Author: Francesca Maria Izzo

Our assessment.

Francesca Maria Izzo / / Evaluation, People, Public Responses

Our final performance started with panic and worry as the weather in the morning leading up to our performance in the afternoon, was pouring with rain. As our performance was outside it would mean standing and sitting in the rain for two hours and potentially result in no audience members. Luckily however, when we began performing at 12pm, the rain stopped and the sun came out bringing audiences members with it. My role involved standing on a platform in the entrance of the outside seating area with a plinth and chalkboard informing the visitors of our outside cafe exhibition and inviting them to come and have a look:

 

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My role involved speaking quotes I had recorded from the staff members in the cafe. As a majority of the quotes were questions, I decided to say the quotes when visitors walked past or stood and looked at me, to create an interaction with them and highlight the staff members interaction and communication with the customers. As I was asking rhetorical questions and not looking at the visitors when I spoke to them, the reactions I got varied from person to person. For instance, some people looked at me but chose to ignore me, some replied to my questions with their own answers and some avoided walking near me and looking at me to prevent interaction. These observations were similar to the observations my group and I had made of the customers in the cafe. Even though a lot of the passers by acknowledged me and showed an interest there were a few who didn’t want to associate themselves with something unordinary. Like an earlier prediction I made in an earlier blog post, I mentioned we would get interest from children. This happened with a little girl who saw me and when I spoke and repeated questions when they walked past she questioned her family, repeatedly asking them if i was real. This made me think, as I was not acting like a normal person and was just stood still, she thought I was a robot or a statue as I was acting in a conventional, normal way. Children were also interested in the other areas of our performance such as, the cake stand and tea set as they kept going over to the glass plinths and looking at them.

Whilst I was stood on the platform, I was thinking of ways the performance could have been improved. For example, I could have pushed my role further by maybe having some  clear plastic boxes with coin slots on the top labelled ‘REACTED’, ‘IGNORED’ and ‘INTERACTION’ and every time a visitor did one I would put a coin into one of the slots and at the end tally up how many coins were in each box to compare people’s reactions to our performance. Having Shellie and Holly visible in the education room upstairs representing ‘THE MIMIC’ proved successful as a lot of passers by and visitors noticed them and interacted with them by waving and looking into the outside area to see what else was going on. Whilst on the platform I overheard some customers who were sat outside, notice and mention the ‘OBSERVATION’ sign which was on the window above where Gabriel and Jennie were sitting. As a result they then looked around and noticed the ‘MIMIC’ in the window behind them.

Unfortunately, we didn’t have a massive audience and people didn’t use the space as I thought they would. I imagined the visitors to walk around the space like they would in a gallery, moving around and looking at all the artefacts but instead they walked through to get to the cafe and didn’t really stop to look. As Pearson states in Site- Specific Performance, ‘at site the audience may be incidental- those present in the same place at the same time – and obdurate’ (Pearson, 2010, p. 17). Therefore, the audience members were there because they were visiting the Collection Gallery and not specifically to see our performance like they would if the performance was set in an auditorium of a theatre as ‘in the auditorium, the audience is cast as audience: purposefully assembled, expectant, disposed, potentially appreciative.’(Pearson, 2010, p. 17)

I think if we were to do it again we would need to make the exhibition more obvious and create more exhibits for the audience to view and observe. I also think Jennie, Gabriel, me and the empty cafe window would need placards in front of us to demonstrate more what we were trying to do and make it clear we were artefacts in an exhibition. I think we would also need to make more exhibits and make our piece more obvious instead of subtle.

Our original plan was to perform for half an hour and make it a short piece, however, as we didn’t know how many audience members or visitors were going to attend we started our performance at 12pm and finished just after half 1 and therefore Gabriel and Jennie repeated their quotes and we would continue if the outside area was busy. However, by half 1 the cafe wasn’t as busy and we decided to stop.

 

Pearson, M (2010) Site- Specific Performance Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan.

Progression

Francesca Maria Izzo / / Experimentation, People, Research

This week our group met at the cafe and discussed and experimented with some ideas developing from our main aim of putting on an exhibition outside the cafe. One of our ideas was to portray the quotes we have heard from the visitors of the cafe on the steps outside the cafe with chalk. However, from trying this out we realised it didn’t look as clear or effective as we imagined and as a result, developed this idea of using the text on a cafe menu whilst Jennie and Gabriel recite the quotes they have heard which contrasts the subtle with the obvious.

Another idea was for me to stand or sit in a glass box drinking tea to symbolise the people in the cafe are shut off from everyone else and unobservant of the other people in the cafe. It would also make the visitors of our exhibition observe the visitor in the cafe just as we have been doing on a weekly basis. However, we were unable to get permission to use one of the glass cases which the Collection gallery owns as they are too expensive and are already used for displaying artefacts in the museum. Therefore we decided to use a black wooded platform instead and represent the staff in the cafe as the staff are just as important as the customers in the observation of the cafe. As a result, it made me think whilst we were occupied observing and focusing on the customers we didn’t pay attention to the staff and therefore having me dressed as a staff member on a platform quoting things we’ve heard them saying, it makes the visitors of our exhibition notice them too.

As we are exhibiting things from the cafe, such as a cake stand holding cupcakes and a tea set in a glass plinth, we also tried to think of other things we could represent from the cafe. The main one we realised was the menu which is written on massive chalkboard inside the cafe. Therefore we have created our own chalkboard to write our own specials on for our performance. For example, it may read ‘Today’s specials are: Gabriel talking to himself as the reader, Jennie talking to herself as the working man, Francesca stood on a platform’. This therefore uses the same device of the cafe but has our own twist on it.

Another initial idea we had was to put lettering on the windows of the cafe and the education room to show ‘the observation’ and ‘the mimic’. As materials for this were hard to find for example plastic window lettering, we decided to make our own out of A4 coloured card and laminate it to make it look professional. The coloured card reflects the colours of the education room and makes the words stand out from the tinted windows, especially as the actions in the education window will need to be made aware of and obvious to the visitors who may not notice Shellie and Holly otherwise. The bright, large colours will also contrast with the subtle actions from me Gabriel and Jennie.

Throughout our rehearsals and planning process, trying to access ladders to put up string to connect the cafe and education room buildings to mirror the image in the painting, ‘Bound By Love’  had proved difficult. Unfortunately, even though the painting was one of our first inspirations for our piece, we decided it would be too much of a risk to attempt to do it on the day of our performance without any trial runs and we actually realised the string would not be necessary anymore as it no longer connected with the rest of our piece.

Cafe Research Survey

Francesca Maria Izzo / / Development, People, Research

To help our group with Cafe research, I made a survey which was a similar design to the surveys the Collection Gallery asks the visitors to feel out when they visit. We thought of using surveys to find out why people come to the cafe and to see the age and type of people who use the cafe. An example of the survey is attached here in this blog: cafe research survey

As well as using the surveys for research purposes we are also going to use them in our piece. For instance, we are going to make placards which will include data retrieved from the surveys and put them on the tables where people filled them out. This will make the cafe into an exhibition which is our main aim for the part of the piece which takes part in the cafe. Other placards will also be created from verbatim; conversations and observations we have overheard and seen in the cafe. Each placard will be dated, with a quote and the name of the person who overheard it. The placard layout will be very similar to this which is an example of a placard found next to a piece of artwork in the Collection gallery:

placard text

Our group experimented with the placard idea in one of the sessions held at the Collection gallery by showing the rest of the Collection group the idea for the placards. The feedback was positive with people saying it was a good idea and the placards were easily noticed. Some suggestions were for the pieces of paper to be brightly coloured so it would make the pieces of text even more obvious however, at this stage we’ve decided to keep the placards white with back writing on so they resemble the placards you find next to pieces of art in the Collection gallery. Other suggestions also  included putting the placards on other objects in the cafe and not just the tables. For example, on the plant pots and high chairs as well as using the windows and the tables and chairs outside the cafe. This suggestion helped fuel our initial idea of connecting the outside space with the cafe and the education room but we were unsure how exactly. Therefore using the placards on the windows and the tables outside we should successfully be able to connect all three.

Cafe Research

Francesca Maria Izzo / / People, Research

To help us with our performance, we needed to know the type of people who would be in the cafe visiting the Collection Gallery and how many people would be our audience on a Saturday. Therefore one Saturday I sat in the cafe and observed and recorded quotes of peoples conversations. I sat in one of the booths at the end of the cafe as that was the only table free, from 1pm- 3pm. During this time the amount of people in the cafe was very consistent with the busiest, loudest time being between 1pm- 1.30pm. Therefore I think it would be a good time to do our performance between 1pm and 2pm as this will be the best time to have a good sized audience.

The observations from being sat in this part of the cafe made me think the type of people who sit in the booths want to be secluded from the rest of the cafe. Sitting there you can hear whats going on in the rest of the cafe but you cant quite make out the conversations from other people. For example, I could only hear parts of the conversation of an elderly man and woman who were sat behind me and the manager when she was on the phone. The type of people sat at the table behind me also in the booth demonstrated why they chose to be secluded from everyone else. The first woman who sat there was by herself, having a drink and some food. The next couple who sat there were having a small general conversation with the woman noticing the engagement ring on the tree outside the cafe. The last person was the manager who chose to sit away from everyone else so she could do her paperwork in the quieter part of the cafe as well as make business phone calls.

When I got up from my seat to order a drink and observe the rest of the cafe, I noticed a man on his laptop in the seat where my group have noticed one person is always sat there either with a book or newspaper alone. This illustrates that even on a Saturday the space is still chosen for the same thing. Meanwhile, the rest of the tables in the middle were taken up by families with small children. This is another factor which we will have to be aware of in our piece as there will be a mixed audience ranging from young children to the elderly. A couple of the children were observant with their surroundings in the area outside the cafe, playing with the plant pots and peeking into the window of where I was sat. This therefore shows that the children will be more likely to be interested in our  performance as they are easily drawn to things and may even notice things before their parents do, maybe causing the parents to notice us through them.

Attached in this blog are the recordings of my observations: Café observations

 

 

Occupying the Collection Gallery cafe

Francesca Maria Izzo / / People, Public Responses, Video Research

A couple of weeks ago I was walking through Lincoln high street when I came across a sofa with a white square in front of it stating ‘Joe’s space’ and sat down on it were a couple of girls. I did what a lot of other people in the street did and looked at it as I walked past but didnt interact with it any further.

This was part of Joe’s photography project which was ‘a social experiment to explore the boundaries of the public spaces on the High Street, but also an investigation of public interactions with strangers.’ Along with this he states in the about section of YouTube with the video, ‘ most occupy movements have been engaging significant political value, mine was to instigate conversation and basic human interaction as so many of us just walk idly by one another.’

This made me think of our group piece which is based in the Collection Gallery cafe and an experiment which our group tried the other day. A few members of our group sat on their own around the cafe and started talking to themselves, no one caught anyones attention except from Gabriel. Gabriel sat having argument with an imaginary person in the seat opposite and caught the eye of a customer of the cafe who looked up, saw what was happening and quickly looked away again. This shows that we avoid any interaction or involvement with things which are not considered normal or which may include being a part of it. Like the passers by in the street, compared to the amount of people in the high street, only a small number of people actually stopped and got involved with the project.

From the observations my other group members and I have found from the customers in the cafe, a lot of people tend to sit on their own and appear to be in their own world, totally oblivious to everyone else. Which makes me think, are they so involved in their own bubble they don’t really notice anyone or do they pretend to be to ignore things which happen around them? For example, yesterday afternoon an elderly man caused some commotion in the cafe with the staff but the only people who seemed to notice were our group and a couple who were sat behind us. I looked around and everyone else just carried on as normal with their own conversations or still reading as if nothing had happened.

There are so many examples in today’s society where people avoid situations because they feel awkward or not safe. An extreme example of this is demonstrated in the video below:

Is this now the extreme people will go to to not get involved? Does this make anyone else think we live in a society where people are more enclosed and seem cut off from everyone else? 

 

Burt, Joe (2013) Occupying Lincoln high St. [online video] available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgSP7Rb3cb4&feature=player_embedded [accessed 5th March 2013]

PayNoMind416 (2010) The Bystander Effect: No One Cares. [online video] available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGaJrgi_SpE&feature=player_embedded [accessed 5th March 2013]