Tag Archives: Site Specific

Most watched nation

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As we get on with our lives we forget about the fact that we are being watched via CCTV cameras dotted around our own towns. Do people realise that there are cameras? If they do would they act differently in the space? What would be the factors that would change the way people acted in a space; Weather? Time of day? A more obvious act of filming?

To enhance our knowledge of space and behaviour it would mean undertaking a lengthy proccess studying the space and people. It would also only be fair to study expected variables that might change the results. Spaces can be transformed from empty connections for destinations, to a lively bustling loaction that has become a destination. A space can coax families or couples as a resting place, or be a loaction for workmen to carry out their duties. People that pass through the space might have a life long connection to it, having lived there most of their lives, but will not pay attention to their surroundings on a daily basis. On the other hand it can be a site for tourists that will see everything in great detail, as they might not ecounter it again. What behaviour will set these people apart?

From walking around Lincoln, apperaing as tourists, a group member overheard a local man say “Nothing happens here apart from us.” as if to imply it’s a waste of time looking around this patch. It’s easy for local people to become used to their surroundings and see the ‘attractions’ as more of a practical thing or nothing that special. By saying that nothing happens there apart from them, he is suggesting that all the community do is simply live, when in fact it is because of them living that the place thrives. They are a crucial, relevant component in making the space what it is, without them the space becomes nothing.

Maybe if we linked both notions of CCTV and ‘nothing happening’ in the space we can inflict a healthy reflection on the people that they are important.

Our group intend to study and relfect a site using modern technologies, over the next few weeks we will mimick the CCTV camera located in a prime area of Lincoln using timelapses.

 

 

Don’t worry be happy :)

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SAM_1327

 

 

 

 

Hi everyone!

Haven’t blogged in a while and I think it’s about time I did. So since the Blog I posted last, I’ve been a busy bee with my group (Georgia, Beth & Luke). We have started to explore some of our new ideas and theories as well as learning more about local folk tales and legends associated with uphill lincoln especially with Pottergate as well as the secret garden.

Some of the sessions we have explored uphill have developed our readings further by physically doing some of the tasks, tours & movements that have come from many of the weekly set readings. One I enjoyed was a set list of tasks that was given to everyone as a group by Rachel to do three things that would affect the space without physically damaging private & public property. Finally I can say i’ve performed as a tree in Lincoln, something that people think drama students do in their degree for three years.
The picture I’ve attached on to this post was taken a couple of weeks ago as part of the set tasks given to us by Rachel. With this quote I feel it was the right thing to put up as the day we wrote the quotes it was pouring down with rain. In all fairness our quote paper wasn’t respected or appreciated as much as we would like. An elderly lady thought we were littering the bushes and trees with paper, I think if she had asked why were we doing this project  I feel we could of brighten her day saying we were creating performance art for all to enjoy.
For now i’m going to look up who owns Pottersgate to see if we can explore the room/s inside the archway gate.
Thanks

 

Small town

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Carrying through my theme of miniatures and perspectives, I created a map of a town using the patterns of a stone floor. It already had the characteristics of a place with its shapes and levels, all it needed was someone to see it. I started off by choosing a piece of the floor that I thought had the most potential; this involved traits such as daylight, shadows, litter and shapes and depth of stones!

This was the area I chose for the birds eye view map:

Displaying IMG_0616.JPG
I figured that there was no need to be 100% realistic in what I was doing and this allowed the simplist of things to become important. This notion has become very relevant and useful in site specific performance as it has taught me to look beneath the view.
Stones became buildings, cigarette butts became crash sites from where they had fallen from the sky, scratches on the stone became the aftermath of a tiger escaping from the local zoo, the daylight and shadows became the separation between AM and PM in the town and so forth.
After blowing the picture up and printing it off I was able to draw my imagination…
https://www.flickr.com/photos/130878920@N06/16647407236/
I also made a key to accompany my map, so it makes sense to everyone else too!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/130878920@N06/16050990094/

 

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.

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’