Short Abstract:

How theatre can be used as a participatory and audiovisual method to investigate embodied forms of communication. Our project is two-folded: participatory research through performance and the communication of ethnographic knowledge by the reactivation of that dynamic with a sensorial installation.

Long Abstract:

Our visual participatory method is based on fieldwork conducted in a migrant collective group. Where mostly latin and african migrants and spanish people share their experiences to create a theatre where reality and imagination grow together. Film and photography are part of the process since they themselves are using audiovisual media during the performance.

Themes like migration, housing, discrimination and borders are treated in a dynamic shared collective interaction. This interaction is revealed in the experience of the body challenging the dominant discourse on how borders are physical entities not only in the land, but also in the body itself creating a common emotional horizon. There are various levels of participation: first of all the acting itself; secondly rotation of participants from acting to filming the acting, putting themselves in an active role in the exercise of looking and image making. The ones that are filming reproduce the relation between actors and active spectators. This interaction creates not only elicitation during the performance, but also a double elicitation within the participants when they see the recorded audiovisual material.

We propose the promotion of the methodology of the theatre workshop in an audiovisual interactive installation. Through audio and visual itineraries we have the intention to reactivate the dynamic of the workshop. We invite the public to participate in the performance or as an active spectator filming. This is a way of communicating sensorially to the audience and participants the reflection about embodied knowledge and emotions.