Place-specificity in choreographic practice / Gwynne Bilski (2017)

Place-Specificity in Choreographic Practice uses movement to engage with conceptual elements of place. The research undertaken for this project was motivated out of an interest in developing a creative practice that would involve the body in looking at and understanding a location; and that would go beyond looking at the site of the location in hopes of developing a deeper understanding of place.

In the first chapter I will situate my use of the term ‘place-specificity’ and discuss how it differs from ‘site-specificity’. This discussion is supported through a review of Cameron Cartiere’s 2003 text RE/PLACING PUBLIC ART: The Role of PlaceSpecificity in New Genre Public Art. The second chapter outlines the development and emergence of the choreographic practice that arose from the studio research, and discusses the use of kinesthetic imagery; the activation of memory; engagement with texts and maps; and encounters with location as methods for investigating place. Ideas around the personal nature of -and relationship to- place are discussed and supported by writings from Yi-Fu Tuan, Doreen Massey, Karen O’Rourke, and Miwon Kwon; and an acknowledgement of place-oriented practices in fields of site-specific performance and site-oriented conceptual art are offered. The third chapter reflects on the application of the practice in the creation of two works, and analyzes the performance of the final work, A Site of Revolution.

The outcome of the developed creative practice is a deeper understanding of place on the part of the collaborators. It offers an ability to carry an understanding of place in the psychophysical being and to engage in acts of developing and creating displaced place –inhabiting and re-embodying experience of one place, while occupying another. A construction of both space and place is produced, providing audiences a new perspective on experience of place.