Today, for the first time, I visited the Collection Gallery. We got to look around both galleries which hold to different style of exhibitions in two separate buildings. The one in the Collection provided historical informational which was educational and therefore targeting and appealing to children, especially with the games and dress up sections. The Usher Gallery which looks like a manor house, is the home of paintings, sculptures, plates and clocks. This gallery definitely felt like the most sophisticated out of the two, appealing to an older generation and people interested in art.
Throughout our time here we were given the task to sit or stand in an area of the Collection Gallery and record everything that you see and hear. I chose the cafe as that seemed to be the area which was the most busy and thought it would be interesting to observe what people were talking about and who used the cafe. I found this very successful as I recorded a lot of observations from what the staff did and the noises I could hear, to the observations of what I could see from the cafe when I looked out of the windows. This made me acknowledge the architecture of the building as I was looking around. I realised the cafe was downstairs and not on the same level as the rest of the gallery, which made me think the cafe is a place where visitors or other people not visiting the gallery can come to and get some peace and quiet from their busy schedules. As I looked out of the window I could see a tree with a diamond ring on it and wanted to know what it meant, whether it was meant to be there and why.
My first thoughts of the building opposite the cafe (the education room) made me think the building is like a puzzle as there is so much to explore and what may at first seem accidental could actually have been done purposefully to make you explore the building like you explore the exhibitions in both galleries. As there was a massive space in between the cafe and the building opposite, I could imagine people walking around during a performance like a promenade piece.
The layout of the cafe also made me think about how I felt as a customer at the cafe. Where I chose to sit, by the window in an alcove, I felt hidden and separate from everyone else in the cafe even though the cafe is a big room. This made me think whether other people who visit the cafe notice this feeling too and whether some people decide to sit there to be alone and away from the chaos of the rest of the cafe and even from their busy lives. As a person who spends a lot of time socialising and having a busy schedule, it felt nice to be able to sit alone in a peaceful place and observe everyone around me.
With these observations and thoughts about where the audience could be, could this be a potential performance space?