Now that we had decided what we will be using to build the wall, we brought in a variety of cardboard boxes, all different shapes and sizes. We wanted to explore, firstly whether the wall should be built and that we should take it down or whether we should create the boxes whilst in the space and then build the wall. This process was to go with the concept of revealing and concealing the space and the deconstruction and reconstruction aspect.
We used these two ideas as our starting point. Before we started we wanted to add something to the boxes that would have meaning. We chose to write on the boxes, and discussed the significance of a person’s death and that if they died would anyone care? Or would they just be labelled as refuse. These ideas had reflected the video that played in the alcove area that was about a boat that would carry dead bodies to an island where the bodies would be dumped with no funeral service or names in relation to the body. This idea had progressed from the fact we also liked the idea that the boxes could represent coffins, so we played around with the idea of writing things on the boxes like:
#babyno.1
#boy
#oldman
We used black markers to write on the boxes and began to think of the staging of the performance we made up all the cardboard boxes and had them on the floor. We found this to be quite a long process as the boxes would need to be taped into shape. Our next step was how we were going to write on the boxes, was it going to be whilst they were on the floor or whilst we were stacking them? To overcome this we looked into doing both. Firstly we wrote on them whilst they were on the floor and then stacked them. From this more ideas became apparent for instance like writing questions on the boxes such as:
‘Why is this happening?’
Moving onto our other idea, we found the boxes we had weren’t strong enough so it wasn’t as effective. For our next session we would get better boxes!
We then spent some time thinking about what else we could incorporate into the performance to reflect our ideas into the space. We decided to script a monologue that one of us could recite as this process of building the wall was going on.
What we created from this was to be the basis for our performance. So far what we had was a routine of stacking the boxes and writing on them and a voice over. Tequila played around with how she would project her voice for the poem. We found the most effective way was when it was monotonous as we wanted to increase the idea of repetitiveness. This worked well in conjunction with the erecting of the wall. It reinforced this idea that our emotion wouldn’t come from our acting but from the words spoken and what we were representing. It wasn’t supposed to be happy so the more mundane meant the act would resemble a routine. The words used represented this idea that sometimes we take for granted the little things in life, that we should treasure the simplest acts of kindness. However the poem would also reflect this idea of the monotony of life. We were filled with imagery of our pasts and the future and this is what we wanted to incorporate into the monologue. Collectively we thought of stages in our life that meant something which we thought could reflect in the poem. From this the idea of the circle of life became apparent and what we wanted to show was from constantly using the space we were in this would also reflect and re affirm the notion of the repetitiveness that is life.
From this development in research we hoped the following week (March 18th) to showcase our ideas to our peers and get some feedback.
Word Count: 669