Jade Nicholls – Page 2 – The Collection Of…

Pearson Site Specific Visitation

Jade Nicholls / March 1, 2013May 13, 2013 / Cultural Terrorists, Development, Experimentation, Research, Space

Pearson wrote a book on Site Specific on how to get into the frame of mind as an actor working on a completely different site from a theatre. It entails going to many different places and asking yourself the same questions at each place, for example, ‘Who am I and what am I doing?’, ‘What are the conditions of my access’. On our very first site specific lesson we went around Lincoln and asked ourselves these numerous questions, this was relatively easy as we went to places we had been many times before. However when we first went up to the Usher gallery and done the same thing it became a lot more interesting as we were challenged with the questions and it made us explore the site we were about to spend many weeks rehearsing and finally performing in in a lot of detail. Pearson also states you should become different types of people or characters, for example when walking around a certain site turn yourself into a Tourist, someone who is new to the place. Another example is to turn yourself into a Runner; these tasks and activities really helped us explore the environment we were working in and made us notice a lot of things we previously would not have. It also meant when we chose where our performance was going to be we were definite and had done enough research and wondering around the gallery before making our final decision.

Soundscape

Jade Nicholls / February 25, 2013May 13, 2013 / Cultural Terrorists, Development

As a group we have decided to use a soundscape throughout our performance. We are going to have sounds of London playing whilst we run into the gallery and create the Big Ben, after 15 minutes we have the noise of the Big Ben chiming. We would have finished putting the piece together by this point so the chimes will make it extremely iconic. Once the chimes are finished we are going to have some 1920s music playing to represent the time period we are trying to represent. We have found these clips on Youtube (see below for link). We have our own speakers also so the Gallery will not need to worry about any interference with their own music. The volume is going to be loud as it will hopefully startle our audience and make them realize this is a exciting and fast-paced piece and also make them more intrigued in the action which is going on. The noises will also intrigue members of the public into watching our piece.

This is the link to the Big Ben chime we are thinking about using, it is the 3 Quarter Hour one.

This is the second link which is sounds from around London mainly filmed in Oxford Circus. Although we may research and try to get some more sounds, or even over the Easter holidays visit London ourselves and record our own soundscape.

‘Wrapped Reichstag’

Jade Nicholls / February 18, 2013May 13, 2013 / Cultural Terrorists, Inspiration, Research

Another huge influence to our performance was the performance led by Christo and Jeanne-Claude of the ‘Wrapped Reichstag’. They change a iconic and influential building in Germany over the course of a few days and watch how the public react to this. The public reaction in our performance is something we are extremely interested in and believe many people will stop and watch our performance throughout to see the end product. They re-create the Reichstag and make it original and unique which is what we are aiming to achieve when creating and building our own Big Ben. Although the huge difference is that we aren’t actually using the site of the Big Ben, we are still changing how it would potentially look and re-creating another iconic structure.

This is the Youtube video link to the performance- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esiErDm62E4

After researching and finding pictures of the planning Christo and Jeanne-Claude went through it has given us ideas to try out many different materials, after the polystyrene was unsuccessful we know we at least have a lot more time to try different ideas to make our structure the best it can be. Also it has helped seeing they used drawings to give them inspiration, we have decided to start to draw how we want the structure to exactly look like and make smaller model before making the final one. The works of the ‘Wrapped Reichstag’ has helped us as it shows using an iconic building brings a lot of meaning and questions to the performance.

The original drawings of the ‘Wrapped Reichstag’ during planning.

A computerized picture of how they wanted the final outcome to look.

During the performance, whilst being ‘wrapped’, shows how many people were interested in what was going on, as it wasn’t being explained throughout, which is what we aim to do during our performance.

The completed building.

‘The Grand Step Project’

Jade Nicholls / February 18, 2013May 13, 2013 / Cultural Terrorists, Inspiration, Research

The Grand Step Project is a performance which inspires and relates to our own. Stephan Koplowitz devised a piece of dance in which his group of dancers then perform on steps of iconic buildings around the world, bringing a different type of art and culture to different cities. Their website quotes- “The work also functions as a way for local arts presenters to both reach new audiences and help connect different strands of their cultural community, specifically in dance and music.” Like our performance they are bringing different cultures. Similar to our performance with the Big Ben, Stephen Koplowitz has a huge interest in the grand staircases, particularly in New York- “I am fascinated by the grand staircases’ grandeur, imposing architectural stature, and the ostentatious embellishments that belie the stairs’ mere utilitarian function as a means of approach and retreat.” Although these performances are made up of dancing and singing it relates to our piece as we have a lot of movement throughout the gallery happening and also the use of soundscapes can be seen as a type of music.

This is a link to their website which has videos of their performances throughout-

http://www.koplowitzprojects.com/grandsteps.html

The Big Ben

Jade Nicholls / February 18, 2013May 13, 2013 / Cultural Terrorists, Research

After doing extensive research into ‘The Big Ben’ clock tower it has given us more ideas on what to include in our performance. There are many clips of the sound the clock makes every hour which we may use as part of our soundscape throughout the performance, the four quarter bells sound G♯, F♯, E, and B. We could even use an instrument to make this significant sound of maybe bring an actual bell into the gallery to hit.

Also we researched the significance in popular culture that the Big Ben has had, the clock is now a symbol of the United Kingdom and London, especially in visual media and attracts thousands of tourists every month. Even though we live so close to London and have been many times we still visit the Big Ben each time we go to London as it is such an iconic building. When a television or film-maker wants to indicate a generic location in Britain they usually show an image of the tower or involve the tower in some way. On entering every New Year the Big Ben plays a key part and around the country everybody watch’s the fireworks surrounding the clock and relies on the time it shows to celebrate the New Year. Also on Remembrance Day the chimes of the Big Ben are broadcast to mark the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month and the chimes start the two minutes of silence throughout the country. Furthermore on the 27 of July 2012, starting at 8:12 a.m, Big Ben chimed thirty times, to welcome in the London Olympic Games, which officially began that day. In 2008 a survey of 2,000 people found that the tower was the most popular landmark in the United Kingdom. It has also been named as the most iconic film location in London. These facts and examples represent to us how significant The Big Ben is to Britain and how it plays a huge part of the cultured society. By creating our own Big Ben in the gallery there will not be confusion as to what we are creating as everybody around the world is familiar to The Big Ben.

All of these facts help us with our performance as it proves how iconic the Big Ben is and supports our reasoning for using it as the iconic clock. Also we can interpret the facts in the performance and use them, for example we could get newspapers with these facts on them, or even project the facts throughout the gallery for people to read whilst the performance is going in. Finally it has given us a better knowledge on the Big Ben and if we are asked questions during our performance or after from members of the public we can be confident to answer correctly including many facts.

The Big Ben.

The Iconic Bell