Broken Record. A UBCO Student Performance

[By Valaura Vedan]

Since early childhood we learn through imitation, by copying others and the world around us.
But the human body is like analog technology and, no matter how hard we try, the copy is never exactly the same as the original.
Things transform as we repeat them.

So begins my introduction to Broken Record, a performance created and executed by sixteen Performance students of UBCO and their professors. The show seeks to explore the nature of art and how it relates to copying, reusing, recycling, and reworking. In a culture and society that is becoming more and more about the “homage” and “mash-up”, it is certainly the right time to open this dialogue to the students as well as the people of Kelowna.

In speaking with first year performance student, Sarah Griffith, it was clear to see that the concepts that the students had chosen to work with had struck a chord and piqued her curiosity, “Ame brought in the idea of copying; copyright, reusing, recycling, reworking material, remixes of songs, of videos. So we started out our process by bringing in different source material, some people brought in videos, text, music, and we worked with these little fragments of material that people had come up with”. The students then took these source materials and reworked and manipulated them, breaking them down into methodology and content, and began to piece them all together. What has developed is a curious, fragmented hodgepodge of ideas that ask about the nature of humans in relation to our need to copy and pay tribute to other materials and people. Tristan MacKinlay, who is in his second year with the program spoke about the idea that by human nature, when we copy something, it is never the same, “You are always reworking, even when you try to copy something exact, it’s never the same. So that’s what all of the fragmented ideas are kind of centered around”.

Children copy their parents, and teenagers mimic their peers and favorite celebrities. As adults, we often attempt to emulate people that we admire and respect, and often find ourselves sub-consciously mimicking the small quirks of those closest to us. This inherent need to mirror and copy the things that we love is seen in everything we do and art imitates life. There is a reason why television shows like Glee and American Idol are so hugely popular. People love to see their favorite songs and things reimagined and reinterpreted in a new and more modern way.

But the performance also broaches the subject of originality and ingenuity. Instructor, Ame Henderson, had suggested the theme for the performance, “For me it’s just this reoccurring thing in life that you realize that you can’t ever be totally original and you don’t really want to be either because then you’d be totally alone”. True innovation is extremely rare as most art and concepts are an evolution of something that has already been in existence. Every “innovator” in music has been inspired by an artist before them, taking their muse’s work and manipulating it until it becomes their own. “I suggested to the students, as a creative practice, to stop worrying about being innovative and realize that there’s a kind of innovation that’s about remaking things that already exist. So the show is kind of a mash-up of a bunch of things that these 16 people were thinking about when they met me and then how we found ways to share those things”.

Broken Record is being performed at the Kelowna Community Theatre on April 2, 3 and 4^th, at 8pm each night. The nature of the venue means that the students have had to think outside the box in an effort to explore the vast space at their disposal so be prepared for an unusual surprise. Tickets can be purchased at the door $10 and $5 for students.

For more information please click HERE

For information on instructor Ame Henderson and her work in Toronto, please click HERE