In a few weeks time I shall be presenting on practice research as part of the Spring 2021 LINES OF FLIGHT seminar series. 

Many months ago, I came up with the title;

Hiding the Elephant in the Room: Performance Magic and Practice Research

It’s a nice title and it has a colon in it so it must be academic.

As I write/fragment/speak the presentation in preparation for the real thing, I’m struck by how interesting/strange this journey is.  Why?  Because I don’t think of myself as a practice research person.  I’ve certainly never spoken about it.

My research ‘outputs’, (don’t you love that term) have been your traditional articles, in fact, I’ve just submitted another to an editor this week.  However, alongside this work I do have a practice, and it’s an odd practice.

It is important to me that during my time in the studio I am not practicing in the traditional sense that a magician practices, but rather that I am in a space exploring a whole bunch of things/idea/baggage/ that resonate with me as a performer.   

I get a chance to work stuff out. 

Sure, this work doesn’t have a specific output attached, and probably not even a coherent methodology, but it does lead to insights that have fed into the concrete.  So that’s a good thing, right?

For me it the elephant in the room is that I don’t normally talk about this stuff.

For me to do so is uncomfortable, unsettling, and presents vulnerability.

I’m looking forward to it.

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