‘Keep people safe’: Designing a participatory performance within the strict parameters of social distancing in Australia

Abstract

This article recounts designing and performing an intimate encounter with strangers during the pandemic. At the end of 2020, as Australians emerged from a long period of ‘lockdown’, the celebrated Sydney Opera House again opened its doors to the public. Commissioned to create a new work for the Sydney Opera House’s Antidote Festival, I designed a ‘touch’ performance that met the Australian Government’s COVID-19 protocols for social distancing at indoor events. Instead of being frustrated by the restrictions, I used the health and safety rules as if they were conceptual instructions. Surprisingly, I was reminded of the 1960s and 1970s conceptual artists whose experimental capacity was borne from instructive limitations. Seeing the restrictions as an opportunity, I discuss how the physical limitations ushered in by COVID-19 (along with the heritage status of the Sydney Opera House) provided the parameters for conceiving a scene and an experience that was everything the pandemic denied – public, participatory, intimate and physical. I also reflect on what I learned in the process and how needing to keep people safe brought profound ethical understanding.