Notes on the Session: 2

We are now in out 3^rd week of the project and conversation is most defiantly in full flow. This week we where treated to two guest speakers, Jackie Hagan (a poet) and Rachel Burke-Davies (a radio presenter for Capital FM breakfast).

Jackie got us thinking about how language can be individual, how children (and adults) make up their own words for things. There is an aspect of play in conversation. It got me thinking about how play is therapeutic, and also how we might be able to use a game as part of the performance.

Rachel spoke to us about how she works with three men, and the role she has found herself having to play. Being the only woman she feels the need to keep conversation, whilst ‘on air’ grounded, and standing up to the men with a woman’s point of view.

What was really interesting was Rachel’s story about one man who was left in the studio with two women presenters. He found it difficult to engage or cope with the change.

I certainly feel that women can conform to men’s style of language more than men can conform to women’s style.

What I felt was the most significant point about this weeks session was the similarities between our two speakers. They work in such polar opposite ways, one is scripted the other improvised. One is presenting and thinks about the way she holds herself, the other we never see… yet both of these women told us about the power of using silence in their conversations. The way that silence control an audience.

I am interested in how silence can be both awkward and powerful. I think that if you are in a conversation, and a silence occurs this can be awkward, someone feels the need to fill this silence. This may be because power and responsibility in a conversation is constantly shifting. In a presentation a silence can be very powerful. When the talker is commanding all the power the silence can give time for an audience to take I what is being said, to contemplate and force people to question what is being said.

Both Jackie and Rachel also spoke about the way they use gesture and facial expression to have silent conversation. I am very interested in this form of communication and I feel it is a skill women exceed in more than men (this is a generalization but I have witnessed men become completely perplexed when women around them use this form of conversation)