Category: Possessed Time

Responding to our time…

Tabitha Hilton-Berry / / Audience, Evaluation, Possessed Time

In our performance, we found that although we did not have a constant audience at all times throughout, we were noticed and intriguing to the members of the public that visited the museum that day. People would drift in and out and then come back later to see the progression of our piece. It was almost as if they thought they might be missing out on something and wanted to know what we would do next, which I found very encouraging for the overall reaction that we got from the public.

At the beginning of our piece, there was quite a considerable audience for the first hour as they watched us awaken from our fictitious slumber and start our day,controlled by the sound of a ticking clock. it was interesting to see the people who wanted to see more was generally families with young children, as the children found it either intriguing and as I remember, kept asking their parents questions about us.

‘Who are they, Mummy?’

‘Are they real?’

‘What’s that sound?’

It was encouraging to know that we were being noticed in the way that we had hoped to be and that, even though they were young children, we were being observed and questioned, not just passively watched by an uninspired audience. Not only did the children ask questions, but in order to educate their children more, parents were asking questions so together they could work out the meaning behind.

‘What sounds can you hear?’

‘What’s that on wall? Is it a clock?’

‘Do you think the sound is coming from those watches in the cabinet?’

‘What do you think they’re doing now?’

The audience response was overall very good and even when the clock puzzle was being formed by ourselves, people were walking around us and peering in to the centre of the circle to see how the puzzle was coming together. If we were to change something with regards to the performance, I would suggest audience interaction would be good, especially as a learning technique for young children. They could be incorporated into helping us put the puzzle back together, as even for us it was a fun task that we could all co-operate in.

There were a few audience members that did not appreciate what we were doing in the space. Some people would walk to the doorway, glance in, and then quickly turn around and head to another room. One woman laughed as she stood and watched us, another asked her husband ‘Is this even worth looking at?’ while her husband replied with a brief ‘Let’s go somewhere else.’ We of course did not expect for everyone to fully appreciate what we were doing as performance is not everyone’s ‘cup of tea’ and it was actually good to see that people were still observing us and questioning what we were doing even if they quickly decided that the did not like it.

 

Final Evaluation: Possessed Time

Stephanie Jackson / / Possessed Time

“So much of our time is spent in preparation, so much in routine, and so much in retrospect, that the amount of each person’s genius is confined to a very few hours.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson 

As with all performance based pieces, there are many things which could have been improved and should have been developed further in our final product. Our piece was far from perfect, however, I think that we explored our ideas effectively and presented our audience with visually interesting ideas, whilst transforming our chosen space in a unique and informative way.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Unfortunately the opening of our piece went wrong, with the irony of our own clock not working which meant we started out of time to our planned structure. That being said, we recovered quickly and efficiently and got back in time with each other.

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In my opinion, the projection of our human clock was the biggest strength of our work. It stood out within the darkness of the gallery, and drew much of the audiences attention.  Although this projection had a great impact, I don’t think the projection of the pineapple worked at all. Firstly, the image wasn’t clearly identifiable and this was down to the filming of the pineapple. We should have filmed it for a longer period to show the decomposition process in its entirety. Secondly, I think the positioning of the projection was wrong and we should have had the image projected underneath the human clock. If we had synchronised it with the timing of the clock, then it would have slowly decomposed over the course of the day, demonstrating the effects of time in a much more direct manner.

Another strength of our piece was the clock puzzle. It juxtaposed the two ideas of ‘work’ and ‘play’, because although it represented the ‘work’ part of our daily routine, we were ultimately doing a jigsaw puzzle, which is more ‘play’. This created an interesting dimension to our piece as it questioned the boundaries between these two actions. If we took that puzzle out of our chosen site, and put it in another space, would it have a different effect?

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Audience Reaction

This was the first time we had put all our performance elements together, and had a real audience to respond to. It was interesting how different groups of people reacted depending on where we were positioned within the room and what we were doing. During the process of creating the puzzle we had people intrigued by what the final image was, and one man kept coming back to watch our progress along with his two daughters.  It would be interesting to see how the dynamic of the space would have changed further if the puzzle had been bigger and filled the entire floor. I’m glad that we got a wide range of age groups witnessing our work because they all had a different approach. The children who entered our space got excited and looked eager to join in when we were creating the puzzle. However the moment we started miming, several children refused to enter and became fearful of the space, because our movements had become unnatural and mechanical. On the other hand, the older generation were more inquisitive and also nonchalant, with some members just waltzing right in and completely ignoring us! At one point, we were all sat in a line by the entrance watching the human clock, and you could see the audience were more wary of entering the space because of how we had positioned ourselves. We had manipulated the audience to feel like they were imposing and that the space solely belonged to us. This reminds me of the work of Susan Bennett whose work discusses the relationship between the audience and distance between performers:

‘Distance is intrinsic to art….the deliberate manipulation of distance is to a great extent, the underlying factor which determines theatrical style.’

(Theatre Audiences: A Theory of Production and Reception, Susan Bennett, Routeledge London, 1990)

Indeed, this is relevant to our piece as our distance between our audience varied throughout the day, changing our space and even atmosphere of the room. Our chosen space was claustrophobic anyway so to have close proximity to our audience intensified this feeling of confinement, and our style switched between the natural and unnatural. Perhaps we should have rehearsed much more with an audience leading up to our final performance, in order to discover more ways in which to involve or distance our audience further.

Concluding Remarks

This performance process has developed over a long time, collaborating many ideas and exploring different techniques. I felt we portrayed our ideas on time quite effectively, both visually and practically. However, I think we over complicated our ideas, and it would have been more effective to have done something minimal and simple which progressed over the duration of the day, rather than having a set structure of many different things. As a performer, it was a challenge to be focused for 6 hours continually but this work has taught me many skills which I would like to develop in my next project.

 

Works Cited

Bennett Susan, Theatre Audiences: A Theory of Production and Reception, (Routeledge London, 1990)

If I Could Have That Time Again…

Shane Humberstone / / Evaluation, Possessed Time

Although I believe we achieved a considerable amount of which we set out to, if we were to do this again there would be several things I would change which I believe would make the overall execution of the performance better and more effective.

The first of these would be to engage with what time meant for other people apart from us. This could have been done by organising a short survey to find what time meant to them and then interpret that through our performance. , potentially by projection, or displaying their comments physically. Another way in which this could have worked is by adding a different dynamic to our piece, sound. If we had either spoken the words, or played recording of them, I believe that we could have had a bigger impact and it also would have made the piece more integrated with Gallery 3. Moreover, to help further see what affect we had on the them, as well as their perception of time, a feedback survey or comment box would have been really interesting and insightful, being beneficial for our findings but also for the Usher gallery as they could use it as an assessment of the space.

Secondly, I think we could have played about more with the projections and should have looked deeper into the idea of projecting something against us. We did talk a lot about this but could not decide on a strong enough image or way to do it. At points the projection was displayed on us, especially during the sleeping segment, which I thought was a really interesting effect. If we were to have a segment where the image was projected across us, I believe this could have been a good to show how time and our experience had affected us and people as a whole.

Although not entirely vital, but as stated previously, to add a new dynamic to the piece, more audience being among us would have been desirable. It would have been interesting to see not only how they reacted and felt being right in the centre of our piece, being part of something they were more than likely not familiar with, but how differently we reacted and how it changed the feel and impact of the piece. We did put up a sign welcoming the public into the space and to enjoy the performance as part of their museum experience, though more could have been done. Maybe introducing the idea to the public on their entrance with leaflets to accompany their visit, making them feel more comfortable with the idea, would have enticed more people to come closer to the action. Also more signage and direction would have been beneficial leading up to the gallery.

The gallery had introduced an ‘iGuide’ too late into our process to utilise it, but we had discussed using different forms of technology to present our piece. If we were to do the piece again using the ‘iGuide’ would have been really interesting, and beneficial, as we could have put a lot of different images of time and clocks on there and more explanation of our perception, and others, on the effect of time. Moreover, audio clips would have been good as it would have added a contrast to normally a very quiet experience, changing it to a more dynamic one.

Authored by Shane Humberstone

A Reflection on Possessed Time

Shane Humberstone / / Possessed Time, Public Responses

Possessed Time in Action

Beginning with an hour of ‘sleep’ our Site Specific Performance was underway. The daunting thought of doing a five and a half hour performance was quickly forgotten as we started the strenuous movements that represented getting ready for the compressed day ahead. When practising this had always been difficult for the group as our arms were not trained for the repetitive controlled movements. This was the first time we had done all three actions together for the full amount of time, and I thought that this would be difficult, having to keep up the precise controlled movement, yet each segment became increasingly easier.

Next was the walking routine where we walked alongside the ticking noise of the clock. We had played with and experimented a lot with this section but decided on a simple movement to show the routine of the act and the control time had over us. Despite this the track we used on the actual day was a lot shorter than the one we had practise with and because it had to repeat itself there was a break in the rhythm, potentially throwing the synchronization. It could have looked messy if we started to walk at our own pace but instead if anyone in the group lost confidence in the rhythm, they would stop for a beat and then join in again, which kept the section looking crisp.

As soon as we sat down to start the puzzle we all seemed to speed up and move as fast as we could. This shows the effect of being controlled by a mechanic rhythmic movement and then being able to break out of that strict discipline. Due to this we completed the puzzle, the first time, very quickly but as time went on, the puzzle became increasingly difficult. This may have been due to fatigue, but mainly to do with the pieces not sitting as true as they did at the beginning. This made it harder to put them together and to judge if pieces fitted where we were putting them. Luckily we finished the puzzle for the final time just before we changed discipline so we smartened it up for the proceeding audience members.

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After the walk home came the watching of the human clock, which we had projected on the gallery’s door. In my opinion this proved the most difficult as we were sitting on the floor looking up at the projection in a set position, which quickly became uncomfortable. Furthermore because this part contained very little movement this section seemed to last longer than it actually did. After the four and a half hour mark we had our dinner eating representation, which we did to the rhythm of the clock again showing its control and also the robotic routine of this part of the day. Fatigue was definitely an issue here as the movement became a lot harder than the ones from earlier. In addition to this we were sat in a similar position to the clock watching, which made it even more uncomfortable.

When we entered our second stint of sleeping the museum had become busier and other performances had now finished. This meant that a lot more people were about. Feeling them walk about the room was a weird experience because when you are asleep you feel safe and in comfort, but when you feel people are around and watching you, it makes it a lot harder to relax and in turn you feel uncomfortable. In addition to this, a weird sense of blinking with my eyes closed came over me as the projection of the pineapple was directed straight at our faces. The flicking of the images made feel like I was blinking and this became really uncomfortable for me, so much so I had to cover my eyes from it.

The Effects of Possessed Time

clock-melting-clocks

The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dalí, found on: http://psychopathyawareness.wordpress.com/2011/06/15/why-do-sociopaths-waste-our-time/clock-melting-clocks/

Being on a Saturday the Usher was always going to be busier than most of the days we had practise but because we had experience a busy day before, it was not as daunting or distracting.

After we woke from our first section of sleeping it was encouraging to see so many people watching and several were sitting down which showed they were interested to stay for a good amount of time. As we then continued towards the glass cabinets I felt the audience then become uncomfortable and they started to usher themselves towards the door, although the fact they were still watching was good as it showed they were interested. The public still seemed intrigued and as we had experienced in rehearsal, after one member of the audience decides to get closer and have a better look, then the rest follow. Obviously for most this is not what they expected when they came to the museum but the fact they continued their day and embraced what we were doing was exciting.

When we started to walk around as expected the audience backed away into the corner by the gallery’s entrance. The audience seemed to be impressed and fascinated by this movement as there was a lot of people here at this point. During this section there was a group of ladies that had walked in. As I was just in my underwear they were shocked and had to turn away in embarrassment as my path led straight to them, this was interesting because the rest of the audience did not appear to see it as nothing else than a costume like the rest of my group. When we sat down to start the puzzle more people filtered in around us. In the past when we had done we had felt that people wanted to join in, or at least the engagement of the puzzle made them want to stay around until it had been finished.

clock

As we sat down to watch the human clock observing the audience became a lot easier. We had now drawn attention solely towards it and because we were essentially staring at the entrance the audience reactions were clearer. Several people came and stood at the entrance and watched the clock for several minutes with us. This could have been down to their sense of intrigue towards the clock or maybe because our piece was so elongated they were wondering why we were watching it for so long. Furthermore during this section a lot of parents with their children became engulfed by what we were doing. It even became fairly interactive as parents were asking their children questions on what we were doing and what they thought of the different projections.

On top of this the puzzle was continuously acknowledged and seemed to impress. Now the distorted projection of the pineapple could be seen clearer as there was now little distraction. For a long time no one had dared stepped into the gallery, which was not disappointing but it would have given the piece another dynamic. This was until one man decided to walk straight through us to the other side of the gallery and acted totally vacant towards our existence. This was interesting because it felt like he was trying to make the point that we should not have been there.

Overall, I feel that the public enjoyed our piece and welcomed a different aspect in their museum experience. What I found the most interesting was the willingness of people to continuously come back over the period of the day, almost as if they were checking on our progress, which is what we intended as we never expected anyone to stay for the whole duration of the piece.

 

Authored by Shane Humberstone

The Final Performance

Tabitha Hilton-Berry / / Evaluation, Possessed Time, Space

After months of preparation and hard work, the performance was finally put into practise and we felt it was very successful. Enduring a 6 hour performance was an extreme test for us but we found ourselves captivated by the continuous sound of ticking clocks which made the rhythm in our movements easier to achieve.

The start of the day proved to be a little stressful as we set up the projections and puzzle pieces ready to start at 10 o clock but found that everything came together well as we started. We only had one mishap throughout the entire performance which occurred in the first hour when an alarm clock failed to go off to notify us it was ‘time to get up’. Luckily, this was resolved quite easily and went unnoticed by the audience we had at the time.

During the first hour, we ‘slept’ against one of the walls in Gallery 3, which I found the hardest task of the performance as we had to keep very focused and could not relax like you do in reality when you sleep. After we had woken up from the sleep, we began the start of our condensed 24 hour day which included the motions of brushing our teeth, washing our faces, eating breakfast and walking to work, all for 15 minute sessions. Due to the practise for these movements that we had done prior to the performance, the movements were easier to control and physically were not as gruelling as we had expected them to be.

In the third hour, the focus was to be at ‘work’ which we had decided would be a clock factory as it reflected the ideas of James Usher’s clock collection and his views on industrialism. We decided that we would create a floor tile puzzle in which we drew a clock onto it and then during the ‘work hours’, we would work together to put the puzzle pieces back together, as if we were putting the components of a clock together in a factory. I found that this particular part of performance was successful as it seemed to intrigue a lot of visitors of the museum to follow our progression. This lasted for 1 hour and 45 minutes and then we moved on to the last two hours of our performance.

The final hours consisted of using movement to portray watching television, relaxing and eating dinner before then returning to our starting position of sleeping against the wall in the gallery.

Overall, I thought that our performance was successful and that the projections we used, which included a fully working digital clock that we had made using our bodies as the numbers, and a decomposing pineapple that we had filmed over a series of weeks, they were both an important and intriguing aspect.

I feel that we could have improved the movements we used and maybe incorporated more movements to the piece to make it more of a statement in the space. If we were to develop this further, we could consider extending the time in which we performed and perhaps consider performing for the complete 24 hours. However, due to the space we were in, it was not possible to do this as it is a public museum which has opening an closing times that we had to abide by.

 

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