Performance Lab

Performance Lab is a series of events in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. It is facilitated by Clara J:son Borg and amy pickles, and supported by funding from Gemeente Rotterdam.

We are grateful to a number of hosts in the city including WORM Rotterdam, Dokhuis & WET Film, who gave their spaces for workshops. Between September to December 2019, and May to June 2024, five invited artists shared aspects of their performance practice in educational workshops.

This website presents debris from past workshops, as records of the events and as tools we hope an extended audience can use. It is a site comprised of reflections, advice and techniques for working with people, working with your body and your voice.

Click on the names of each artist and you will be taken to an account from them, a workshop participant and amy and Clara as facilitators.

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Emily, by Josefin Arnell & workshop participants

Emily

Surprising intergenerational love story

Logline: "Apfelstrudel eating all time champion, a bio hacker and a safety guard meet at a digital class of the 20 year old YouTuber Emily. What follows is an entangled journey of DNA and desire. All captured on a selfie stick".

Josefin made a poster as reflection, featuring the four characters developed during her workshop and the beginnings of the storyline summed up in a logline for this possible future film.

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collage by Clara Saito

The workshop was very playful and efficient. We managed to create an abundance of material thanks to Josefin's techniques. For example she brought many articles from which we could extract interesting facts from and she asked us many questions touching some of the subjects she wanted to work with. It allowed us to create a common data base from which we could inspire ourselves. In small groups we created characters, with backstories. Then in other small groups we created scenes where our characters would meet each other and create a storyline. After a few hours we had a whole complex and rich script ready! The collage above encapsulates some of the materials created individually and collectively.

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How to make a character, by Clara and amy

As our reflection we have returned to some of the prompts Josefin shared with us, for how to form a character as a small group.

After we had each read some articles connected to Josefin’s research and shared a summary with the whole group, we then split into threes and fours to devise different characters for our film. The invitation for creating these characters was to work from our open-ended thoughts that had been coming up in our morning writing and research reading.

Below you can read the list of prompts and our sketch for another character, that began by cutting and pasting text excerpts from our earlier writing.

Making a backstory

Name
Age
Body language
Passion
Trauma
Consequence of that trauma
Bad habit
Outfit
Belongings
What others think about them
Group behaviour
Appearance

Name Maya Stone

Age 29, stressed out about their next birthday and the state of their bank account

Body language The less dominant, the dominant. Their strange bra size means they move from shy to confident at fast and unpredictable speeds. They are becoming a bra sales entrepeneur. They have a shifting sense of personal space.

Passion Maybe all they want free WiFi and a co-working space? After bcoming very involved in online forums around unusual bra sizes, they're always online. More and more distant with their in-person peers.

Trauma Because they are a cheapskate arty hipster they have difficulties financially supporting their strange bra size. They feel ethically compromised funding their materialist shopping habit with a socially engaged art practice.

Consequence of that trauma No longer know how to interact with darkness. They have developed sleep-online-shopping after intensive use of the laptop, like an auto-pilot behaviour. This is embarrassing in the co-working space, they try to hide all their possessions and new deliveries.

Bad habit Feel the greed coming, freak the fuck out when the money is removed from their account. Their market research into underwear makes them susceptible to click bait, they are addicted to the capitalist pleasure of purchase.

Outfit A very strange bra size. Always have an oversized hoodies for when they start worrying about their boobs.

Belongings Bright lights for influencers. They use them for their reels and for their bra resales. Their space is very illuminated and warm. Boxes of all their online shopping remains unopened. They feel ashamed, too embarrassed to even return the items.

What others think about them Particular way from the inside, change group. They are likeable but increasingly distant. People wonder what what they are always doing on the phone.

Group behaviour Needed to stand ground. They used to have issues being assertive, found confidence in their online community. Now they place a boundary with attention and consideration. Their boundaries have become unpenetrable, limiting their relationship to people and their practice.

Appearance Body positive lycra sportswear. Different fluoro outfit every week. Big fan of crocs and their jewellery additions.