STORIES BEHIND
In Ghent (2018), Mapas Oniricos [Oniric Maps, MO] introduced “Espectrito” within the workshop performance. There were two ideas behind it, first I wanted to disappear in front of my colleagues at KASK. Back in those days, I was taking a storytelling postgraduate course as a student and docent. Besides that I was announced as workshop facilitator since the start of the course, a lot of my colleagues didn’t know about it. So I have the feeling that erasing myself from the role of being a ‘classmate’ would improve the workshop presentation, especially during the first minutes. Also, back in those days I was living a personal-creative-turbulence period… when a childhood friend, Micho, appeared in town from Mexico city. And he brought a present for me, the mexican wrestler mask of “Espectrito”.
Espectrito is not the most popular wrestler mask, others like El Santo, Atlantis, Mistico are more famous and easy to recognize. Yet it is one of the most mysterious masks in the history of Lucha libre; Espectrito’s story is linked to the origin of broadcasting lucha libre in the mexican tv back in the 50s . And because of the aesthetic of the mask and the ‘ritual’ that the original wrestler used to perform. (He used to arrive inside a coffin to the fight field) The mask became a controversy for the mexican catholic society from the time. Since those days, Espectro‘s saga ─ which includes a lot of wrestlers with similar names and masks, such as Espectricto, Espectro de ultratumba, Mono verde among others─ is full of bad reputation and even a wishcraft.
Today, I know more about the story behind this Mexican icon, but back in those days, I merely knew this mask was coming from my old first friend who loved evil and mysterious forces since his childhood. And maybe that was enough to use it during this presentation in Belgium.
Anyway, my friend gave me a tool to disappear/appear in front of my colleagues and a toy for self exploration. Also, one of the objectives of MO workshop deals with the remediation of written language in images, sounds and interactions; So in a way this gave me the chance to play and incorporate a performance that encourages participants to experiment with language beyond a cases of words.
BLENDING REALITIES
For the purpose of this workshop edition in the Blend and Bleed symposium, my goal was to remark that the mask is a tool for the workshop and not the other way around. The mask is not a character; it is not a childish story, not even an icon; it is not about the performance. The mask is a tool, It has a function that aims to blend the pedagogical and performative experience of the workshop. So I decided to continue this (self) exploration and take out an Espectro mask and vanish it into myself.
These are some sketches and tests about my makeup and expressions. I was looking something simple that remark the expressions of my own face
Something I have discovered during the tests, is that each time I was playing a mask, my own voice and character was changing. it was like meeting a another VIni
MO looks to merge what is happening, the real moment with visual, sound and performance elements that sum to the statement of what is developed within the workshop. I would say a symbolic experience that goes beyond words.
It echoes Augusto de Boal’s idea of Invisible theatre of blending reality in some spontaneous event. Participants of the workshop don’t really know exactly what, how and when an event will happen. There is not such an exact script. It only exists a plan to develop during the workshop, notes.
I feel enthusiastic about the potential of the online version of the workshop, surely this will continue evolving and changing. Some ideas that came to my mind are related to the UI and the modification of the workshop format it self. As MO is not attached to Twine or any particular technology, I wonder about how the content shapes the experience of the workshop.
In contrast with the physical experience of the workshop; the online version of MO, optimizes the time and facilitates unique features from the medium, such as more control on sound and images and programmatic or networked features that impact the total performance of the workshop.
Nevertheless, the personal physical interactions and casual events are nul. For the workshop development those small interactions and casual events are essential for the personal growth of each participant. For example, personal conversations about dreams are lost . I don’t mean we don’t talk about our dreams in some way, the workshop has an organized way to talk about them . I am talking about casual chats and events that happened within the time that we are just around. Those events might happen more often as we provide time for “blank spaces” within the workshop. Maybe working with some asynchronous times during a a workshop that last more time , it would be ideal to provoke those conversations. Psychical interactions are unique; yet I wonder about the power of the physique.
There are more questions and concerns to be answered such as How to balance the performance and the pedagogical content? So far I have been using the mask a lot, but What about using some other visual,sound and interactive elements? How time and more sessions would affect the experience?
RESULT OF THE DAY
You can check the dream exploration we did that day here .
My apologize I did not keep a precise track about the dreams ownership for each twine stories, my mistake. The next twine stories, only mention the last author, an interpreter of others dream. You can find more information in the original document.
Thanks to everybody who join the workshop.
All my gratitude to my Carina Erdman for this fantastic initiative and for the invitation. Gracias