The Australian Bureau of Worthiness
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"Don't be too hasty in trying to find a definition of a town; its far too big and there's every chance of getting it wrong" Georges Perec
The Australian Bureau of Worthiness is a residency model for creating live performance-lectures title I MET. The Bureau sets up in a locale for a period of time, and asks the question of the community it is in: what makes your day worth it? Residencies are carried out either by the full-bureau consisting of Emma Beech, James Dodd & Tessa Leong or by Emma alone.
Description
Coming up for air from the daily grind, a street is interrogated and re-evaluated by the Australian Bureau of Worthiness. Samplings of chaotically acquired information have been collected and the results are out. They have been dynamically reconfigured into a live performance of inspired anecdotes & images gathered from our mundane experiences of daily work, rest and play.
Was your day worth it? Was your neighbours day worth it? Armed with only voice recorder and stills camera, randomly selected members of the everyday population have been asked this question. With their ideas on worth, a collective sense of worthiness will be open for viewing, listening and experiencing through a live performance. Locally grown ideas on what makes a day worth it are being presented by the bureau, who are attempting to unleash our very differently felt perspectives on the one same day to generate connections between us through comparison.
The Australian Bureau of Worthiness is a residency model for creating live performance in a dynamic seminar style, and asks the question of the community it is made in, ‘What makes your day worth it?’. Through the collection of quietly inspired stories, anecdotes and images of the every-ness of every day, a polling of collective worth is gathered and shown in an empty shop amidst the working community from which the perspectives on worth were taken.
The bureau, using some lo-fi technology and some highly honed skills, questions and connects your responses to map how our ideas and perspectives ultimately bind us together, and how the place we choose to live and work in impacts upon our days – and directly following- our own personal worthiness.