Well it has finally come to our final performance, we have become a long way from our first initial plan of being in the cafe, and tying up the building together.
We turned the outside into an exhibition, even while we were setting up people wanted to know what was going on. At one point we had our other “exhibits” set up, though we weren’t performing as we were getting changed, and I could see people curiously looking and wanting to know what was going on.
As the women went by it I could see her saying to her husband she did not understand what was going on, it was highly interesting to see that before I went outside to perform.
I believe that the most amazing aspect about site specific is the audience, with ours as there was no set audience just people walking by, and as it was a nice sunny day a lot of people were. There were an interesting mix of interactions from people smiling awkwardly even to one old couple telling us to shut up and it was highly annoying.
(We continued, though that was quite a shock!)
It reminded me of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmnaZrQIymU (Lonetwin, 2008)
As with John Stevens, our audience was anyone passing by, and their comments and reactions ended up being part of our performance.
The audience would see this sign and come in for a closer look before they saw our performance and they would see Fran, Jenny and myself talking to our invisible companions. Then they would look up to see Holly and Shellie having a tea party. It was motion after motion, and I believe they were unsure what to do.
I mentioned in a later post about cafe culture and being in your own personal bubble when you enter one, strangely enough though a lot of people noticed us outside, the people in the cafe’s (though I was seated right next to them just outside) ignored my presence, even though they could glance outside and right next to them I was talking to myself.
Though many people sat at that window seat while I was performing, I did not notice a single person look up from their conversation or book. Even though at times I was mirroring them with my timing of turning my page of my book, and putting my book down. Yet they were completely oblivious as they were in their own cafe bubble.
As an exhibit it was quite a success! With many people having their interests piqued in our little gallery.
I believe it could have been easily very different, with no one paying much attention at all but because we were performing on a hot Saturday afternoon at lunchtime, many people stopped and ended up becoming part of our piece. I would be interested to see if people would have bothered stopping to take a closer look at us if it was raining or cold.
Site Specific was an incredibly interesting performing piece, one I would like to experiment again with some day.
Bibliography:
Lonetwin, (2008). Town Crying: My name is John Stevens. [online video] available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmUn2ZTzeY0 [accessed 06/05/2013]