QUESTION 3 - DEVISED

SECTION 3 

I researched different futuristic as well as modern issues and situations to ensure my piece is more well informed than it was before. Firstly, I researched human experimentation in the UK, particularly people who did not consent to the testing and had their identity removed. This acts as the base of our whole piece as our two characters ‘OBF’ and OBM’ were taken in against their own wills. Another example of human experimentation is when the CIA allowed Donald Cameron to see if he could ‘depattern’ the human mind by erasing their existing memories and minds. This piece of information impacts our performance in the ‘check in’ scenes where whoever is in charge of the whole experiment wipes the characters memory to conduct their physical/mental check-ups. This is done every month to make sure that the characters are clear of any past memories that could somehow interfere with the experiment. When trying to erase the memories of these ‘participants’ Donald Cameron palyed recorded messages to them while they were in a drug-induced coma. This fits in with the recorded ‘robotic’ sounding voice-over that plays to the characters in their check in’s.   Another part of the human experimentation research I carried out, mind altering drugs really stood out to me. In 1964 to 1968, the US army paid professors Albert Kligman and Herbert W. Copelan to carry out research on 320 prison inmates by giving them mind altering drugs. This relates to my naturalistic scene where all of the characters come out of their absurd state and return to what is suspected to be their ‘normal’ selves as they respond to a well-known ‘Queen’ song by all saying “I like that song”. This scene suggests that the characters have been given these mind-altering drugs to forget their past lives and personalities.  

CO2 emissions is the root cause of the issue within our performance piece but I specifically researched CO2 emissions from cars which is a modern problem that has been going on for years already, but our piece emphasises how this problem has escalated and effected the population and technology. This research links in with the scene regarding the invention of the automobile which is set in the Victorian era. The characters in this scene are astounded by the invention but some have concerns about the CO2 that it could release into the atmosphere, foreshadowing the current issue in the other scenes.  

Another futuristic piece of research that I looked into was ‘millionaire bunkers’. These bunkers have been designed to protect wealthy, important people from possible future disasters such as a nuclear war or World War 3. The idea I had to use this research in my performance is that the ‘lab’ that the piece is set in is held in an underground luxury bunker that all of its citizens can come to view. One particular scene which hints at the idea of being in an underground bunker is the ‘light scene’ where the characters react to a flickering light from above. The light in this case is a flicker of daylight from the world above and this greatly intrigues the characters as it triggers a vague unconscious memory inside them of their life beforehand. In my research I found a quote from Larry Hall (project manager of a luxury bunker) which reads “these are luxury, nuclear-hardened bunkers that are engineered…to accommodate not just for your physical protection but your mental wellbeing as well.” Which is ironic in terms of my performance as the characters in the piece appear to be very mentally unstable. This is shown primarily through dialogue, specifically in the first scene – OBM: “do you hear the owls howling?” OBF: “those are not owls they are fish!”. As you can see this dialogue is very absurd and doesn’t seem to make any sense. This dialogue wouldn’t be spoken by a mentally stable human which contradicts with the above statement made by Larry Hall.