Tag Archives: Cathedral

I love Lincoln Library

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Trying to find solid evidence of an earthquake which occurred in 1185 is not the easiest task which I have ever taken on, however it is one of the more interesting. After deciding to venture into Lincoln’s library to see what it had to offer we were approached by a Librarian who asked us what we were looking for, in this question truly started our mission.

Three librarians helped in the search for information for the 1185 earthquake as well as other earthquakes and natural disasters which may have helped our search. We soon found out about the fires, and numerous earthquakes yet none to the magnitude of the one in 1185.

I was most interested when we were given numerous letters stapled together from the 6th of December 1985 (Gates S, 1985) , a woman was wanting to know more about the earthquakes which had occurred in Lincoln, within this a Dr J. A. Galletly wrote that he had found from a date book which he had that there had been earthquakes in 1038, 1142 and 1185 (Galletly J.A, 1985). Using this knowledge I needed to know about said date book and the information in which it held. The librarian then went on a search and came back with a red date book warning us to be careful and to return it straight after use as it would have to be locked away again. The date book noted:

1185

“An earthquake which overthrew a Church and did considerable damage to the Cathedral, of which Benedict, the Abbot of Peterborough says, the like had not been heard in England: – That the rocks were rent, and the Cathedral Church of Lincoln was cleft from top to bottom ….” (The Date Book, 31)

We were also given newspaper cuttings from later years explaining the extent of earthquakes and the harm that it can do to wildlife, especially birds. Something else that did come of interest was a report that was announced which recalled any diaries, journals or personal media in any way, or any parish records etc which may shed a light on the 15 April 1185 earthquake. This allowed us to see that still even Lincoln council are issuing recalls for any information which could help them into their research of this event, of which the magnitude in England has been unheard of since.

The Date Book, R.E. Leary.

Galletly, J. A. (1985) Earthquakes in Lincoln. [letter] Sent to S Gates, 19 December. Lincoln: [Accessed 23 March 2015].

 

Conan’s feedback

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Conan’s visit was extremely beneficial. He provided a fresh new set of eyes to our piece and gave some promising feedback. One of his main points was we need to make it simpler. Concentrate on having a good solid audio and less on activities at each site. One clear point he made was to scrap our map as he doesn’t want the audience to be looking at the map and not at their surrounding. Luckily we only made a rough template of the map so we hadn’t wasted too much time.

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He also suggested that we split our tour up into separate audio files so the audience can make their way round the site at their own pace without being rushed by the audio tour. Aside from the technical aspects of the audio, he gave us much needed direction in the way of what we were focusing on as a theme. Only recently had we scrapped the idea of a child’s perspective and thought about focusing on ‘a life journey’ and use all different perspectives from different age ranges. The route we had in mind for our tour was circular and it played very nicely into the idea of a pilgrimage, starting and finishing in the same place, ending at the beginning. Thus we looked into the pilgrim statue that is on the cathedral and the significance of the scallop shell. We realised that Lincoln, and more specifically the cathedral was and still is a significant pilgrimage point for the UK. Conan really like the idea of the pilgrim and the scallop shell and advised us to focus on that aspect more alongside the perspectives. Possibly a pilgrimage of developing an understanding of other people’s perspectives? Conan also mentioned that he liked the idea of coincidental objects/ happenings that appear subtly around the walk. This was something that we were unsure about, whether is was something worth pursuing, however Conan’s visit certified this and we can now work at developing the idea. Overall it was very beneficial and I fell much more on track!

Janet Cardiff

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After returning to Site with the onset of showing Conan some of the work our group had been preparing, I unfortunately had to take a back seat to listen about the change in ideas that we had been thinking about.

With the ideas of the 1185 earthquake still prominent in our piece I have been researching the basis behind an earthquake, the basic movements and vibrations which must occur for this natural disaster to occur. However I was also intrigued to research a certain artist Janet Cardiff who is known specifically for her work with sound and sound installations.

I have specifically looked at an audio walk formed by Cardiff and Miller named Jena Walk (Memory Field). The basis behind this idea was the audience would listen to an audio piece which would include sound effects from battle scenes as well as excerpts from Louise Seidler’s Diary. Cardiff wanted to use a specific landscape where the Prussians and Napolean battle had taken place 200 years before, this landscape was also a place where Russian tanks did Military exercises and one where Louise Seidler; the painter of Goethe from Jena may have walked. Cardiff took the basis of these historical events to make an audio piece about time and memory, and how one site can hold so many memories yet so many make new memories their every day.  Throughout the audio piece one century slips to another and as the listener walks they begin to become aware of each step they are taking, of where they are, of the site they are walking on just as those have for the last 200 years and the stories from those last 200 years begin to mix. The excerpts from Seidler’s diary are cleverly used as …” a narrative that deal with the physicality of memory”. Cardiff, J. Miller, B.G. (2006)

Our own piece is about an earthquake in 1185 which destroyed the Cathedral, our idea for the audio is to almost relive this with the sound of what could be the rumbles that the earthquake would have made (our own interpretation) and the crashes and movements from buildings around them, until the end at the Cathedral with a newspaper headline read out about the fall of the Cathedral. However could we use inspiration from Cardiff’s work, could we use extracts throughout the piece to vocalise what happened rather than allow our listener to decide everything? Would it be better this way to get the audience thinking about if such a tragedy happened now?

Cardiff, J. Miller, B.G. (2006) JENA WALK ( MEMORY FILED). [online] Available from: http://www.cardiffmiller.com/artworks/walks/jena.html [ Accessed 22 March 2015].

Potter’s mystery and Queen Anne’s legend

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After some discussion, my group and I decided to organise a walk from Pottergate to the garden in Lincoln Cathedral which involved completing some tasks on route. One such task would involve a stop at Queen Anne’s Well (https://flic.kr/p/qQ4o7N), to perform the ritual which, according to legend, entails having to walk round it 7 times and then stick a finger in one of 6 holes in the door; a good person will feel the devil’s breath on their finger whereas a bad person will have their finger bitten off. When I tried this out today, I didn’t have a finger bitten off, so I rank myself as a good person. (Paranormal Database, 2014).
We were all of the opinion that it would spice up our walk if we were to pay homage to the numerous legends and folklore associated with the area between Pottergate and the Cathedral garden and that performing this physical ritual would add more interest to it. This was only one of many ideas we had but it led us to look more closely into the history of Pottergate only to find there is very little published about it. I delved into Nickolas Pevsner and John Harris’ book The Buildings of England; Lincolnshire, to discover that Potter’s gate stretched from the south east to the north east corners of uphill Lincoln near the cathedral and that the “stairway in the SW corner, now represented by the polygonal torrent,… allowed communications between the upper chamber and the gate hall” (Nicholas Antram, 1995, 484). This photo (https://flic.kr/p/r9UG9e) shows the tunnel which was used by those inside the city walls to shout down to those waiting at the gate.

Our discussions then led us to the idea that of course it was all about communication as it was one of the entrances into the city and people would have been obliged to state their business before being allowed in. On closer inspection, there has clearly been some vandalism over the years inside the arch of Potter’s gate such as this (https://flic.kr/p/r9LZrL) which was marked 1895. There are markings dating from 1895 to 2010 which just goes to show how our desire to make our ‘mark’ in history continues to fascinate us and that ‘old habits die hard’. Beth and I collected the markings so we can read and show how diverse they are (https://flic.kr/p/rrn5up). Doing this prompted us to come up with the idea of starting our walk at Potters gate and inviting people to add their ‘mark’ to it by sticking a post it onto the archway; we linked this to the manhole covers we saw inscribed with “post office” and “telegraph” which are also another form of communication. Rather than sticking notes on to the arch’s walls, our tutor came up with the idea of having a big piece of wood which people could sign before they started their walk; we decided this was a much preferred idea that allowed people to make their ‘mark’ without causing any damage to the building.

Work Cited:

Paranormal Database (2014) Lincoln. [online] UK: Paranormal Database. Available from: http://www.paranormaldatabase.com/hotspots/lincoln.php?pageNum_paradata=0&totalRows_paradata=30 [Accessed 2 March 2015].

Antram, N. (eds) (1995)The Buildings of England. Lincolnshire. London: Penguin.

Perceptions and audio

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Last week’s research in and around Lincoln Cathedral inspired us to delve deeper into the layers of perception that are attached to ‘well known’ buildings such as the Cathedral. But how would you describe the phrase ‘well known’? Is there just one way of knowing something, does everyone know the same thing? There is so much to know about one site, there is always going to be something you didn’t know, be that a fact or fiction. We went away after last week’s session and asked our housemates to tell us about a picture, (the headless statues on the cathedral). We then compared our findings and had a handful of interpretations on one single site. This abundance of layers from one stimulus is similar to Sophie Calle’s work Take Care of Yourself (2007). She created ‘a survey of interpretation’ (Fisher, 2009) by asking 107 women to share their opinion on a single email. These opinions that both Sophie Calle and our group received were ‘translations of reality’ (ibid, 2009), not necessarily fact, but translations of real thought and imagination. Several participants of our research told elaborate stories, obviously untrue, about the headless statues. One person stated that two people stole from the king and as punishment they were beheaded; their bodies were turned into stone and placed on the cathedral as a warning, whilst their heads were left to haunt the steps of steep hill. Although obviously a fictional story, this has now personally made me understand the cathedral in a different light. Forced Entertainment’s Nights in this City (1995) sort to write over Sheffield’s conventional history and tell their own. I found that this related a lot to our idea of portraying a different side to something people believe they know so well. They explored ‘the different histories written in urban space – the official history, the personal, the mythical and the imaginary’ (Etchells, 1999, 80) and ‘avoided facts in search of a different truth’ (ibid, 1999, 80). Personal truths are just as valid as fact. Children have the most elaborate imagination and don’t possess the social filter that strikes us down as we grow up. Their minds are much more open to interpretation and can see places and objects with a more imaginative outlook. How a child would perceive the cathedral might be very different to how an adult would. This childish truth was something we also wanted to explore. Tim Echells’ That Night Follows Day (2007) explored relationship between adults and children and how what adults say can influence a child. (Click here for video)  This made me think of the natural hierarchy of adults and children, making me wonder what would happen if we reversed the roles. Through the use of audio, a child could take a group of adults for a tour around the cathedral grounds telling them their ‘truth’, putting them in control of what the adults hear.

Also within our research we discovered the advantages of audio recordings. Hearing first-hand opinions allowed a sense of honesty to come across. We then came up with the idea of a possible audio tour to make it more of a personal experience. Linked (2003) by Greame Miller was something that caught my eye regarding the way the audience were in control of the performance through audio. They were given an mp3 player and left to follow the map at their own speed, and their own time. This independence of the audience really interested me. I thought about how using the audio could enhance the audience’s experience during the performance, and also before/after. I thought about the possibility of making mp3 downloads of the recordings for the audience to download prior to the performance on their own devices, and using their own headphones to listen to it during the performance. This would make the performance more casual, and puts them in control of their experience, engaging them with the site before they even get there. Moreover, through downloading the files on their own devices they are able to keep them. Maybe one day they’ll stumble across it on their iPod and it will make them think about the performance again. Leaving them with a token of their experience, similar to the books from Proto-type Theatre’s performances.

Etchells, T. (1999) Certain Fragments: Contemporary Performance and Forced Entertainment. London: Routledge.

Fisher, C. (2009) Sophie Calle: Take Care of Yourself. [online] Brooklyn: The Brooklyn Rail. Available from http://www.brooklynrail.org/2009/06/artseen/take-care-of-yourself [Accessed 28 February 2015].