week six, final idea

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For my final piece I have chosen to use Stimulus Eight, looking at the idea of Multiple Personality Disorder - now better known as Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). My idea about each of the cogs being the ‘building blocks for someone’s characteristics’ made me think about this disorder where the brain is filled with a complicated combination of whole identities instead. Alternatively, I also found out that some researchers think that these identities are in fact different parts of one identity which aren’t properly working together, which would relate well to the cogs working together in the photo. In my week five, stimuli blog I also talked about a cog being broken or damaged, which I could relate well to the cause of DID, which is experiencing an extreme trauma or emotionally damaging experience. The contrast between the mechanical brain and the natural, muscular body could represent the disconnection between a person with DID’s thoughts, memories, feelings and identity. The fact that the skin has been removed to reveal the brain, made me think about how from the outside someone with a mental disorder can look completely fine and healthy, however inside, their brain is constantly busy with feelings of confusion and stress, ticking away like the cogs in a machine.

In my solo, I would like to focus on feelings of dissociation – feeling disconnected from your own mind, the world around you, your identity and your memories. To do this I would like to create feelings of uncertainty and confusion through the use of off-balance and counterbalance, to show how someone with this disorder may feel constantly in a state of limbo with their identity. I would also like to explore including some movements that seem as though they are uncontrollable or unexpected, to show the disconnection from the mind and body.

DID sometimes effects people in what is called ‘episodes’ in which they may have memory loss, lose control of their body movements and become confused about who they are. This has inspired me to have one returning short sequence in my piece which will be heavy and precise, showing times where someone isn’t in an episode and feels grounded and secure. However, I would like to interrupt this repeating sequence with different longer sequences, representing the sudden and isolating dissociation. In each of these longer sequences I would like to explore using opposing dynamics to represent the different identities which can be within one person’s mind. To help me with this I would like to think of 3-4 different adjectives to associate my movements with in each of the ‘episodes’ as we have done in our creative tasks because I found this to be very effective to give my choreography purpose.

For my music, I have chosen to use The Village Score - 08 - The Gravel Road - James Newton Howard because I wanted to stray away from a song with words as I wanted my movement and expression to speak for itself. In this piece I was drawn to the repetition of the piano in the background, similar to the continuous whirring of cogs and the thoughts of a person with DID. The emotive violin contrasted this repetitiveness well, which will allow me to show the conflicting personalities within one mind and the changes in volume will reflect the fluctuating emotions that may be felt to due these conflicting thoughts.

The Gravel Road - James Newton Howard

To enhance the emotion behind my piece I would like to further research this disorder and in particular I would like to read some people’s personal experiences to find out how an episode actually feels. My research so far came from these websites:
Website One
Website Two

Comments

  1. Miss Norman5 November 2019 at 18:16

    This is an excellent post! You have clearly explained what you hope to achieve, this will hopefully benefit you as the week’s progress. How will you ensure your idea successfully comes across to the audience?

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    Replies
    1. Daisy Stonier5 November 2019 at 20:40

      Thankyou Miss Norman. I will ensure that my idea successfully comes across to the audience by keeping the emotions that I want to portray in mind throughout the choreography process and by being confident with my facial expressions and performance. This will mean that the audience will be engaged and will hopefully become invested in the message that I'm trying to project and the energy and atmosphere that I hope to create.

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