Alphabet Box Exercise

This exercise incorporated both physical actions and media. It also explores Artaud's idea of movement and the body. He believed our movements should flow, be interesting and unique.We stood in a space in the room and imagined that we were standing in a telephone box, with all the letters in the alphabet around us. A was in the top left hand corner, I in the centre around the middle and Z being in the lower corner to the far right. Once we had established where all the letters were (which took slightly longer time than expected), we had to spell out our names, using only our hands and arms, touching the letters in their positions. We then added more movement to it, incorporating our body into touching the letters. We could use our bodies in anyway we wanted to. For example, I touched the letter E with my elbow, the letter S with my head, the letter M with my knee and the letter E with my tongue. I liked this exercise as it helped me to realise that I could use my body in ways which I hadn't originally thought of. 

When we were fluent in our movement, we then played with the structure by adding pairs, grouping people by gender, singling people out and added music to see how it would add meaning to the exercise. I noticed that the movements had new levels when the music was added on top, and when we divided the genders it became almost like an army camp, with series undertones. Each different change brought a new meaning to the exercise and gave me lots of ideas for devising our piece later on. 

I enjoyed this exercise as the movements were of the moment and imaginative. They came naturally to me and I loved how simple it was to create meaning by just changing the structure and adding music.