make-shift

a participatory networked performance and discussion event that explored consumption and disposability from a personal perspective.

devised and performed by helen varley jamieson & paula crutchlow

From December 2010 to June 2012, make-shift was performed 20 times. Each event connected audiences in two geographically distant domestic living rooms and an online audience, who could be anywhere in the world. They were involved before, during and after the performance itself, as co-authors, engaged in the preparation, presentation, research and discussion. They were asked to collect their plastic recycling rubbish and bring it with them to the performance, where they were involved in activities such as holding a webcam, answering questions, creating kites from their plastic rubbish and performing a song and tableaux. Discussion after the performance allowed for deep thinking around the themes and activities, and participants frequently reported ongoing resonances including changed behaviour after the event.

make-shift experimented with how artists and audiences can be connected in real time via the internet, in meaningful theatrical events that inspire small but significant and lasting change. The technology used was the cyberformance platform UpStage, in conjunction with audio-visual RTMP streams. This allowed Helen and Paula to remotely operate avatars, images, animations and sounds alongside their audio-visual streams, so that they could collaborate in real time from different locations.

"Helen and Paula arranged the magical elements of telematic performance in a montage of stuff, poetry, sound, images, dialogue, polemic and actions. The evening was constructed so that participants engaged with lots of different parts of themselves: spectator, performer, builder; (inner)-child, learner, team-player. It was utterly engrossing and left us all with a thrilling sense of the unexplored potential of theatre and performance in the networked age." Ruth Catlow, Furtherfield

The project's website is no longer active but can be found on the Wayback Machine, and a video recording is provided below. This is a composite recording, showing perspectives from the two different houses and screen recording of the online audience experience.

Further documentation can be found at:

• Networked Conversations as Activism, by Helen Varley Jamieson, 2019
• Liminalities Journal, issue 10/1: statement and video documentation of our presentation at the Remote Encounters conference, April 2013
• Meaningful connections: exploring the uses of telematic technology in performance, by Elena Pérez: a comparative analysis of make-shift and Annie Abrahams' performance ON LOVE.