When we first approached the subject of site specific we walked around the city of Lincoln trying to explore the environment in a way that we had never before. We were asked to look for specific places, such as; the best place to find an old couple holding hands, the worst place to pass wind, the best place to build a tree house and so on. To begin with we walked into the centre of the city, but then our course took us on another direction. We ended up somewhere that neither of us had been before. When we were in the areas that we had experienced before it was as though we were looking at them differently because we were, because we were looking for something in particular we paid more attention to the city that we so often pass by in an unfamiliar manner. ‘It’s that city, or one like it – this city, but not this one’ (Etchells, 1999, pg 76) Etchells quote from his book certain fragments sums up our feelings towards our new discoveries whilst wandering around Lincoln.
During our exploration I discovered a new love for the city itself, it developed deeper meaning and created new experiences. Whilst exploring new areas of the city I felt and excitement to uncover something I did not know before.
We found the best place to go sledding
The best place to discover true beauty
The best place to find yourself
The quote from Etchells is from an article within which he looks at the relationship between creative process and the practices of everyday life. This is what we were doing during our tour of the city; we were exploring the possibilities of performance whilst also looking into everyday situations, finding creativity from pedestrian actions. By looking for specific criteria we discovered creativity within each act. The worst place to sleep rough; we discussed where this might be, if there is anywhere that is the best place to sleep rough, why you would and what your circumstances might be to get to this point, from this discussion in our pair we decided upon performance concepts and ethical points. We then realised that this had never really been a topic that either of us had overly thought, it wasn’t until looking deeper into the city that we discovered these ideas.
Our journey took us on a 3 mile walk around the city, I found potential in a few of the sites for performance and for new discovery, it would have been interesting to explore these options further if we could have chosen a site but this exercise really opened my eyes into looking at things differently and so I feel that when we visit our site I hope I will be able to be open minded about it and look at it from a performance perspective, the same way that Etchells can view a city as a new city entirely.
Etchells, Tim (1999) Certain Fragments, New York: Routledge