At the Museum of Performance + Design, (San Francisco, California), I designed a guided tour of the archive reimagining the voices of objects in the collection as well as the effect of the San Francisco landscape on the performing arts created there. For this project I combined dramaturgy and storytelling with more traditional modes of museum education in order to create meaningful access to the collection, while incorporating multiple truths about shared history.
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Au Museum of Performance + Design (San Francisco, Californie), j’ai conçu une visite guidée des archives en réimaginant les voix des objets de la collection ainsi que l’effet du paysage de San Francisco sur les arts de la scène qui y sont créés. Pour ce projet, j’ai combiné la dramaturgie et la narration avec des modes plus traditionnels d’éducation muséale afin de créer un accès significatif à la collection, tout en incorporant de multiples vérités sur l’histoire partagée.
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Au Museum of Performance + Design (San Francisco, Californie), j’ai conçu une visite guidée des archives en réimaginant les voix des objets de la collection ainsi que l’effet du paysage de San Francisco sur les arts de la scène qui y sont créés. Pour ce projet, j’ai combiné la dramaturgie et la narration avec des modes plus traditionnels d’éducation muséale afin de créer un accès significatif à la collection, tout en incorporant de multiples vérités sur l’histoire partagée.
Excerpt from the script:
-Scene 1- On-going PROJECTION of ocean waves on back wall of the foyer.
THE LAND: Waves from my glowing cousin gallop across the universe to warm my shivering flesh. Radiant light renders every surface of me golden. It caresses my soft velour slopes out of which sprout majestic trunks. Each branch twists an d extends itself towards the light as the onshore breeze ruffles its tassels, quivering with indecision between celestial warmth and pacific mist. Thick blankets of fog roll in every night, softly drawing up zillions of cool droplets that seep into alleyways and slink down the stair- stepped rooftops planted in my skin. These boxy dwellings crammed one on top of another, have accumulated over time, like rigid tendrils seeking sunlight, stacking layer after layer of innovation, endurance, and imagination.
THE ARCHIVE as ANNA HALPRIN: I was terribly aware of being on the edge of the ocean. I was terribly aware of the mountains around Mount Tamalpais. The hillsides of Marin County, the foliage, the redwoods. It was just incredible. I can’t remember any other place that was as beautiful in its natural environment. What I found also was the incompleteness of San Francisco, that it had a feeling like young seedlings growing up in the underbrush and that there was lots of change about to happen. San Francisco just seemed ripe for growth. Ripe for opportunity…[30]
THE ARCHIVE: Anna Halprin came to live here in the 1940s with her husband architect Lawrence Halprin. They were drawn to the beauty of the land… For Anna, dance emerged as an experience for community and healing. To set her dances, Anna created scores. These scores were instructional mapping that resembled rituals… she would often use symbols such as this… and this…and this… What do you think this one means?
Visitors notice SYMBOLS from Halprin’s scores throughout the space (on walls, columns, the floor, etc.) and the Storytellers lead an activity to enact what visitors think the symbols mean.
-Scene 1- On-going PROJECTION of ocean waves on back wall of the foyer.
THE LAND: Waves from my glowing cousin gallop across the universe to warm my shivering flesh. Radiant light renders every surface of me golden. It caresses my soft velour slopes out of which sprout majestic trunks. Each branch twists an d extends itself towards the light as the onshore breeze ruffles its tassels, quivering with indecision between celestial warmth and pacific mist. Thick blankets of fog roll in every night, softly drawing up zillions of cool droplets that seep into alleyways and slink down the stair- stepped rooftops planted in my skin. These boxy dwellings crammed one on top of another, have accumulated over time, like rigid tendrils seeking sunlight, stacking layer after layer of innovation, endurance, and imagination.
THE ARCHIVE as ANNA HALPRIN: I was terribly aware of being on the edge of the ocean. I was terribly aware of the mountains around Mount Tamalpais. The hillsides of Marin County, the foliage, the redwoods. It was just incredible. I can’t remember any other place that was as beautiful in its natural environment. What I found also was the incompleteness of San Francisco, that it had a feeling like young seedlings growing up in the underbrush and that there was lots of change about to happen. San Francisco just seemed ripe for growth. Ripe for opportunity…[30]
THE ARCHIVE: Anna Halprin came to live here in the 1940s with her husband architect Lawrence Halprin. They were drawn to the beauty of the land… For Anna, dance emerged as an experience for community and healing. To set her dances, Anna created scores. These scores were instructional mapping that resembled rituals… she would often use symbols such as this… and this…and this… What do you think this one means?
Visitors notice SYMBOLS from Halprin’s scores throughout the space (on walls, columns, the floor, etc.) and the Storytellers lead an activity to enact what visitors think the symbols mean.