People – Page 7 – The Collection Of…

So the journey begins…

Shellie-Ann Barrowcliffe / January 29, 2013May 11, 2013 / Inspiration, People, Space

‘Site Specificity arises precisely in uncertanties over the borders and limits of work and site…’ ((Kaye, N Site Specific Art, (2000) p.215))

Exploring The Collection and the connecting Usher Gallery, I can see many interesting spaces that have great potential to be unusual performance spaces, such as up on the balcony between the two education rooms, the space underneath the building outside, just name a few.
Looking at The Collection and The Usher Gallery its clearer how different they are, so depending on which type of performance you wish to create depends on what site you would chose. For example the Usher Gallery is more of a place to sit and reflect whereas The Collection is more of a social, education place. One that caught the group’s eye was that of the café, situated in The Collection.

The café is owned by the company Stokes, who has several other cafes around Lincoln. We were initially interested in the architecture of the café and liked the fact that the ceiling was several different heights with lights hanging from the ceiling which all levelled out at the same height. Even though some of the casing that surrounded these lights was broken I still thought it was pretty.

It is not often that I look at a space in so much detail but I was really noticing so much that I normally wouldn’t. Looking from outside into the space I was amazed to see that the alcoves inside looked like they could be framed by the windows because it was sectioned off in a way from the rest of the café, it was on a raised step and looked interesting from the outside and this gave us an initial idea to want to use these for part of our performance as they were interesting to view from inside and outside. Looking at the overall space outside it was interesting to look at how the two buildings could be connected and yet they are far apart creating an outside space which can be used for the café during summer.

First Performance Ideas

Jennie Chapman / January 29, 2013May 11, 2013 / Development, People

Following our initial visit to The Collection, we have developed some ideas for our performance. We’ve decided to focus our performance on the café as we were intrigued by its position in the museum and the observations we had made there when we first visited.

One of the ideas that we came up with was inspired by the architectural layout of the building and the café as it is separated from the rest of the museum. We thought that we could create something in the café that is not meant to be there such as an exhibition. Due to the fact that the café is in a museum it seems out of place and so to include the café as another exhibition would emphasise this fact. Another idea came from the different people we saw in the café.

“Analyses of everyday like similarly influenced much environmental theatre and site specific performance” (Allain and Harvie,2006, p 151).

We thought that the people themselves could be exhibits by placing placards with the information found by the artifacts and paintings at The Collection. Further thought needs to be given to what we ourselves will do as part of the performance. Hopefully in the next week we will put our ideas into motion and experiment with how we can be a part of our performance.

Some of the other ideas we collaborated were to use objects to create our own exhibition in the café for example cups, plates, cake stand. We liked how the alcove seating in the café were framed and from the outside it could be seen as a framed painting, the windows in the café also mirrored those of the Education Suite, which were on the second floor of the building. Thought went in to the duration of the piece and whether it would gradually progress throughout the day or be at a certain time. Another observation we made in the café was the music playing, we thought that perhaps we could create our own soundtrack similar to an audio tour of a museum but instead change the information to the café and the people sitting in the café.

Works Cited:

Allain, Paul and Jen, Harvie (2006) The Routledge Companion to Theatre and Performance, London: Routledge.

First thoughts to the Collection Gallery

Francesca Maria Izzo / January 28, 2013May 13, 2013 / Evaluation, Inspiration, People, Research

Today, for the first time, I visited the Collection Gallery. We got to look around both galleries which hold to different style of exhibitions in two separate buildings. The one in the Collection provided historical informational which was educational and therefore targeting and appealing to children, especially with the games and dress up sections. The Usher Gallery which looks like a manor house, is the home of paintings, sculptures, plates and clocks. This gallery definitely felt like the most sophisticated out of the two, appealing to an older generation and people interested in art.

Throughout our time here we were given the task to sit or stand in an area of the Collection Gallery and record everything that you see and hear. I chose the cafe as that seemed to be the area which was the most busy and thought it would be interesting to observe what people were talking about and who used the cafe. I found this very successful as I recorded a lot of observations from what the staff did and the noises I could hear, to the observations of what I could see from the cafe when I looked out of the windows. This made me acknowledge the architecture of the building as I was looking around. I realised the cafe was downstairs and not on the same level as the rest of the gallery, which made me think the cafe is a place where visitors or other people not visiting the gallery can come to and get some peace and quiet from their busy schedules. As I looked out of the window I could see a tree with a diamond ring on it and wanted to know what it meant, whether it was meant to be there and why.

My first thoughts of the building opposite the cafe (the education room) made me think the building is like a puzzle as there is so much to explore and what may at first seem accidental could actually have been done purposefully to make you explore the building like you explore the exhibitions in both galleries. As there was a massive space in between the cafe and the building opposite, I could imagine people walking around during a performance like a promenade piece.

The layout of the cafe also made me think about how I felt as a customer at the cafe. Where I chose to sit, by the window in an alcove, I felt hidden and separate from everyone else in the cafe even though the cafe is a big room. This made me think whether other people who visit the cafe notice this feeling too and whether some people decide to sit there to be alone and away from the chaos of the rest of the cafe and even from their busy lives. As a person who spends a lot of time socialising and having a busy schedule, it felt nice to be able to sit alone in a peaceful place and observe everyone around me.

With these observations and thoughts about where the audience could be, could this be a potential performance space?

Initial Response to The Collection

Jennie Chapman / January 28, 2013May 11, 2013 / People

The Collection promotes Art and Archaeology in Lincolnshire. It is run by Lincolnshire County Council and this purpose built building opened in 2005, alongside the already well- established Usher Gallery which opened in 1927. By the time the new building was finished The Collection had over 2 million objects already collected and is ever increasing. It has become even more popular over the past few years with its visitor numbers increasing by over 50,000 in total.

Visiting The Collection as a member of the public enabled us to examine and discover the space, The main exhibition focuses on the history and archaeological artifacts found in Lincolnshire. It is a very interactive and modern museum that invites people to explore the space with its angular and irregular architecture. Whilst exploring The Collection for the first time, I did not think of myself as a member of the public visiting the museum but as a ‘professional stranger’ to the space. Govan states that “the stranger’s perspective may result in the space itself appearing strange to the spectators as the visiting artist offers up new understandings of the location and practices within the site” (2007, p 122).

There are many differences between The Collection and The Usher Gallery, comparing their architecture, style, shape and most importantly, I think, their atmosphere. The Collection itself is wide and open with plenty of space to walk around, unlike the Usher Gallery which is much smaller in size and enclosed. Although The Collection is much newer in terms of establishment the two styles of the buildings is very different. The Usher Gallery maintains the notion that art galleries are associated with the upper class with its traditional, formal style where as The Collection Museum is much more modern in terms of its architecture and its interactive technology. The atmosphere in the Usher seemed to be more intimidating as it was so quiet and formal unlike The Collection which was noisy due to the café, children’s play area and sound wall.

Eventually we took our research to the café in the museum. Thinking about the observations made from the museum and gallery, we realised how the café was positioned in relation to the main part of the museum, off to the side, not only because people by pass it on the way into The Collection but also the architecture has purposefully separated the café from the rest of the Museum.

So why is our chosen site a museum? At first look a museum already has a lot of things to observe and inform us, how can we use this museum for a performance? What do a museum and performance have in common with each other?

“Performance and archaeology are social practices, or modes of cultural production, and social practice has performative and archaeological dimensions”

“The special practice that is performance operates in a liminal space or heterotopia. Archaeology too is at the edge and in the gaps, working on discard and decay, entrophy and loss. Its topic of the material and ineffable immediacy of the past has given it a special place in constructions of personal and cultural identity”

“It is in these liminal spaces and with these heterogeneous elements that both archaeology and performance work and negotiate identities, of people and things” (Pearson and Shanks, 2001, p53-54).

Works Cited:

Lincolnshire County Council, 2013, The Collection. [online] Available at: http://www.thecollectionmuseum.com/ [Accessed on 28^th March 2013]

The Collection, 2012. The Collection Profile Provision Performance 2012-13. Lincoln: The Collection.

Govan, Emma, Helen Nicholson and Katie Normington (2007) Making a Performance: Devising Histories and Contemporary Practices, London: Routledge.

Pearson, Mike and Michael Shanks (2001) Theatre/Archaeology, London: Routledge.

Looking at our Cafe

Gabriel / January 25, 2013April 20, 2013 / Inspiration, People, Space

To sit down in a café and really look around is something. Usually you avert gazes, you keep your eyes to your food, your friends, anything that is yours. To actually sit and look around a place you have been in a thousand times before and really look at is something.

When does anyone sit in the café to look at the building?

To look at how high the ceiling actually is, how tall the building is.

When finally looking at the people around you, you notice the boy drawing and how engrossed he is in his work, you can’t see what he is colouring, so you imagine he is drawing himself fighting a dragon.

To finally wrench yourself away from your laptop, your work, your stress and see that the café actually has a beautiful view of the city. Funny how you never notice that before until you’re told too, until you are told to really look around you.

To hear the interesting lives of people sitting next to you is strange, when usually you go so far out of your way not to overhear and be rude.

“I sold my boats, I got more than I wanted for it and now I have a month. I am living here, on the river, least I have a caravan to fall back on. “

“It’s not a cob, it’s a roll.”

“I love ear-wigging”

“Oh your egg is gone”

“I have egg on my forehead.”

When you then finally look up from your laptop, you notice how busy it truly is, how in this university there are going to be hundreds of people you may only see once, or at least remember only seeing once.

All of this from simply sitting in a cafe for an hour and a half.