Practice-as-Research: United States, Masculinity and the Death of an Empire

United States, Masculinity and the Death of an Empire

* Practice-as-Research based on a workshop presented by Warwick Teaching Fellow Jonathan Heron.

When the United States Empire falls, and it’s only a matter of time until the last unstable beams give way, what will be left? Who will be standing to aurally pass along the tales of a country created through a horrifically bloody process, a country which drank in consumer goods and burned through every resource at our disposal. In a post-apocalyptic future, perhaps fictional, in which the citizens of the United States are left decimated while the small scattered clusters of survivors reside in concrete tombs of bomb shelters, there remains one person with access to the last functioning piece of technology – a make-shift military radio transmission center in an underground bunker. His name is Chip Johnson, the self-proclaimed “last American patriot.”

This piece will explore political histories in the United States and the series of unfortunate human decisions leading to their ultimate demise: from the effects of a consumer-driven society stripped of the technological crutch which dominated their existence, to the high-profile figures in the United States embodying a hegemonic masculinity to be devoured by the passive, brainwashed American by way of muscular 1980s action figures (Rambo, Terminator) and idolized, juiced up athletes. Disguised as prophets, these hegemonic, masculine leaders play on a God-fearing America paralyzed by the unknown and willing to hand over their lively hoods to their claims (see Harold Camping, David Koresh, Marshall Applewhite.) Through the critical narrative of Chip Johnson, based in his underground bunker, his radio broadcast seeks to connect with potential survivors to regain a sense of ‘hope’ in a long lost "American dream."

This monologue sketch will be cultivated using methods introduced in Jonathan Heron’s practice-as-research workshop. Heron, a Warwick Teaching Fellow, introduced exercises exploring stream of conscious thought to the backdrop of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot. As students we were each asked to begin speaking on a personally familiar topic, only taking breaks to breathe. We expounded upon our chosen keyword for several minutes before breaking and discussing the challenges with verbalizing our stream of conscious. These challenges ranged from self-censorship to not knowing what to say next.

We continued exploring the nuances of our stream of conscious using different levels. Our speech was taken from the height of the vocal scale, reaching as loud, fast and physical as possible, to the depths of minimalism resulting in the participants' lips barely moving with nothing but a whisp of noise escaping their vocal apparatus. The idea was to let thoughts out of your mind unencumbered, without self-censorship, in order that we make discoveries by trusting the creative processes of our minds, and letting each utterance build off of the previous.

This is the perfect tool for my own explorations into the development of text for my one-person show based on the following keywords and ideas...

United States, Masculinity, Death of an Empire, Consumer, Capitalist, Hope, End of the World, Fear, "god?", Concrete Tomb, Technological Crutch, Occupy Airwave Space, "If no one hears our cries for help, do we exist?", Queen (the band), Queen (her majesty), International Perception of a Dying Beast, Existential, Occupying the Void Between Now and Death

I will use the following process to engage this technique:

* Complete necessary research on the bedrock topics of my show: masculinity, United States' political histories, radio broadcasting, fallen empires, and relevant past and present world leaders of significance.

* Conduct video-documented stream of conscious workshops, using the foundation established from both research and artistic intuition. These 90-minute segments will begin with a warm-up to get my mind limber (15 minutes), followed by 30-45 minutes of videotaped stream of conscious speaking, and end with a debrief of discoveries made.

* Host a video viewing session upon the completion of each workshop to dissect the stream of conscious speaking and pull workable material to use in the script.

* The research will continue throughout the months working and documenting the stream of conscious speeches.

The process will be utilized in multiple ways. The first step, stream of conscious speech documentation will be used to create the working script for the performance piece and to formulate new directions in which the creative flow may move. Second, the research will not only provide the foundation for the stream of conscious exercises, but it will also be used to link the script with factual material needed to make this fictional world plausible. Finally, video from the workshop will be incorporated into a gallery exhibition to be shown before the show to provide transparency for the audience.