AUDIOVISUAALINEN DRAAMA - metodina vuorovaikutus

Abstract

Elokuvaohjaaja Ilari Nummen teatteritaiteen tohtorin tutkintoon kuuluva "analyyttinen trilogia" päättyy kirjalliseen työhön Audiovisuaalinen draama ­ metodina vuorovaikutus. Tutkimustuloksia on julkistettu aikaisemmin esityksen muodossa (Väitöstilaisuus, 2000) ja kommentoituna videoeditiona (Vastaatko sanoistasi?, 2001). Nummi on kehittänyt käytäntöön perustuvaa ja yhteisöllisyyttä painottavaa tutkimustyötään Tampereen yliopiston näyttelijäntyön laitoksen AudioVisuaalisen Draaman Laboratoriossa (AVDL 1994-1998).

Opinnäytteen kirjallisessa osassa Nummi kuvaa yksityiskohtaisesti vuosina 1994 2000 ohjaamiaan teoksia. Mukana on näytelmiä, ooppera, tilateos ja soveltavaa teatteria sivuava näyttelysarja. Opinnäytteen kaikki teokset on arvioitu aikanaan julkisesti. Töiden kirjo välittää näkemyksen Ilari Nummen ohjaajantaiteesta ja ammattitaidosta: teatterin multimedinen ja moniaistinen perusluonne edellyttää ohjaajaltaan kykyä nähdä näkökulmien runsaus ja hallita sen mukanaan tuomat olosuhteet ja työtilanteet.

Nummen kohdalla ohjaajan työ on tarkoittanut liikettä ääripäästä toiseen: Lyhytaikaisena ammattiteatterikokeiluna käynnistynyttä taiteellisten esitysten sarjaa on tehty Suomen Kansallisoopperasta Teatteri Imatraan, yhteistyökumppaneina ovat olleet mm. Helsingin Kaupunginteatteri, Ryhmäteatteri, Suomen Kansallisteatteri ja Kiasma-teatteri. Kotimaan analyysiaan Nummi peilaa kokemuksiinsa Yhdysvalloissa teatteritekstien kehittelytyöpajassa, National Playwright Conferencessa (Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center).

Tutkimuksessa mukana olevista teoksista löytyy yhteisiä linjoja, teemoja ja otsikoita, jotka kulkevat seitsenvuotisen teossarjan läpi. Työn kolme pääteemaa ovat: 1) Ohjaaja elokuvan ja teatterin välissä, 2) Audiovisuaalinen draama lajityyppinä, 3) Vuorovaikutusmetodi.

Leimallista Nummen teatterityölle on laaja-alainen verkostoituminen eri taiteenlajien suuntaan. Taustalta löytyy kokonaistaideteoksen ihanne. Nummelle teatteri on kaikkien taiteiden ja kaikkien aistien kohtaamispaikka: Moniaistisuus on ihmisen perusominaisuus. -- Moniaistisuus on myös teatterin perusominaisuus ­ ominaisuus, jota ei ole millään muulla taiteenlajilla.

Kokonaistaideteoksen ihanne edellyttää teoksen osien elimellistä yhteyttä. Nummi on aktiivisesti kehittänyt ja soveltanut työkaluja, jotka käytännössä synnyttävät ja tukevat eri osa-alueista vastaavien ihmisten dialogia. On huolehdittava siitä, että vuorovaikutuksen ihanne konkretisoituu arkipäiväisessä toiminnassa. Kyse ei ole periaatteesta vaan teoista. Kun aitoa vuorovaikutusta syntyy, sitä pitää tukea, vaalia, arvostaa ja tarpeen tulleen aktiivisesti johtaa.

Elokuvaohjaajan päätyminen teatterityöhön on ollut tutkimuksen perusvoima ja perusristiriita. Improvisaation ja analyysin vuorotteluun perustuva henkilöohjausmetodiikka syntyi jo Nummen elokuvatyössä. Myös ajatus valon ja äänen käyttämisestä ohjaajan ja näytelmäkirjailijan työkaluina tuli luontevasti elokuvaohjaajan mukana teatteriin: Teosteni sisällöissä ja kielessä voi nähdä yhtäläisyyksiä elokuvaan. -- Elokuvanomaista on katsojien itkettäminen tai pelottaminen, ilman sanoja kertominen, ilmeillä, katseilla ja reaktioilla kertominen, valoilla ja varjoilla kertominen, kertominen kuvilla; lähikuvat, leikkaukset, ristikuvat, hidastukset, soundtrack, vahvistettu lähiääni jne. Mutta onko tässä sittenkään kysymys elokuvan kielen soveltamisesta teatteriin? Miksi ei yhtä hyvin teatterikielen monimuotoisuuden löytämisestä suoraan näyttämöltä?"

Suomalaisia teattereita Nummi hastaa kehittämään itseään aktiivisemmin: Työn voi ammattiteatterissa järjestää monella eri tavalla. Kyse on taidelaitoksista, joihin on keskittynyt paljon inhimillistä luovaa potentiaalia sekä yhteiskunnan taiteeseen kohdentamia resursseja. Näitä resursseja voisi käyttää nykyistä luovemmin ja merkityksellisemmin, siis tehokkaammin. Ehdotankin, että jatkossa teatterit kohdentaisivat resurssejaan myös työkulttuurin kehittämiseen, niin että luova työ ja uudet innovaatiot tehdään mahdollisiksi. Jokaisen teatterin sisällä pitäisi toimia myös kehittämisyksikkö.

Ilari Nummi AUDIOVISUAL DRAMA with interaction as a method Writings on artistic works 1994-2000 An analytical report for the Doctoral Degree in Theatrical Arts University of Tampere, Department of Acting 2006, 277 pages

Ilari Nummi s written doctoral thesis is divided into three main sections: Section I: Nummi describes his background as a researcher and deliberates on the bases for his research. Section II: Nummi explains in detail and case by case the early stages of the works he directed in the years 1993-2000. These reports form the core of his research. Section III: Nummi examines the way in which he has been characterized and defined by the press and the theatre world. In this way, an outline of his artistic self-portrait is formed.

Since he first began as an artist, Nummi has been able to freely carry out research in theatre by using this profession s own concepts. The research has not been forced to conform to traditionally academic conventions. In 1993, Nummi ended up with the role of researcher because he had to justify in writing the reason he wanted to use work methods that diverged from the norm. The research studio Audiovisual Drama Laboratory ( AVDL ), which functioned in The Department of Acting of the University of Tampere ( Näty ) in 1994, made possible the establishment of a school of researchers. AVDL got fixed in two directions: the basic training at Näty and the outside art world. Co-operation was made with artists and institutions through individual works, the doors were open to the art world and there was a firm connection to the realities of making art.

Nummi asks himself: Why do I do research?

I am a pragmatic. For me, research is a process, the core of which is for the artist to develop his craft through his own work. So, I myself have been the most important beneficiary and the target of my research. I am deeply committed to examining the tangibility of the work. As well as myself, the main function of my research is to serve the theatre and the artists working there. If, in addition to this, my research brings a greater understanding of theatre and drama to those outside the profession, that is even better. From the point of view of society, the most direct benefit of my research should be seen in the most significant and so-called better performances. Art consumers enjoy the results of my research through the work itself- a wonderful artistic experience.

To Nummi, research is not distancing himself from his work or taking another perspective to it, but instead plunging and engrossing himself deeper in it. Besides plunging, there is an attempt to consciousness. Research is the organic part of creating art. First and foremost, the task of other researchers is to proportion the artist s analysis of their own work to a wider context or to the research traditions of different professions. Nummi emphasises that the artist s part in the research is easily watered down if this principle is compromised. Nummi predicts a period of prosperity at the University of Tampere, if they can agree on a division of work between Näty and the research on dramatic arts.

According to Nummi, different art forms differ from each other when examined from the viewpoint of research. The crucial variable is how many people s contribution is the work of art built on. In art research it is natural to divide art into two groups: individual arts and group arts. In the theatre, the work, i.e. the performance, is based almost always on more than one person s contribution. Nummi considers that there is a great need for research in theatre, specifically because the quality of work of every individual in the work group depends on the functionality of a complex process of interaction, the understanding of its regularities, and the director s skill to lead the process without harming it.

Nummi encourages the artists working in the profession to define together the concepts used in the work, so that in future words could more often build bridges and less often build walls between the various artists involved.

The written part of Nummi s research was preceded by 2 analytical acts: In the year 2000, he put on the performance Dissertation in Tampere, where the research was published in the form of a play. According to him, it is the leading genre of theatre research. In 2001 the multimedia part of the research was completed, i.e. the video edition of the play Do you answer for your words?, which was edited in the dvd format. Nummi predicts that the multimedia equipment of the digital age will revolutionize research on performing arts.

Of the artistic works studied, there were seven completed in the years 1994-2000: Mr Light, Joona s Book, the Black Munk, The Drunken Boat, Riding Across the Waters, Do you answer for your words?, and the Metamorphosis trilogy. In addition, the work includes the Dissertation, which started the analytical phase, and the Shindig event that supported it. The number of works was a conscious choice. Nummi attempts to produce data on the hard core of making drama. Only through it can another researcher analyse what is crucial in the director s work, independent of the circumstances and the media. The wide range of works conveys the director s conception of art: directing is a large variety of views and the handling of very different circumstances and scales.

Mr Light ( Herra Valo, 1993-1995 ) can be seen as a fundamental work. In it one can see the director s key methods of work ­ especially the interaction method ­ where the director explores the dialogue with the various makers of the performance and occasionally with the audience, too. The director builds a confidential work relationship with each member of the group. The supporting leg is a long co-operation with the composer. The new collaborators are the author, the set designer and the light designer. Mr Light is a work which originates from the venue, it is created for a venue which is not strictly speaking a theatre. The transforming set machine gets a significant role. The light designer takes part in the improvisation, the holistic improvisation becomes more intense. The author-director writes the work from many different angles at the same time. The tools are principally non-verbal: with lights and sounds the director sketches the world in which the work takes pl! ace and directs the actor. The director ends up physically on stage himself; the writing and the directing of the actors becomes more explicit and intuitive. Mr Light is a demanding audiovisual drama, where the theatrical language influenced by the cinema is manageable, as is the complex overall mixing .

The performance of Mister Light at the National Playwright Conference in the USA in the summer of 1994, leads us towards text-based intrinsic theatre. The experience is important for a maker of theatre coming from the film industry: he has to think about the relationship between a text compiled from the many elements of audiovisual drama and a traditional line-based play. The Third Mr Light takes the director to a large institution: the play is performed in the Helsinki City Theatre in the spring of 1995. The venue is - compared to that of the première ­ very different, as is the production schedule. Preliminary planning is emphasised, new equipment has to be found, taken charge of and adapted. What is crucial is the development methodics, simulation acting and the light-on-a-scale miniature model lighting system.

The opera Joona s Book (Joonan kirja) is done at the National Opera in the spring of 1995. How can a first-time director test his methods in Finland s largest theatrical institution? How can one win over an unknown and more experienced work group and get them to participate in the making of the production? Holistic improvisation has to be substituted by other methods of interaction. Careful preliminary planning and pedantic interaction are the keys to the work process. Already a year before the première visual workshops are held and a simulation tape is made of the composition. The most important insight is to transfer the key factors of the creative process outside the opera house: preparation for the leading role starts in the Tampere laboratory. The composition simulation and the light design ­ which is done using the light-on-a-scale method ­ are created there. Joona s Book is a spectacle, which sets the ground to apply a form of expression developed in films and theatres. In the multi-artistic tradition of opera, audiovisual drama is very much at home. A film director is closer to the mainstream in the opera than in the theatre.

The Drunken Boat (Juopunut pursi) and Riding Across Waters (Ratsastus halki veden) are works created in the Kiasma theatre in 1998-1999 using the artist-in-residence work method. The work group tests and develops a new theatre venue, which is the basis of everything. The context is new in Finland: a theatre inside a modern art museum. The director gets to boost the development of the Kiasma theatre and is the first to use the high technology available there. The Drunken Boat moves expression in the direction of visual arts and installation. The performance is captivating with its sensual atmosphere, the audience is enclosed in an embrace of the whole world. Riding Across Waters continues directly from where the Drunken Boat left off, but includes text- and environment-based work. The Museum of Modern Art interacts with its neighbour, C.G.E. Mannerheim: the great man is brought into the theatre and stripped of his weapons. The writer and the set designer get an inspiration and the director hands over the stage to them. He himself concentrates on creating a symphonic world of sound and gaining command over the brand new sound system.

Do you answer for your words? (Vastaatko sanoistasi?) has two separate premières in the year 2000 ( the Imatra Theatre and the Ryhmäteatteri company ). It is a work made to order by the producer and is the director s first text-based work. However it is not based on a drama text, but on a poem. The art of elocution is worked on intensively and thoroughly in the laboratory. The film director gets insights on the possibilities text and speech offer in the theatre. Alongside the script, the director creates the score, with which the overall tone of the performer, the sound and the venue is created in the work. The end product has text and audiovisual drama closely intertwined. There is only one performer on stage, which makes it possible to edit fast and unnoticeably from one world to the next and one character to the next. Acting moves on an exceptionally wide scale. Co-operation with the leading actor is intense throughout the whole process; even the script based on poems is written together.

In the year 2000, the attempt to move out of the theatre leads to three works which take the director to the grounds of applied theatre. With the Metamorphosis trilogy (Muodonmuutoksia-trilogia), the Dissertation (Väitöstilaisuus) and Shindig (Karonkka) a new question arises: How do you take what is learned in the theatre, i.e. the results of the research, out of the theatre context? Metamorphosis presents the latest natural science research with the aid of audiovisual drama. During the year 2000, an ambitious series of three exhibitions is designed and realized: a crucial challenge is directing the movements and attention of the museum visitor in the venue of the exhibition. The ending ­ Osiris, which examines death s biological dimensions ­ is fairly controlled interactive audiovisual drama, which advances at the pace of the audience and stirs all the senses of many of the museum visitors. The Metamorphosis project got excellent feedback from the international experts on the Helsinki Cultural Capital year.

In the above mentioned directions and their work processes one can find common lines, themes and headings throughout the seven-year work series. Nummi names three main headings: 1. The director between film and theatre (MAKER ) A film director working in the theatre has been the driving force and the basic contradiction of the research. The alternation of improvisation and analysis in personal direction methodics started already in films at the beginning of the 1980 s. First there was acting and then shooting, then the acting was analysed from the video. Also the idea of using light and sound as tools for the director and playwright was brought to the theatre by the film director. Similarities to film can be found in the language of my works. This has been expressed by most of the people who have seen my performances. What makes the audience describe these particular performances as cinemaesque? What is cinemaesque is making the audience cry or frightening them, narrating without words, with expressions, looks, reactions, with lights and shadows, pictures, close-ups, cuts, cross-fades, slow-motion, soundtracks, amplified close sounds, etc. But is this really a question of applying the language of the cinema to the theatre? Why can it not be finding the versatility of the language of theatre on stage? What in my works shows the essential nature of theatre and its possibilities? I personally did not feel I was functioning in the margins of theatrical arts, but rather in its hardest core. 2. Audiovisual drama as a genre ( ART FORM-STYLE ) Audiovisual drama exploits all the elements and possibilities of the theatre. In the background one can see the ideal of a complete work of art: To me the theatre is the meeting point and the sum of all arts ­ at best a lot more than the sum of its parts. The multi-perception of senses is one of the key characteristics of the theatre ­ no other art form has that characteristic. Theatre can satisfy all of a person s senses at the same time. 3. The interaction method ( METHOD OF WORK )

The realization of a complete work of art requires an organic connection of all the elements. That, on the other hand, requires a development of work methods and tools that create and support a dialogue between the people in charge of the different elements. Examples of these are holistic improvisation and the various tools used in the preliminary planning, e.g. the work group s shared work tables . In the theatre the most important work table is the stage.

One must make sure that the concept of interaction is made concrete in the routine activities. It is a question not only of principles, but of actions. Interaction is established only if the work is arranged so that people have to interact with each other. The interaction that is formed must be supported, cherished, appreciated and, if necessary, guided.

In conclusion, Nummi challenges Finnish theatres to improve themselves more actively:

By describing my own work, I ve brought forth options, the aim of which is not to substitute or supersede the existing work culture. Instead, I would like to promote the creation of a pluralistic work culture in the theatre. I would like to encourage the thought that work in professional theatres can be arranged in a number of different ways. It concerns art institutions, which have a lot of human creative potential and funds allocated to the arts by society. I believe these funds can be used more creatively and significantly. I propose that in future theatres would allocate funds to developing the work culture, so that creative work and new innovations can be made possible. In my opinion, every theatre should have a development unit functioning within it. It would be in everyone s benefit. To me, this exploration into the core of theatrical arts has meant an increasing number of new and positive surprises, and, to top it all up, miracles. In 2005, theatrical arts are doing better than ever!