Perspectives and layers

During Monday’s lesson the weather was far from perfect. The wind and rain encouraged us to take our research undercover. We knew that we wanted our site to be around the cathedral so we headed into the cathedral to see if we could overhear some conversations about its history or local myths, as our original performance idea involved verbatim. Whist in there we visited the chapter house, of which the architecture blew me away. Whilst gazing into the phenomenal structure of the building a father and his two young children came bombarding in, with booming voices that caught the acoustics brilliantly. The father was telling his children about the history of the building and how it was used for conferences and debates. However the youngest child wasn’t interested at all and continued to run around shouting and seeing if their voice made an echo. This made us think about the difference in perceptions regarding age. What an adult may see in a building (a structure of history), a child may see something very different (a room to make your voice sound big). We then sat and talked more about this idea of seeing things differently and realised that the cathedral has so many layers of perception to it. We really like the idea of perceptions that weren’t overly thought about. Fictional stories that people think of when they immediately see a site or object. This then brought us back to the Gargoyles that we saw. The facts of why they are there are rarely know, thus people create varying myths and stories about their presence. No two stories are the same; therefore the layers begin to appear.

One thought on “Perspectives and layers

  1. The gargoyles are quite fascinating – it would be good to see what you can find out or who you can talk to about existing myths in order to inform your making.

    I also think there is something interesting about how the children ‘broke’ the conventions of the space. That hushed, hallowed whisper that we grown-ups fall back on, that convention of quiet respect has yet to be learned by the very young. You might like to condsider ways in which your group could ‘go against the grain’ or create work that that defies or disrupts convention.

    You could also take a look at this
    http://www.forcedentertainment.com/project/that-night-follows-day/
    “the work explores the ways in which adults’ words and actions shape and influence young people’s experience. Addressing the audience directly, a chorus of children explores and interrogates the range of advice, facts, truisms, white lies and excuses they hear from their elders.”

    you should be able to find a video clip online if I remember correctly…

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