time to its original state. This characterises western urban daily life, which organises itself into "intense work, relaxing leisure, and hurried neutral space in-between." Such a performance relates to the dissolving of sugar cubes in water, or the sun melting a block of ice.

This video shows the concept of Durational Performance, through a video known as "S.H.I.T." The performance lasted twelve hours, and this performer did not eat, drink, look away from the drawing or leave within that time. He constantly writes the word "shit" on a piece of paper, which remains on a blank wall.

"The craftsmanship, the finish, the reliance on Greek ideals, all that is dead. Tension, density, the unknown, and mystery reign and win in every painting. For the first time in history, painting has become a performance, and you can watch its creation as you might a jam session." (Georges Mathieu, 1964)

This quotes reveals that the formation of an art-piece, regardless of its format, does not need a professional artist, nor does it require a finish or "reliance on the Greek ideals." It suggests that tension, alongside how far the art-piece fascinates an audience, are the ideals of every "painting". The quote also states that the unknown and mystery are other features. The final result is a creation, containing similar aspects to a jam session.

What is "Immersive Theatre"?

"Immersive theatre" is a theatrical type that draws in its audiences, by placing the viewers in the performance. Traditional theatre provides the audience with a "snow-globe" effect, which effectively separates the performers and relative scenery from those watching. However, immersive theatre breaks this boundary by removing the fourth wall, thus making a fantasy world come to life.

'Shunt and Punchdrunk have been particularly successful with respect to their ability to attract large audiences over long runs; their garnering of critical attention; and their use of large-scale, maze-like found spaces as locations for extensive environmental performances. The attractions of these spaces are obvious: they provide ready-made exploratory landscapes, redolent of other histories, into which performances can be scattered, and in which engagement with the environment can be an important part of the audience experience. Both Shunt and Punchdrunk have made repeated use of disused industrial spaces for their environments.' (White, 2002, 223)

This video shows the potential features of immersive theatre.

It has a slight resemblance to the "Theatre of Cruelty", consisting of lighting effects and breaking the fourth wall.

This is an omnidirectional type of performance, as wherever the audience looks something different happens (and they appear in the scene). Traditional theatre, on the other hand, is a unidirectional performance, since audiences only see material by looking at the stage.

 "The scene revealed plot-related information, inflected by the scenic environment and its corporeal effect on me, but my inclusion in the fictional world at this level did not, of course, give me a genuinely privileged insight." (Gareth White, 2002, pg. 231)

This shows that performances use the scenic background to intrigue audiences, which is a common feature of immersive theatre and the stereotypical performance. However, this performance type eliminates the opportunity to gain a deep and meaningful understanding of the story.