2011 Performative Self-Portraits Part I

Laboratory Development in the Winter Semester 2011-12: From "protrahere" (Latin: "to drag forward") to a "portrait" with performative means

• Project Announcement
• Trailer

Project Announcement

Performative Self-Portraits takes the form of interdisciplinary project work and is available to students of the Mozarteum, the University of Salzburg, and FH Salzburg University of Applied Sciences.
In this project work, the assigned production of an approx. 2- to 4minute self-portrait is the result of the participants' exploration of the artistic forms of a "port-traktum" (in place of a "port-folio"). Space-sound-body elements are brought into play as well as and film compositional elements. All phases of the project take place under the guidance of the project director.

The self-portrait project work focuses on scenic and reflective processes of "protrahere" (which is the Latin root of "portrait" and means "to drag forward" or "to bring to light"). The point of departure for the portrait work is the presentation of an individual "talent", a conspicuous or inconspicuous ability – stemming, perhaps, from childhood – that plays or has played a role in some visible or hidden recess of the participant’s personal daily life: "headstands" of a real or unreal, physical or metaphysical nature. Hans LENK speaks of "garbage effects" that ought to be "creatively utilized and further developed into intuitive new creations".

In a second phase, the talents that were presented are connected up with and reflected by selected tools from the collection of skills and knowledge associated with the participants’ main fields of study:

• in the form of a connection between a talent and the main field of study (either artistic, e.g. media or film, or one of the humanities) of one and the same person or
• in the form of a connection between a talent and abilities resulting from the main field of study of various persons (dialogue-oriented portrait).

As a conclusion to the project, the series of individual portraits are linked together in one film and given a public screening (audiovisual technology supervisor: Martin Hantich). The project work will be continued in the summer semester in 2012 (SS 2012): Performative Self-Portraits – Part 2