This research is an attempt to define ”presentness” in documentary film. Presentness is a term I have borrowed from performance studies where it describes a feeling when actors are unusually present. I use it here to describe moments of intense focus, uncertainty, a connection or an unexpectedness between the people I film, and myself. Considering myself  a ”social actor”, I apply Goffman’s work on performance in everyday life to help me understand the performances taking place in front of and behind the camera. As method, I have created ”retroscripts”, transcripts of recordings I made for a film where I talk to my friends about growing up in a multicultural society. I analyse these encounters, trying to understand when and why moments can lead to a feeling of presentness.  Diary entries contribute a biographical element, charting my own interest and awareness of my performance as a filmmaker. This practise-based research develops previous discussions on performance by using the transcripts to place theory in the real world of filmmaking. It connects conversations on identity by Hall, which are closely related to the subject matter of the recordings themselves, with performance theory as developed by Fischer-Lichte. It approaches theory as a way of interpreting what takes place and as a practical tool for becoming a better filmmaker. The research engages with the work of other filmmakers with an interest in performance (Asquith, McAllister), through their films and theoretical contributions. Documentary filmmakers are split in their attitudes towards performance. Some try to get beneath the ’mask’, others examine the mask itself to see what it tells us about the image we project of ourselves. Inspired by Goffman, I focus on the cracks in between, when the mask comes on or off, believing these moments to contain a spark of now and a potential for presentness. I draw parallels with different acting techniques and propose that filmmakers can benefit from learning from the preparation of actors.  While acknowledging that presentness in film is a subjective experience and its perception by an audience is dependent on context, my research suggests a better understanding of the performance of a filmmaker can help her create the conditions for presentness to occur in the creation of filmic material.

I vår snabba och upptagna värld med saker att göra, folk att träffa, platser att besöka, är det lätt att tappa kontakten med tidens gång, årstidernas förändring etc. Förändringar sker kring oss hela tiden men vi uppmärksammar dem ej, och rätt som det är har flera år flutit förbi. Vi brukade leva mer i synk med tiden och naturen, i ett naturligt förhållande till skiftningar och förändring, och jag tycker att det finns ett värde i att försöka återupprätta det förhållandet. Jag ville undersöka vårt förhållande till tid och närvaro och försöka hitta sätt som arkitektur kan hjälpa oss vara mer medvetna om vår plats i världen och tiden.Detta undersöks genom utformningen av ett kallbad som erbjuder besökaren en rituell resa av upplevelser. En plats där man kan slappna av och ha utrymme för eftertanke, ta sin tid att uppleva och se världen och sig själv på ett nytt sätt. Fokus ligger ej på eskapism och nöje utan på att skapa intensiva upplevelser som kan främja medveten närvaro. / In today's world we all live very fast, we all have places to be and stuff to do and most of the time we are not aware of time passing, seasons coming and going, changes happening etc. We used to live more closely connected with time and nature, and I think it is important to try to regain that connection. I wanted to look closer at our relationship to time and presentness, and try to find ways that architecture can help bring about an increased awareness of our place in the world.This is investigated through designing a cold bath which offers the user a ritual journey of experiences. A place where one can relax and reflect, and take ones time to experience and look at the world and one self in a new light. The focus is not on escapism or purely pleasure but rather on creating intense experiences to foster mindfulness.

Les temporalités désignent tout à la fois le caractère de ce qui s'inscrit dans le temps et une forme d’agencement du passé, du présent et du futur. L’évolution du droit de la famille marque le passage du modèle traditionnel, fondé sur l’idée d’un mariage perpétuel et source de pérennité des liens familiaux à un nouveau modèle, empreint de « présentisme », construit sur l’indissolubilité du couple parental. Devant le risque de dyschronie de la famille et de rupture du continuum de liens familiaux abandonnés à l’instabilité provoquée par la contraction du temps conjugal, le législateur a été amené à renforcer et à consolider la parenté. L’objectif parait de plus en plus de faire survivre le « couple parental » au « couple conjugal », au nom des intérêts bien compris de l’enfant. On observe, dès lors, un déplacement de la durée de la conjugalité à la parenté. Dans une logique de dissociation de la conjugalité et de la parenté, le temps subjectif, conditionnel et instantanéiste de la conjugalité - s’oppose au temps objectif, inconditionnel et perpétuel de la parenté. / Temporalities signify both all that which, by its nature, occurs in time, and an organization of the past, present and future. The evolution of family law has marked the passage from a traditional model, one based on the idea of perpetual marriage and a source of unending family ties, to a new model imprinted by “presentness”, one built on the indissolubility of the parental couple. Legislators are being led to reinforce and consolidate ideas of parenthood as they are faced with the risks presented by familial desynchronization and of the breakdown of the continuity of family ties abandoned due to the instability met by the shortened time of conjugal life. It would seem that the goal is to let the “parental couple” outlive the “conjugal couple” in order to serve the best interests of the child. Consequently, we can observe a shift in duration from conjugality to parenthood. Through a logical reasoning of disassociating the conjugal from the parental, the conditional, subjective and transitory time of conjugality becomes contradictory to the unconditional, objective and perpetual time of parenthood.