‘First Impressions’…

Tom Baines / / 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:

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and

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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:

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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

First Performance Ideas

Jennie Chapman / / 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.

Origins

Eloise Grace Henshaw / / Nova Inventa, Research

Monday 28th January

Usher gallery

Dan Hunt

In today’s lesson we really started to look at the site that was delegated to our group. As this was the first time we had seen the site,  there was so many stimulus and from the offset we had many ideas as a group.

some of the main topics for exploration this week was:

If you enter a space as a stranger you are able to explore the unknown.

Look at the space through different eyes.

Building is a visitor attraction. It wants people to come in to it and explore – how can we use this to our advantage?

Another thing that we wanted to explore as a group was –

Some Stiumulus and Ideas

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As a group we found different things in and out of the gallery that evoked something from us as individuals and as a group.

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This is something that inspired us as a group to the look in to the way in which things are concealed and exposed under different circumstances. When the tree is in full bloom, the ring cannot be seen. As opposed to when the tree is bare, the ring is left exposed for all to see. As a group, we discussed the idea of exposing a space as part of our performance and the way in which this could be achieved.

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This painting was of particular interest to us as a group. As, to us, the painting represented the way in which people that come to visit the gallery interpret the same art in different ways. The idea that in a gallery, everyone is looking at the same thing but each piece can mean something different to each person is something that I personally find interesting.
What service does the building provide to the city?

Method adopted for this week:

Sit for 45 mins and study a space. Sit and listen, write down everything you hear

Outcome:

We looked closely at how a space can influence people’s behaviours. Our starting point was the cafe. Whilst sat studying the space as a group, each of us has different experiences.

 

Ellie:

Whilst in the cafe, I decided to focus upon the behavioural traits of customers in the que. I found that there was overt politeness between customers that were conforming to the rules of the que! I also noticed some one pick up a bag of crisps at the start of the que, then slyly put it back in the incorrect place when they decided a biscuit was more to their fancy. This exercise helped me to be aware of everything that is going on in a space around me, and almost find some comedic factor in everyday actions. It was ionteresting to see what kinf of ideologies there were in place about the way in which to act in a cafe.

 

Daniella:

For me. It was about focusing on the conversations that happened within the café. I took a moment to listen to a group of elderly women talking…
‘My mothers a bit lazy, when I found my dad had two Marks & Spenser dinners on Christmas day, her justification was ‘well it was M&S’
This led me to think about how although they were in a very public setting, within an art gallery, their conversation had nothing to do with the art. I understood this as the space having no boundaries, they were totally free to speak their minds and not controlled by the setting they were put in.

 

Alicia:

Whilst sat in the café we listened in one other people’s conversation in order to gain understanding of the spaces influence. Whilst waiters commented on the weather or objects such as peoples specific food orders, others who sat around tables and chairs with family and friends discussed topics that had no limits or boundaries.

A group of women discussed vegetables, whilst and elderly couple talked to their grandchild about her food. This proved to us that the space is a comfortable environment that allows people of all ages to feel relaxed and safe.

Tequila:

It was interesting to observe to what degree the gallery had affected its viewers I sat in the cafe and started writing down the conversations people around me were having. Even though what they were discussing had no relevance to and showed no inspiration from the gallery, it showed the different uses of the space; social space, visual space.

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Keep your eyes open for our blog posts!

Authors-  Ellie Henshaw

Word Count: Eloise Henshaw – 476 (out of 751)

First thoughts to the Collection Gallery

Francesca Maria Izzo / / 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.

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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.

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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 / / 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).

The Collection      P1010260

 

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.

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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 28th 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.