Love at first ‘Site’

It certainly wasn’t love at first sight for Site Specific and I. When first approaching the given task my heart sank. Drawing attention to myself in public, standing out from the crowd, was something that never came naturally to me. However I’m all for throwing myself into challenges head first, and once I let my guard down, I started to realise what Site Specific performances were all about. For me, the reactions of passersby fascinated me. I thrived on the thought that we had shaken their day up somehow, broken the formality of everyday journeys to and from places and made them realise what was around them. Fiona Wilkie stated that ‘Site-Specific performance engages with the site as symbol, site as storyteller’ (Wilkie, 2002, 150), and it was this sense of purpose behind the performance that I began to favor. Such as the symbolisation of the everyday office job in Glob Squad’s Work (1995), and the public demonstrations of government control from The Space Highjackers and The Surveillance Camera Players. Using site specific performances for public education or enlightenment really interests me, and is something I would like to explore further.

 

Wilkie, F. (2002) Mapping the Terrain: A Survey of Site-specific Performance in Britain. New Theatre Quarterly, 18, 2.

One thought on “Love at first ‘Site’

  1. Hi Charlotte,

    Thanks for this first post and great that you’ve found the ‘Place of the Artist’reading useful. Here is a link to a short clip of ‘Work’ which you may find interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8I9UzmthzcI

    Gob Squad are a particular favourite of mine so we’ll be looking at more of their stuff in the next few weeks.

    Great that you’re referencing. You are nearly right:
    Body of text: (Wilkie, 2002: 150)
    Bibliography (at end of post): Wilkie, F. (2002) Mapping the Terrain: A Survey of Site-specific Performance in Britain. New Theatre Quarterly, 18, 2.

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