Coming into the modern Art Oxford gallery, I didn't know what to expect apart from a live exhibition based on the studies of German poet and patriot, Charles Follen.
The show was a combination of a lecturer and physical theatre. Dr. Guido Orgs explores the ideas of emotions and how humans react and perceive them.
What was interesting was the breakdown on the expression. Dr. Orgs began by describing the three elements of feelings being pleasure desire and pain explaining that when people feel pain they desire to seek pleasure, to paraphrase. As he spoke the two performers illustrated the words with movements.
After introducing the 6 main emotions and seeing them expressed through the performers at five different levels, the audience had the chance to interact and replicated the same facial expression the performers portrayed. This was to see whether seeing the expression would allow the audience to feel the same emotions just y seeing or even experiencing the same expressions. He instructed to move part of the face in particular ways to portray those expression. Seeing how real the expressions looks on each individuals face was fascinating, as someone with a theatre background, this is a good exercise to get actors to express certain emotions without having to force it out of them.
After a few demonstrations the performers began mix the different expressions using they're face and body leading to a contemporary physical routine which transformed into a visual story about the chemistry between two people.
An enjoyable experience, that teaches a lot about human expression, through psychology and performing arts. It didn't feel like a lecture or just an artistic expression through movement. The movements visually represented the idea of emotions through simple techniques and adjustments. This is a great way to practice, stage performance and acting.
Overall it was worth seeing.
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