Space – Page 4 – The Collection Of…

My inital response to the space.

Gabriel / February 3, 2013April 20, 2013 / People, Space

While walking around The Collection for the first time, I was instantly drawn to the space of The Collection’s cafe.

The Cafe is a very busy place giving the people there not only a chance to view the performance but even be part of it, if our group wanted that to be the case. That is the first thing that drew me to this Cafe. It is already a busy working environment, to see a performance there would be in an interesting contrast.

The Cafe responds to the polish directors Grotowski’s productions of creating a lived in environment. We like Grotowski could create a performance where the actors are sitting in amongst the audience.

As I first walked in I saw the different levels around the cafe.

Just by walking in we see three levels, with very high ceilings. I thought how much a performance would be able to move in this space. A performance could move into the three areas and show their performance by what level of the space they are in. I enjoyed the deep contrast between the high open space full of light to the bottom level which is low ceilings, a small space which is quite dark.

To use the space as a symbolic piece for the performance is something I want to keep in mind.

Along with the different levels, there are also contrasts of space. In these big windows in the cafe you could look across and see the start or end of a performance outside and make it move inside. Even if you start outside people would still be able to see and wonder about the performance.

Thus I don’t think the performance moving from place to place would be jarring but move fluidly.

I believe with these different levels and different places the Cafe would be an excellent place to put the performance with so many ways to get the space to interact and work with the performance.

First Ideas

Lacey Cole / January 29, 2013May 9, 2013 / Cultural Terrorists, Research, Space

Having looked around the space and had a chance to feel comfortable in both buildings, we have had some time to think of possible ideas for our performance. Interestingly, Susan Bennett’s book Theatre and Museums focuses on the link between acting and where a piece is staged, for example a museum. Being that we have a chance to perform in The Collection Museum, I found it interesting to note that ‘museums traffic mostly in material designated as representing the past, while theatrical performance takes place resolutely in the present’ (Bennett 2012, p.5). Obvious as this may be, this confronts the idea of our performance being ‘site’ specific, and whether this means we need to focus on the history of the building. Is it instead possible to make a modern element the main feature of our performance and simply touch on the history of the building? In this way, we will still have free theatrical reign and our ideas may be able to flow more freely.

Whilst considering this, we have also spent time in both buildings and so far have been more drawn to a corner of the Collection with a large window that looks out onto some modern glass offices. This may be another way of connecting historical and modern elements of Lincoln within our performance piece, as there is a large sign in that area discussing the development of Lincoln from fields to concrete. According to this sign, ‘2000 years ago it was woodland’, and ‘100 years ago there was red brick’. Therefore we must consider the changes the site has gone through to become the Usher Gallery and the Collection Museum. By connecting these elements we may be able to delve deeper in the details of the site, whilst getting our audience to consider a future building that may stand in place of the Collection, as the Collection stands where fields once were. Whilst we consider history, we must also consider the future.

Pottery in The Collection Museum

References: Bennett, Susan (2012) Theatre and Museums, London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Author: Lacey Cole.

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 Impressions’…

Tom Baines / January 29, 2013April 11, 2013 / Concealed Illusions, Research, Space

From our first impressions of ‘The Collection’ it is apparent that there are a large number of spaces, both large and small, that a “Professional stranger” (Govan 2007, p122) can interact with and view with a fresh outsiders perspective.

We began to look at conventional ‘spaces’ from the site such as:

and

However we found these to be too stereotypical of an actual theatre space, although their architecture was intricate, interesting and very abstract. We then decided to look at the places within ‘The Collection’ which were less obvious:

Here we can see even the structure of the building itself poses abstract and interesting thoughts to us as performers. The architecture of the walls continue past the window, instead of the window framing the building. Also the display cabinet is not pushed up against the window which in turn creates an unnoticed and empty space. (modeled beautifully by Sam!).

We sat in this space and listened to the environment around us which was surprisingly loud and vibrant considering a museum is a space for thinking and observing. This small space was filled with the echos of conversations, footsteps and even voices coming from the wall itself. The sound wall stretched across the width of the building with speakers positioned along it; however some of the speakers were hidden in the small, apparently unused space that we occupied behind the cabinet. Which poses the question, why are there speakers placed in an area unused and unnoticed by the public?

From this we are starting to look at the museum’s potential as a performing space and the usual places that are unknown to a stranger’s eye and are asking ourselves, what could happen there?…

Works Cited

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

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.