Materials

Jade Nicholls / / Cultural Terrorists, Development

After a lot of stress and worry about the material we are going to use for the sculpture of our Big Ben tower we have finally found the perfect solution. Our first initial idea of polystyrene was unsuccessful as we mentioned in our previous post. We then thought of using Paper meche, however this would have taken a lot of time and made the gallery extremely messy. After searching the internet and many craft shops around Lincoln we found in B&Q some blocks of Selitac, which is usually used for under floor heating, this seemed perfect to use to make the sculpture. After research online and speaking to various shop assistants we found that the material is very handy to bend and carve and it also slots together easily! During tomorrows lesson (5th March 2013), we are going to attempt to make the Big Ben with our new material. If this does not work however it will be back to square one with materials. Although its a good learning curve for us trying many different materials to get the perfect one to make our performance as good as it could possibly be.

 

Rehearsal Schedule for Cafe :)

Shellie-Ann Barrowcliffe / / People

25.2 –    Experiment socially to see what causes reactions and grabs people attention.
Collect sources ready to experiment the stringing up outside ready for Monday 4th March.
Continue research on Café culture, narrowing it down to the café at the collection.

4.3 –       Experiment with the ideas that we have for outside, if it is not possible to do this at the height that we wish to then do it at a lower levelso we can still experiment and plan.
Have a survey formed to hand out to member of the café to see the reasons behind why people visit the café.

11.3 –     WORK IN PROGRESS WEEK! Need to have something that we want to try to see if it works ready to show the other groups so that they can give us feedback.
Also continue research to create a verbatim script as part of the performance in the café.

18.3 –     Make sure all materials are gathered, script is close to being completed.
Have some idea of movement that is going to be done. Need to have a clear structure for the piece

Easter-  Arrange a date to meet up during the 2nd week of the holiday.
Continue development and experimentation with materials.

8.4 –       Attempt to have some sort of initial run through, see what problems arise. Then work out solutions of these problems.

15.4-      Further discussion of the run through that we previously had. Make the piece strong and clear. Make it have a definite purpose of direction.

Things we need to consider:

Costumes
Music
Flowers
Materials
Risk assessment
What is happening in the upstairs window?
Making the café into an exhibition?
Is our script going to be completely verbatim?

Development/ Experiments

Jennie Chapman / / Development, Experimentation, People

Today we looked at trying some of our performance ideas out on site. From last week’s session we had some elements we needed to figure out for us to recreate the painting ‘Bound by Love’.

We decided to focus on the string as it was the key element of us wanting to join the cafe with the rest of the museum and so neglected our initial idea of recreating the painting as a whole. We were able to experiment with the string to see what it would look like. We also decided to use a coloured ribbon in the midst of the string as this would be seen, clearly linking the two sides of the building together. This became even more relevant when we decided to experiment with part of our performance taking place in the Education suite.

We came up with was to use the windows in the Education Suite and to see whether anyone in the café would notice. Holly and Shellie volunteered to carry out the experiment. First of all they simply improvised which included dancing and talking out of the window. We then began suggesting other movements that they could do such as have an argument, pretend to be in a café, climb the windows. Quite a number of the public looked up at the windows and pointed it out to the people they were with as well as people in the café noticing, people walking past the building started to wave at the windows. Through this experiment came the idea of mimicking and emphasizing the cafe by Holly and Shellie taking the characters of those we had seen in the cafe but contrasting it with child’s play. This was very effective as it would emphasize activity in the cafe and also the people we had observed.

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We also continued to carry out some experiments in the café which involved us sitting alone at a table and start talking to as if we were with someone else. We did this in order to see if people would respond or notice us. At first when Holly and Shellie tried, nobody really took notice however when Gabriel had spoke as if having an argument with someone, a few people looked up and reacted. We have been recording parts of people’s conversation in order to use it somehow in our performance. We are thinking of combining these two elements together; sitting alone whilst repeating quotes and conversations we have overheard as we have found it intriguing to hear the types of conversation people have in the cafe as well as the type of people we have seen.

This developed further when each of us performing in the cafe took on a ‘character’ of a person we had observed in the cafe, each one of us becoming an exhibit in the cafe. Such ‘characters’ as The Reader, The Working Man and The Family. We are going to sit individually around the cafe and re-enact the conversations and actions of these people. Along with this we will create placards similar to those seen by real exhibits throughout The Collection in order to further our idea of making the cafe an exhibition. The placards will have quotes on them and also the names of our exhibits like the ones in the images below.

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Lone Twin

Lacey Cole / / Cultural Terrorists, Inspiration, Research

Having settled upon an idea and concept for our piece, we thought we’d explain more about the group from whom we took inspiration, namely, Lone Twin. Whilst reading about Lone Twin and their works in Making a Performance, we were interested to read that many ‘artists may also clearly identify themselves as outsiders within a space’ (Govan, Nicholson and Normington 2007, p.125). Being that we ourselves are not ‘locals’ in the traditional sense of the word in Lincoln, it becomes interesting to consider our place instead as strangers, in the Gallery as well as the city itself and its history. Instead of just focusing on the history of the site, we have decided to combine our own histories and city (London) with that of Lincoln. By making our ‘otherness’ obvious, we hope the audience will also be compelled to think about their roots and history.

By effectively sneaking London into the Gallery via a sculpture, costume and a soundscape (fingers crossed), we hope to make the locals and tourists to the area consider their own histories differently. We are not locals to Lincoln, but neither are we complete strangers to the area, and Lone Twin seems to confront this idea head on, with the concept that the artist ‘is both from here and not from here’ (Govan 2007, p.125). While we live in Lincoln, it seems our time here is limited to the three years we will spend on our degrees. Thus, Big Ben and the chimes of the clock are doubly appropriate as it signals both us running out of time in Lincoln as well as the history of the Usher Gallery. We plan on incorporating the chimes of Big Ben into our soundscape along with background noise similar to that of a busy street in London.

Lone Twin have done numerous public pieces, including one entitled Walk With Me, Walk With Me, Will Somebody Please Walk With Me (2002). Throughout the piece, the group ‘remains sensitive to the stories that constitute that space’ (Govan 2007, p.126). This idea seemed central to the thesis of site specific, and also intertwined with our previous knowledge of Lone Twin as a group that moved from space to space whilst considering the ‘placelessness’ of the artist, which we felt related to us personally. As we have previously discussed, we want to include elements of modernity with the history of the space, in keeping with the site specific practice. Considering these elements, Lone Twin seemed perfect as a group to take inspiration from.

Street Dance

Lone Twin’s Street Dance

Author: Lacey Cole.

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

BREAKING NEWS: A Corpse is Found in a Gallery

Eloise Grace Henshaw / / Nova Inventa, Public Responses, Research, Space

5th feb

This was the week in which we decided to really try and focus on what our objectives were as a group in order to begin to build a foundation for our performance.

Here’s what our initial idea was:

Our aim is to take an interesting space created by architectural structure and explore the way in which we may turn it in to something passers-by will notice.  We want to look at the concealed areas around the museum and expose them. Our aim is to make places that would usually be passed by noticed by the public.

Aim: Make the Audience pay Attention to details!

 

THEMES FOR OUR PERFORMANCE

Consciousness

EXPOSURE

Make the audience KNOW what our aim is

Obscure view of the gallery itself

METHODS IN ORDER TO ACHIEVE CLEAR OVERVIEW:

TALK TO STAFF

Everyday staff, ask for their view

FIND MORE SPACES

OUTCOME:

We managed to use our time asking the members of staff around the collection

–        Did your perception of the building change as you began to see it on a daily basis?

‘Yes, everyday when you come in you notice something slightly different with the space around you as there are frequent changes in the art found in the gallery. I guess that has a lot to do with some ones perception as each piece of art can be seen as changing the space in which it inhabits.’

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–        What is the most interesting space in the building

‘I don’t know if you’ve noticed the way in which the cathedral is framed in the entrance hall. It is almost breath taking, although I do worry sometimes it goes to waste as people walk past and don’t seem to look up and notice it. In my opinion, the window itself is a work of art.’

–        Which piece of art draws the most attention?

‘Generally, the more contemporary art, for example the stuffed tights and the gnome made out of cigarettes seem to attract the most attention as people see its obscurity and are forced to ask the question, is this art?’

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–        What is the most drastic reaction someone has had to a work of art?

‘On a day to day basis, there aren’t usually any reactions that are out of the ordinary as it is always interesting to hear people’s views, but recently we have had an installation put in place in the usher gallery which depicts the body of an artist as a dead man, lying face down on the gallery floor. Last week some time, a visitor came across the installation and fainted due to its incredible life-like features.’

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^ Not for the faint-hearted!

 I found it helpful to talk to the staff as it was useful to have an insight in to the way in which becoming familiar with a space may alter someone’s perception.

 

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See you soon!

Author: Ellie Henshaw

Word Count: 447