So having performed it was now time to evaluate. Of course I was very pleased with how it went, something we’d developed for so long had finally come together and with positive feedback I felt we’d achieved what we set out to do. In fact a man came up to us after our performance and happened to comment on how he liked the fact we walked from one window to the other, he said the looks on our faces showed we looked like we had one purpose and that was to deliver the boxes, but that he knew he wanted to follow us. This gave me reason to believe we had a positive effect on audience members as they were interested and were keen to follow us on our journey.
With performing, there is always room to improve or develop. If we were going to do it again I would increase the volume of the recording, as it wasn’t loud enough and wasn’t heard. We felt this was a real shame as the words possessed meaning. Because of the area we were in not many people come there so we assumed the level to which we had been practising would have been sufficient, however there was a lot more noise the day we performed. In hindsight we should have anticipated the hustle and bustle of the weekend. The volume on the TV situated in the area wasn’t low enough and this most probably contributed to the lack our hearing for the recording as well. One thing I have learned is the importance of keeping people up to date with your practices as one of the managers of the site wasn’t aware we were using paint, this is something we thought we had cleared with them which later boiled down to a miscommunication.
If I was to expand on from this I think there are some great things we could do with the performance! I can see the journey of the walk being developed, perhaps walking all around the gallery. The walls could become much larger in scale; we could fill more areas and do it over a longer period of time. The possibilities are pretty much endless for the construction and deconstruction of space and not to mention quite exciting really as it would mean a much bigger statement and invasion of space.
Firstly we wanted to discuss the boxes we were using, as some of them seemed flimsy the last time we were experimenting with them. To resolve this we sourced better quality cardboard boxes. This benefited us as we could now write on the boxes without them topping over when the wall was built. We also wanted to work on the uniformity of the boxes as visually it didn’t seem to look right. We thought about covering them in paper but after much deliberation this seemed to take away from the effect and the bareness we initially liked about them. We finally decided on a compromise, that being that we would but black tape over the boxes in the style of a cross. Not only did this visually look good but it also meant when we would write on the boxes they were divided into small sections. I really liked it as it was beginning to look like a piece of artwork now.
On reflection of what our feedback audience had said about writing on the boxes with markers and that it was too noisy we decided to bring in other materials to experiment with. Firstly we tried chalks, however we felt it wasn’t vibrant enough and wasn’t particularly eye catching.
When then tried with paints, we really liked the effect it gave, especially the red paint, for us there was something about the paint brush strokes that just seemed so effective, it was artistic, it was contemporary. We stuck with it.
The positioning of boxes was important to the aesthetics of our piece. Initially we wanted the wall created to be completely filled, similar to that of a brick wall. It wasn’t until we were having a run through and started playing around with the boxes that we discovered the effect of taking away particular boxes had on the space. It started to reveal pockets of light, some big gaps, some small, and the fact the sun was beaming through the window, made for some excellent effects, creating shadows and areas of light and dark. We really liked this and decided this is how we would like to build the wall.
As mentioned before we were very interested in the parallel window space in the opposing gallery and we felt we could marry the two together in some way. Walking back and forth from either window space we realised they were quite far apart. But this didn’t necessarily mean we thought it would hinder our ideas. We decided to trial out the idea of having one area where we would have the boxes stored, we could build the wall and paint them and then walk them over to the other space and leave the boxes there. It was important to us to think about the walk to and from each window. To begin with we walked very fast paced however we felt this didn’t correspond well with the idea of the monotony of life we then practiced a rhythm to walk to so we would all look the same. There was three entrances to the other gallery so when leaving the first area we decided to each take a different entrance into the gallery, this was effective as it felt we were invading the space from different angles. We then randomly placed our boxes in the alcove to signify the deconstruction of the wall.
Taking on board what our feedback audience said about the writing on the boxes being too obvious we decided we would write roman numerals on them. This arose from our original ideas about the four seasons and the concept of time. Time is a constant the clock will always be ticking. Similarly the seasons will always stay the same. We felt roman numerals would tie this in well. Also it was acknowledging the roman city that was once there.
Another problem was it was too much having music and a voice over, to compensate for this we instead recorded the dialogue which we would have on a loop.
Finally after the wall is constructed and we’ve taken it down, and moved all the boxes to the other space we want to come back to where we initially started and be left with one box in the alcove to which we open and release four balloons.
Today we performed our ideas to our peers in order to get some constructive feedback. The audience picked up on a few things that didn’t necessarily correspond so well these were as follows.
The black markers were far too squeaky when we went to write on the boxes, they felt it distracted from everything else going on.
We had decided to incorporate some quite solemn music in the background but when this was being played whilst we were performing the audience suggested this was too loud. In reflection we agreed and felt it should be quieter. We also felt the subtlety would be more effective as our overall statement suggests we want to evoke emotion which we feel the music contributes to this.
We decided that we wanted Tequila who was reading out the poem to be inside the alcove as the wall was being built but as the positioning of the audience was behind her, her voice was being lost in the window area and wasn’t being projected out. The audience was right and we’re pleased they picked up on this so we could amend her positioning.
The comments we were writing on the boxes such as #baby no.1 and why is this happening, someone pointed out these seemed too obvious. On reflection I understood what they meant and agreed the messages didn’t provoke any real thought to the audience. We were giving them the answers on a plate and that certainly wasn’t our intention.
There were some comments about whether a link between the video loop being played and our performance was needed. Our argument was it was in the space and we were acknowledging that. One concern we had was the volume that this installation was projected at, this was something we would have to ask The Collection about and whether we could turn it down.
At the end of the piece we decided to knock down the wall, this was to signify the destruction of space. However after we did this as a group even we felt it didn’t really work, again it was too obvious and our aim wasn’t to make clear obvious points to the audience. Much like a piece of art could have a thousand and one interpretations we wanted our performance to do the same. This is also where we realised we could incorporate the other window alcove space and perhaps the boxes could go there after.
It confirmed some positive responses!
Everyone seemed to like the minimalist approach to our piece.
The audience liked the words being said aloud, they felt the added dimension was a nice touch and that it was nice to have something to listen to.
The building of the wall they thought was a good concept and that it was effective in the space.
We were using our knowledge of the architecture and art around us and responding to the space. A statement that Clifford McLucas makes I feel elaborates on this point, ‘The real power of site-specific work is that it somehow activates, or engages with, the narratives of the site in some kind of way. That might be with its formal architecture, or it might be with the character of the building. It might be to do with the history of the building. (1995, p.47) After our feedback the discussion proved helpful, we do have a few points to adjust and rectify but none the less we are pleased with the progression we have made from this week!
Word count: 584
Works cited:
McLucas, C. and Pearson, M. (1995) Performance/ Place/Public (Brith Gof Archive, NLW), company document.
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.
In the initial weeks we spent time exploring spaces on site. Looking round we liked the exhibitions on Time and the four seasons seemed to be a popular topic in the Usher Gallery. We later learned this was because James Ward Usher born in 1845 was a jewellery and pocket watch collector who owned shop which he displayed these goods in, in Lincoln where he took over from his father in 1874. When he died he bequeathed his collection to Lincoln City which is why it is in the gallery today. As for the four seasons, we noticed a large ring on a tree outside, a staff member told us an artist installed it there to show the bond between love and nature. In full bloom the ring was hidden but in winter when it was at its barest it would apparent. This sparked the revelation and concealment idea.
We were also keen to learn about the architecture of the building. Research showed it was founded in 1906. It was very interesting to learn that the building sits on an ancient monument. Where the gallery is situated was once sat the roman and medieval city. Excavations showed that in this area Roman, Anglo-Scandinavian and medieval archaeology would be prominent and that Victorian buildings would previously have occupied the site.
The buildings on site had so much history beneath it! Many a time there must have been the excavating of walls and the demolishing of others, I really liked the idea of our concept being like history repeating itself. Pearson and Shanks talk about the archaeology of theatre related to a space, ‘the stage becomes a place of absolute scrutiny, although it may change in nature, constantly alluding to other times, other places: it might play with notions of hiding and revealing, screening and disclosing, see or half seeing. (2001, p.23) This to me exemplified the idea that site specific performances were conditioned by their very space and should reflect its history.
4/3/13
This week we brought materials that could be used on site to help us achieve our aim of revealing space to the audience. Initially we wanted to use five spaces around The Collection Gallery and have subtle movements going on in each site. We started with the window alcove in the exhibition gallery. We liked this space because of the questions it provoked, such as why were people drawn to this space?
Our materials ranged from army figures, stacking cups and plastic ducks to marbles and balloons. We started playing around with the idea of covering up the space to be able to reveal something behind it. We tried building a wall out of the cups. From our results it proved to be a success as we found the higher we got the more interesting the piece became. However we did find they were far to light-weight and small.
We then decided we wanted to build the wall over a long period of time and in silence to create intrigue and suspense for our audience.
I was inspired by Station House Operas work which, specialize in the building and demolishing of architecture and explore the intimate relationship between people and the environment they inhibit. One of their projects, Dominoes, explores having breeze blocks standing in a line and journeying through a whole entire landscape of the country.
Although on a much bigger scale, the principles were still the same about the construction of something in a public space. I liked the way the audience followed as if on a journey with the piece.
When looking in the main gallery we found inspiration in the Roman centurion’s reconstruction. What interested us was that centuries ago this building used to inhabit the Romans. We had the idea of merging the stacking of cups and figures together to create a battle field scene. This was because we wanted to highlight the relationship between the objects and the space. It became a very intense piece which we responded to by asking questions to each other so we could get a feel for our collective experience.
We also wanted to incorporate words into our piece and in doing so develop the idea of layering and building something up and then bringing it down. This was metaphorical as words overlapping the building of the tower and the construction of the army reflected the building and deconstruction of the wall.
Spending time in the window alcove led to acknowledging the intricacies of things such as the recording on loop. We liked the idea of repetition, using singular words and phrases to create a fragmented atmosphere in the space. This fragmentation is derived from our own interpretations of the recording, writing down our responses in a stream of consciousness form and thus recording what the art provoked from us. This was most interesting for us and something we would later develop in next week’s session.
We wanted to use balloons as a way of revealing something to the audience. Our idea for this was contrived by the concept of posting secrets in balloons and leaving them in a space in the gallery for the audience to pop and hence reveal the secret. We did however decide it didn’t correlate with our theme of space all that well.
A space not often noticed by the public is below the galleries. This space was interesting as it was ultimately ‘dead space’, deserted and unknown. One thing we observed was the acoustics, they created an echoing effect, and the colour of the walls- a deep red added to the atmospherics.We decided to use the marbles and drop them down the stairs in a sequence that would build with pace. This showed how we we’re filling the space and also how we were adding to the space as one marble following another created a rush of sound which intensified rapidly.
We then repeated the action again and involved one of us acting as if running away from something. The sounds of the marbles helped create this illusion and atmosphere. We concluded this experimentation would not aid us in our development of revealing space, although it proved useful in helping us explore spaces and narrow down our focal points. Further exploration showed there was a parallel window space like the window alcove, in the opposing space which we wanted to use. Our ideas were starting to become more finalized now. We’d gone from many spaces to two where we felt we could concentrate on the idea of empty space and yet still be able to reveal something in it. Susan Bennett suggests Kirschenblatt-Gimblett argues today’s museum is a ‘theatre, memory place, a stage for the enactment of other times and places, a space of transport, fantasy, dreams’. (2013, p.4). This demonstrates the links that can be drawn between the Theatre and the Museum and that they’ve gone from two separate forms and now can interlink together in a very modernist way.
Our practical exploration proved very successful this week as we were not only able to narrow down our ideas but also develop an understanding of how we could create something in the space by the window. Our main focus would now be building a wall in the space. From our exploration we learnt that we would need something on a much larger scale, therefore our choice will now be cardboard boxes.
Word count: 1232
Works cited:
Bennett, Susan (2013) Theatre and Museums, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
Pearson Mike and Michael Shanks (2001) Theatre/ Archaeology, New York: Routledge.
Station House Opera (2009) Station House Opera’s Dominoes…(part 1), Online: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XlEKesUDAX8 (accessed: 1st May 2013).
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