Museums are all about preserving artefacts, and within Gallery 3 we noticed the two plastic pineapples amongst the crockery on display. This led us to explore the idea of decomposition and how time affects living organisms, as our piece focuses on the concept of time in many forms.
Whilst researching we discovered a video of a rabbit decomposing, and we found the concept of the video interesting due to the time lapse.
From this we researched fruit decomposition and how we could incorporate it into our piece and our space. It links well because of the pineapple on display and the notion of time in the room. We found a video of a strawberry decomposing which also involved a clock in the process, reinforcing the concept of the effect of time.
Our research has inspired us to create our own video of a pineapple decomposing and then projecting it onto the gallery wall. We think that this will be effective as it reminds the audience of the effects of time in a visual way adding an interesting dimension to our piece on time.
Authors: Stephanie Jackson, Chloe Doherty, Tabitha Hilton-Berry, George Creighton, James Barker, Shane Humberstone
“The idea that time and space are tools of the mind, our source of comprehension and consciousness, is an abstraction” (Lanza, 2012)
It can be said that time is simply an illusion, one which helps us to categorize and express different thoughts, whereas clocks are a manmade object used in an attempt to track the notion of time. Rather than time being a perception in itself, we perceive the process of repetition, much like the ticking of a clock. As humans we are programmed to associate a clocks transition from one number to another with the passing duration of time. This can easily be misconstrued as the physicality of a clock, whether it be digital or analogue, with the concept of time. We do not see time as a physical concept, but we can clearly see that clocks are a solid object which humans are able to touch, move and manipulate. “Measuring “time” doesn’t prove its physical existence. Clocks are rhythmic things. We use the rhythms of some events (like the ticking of clocks) to time other events (like the rotation of the earth). This isn’t time, but rather, a comparison of events.” (Lanza, 2012).
“We also have the sensation of duration: we can even check that sensation against a clock” (Blackwell, 2012). The passage of time is an incredibly difficult concept to grasp without the presence of a physical clock in front of you. In class, we experimented with passing a ball to one another in an open space for one minute, and then passing it amongst a tighter space created by enclosing our bodies again, for one minute (see earlier blog post “Like Clockwork” for more details). We intended to do this for 6 minutes, so theoretically we would repeat each process three times. A timer was set, and after only getting through half of our planned process, it went off. This showed us that not only can time be seen as a concept opposed to something definite, but also that each person’s perception of duration may be different, conflicting with that of a clocks.
With the idea of a clock solely being a physical being, as a group we looked into the physicality of a clock, including the mechanics behind the face. This led us onto the idea of a ‘human clock’, or rather how we could use the shapes in our bodies to represent the hands on a clock to show a passage of time. Whilst researching, we came across this video:
Although this looked incredible aesthetically, as a group of six working in a small gallery, it soon occurred to us that we have neither the capacity
nor the amount of people needed to create such a thing. This is where our search for examples of people creating changed from analogue to digital.
Example 1
Example 2
The first example shown above is what initially inspired us to incorporate an image like this into our piece, but again knowing that we do not have the right space for such a performance we decided to play around with the idea of projecting something onto the wall of Gallery 3, which we would have prerecorded. The performers in example 2 use similar skills to that of the first, but explore the idea in a much more performative way to that of the first, which is for the most part very structured. Although the pieces above explore a similar concept, they both go about it in very different ways, together they have motivated us to experiment with the creation of a clock for ourselves, coming up with something just as inspiring.
After discussing our performance we decided that we want to make quite an impact on those in the gallery and be as dramatic as possible to emphasise this notion of smuggling London culture into Lincoln. We want to turn peoples heads and make them wonder what is going on, and hopefully grab their curiosity and attention. We want to do this with our actions but also our appearance. For example to incorporate London into our performance even more than just the construction of Big Ben we thought we could arrive at the gallery in a black taxi, just like those in London. We want to create quite a frantic atmosphere so our actions will be quick and energetic. In relation to our costume we thought to incorporate the era the gallery was built (the 20’s) we thought we could wear dresses from that era, for example a flapper dress but with balaclavas to emphasise this notion of smuggling and perhaps to show that it isn’t meant to be there.
I have been researching clips on YouTube and came across this video called ‘Press here for drama’ and in a way the atmosphere they create is similar to what we wish to create in the gallery. You see the spectators as quite baffled and confused as to what is happening but still very much intrigued and this is what we want from our performance…
“In order to help us focus our copious amounts of ideas, we needed to find a way to get the project on its feet. Correlating with our fascination with the clock in gallery 3, it had to be an exercise that would involve everyone constantly, and producing a mechanical like performance. I decided that although it was a small space and we had spent several hours in it, we needed to look at it in a more performance base way. This was the reasoning behind each person walking around freely, although with the intention of covering as much ground as possible. As well as this we passed a ball around linking our separate entities together. Furthermore reflecting back to the mechanism of a clock, bringing seperate things together and making them work effortlessly, which we intended each transfer to be.
Each time we did the exercise we added a different discpline, whether it be the way we move or the way we passed the ball.
The exercise took 6 minutes to do. Our performance is intending to be six hours long so in theory it could be a microcosm of the final performance.
Can you keep up with the ball?”
Author: Shane Humberstone
For our first attempt, this was a more natural movement, exploring the space with the only artificial element being passing the ball between us. This was used to help us engage with the space and interact with each other. We felt that this was useful as it showed us what it was like to work as part of a unit whilst still moving naturally, much like the mechanics of a clocks interior.
We then experimented with the concept of bio-mechanics whic included moving our bodies in time with the monotonous rhythm of a ticking clock. This made us consider the possibility of a more regulated piece, dominated by time and having time dictate our movements to us. The videos also show the reactions of an audience surprised by an experience they were not expecting. Several individuals were hesitant in entering the room, whilst others did not do so at all.
The final endeavour was one which was completely at odds with the first, in so far that it was mechanical, utterly devoid of natural movement and totally regulated. We found this to be useful as it challenged our previous conceptions of the space, forcing us to move differently and observe aspects of the room and displays we had hitherto ignored.
After our excercise, we interviewed members of the public who had briefly observed our performance. It was intriguing to hear their response to how the use of sound in the room did not distract from our visual display but was still recognised. They also said how the darkness of the room helped to channel their attention on to the performance. One individual compared our use of the concept of time with their own performance of an Ibsen text, also correlating with time. He explained how his exploration of the text included a coordination between human movement and the ticking of a clock.
Authors: Chloe Doherty, George Creighton, James Barker, Tabitha Hilton-Berry, Stephanie Jackson
