Alongside their performance and workshop activities, Out There Actions have developed an ongoing research project entitled Watching Brief. Arising from a range of experimental observational performance over a number of years, this project takes its cue from the concept, rooted in Quantum Physics, that the percipient necessarily exerts an influence upon the thing perceived.

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Applied to working processes - be they creative, industrial, corporate, commercial or domestic - a programme of diligent and attentive watching can provide both affirmative support and transformative enhancement. The focus upon process is deliberate, since it is here that the groundwork for effective outcome and product is laid.

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Watching Brief is necessarily a bespoke service, adapted to suit the needs of individual clients. It can involve discreet and unobtrusive observation from a distance, or a more close-up scrutiny of process. It can consist merely of the act of witnessing, or involve the development and presentation of verbal or written reports on what has been witnessed. It is resolutely non-judgemental, tending to attentively study the 'what' and 'how' of processual activity, rather than the 'why'.

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Working processes which might benefit from Watching Brief include:

- rehearsal processes in performance development - theatre, dance and music

- visual arts development processes

- industrial manufacturing and production line processes

- corporate processes, particularly in relation to the conduct of meetings and operation of teams

- stock market processes and movements

- commercial shop-floor and customer-oriented processes

- domestic and quotidian processes which frequently go unregarded

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For more information on Watching Brief, or to discuss potential engagement, please contact Matt Fletcher at outthereactions@gmail.com.

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