The Search for the Operatic: Bridging the Gap Between the Spectatorial and Performer Positions Through Sketch-making and Embodiment Techniques

The exhibition was of sketches and a photograph from my PhD practice research. The practice-research was comprised of observing opera singers in rehearsal and sketching them as they moved. As well as records of body position, and to some degree dynamic flow, the exhibited sketches were regarded as kinaesthetic responses in and of themselves – responses to the environment of the rehearsal, in particular responding to the sounds of the orchestra. These sketches were, in part, generated through an embodiment of the music, which was occurring in the same moment as the singer was engaged in embodying the music. These sketches were then used as tools that therefore contained kinaesthetic information which could be unlocked through a process of Butoh derived embodiment techniques alongside reference to the sketched image. This ultimately allowed me to move from a spectatorial position to a performance maker position, bringing a sense of the operatic into the non-singing body, whether that was my own or the bodies of other performers. In this way, and combined with rigorous observation of the corporeal restrictions of singing operatically, choreographies were created that employed operatic ways of moving in non-singing bodies and the operatic was extracted from opera and employed in movement based practice. The aspect of the practice-research exhibited is the correspondence between sketched documentation of the singers in rehearsal and photographic documentation of the dancer (researcher) in performance.

The Path between Pedagogy and Technology: Establishing a Theoretical Basis for the Development of Educational Game Environments

The power of computer game technology is currently being harnessed to produce “serious games”. These “games” are targeted at the education and training marketplace, and employ various key game-engine components such as the graphics and physics engines to produce realistic “digital-world” simulations of the real “physical world”. Many approaches are driven by the technology and often lack a consideration of a firm pedagogical underpinning. The authors believe that an analysis and deployment of both the technological and pedagogical dimensions should occur together, with the pedagogical dimension providing the lead. This chapter explores the relationship between these two dimensions, and explores how “pedagogy may inform the use of technology”, how various learning theories may be mapped onto the use of the affordances of computer game engines. Autonomous and collaborative learning approaches are discussed. The design of a serious game is broken down into spatial and temporal elements. The spatial dimension is related to the theories of knowledge structures, especially “concept maps”. The temporal dimension is related to “experiential learning”, especially the approach of Kolb. The multi-player aspect of serious games is related to theories of “collaborative learning” which is broken down into a discussion of “discourse” versus “dialogue”. Several general guiding principles are explored, such as the use of “metaphor” (including metaphors of space, embodiment, systems thinking, the internet and emergence). The topological design of a serious game is also highlighted. The discussion of pedagogy is related to various serious games we have recently produced and researched, and is presented in the hope of informing the “serious game community”.