Monthly Archives: February 2015

Second Hand News..

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On Monday 2nd February, we started our second week of site specific. We were taken on a tour all around Steep Hill, Lincoln. After viewing the lovely sights it had to offer I decided to dig deeper and discover some of the history behind Ellis Mill.

Ellis Mill

After doing some background research, I have ascertained that Ellis Mill is the last remaining mill to operate and still produce flour in Lincoln. The mill has continued working after an incredible two hundred years from when it was first built. There is evidence that proves there was a mill around Steep Hill before the Cathedral (the main tourist attraction) had even finished being built.

Looking further into the history of the mill, I have discovered that in 1551, Lincoln suffered an absence of wind for five weeks. As a result of this, the mill was unable to produce flour. This left most of the people in the city deprived of food, as the whole population relied on bread, especially the poor.

History of Ellis Mill:

http://www.lincstothepast.com/exhibitions/places/windmills/ellis-mill/

http://www.visitlincoln.com/things-to-do/ellis-mill

After investigating the historic past and backgrounds of windmills in Lincoln, it has now enabled me to appreciate how Ellis Mill is a major importance for the industrial history of the city. As Mike Pearson suggests:

“a visitor’s experience of the same place may invoke reactions and associations entirely differently from that of the inhabitants: it is possible to be in a place without realizing its significance for the groups of people who have historically inhabited it.[…] A pile of old stones to walk your dog over then, or the defeated hopes of a nation?” (2010, 24).

When I first visited the mill, I was not particularly captivated or interested by it, as I did not have a great underlying knowledge for it. Having a sense of understanding for this, has allowed myself as a spectator, to admire the layers of history attached to the site, offering more than what meets the eye.

Flickr site: https://www.flickr.com/photos/131412114@N08/

 

Pearson, M. (2010) Introduction in Site Specific Performance. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Mapping the Area

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In our third site lesson, we were given more freedom to explore and interact with the site on our own. We had to create an “unusual” map of an area and lead our classmates on a misguided tour.

For the map, my friend Charlie and I decided to create a map of texture rubbings from different buildings all around the site. we did this because everyone comes from different backgrounds and experiences these places differently but, when you get down to it, these places are more similar than you think :‘To see the city from one’s bed, from one’s bath, from one’s rooftop – how perfect to live in a city.’ (Etchells, 1999, 76-80)

We then had to create and lead our class on a misguided tour and a small area of our site. Charlie and myself decided to be historical researchers doing a tour of a well where, in the nineteenth century, a killer used the well to hide bodies. we told the class that the memorial next to the well had the names of all the victims that the police found on  it. ‘Playing always to the different histories written in urban space – the official historical, the personal, the mythical and the imaginary.’ (Etchells, 1999, 76-80)

While taking part in these activities, ideas began to form in my head about what i could do for my site performance. hopefully soon they will be more solid.

Week 3: Performance

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In ‘The Performativity of Performance Documentation’[i] Philip Auslander explores the various ways ‘performance’ and ‘performance documentation’ may be interpreted and classified. He begins by categorising performance documentation into either documentary or theatrical and then gives many examples of both.

Auslander deeply explores the possibilities and complexities of using ‘photographs’ and ‘performed photography’ as a method of performance documentation, with focus on Vito Acconci’s ‘Photo- Piece’ (1969) as it questions the ‘relationship between performance and documentation’(ibid. p.4). This piece gave me ideas of using time-lapse photographs and studying the possibilities of performing at particular times of the day.

 

This week I also listened to a few of the podcasts from Fuel Theatre Company’s ‘Everyday Moments’ Project as it combines elements of both site-specific and one-on-one theatre. A podcast was released once a month through the course of 2011, each by a different artist and designed to be listened to at a certain time and place, ranging from on top of a hill at sunrise to in an express supermarket at 5:30pm.

Adrian Howell’s podcast was intended to be listened to in the morning with a hot drink. The 9-minute long soundscape uses the sound effects of rain, clock chimes, breathing and background radio news and classical music to create a momentary setting with a feeling of peace and relaxation. Although this piece (like a few others in the series) does not include any kind of ‘narration’ I felt that no sense of the piece being ‘personal’ was lost as the sound effects and obvious presence of Howells was enough for the listener to be able to envision and appreciate themselves in a certain moment.

[i] Auslander, P (2006) ‘The Performativity of Performance Documentation’

Day 4: Text, Signs, Maps and Misguided Tour Specific Performance?

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Photo0107[1] Photo0108[1]

 

 

Photo0109[1]

In Today’s Site Specific Lesson, we were concentrating on letting our creativity loose, as we were told to create a text, invent a unique map and lead our group on a misguided tour, all to I think explore our site’s pre perceived perceptions.  The first activity we had to do to explore this idea was pick one subject from a range of subjects read out and create a short text from that subject.  For example George and I chose the subject of Ownership, when we first heard the word Ownership, we both were looking straight at the castle.  That got us thinking who actually owns the castle now, is it the council? a local business? or the public? With support from the quote, ‘Walking in our own city we’d often employ a deliberate confusion about what we were trying to solve or understand – was it the latest show or the city itself?’ (Etchells, 1999, 76-80) We thought of the idea to base our text around the word/statement ‘Mine?’ with the tagline ‘You think you own it but do you?’ This is supported by the quote as Tim Etchells is trying to say that when walking through a city you don’t what to understand, as a city is a vibrant mix of different culture,e specially Lincoln, that’s why our question of ownership as so poignant because in a historical city like Lincoln who does own it now.

The second activity we engaged in was to explore different and unique signs in order to see if we could unlock hidden meanings behind ordinary working day signs.  During our travels, there were lots of signs we documented see https://www.flickr.com/photos/131336919@N08/sets/72157650775845086/.  For example behind signs such as ‘We are listening’ and ‘Vicars Court Private’, we thought that Lincoln Locals could hear us and we were constantly being watched and all vicars were very private human beings in Lincoln.  With this quote, ‘The neon signs, the old advertising slogans, the fragments of graffiti – all of these things made it into our shows.’ (Etchells, 1999, 76-80) we thought this grabbed our idea with these signs beautifully because any other time of the day they’re normal working signs but when we explore them, they can mean so much more.

The last activities we had to engage with was creating our own unique maps of our site and also create a misguided tour of a specific area of our site, to see what our site looked like with different interpretations.  For our Map, George and I decided to create a texture map by rubbing textures of different parts of our site, all the way from the Cathedral to the Water tower, in order to see how these buildings and objects feel different but yet have our site in common.  ‘To see the city from one’s bed, from one’s bath, from one’s rooftop – how perfect to live in a city.’ (Etchells, 1999, 76-80) This quote sums up what our map was trying to do, as we all see and feel the city if Lincoln in different surroundings but with our texture map, you can start to see that these buildings do have some things in common like the texture of the bricks and objects found around these historical buildings.

The last activity we did, was make a misguided tour in a specific place of our site, near a Roman well.  We could use our imaginations and interpret our tour with whatever story we liked and through anybody’s eyes.  We decided to be a pair of historical researchers, researching into a story of a Nineteenth century killer who hid in the well, by using the Nineteenth century memorials, we believed we had the right evidence to back our misguided tour up.  ‘Playing always to the different histories written in urban space – the official historical, the personal, the mythical and the imaginary.’ (Etchells, 1999, 76-80)  This quote perfectly sums up what we did in our misguided tour as we knew our tour was untruthful, but because we used certain facts, we heightened up the legitimacy of our grizzly, gruesome tour.  Overall I feel this session really helped me understand the interpretation of this site, which gave me a good start to understand how to create a imaginative performance within relation to the historic value of our site.

Works Cited

Etchells, T. (1999) Certain Fragments. London: Routledge.

 

 

 

Day 3: First Time Drifting

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The first time properly exploring our site was truly inspiring, to look at the massive diversity of the area we’re working was very interesting, as I was constantly trying to find unusual and unique parts of our site to generate performance ideas from.  With constantly taking pictures see https://www.flickr.com/photos/131336919@N08/,  and using my senses to capture the spirit of our site, I think I found a good starting point today when it comes to my site specific performance.  When I stated I used my senses to capture the spirit, I was referencing one specific example, as when we were drifting in a route devised by Rachel, I walked past an elderly man who quite simply said to me in passing, ‘Nothing happens here, apart from us’.

With inspiration from the quote, ‘The Interpretive instinct of the visitor is not denied, and meaning is not monopolized.  In Comes 1: Performance, Memory and Landscape (Pearson, 2006a) is structured as a number of excursions in my home region: guiding the reader, be they in an armchair or in the field, through a sequence of locales, pausing at each other for personal and critical reflection on themes related to, or evoked by, that place: mixing themes biographical, familial, topographical, archaeological.  A choreographic approach to the visitation of individuated places.’ (Pearson, 2010) I could understand especially reading that quote, that these historic places mean different meanings to everyone, from tourists to locals.  After today’s first visit, if I can explore the inner and outer beauty of the buildings we’re using for our site specific performance and try to create a fresh new meaning with regards to these old buildings, then I have achieved what I want to achieve.

Works Cited

Pearson, M. (2010) Site Specific Performance. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.