These are my notes, thoughts and reflections from today.

Today, we actually managed to try out our ideas and actually put them into practice. We started at Pottergate.

Here we started by inviting our audience/participants to start by finding a slap on the floor and in chalk writing a wish or a memory of any kind. Look at it for a minute then wash it away. – We did this because after spending time within Pottergate we found many names and messages inscribed into the wall from many different dates. Also Pottergate when it was built was used as an entrance to get in to the city. There was a communications portal in the bottom for people on the ground and the people in the building could communicate to each other. People had to give a reason why they wanted to come through. After further research we found that a group or Monks called ‘Sand mandala monks’ made patterns meaning the circle of life and they would then wash them away to cleanse the mind and soul. This is what further inspired us to wash the participants memory or wish away so that they could cleanse their mind of it. We then asked that they step out of the arch looking up to the sky for 10 seconds. Then close their eyes, thinking of a bad memory and asking them to concentrate on that memory. Then we asked them to open their eyes. This made them try cleanse their mind of also a bad memory. We had different reactions one of which made one of our participants cry. This is very important to think about as we do wish people to see this as a performance and a mythical adventure and not a self help pilgrimage.

We then walked toward Saint Anne’s Well, where it is said that a devil lives inside. Legend has it that if a person walks around the well seven times, goes up to the door putting their finger in one of the holes in the door, they would be rewarded with feeling the devils breath meaning they would be going to heaven or if they were a bad person they would be going to hell and this would be shown to them by having part of their finger being bitten into. Again, we want this to be fun and not taken really seriously as Rachel advised that again this could be like self help, but we also wanted to make it link in with what we have just done and make it have a purpose. So when I arrived home I was thinking about this and to tie in with Folk tales and myths, so I came up with a little poem that could perhaps be read out before they do the tasks as a little introduction to why we brought them here.
This is only a rough draft of the poem for now and I need to develop it a bit more but this is what I’ve got so far:

“There once was a Devil in a well,
He decided if you were going to Heaven or to Hell.
You had to walk around in a ring,
And put your finger in.
For that naughty little Devil in the well!

P. Pinkering did think it,
This silly little trisket.
That it was rewarding for landscape,
to create such a silly myth.

You may feel the nibble of the Devil’s teeth,
Or you could be overcome by slight relief.
But by now you may have guessed,
That this is all really made in jest.
And is all in the name of fun.

So come on P. Pinkering’s mythical journey.
We invite you to take this task,
There really is no reason to ask.
He made it all up, we are going to give it a go.
Now come on lets get on with this show.”