Methodologies

Switch Elements

Inqueery - We let our work be guided by questions rather than assertions and assumptions. We pose questions that are complex, nuanced and consider the myriad sides of a thing. We will ask strange questions queerly. Our inqueeries will employ abundant artful skills & visioning required for these urgent times. We may ask questions that cannot currently be answered.

Care - We practice care above all else. Care & harm reduction for ourselves and our collaborators, for the territories we are working with, for our neighbors, strangers & the Wilds we encounter. Care for our audiences, our art forms and the stories entrusted to us. We center care that supports regenerative reciprocity, fumbling, failure, crip time, accessibility, and decolonial love. We know a process that builds at the pace of trust produces deep, adaptive & complex performative collaborations.

Politicality - We root all of our work within intentional & upfront politics of decolonialism, abolition & the resilience of marginalized lives. This guides our inqueery and care. This informs the histories and stories we uplift. We are committed to a discipline of hope, art making that encourages presence (not absence) & the daily practice of life affirming world making.

Place & partnership - Place is our first great partner. We will honour the historical and contemporary indigenous stewards of the territories we work with. We will let landscapes, architectures, liminal & highly public spaces, as well as geo politics guide our movements. We will seek out recalcitrance in cracked concrete, we will highlight art on the walls, make theaters out of parking lots & encourage collaboration with the wilds.

Interdisciplinarity – We will not be confined by artistic traditions or norms. We will leverage and blend mediums freely and with rigour. We will create innovative ways to make our art mobile, wearable, solar powered, interactive and time bending. We will uplift as many Queer, Trans & Two spirit artists as we can along the way. Performance and movement through space will bring it all together.

Switching – We will embody switchiness in all of our processes for creating. Sexy, intuitive, empowered, queer, adaptive fluidity. This means considering power & our use of it at all stages. This looks like collaboration rooted in deep consent & consensus, listening & skillful communication together and our surroundings. Switchy improv means Yes/No/Maybe AND offerings that keep us flowing.

Switch Processes

Starting with a central set of questions - Inqueery linked to place, people & politics we want to uplift.

Assembling “research” - Collecting in advance & throughout the making process > historical and emergent stories from archives, conversations, spells, writing, songs, gestures, characters, wilds, landscapes.

Collaborating with multidisciplinary queer creatives - artists, technicians, producers who can switch (or want to learn how) to generate the content, narrative, scenes & flows together.

Trust building - For inqueery, for switchy play, for street work, for deep consensus & collaboration - this includes making regular time to check in, to change pace, to prioritize care over productivity etc.

Orienting to place - Walk, roll, witness, meeting friendly strangers, working with the wilds, working with histories, stories & tensions. Identifying how landscape & architecture dictate what can happen when & how.

Community partnership building - Getting to know our neighbors (human & wild), sharing info about our work along the way, creating meaningful ways to collaborate, centering arts & cultural groups.

Generating “banks” of content: Prompts, questions, words, props/costumes, visuals, performative compositions, audio etc. Making these available to the whole team to work with in improv & on the fly.

Building creative teams - Teams emerge around content generated to prepare mobile modalities for stage management media arts, sound arts, movement, shadows, choir, procession, cabaret, technical etc.

Switch street methods - Devising mobile tech, active consensus, "vibes practices", Colour codes, visible & invisible performers, pop ups, etc.

Street Scripting - Materials loosely woven into a map with street photos, script elements & cues for all teams - held by the production teams.

Switch testing in the streets - Community showcases, remixing, documenting, (re)aligning with our political & artistic goals.

Audience care - Signage, digital & printed materials about the show & experience, oral orientation before the show, Vibes team moving with the audience: providing lighting, seating, blankets, snacks, anchoring etc.

Archiving - Recording at every “rehearsal”, visual mapping, databasing everything we collect in an open source format, audio recording which can also integrate into works, filming different stages of the street show, sharing online as a record!

Some Switchy Theory

Queer Art of Failure – Jack Halberstam

Building at the pace of trust – adrienne marie brown

Regenerative Reciprocity – Robin Wall Kimmerer

Asking strange questions queerly – Sara Ahmed

Crip time – Alison Kafer

Decolonial love – Leanne Betasamosake Simpson

Discipline of hope – Mariame Kaba

Abolition is about presence, not absence – Ruth Wilson Gilmore