Somatic and Aesthetic Dramaturgies.

Abstract

This thesis is about the research Human Creatures that I have been developing since 2019, about creating dialogues between costumes and people’s bodies, through the application of somatic practices. The text navigates between a description and analysis of the projects I did during my Master's studies, my interest in the body (biological and cultural studies), the redesign of it through performative costumes and masks, and the acknowledging of the potentials of visual thinking to make performance by rethinking design processes. In the chapters I describe the material produced during the research process of Human Creatures, which was quite extensive allowing me to explore different performative formats, with the same conceptual intentions and aesthetic decisions. I also analyse different reviews and feedback that was given to me during presentations in Prague, Czech Republic; Ljubljana, Slovenia and Rimini, Italy. The two main performances are Fasciarium (Lat.Fascia: Connective Tissue), a participatory laboratory where people are invited to transform their bodies through costumes, by reflecting on their body stories and giving themselves space to release, celebrate and dance. The second is a performative lecture Anamorphosis, a monologue in which I open publicly intimate body stories while I transform my appearance with objects. The projects’ insights and processes are not presented chronologically but according to the concepts and methods that I was developing to understand different ways in which costumes are tools to transform identity and appearance. The document examines dramaturgical methodologies I explore for directing performance, from my knowledge in design practices, especially textile design, and from my interest in the human body as an object and as a subject. My methodology includes the combination of concepts and processes that I have used as art director for theatre, but this time giving them performative agency. Likewise, I incorporate into this research, relations I find between how science studies the body and how it can be interpreted in art, an analysis of how we see our own bodies and how we see others according to body culture, and a reflection on how costume and mask are powerful tools to determine, hide or transform identity. I associate my practical results with theory that have been inspiring me, as well as with other performance and artistic projects that I watched and met along the way.