Shane Humberstone – Page 2 – The Collection Of…

Can a ‘Non-Place’ Exist?

Shane Humberstone / April 5, 2013May 13, 2013 / Possessed Time, Research, Space

‘If a place can be defined as relational, historical and concerned with identity, then a space which cannot be defined as relational, or historical, or concerned with identity will be a non-place’ (Augé 1995, p. 77), if a building possesses ‘non-place’ characteristics then it is there to only serve a purpose rather then add something to a community or an area.

In an ever growing fast paced world, the essence of character and legacy can be seen as depleting and being replaced by service based infrastructure that holds no personality, such as airports and shopping malls. These places are blamed for setting people up on the mundane conveyor belt of life. These places have no character and they do not create experiences or provoke emotion such as churches or battle grounds. It is worth mentioning that a ‘place’ or a ‘non-place’ does not necessarily have to be a building but any area of space, like a motorway for example.

Although I agree that when the essence of the past is present in a building, or a room or even a road, it does create a different atmosphere and a sense of identity. We all know of that back road to that certain place that has the really scary trees and the old broken wooden fence running alongside it, which fills us with memories and atmosphere every time we drive down it, and often we give it an identity by naming it. In turn it is evident that modern places still have their own stories and are filled with people who have their own experiences. An airport can be perceived as ‘Everyday spaces of Late-Capitalist cities’ (Coyne), can be seen as a vacuous filtering system of people, or you could look at the individuals. Each passenger has their own story of why they are there and their own influence on the space. People develop memories and experiences at airports all of which add to the identity and character of the place. Furthermore, the members of staff that work there every day become part of the building and bring a whole new type of character to the building. The beautiful thing about these large places, filled with forever changing people, is that they can be filled with so much more experience and character than any historical site, and on top of that they have the ability to change their identity so significantly and so often, which makes them more of a ‘place’ than a lot of the places Augé would perceive as a ‘place’.

When first looking into Gallery 3 at the Usher gallery you see all these pieces of art and watches with an abundance of history and fascinating stories, which simply epitomises the idea of a ‘place’. Despite this, if you think about it closer, Gallery three is just another gallery conforming to what can only be perceived as a normal museum gallery. It is dark, small and has little writing explain the stories which would indeed truly make it a ‘Place’, compared to the Collection, it can be perceived as somewhat flaccid and thus has another product of what museums should be.

‘Place and non-place are rather like opposed polarities: the first is never completely erased, the second never totally completed…’ (Augé 1995, p. 79), this not only insists that there is hope for our airports to one day been seen as a ‘place’, but also our fully cultured, fully historical churches once started off as a ‘non-place’ and still contains ‘non-place’ characteristics. Moreover, this shows that a building will never reach its full identity, its context and essence can only ever grow. I believe that the speed in which a ‘non-place’ can become a ‘place’ is heavily down to the acceptance of the build in the community, alongside with its actual aesthetic beauty. Take a motorway for example. A town may totally hate it because it has left a ‘scar’ on the landscape and has no positive externalities for that town, whereas it could actually be seen as a compliment to that town and become a big part of it, not only bringing ease of access to that town but also, in time, it can build a new history more fulfilled history and new experiences made with journeys taken on it.

Airports can be seen as a plain large glass blister on the earth just ferrying people in and out, but these people give them more character than any type of brick or mystical stories. I disagree with those who think that airports or shopping malls are ‘non-places’ because they do not ‘identify a loss of personal identity’, or a, ‘decline in meaningful relations amongst the users of spaces’ (Coyne). Despite this it can easily be argued that each member of staff sees each customer as just another number. In turn each customer can see the staff as just mere faces of the company they may be dealing with, ‘The non-place is the opposite of utopia: it exists, and it does not contain any organic society’ (Augé 1995, p. 111-112). Although I still believe, and have experienced, that people in these places genuinely want to help you and create an experience for you which may not be received from a ‘place’ steeped in cultural history, because of the vast size of these spaces, and the volume in which people are dealing with, going to these ‘non-places’ can be seen as a process as opposed to an experience.

Essentially i do not think ‘non-places’ really ever exist, no matter how young the space is, people are forever having influence on everywhere they go and these ‘places’ never have a chance to be a ‘non-place’. Our task is to see if we can re-insert life back into Gallery 3 and give it an extra story to tell.

Written by: Shane Humberstone

Works Cited:

Augé, Marc (1995) Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity, trans. John Howe, London and New York: Verso.

Coyne, Richard Orienting the Future: Design Strategies for Non-Place, Online: http://www.design21.dundee.ac.uk/PDF/NonPlace.pdf (accessed 3 April 2013)

Our Mime Endurance Trial…..of brushing teeth!!

Stephanie Jackson / March 11, 2013May 12, 2013 / Development, Experimentation, Possessed Time

In todays workshop, our group put into practise our ideas on the structure and timing of our piece. The opening section of our performance will consist of us going about our daily routine, of waking up, brushing our teeth, washing our face and eating breakfast. We have chosen a simple movement that represents each of these acts, however we are doing each action for 15 minutes. This will dehumanise a simple every day action, and the audience will not be expecting us to maintain such simple movements over a durational period. As we are going to be using our bodies to portray an action, and due to the duration of our piece, it is important to research into physical theatre and mime traditions. Simon Murray and John Keefe write:

‘the physical actions of the body still remain those of the everyday body. These may be stylised or contorted or otherwise heightened but the body remains the same somatic, corporeal ‘thing’ that it can only be. The actions are mimetic of the everyday but outside the everyday or habitual.’

(Murray Simon, Keefe John, Physical Theatres: A Critical Introduction,Taylor and Francis 2007)

The reason we have chosen to mime is because we feel that it fits more with the aesthetics of the space. We can’t justify having real props such as toothbrushes and doing it for real, because it would too out of place. During the sections when we mime eating, the reason for us not having real plates and cutlery is that the Gallery is filled with household crockery. They are meant for practical use but they are kept behind glass for display only. Our mime is demonstrating the essence of the action we are portraying without the materialistic element, because the material objects are prevented from our use by the glass cabinets in the Gallery.

So would our mime work and would it be effective? The only way to find out was to practically do it.

With each of us focusing and remaining in silence, with only the sound of a ticking clock to accompany us, we began to mime brushing our teeth. We each did different speeds, but maintained timing with the clock. This required so much concentration and perseverance on our part as performers, as within a few minutes our arms began to ache and the repetitive nature became quite mentally challenging to keep going.

After 15 minutes of non stop repetitive mime, an alarm dictated us to change into our next movement of face washing. This was equally as challenging and required mental strength and endurance to keep us motivated and focused. We received comments afterwards from our fellow students who had watched us. They remarked on how effective it was and the energy that the repetitive nature evoked in the room. We learnt as performers how a subtle movement can become enlarged and surreal just by repeating it, and the endurance and skill that is required to keep up a mime like that. I think we need to develop this further and perhaps experiment with different actions in the space, as the space itself can change the way an action is perceived. Will our mime be more effective if we all stood in a line, or at different levels within our space? Do we face into the cabinets or to our audience? These are questions which will become answerable as we develop our work further.

Works Cited

Murray Simon, Keefe John, Physical Theatres: A Critical Introduction, (Taylor and Francis 2007)

A Micro Day

Tabitha Hilton-Berry / March 5, 2013May 6, 2013 / Development, Experimentation, Possessed Time, Video Research

We have decided to condense a 24-hour working day into a 6-hour performance that incorporates a typical everyday routine. We aim to highlight how time can be both an abstract and physical concept by which we are controlled. On the other hand, we cannot help but manipulate time in this piece as measurements of time are a human invention (e.g. seconds, minutes.)

The performance begins with us inert in a sleeping position for the duration of the first hour; we then are individually awoken by a series of alarms to perform our morning routines in a mechanical manner and in time to the sound of a ticking clock. Each member of the group stands in front of a section of the glass cabinets to perform their own daily routine as if the glass is a mirror. In three pairs, we reflect actions of each other brushing our teeth, washing our face and eating breakfast for 15 minutes per action, each pair performs the actions in various tempo’s but making sure to keep in time with the clock ticking sound still. We have included three videos displaying an example of the various tempos that each pair will use.

The first, shows the slowest speed whilst keeping to the ticking of the clock and the last video displays the fastest speed which still keeping to the beat.

Through the manner of miming, we display how a lot of our daily actions are mechanical and we perform them without thinking about the amount of time it consumes. By the end of the second hour, we will portray the walk to work by using an exercise we previously created as a warm-up. It incorporates using the space in Gallery 3 and moving in a mechanised style.

In the third and fourth hours, we will be aiming to represent a working day through the medium of constructing the puzzle of a clock made from carpet tiles. This serves to act as a reminder of the works of James Usher and how clocks were a key feature of both his public and private life. Between these hours, we will be including a 15 minute lunch break eating pineapple related foods, which is part of the performance, reflecting the exhibition of the ‘Pineapple Dish’ currently housed in the gallery. At the end of the fourth hour we will perform the walk through the space exercise previously used as the ‘walk to work’ but changing it to represent the walk home.

For the final hour, we will represent the evening period of a typical day which will display dinner time, relaxation or recreation time (working as a group to incorporate a game into the performance e.g. a passing ball game) and finally finishing the performance in the position by which we began, sleeping. This position will not be held as long as it was at the beginning of the performance as it is just a brief representation of the end of a typical day.

Stop the Clocks!

Stephanie Jackson / March 5, 2013May 12, 2013 / Development, Possessed Time, Research

‘Clocks slay time; only when the clock stops does time come to life.’ ~William Faulkner

Time. It’s all around us. We can’t escape it. We can’t ignore it. It constricts, dictates and ages us as humans, but time is just a concept.

This is at the root of our performance, as we develop our piece in a gallery which is surrounded by instruments of time. We are presenting a whole working day in 6 hours, and our development has led us into ideas of routine and the repetition which time brings. The routine of our daily lives; sleeping, waking up, eating, going to work, going out, all in a cycle which continues as the clocks progress into each hour.

What do you expect to see when you walk into any Gallery? Paintings, artefacts and displays. Certainly not a group of people asleep on the floor, or doing their daily routine! Our work is going to be pushing the boundaries of expectation and the abstract element of time.

Our chosen space is Gallery 3, within our given site of the Usher Gallery. We were drawn to this as artists because of the aesthetics of the room which contrast those of the spaces around the building. The building’s stunning architecture reflects that of a Manor House, both exterior and interior, with the winding staircase and stone floors. However, this totally changes when the public enter Gallery 3. Carpeted floors and walls and a dramatic change to a colour midnight blue, makes you question whether you have wandered into a completely different building. As we develop and explore our work, it is clear that subtle things become enlarged and exaggerated because of this confined environment.

This leads me onto discussing what the terms of ‘site’, ‘space’ and ‘place’ really mean- concepts which have been scrutinised by the many practitioners of site specific studies. Joanne Tompkins and Anna Birch, state ‘place’ under 3 critical concepts:

‘place as geographical site, place which situates social or historical position and the place or location of performance’.

(Joanne Tompkins, Anna Birch, Performing Site-Specific Theatre: Politics, Place, Practise. Palgrave Macmillan, 2012)

A space can be described in terms of being a ‘practised place’, as Jayne Rendell describes in her work Art and Architecture: A Place Between. Rendell uses the work of Michael Landy as an example of performance and its relationship between place and space. Landy performed a bold piece of performative work in 2001, with ‘Breakdown’, which took place in a vacant shop along Oxford Street in London, where he divested himself of all his possessions. A conveyor belt was installed on a circuit, overseen by men and women in blue overalls, including Landy himself. Over a durational period, every possession was circulated on this belt under categorized headings such as ‘clothing’ ‘electrical’ etc. This undoubtedly was a statement on capitalism due to the position of Oxford Street as being one of the busiest shopping locations in the country. But most importantly, Landy transformed a place using art intervention;

‘his work provided a ‘space’ of critical engagement in the ‘place’ of commodity consumption.’

(Jane Rendell, Art and Architecture: A Place Between, IB Tauris & Co, 2006)

With work such as this to inspire us, we too will be using art intervention to transform our place into a space; using Gallery 3 as a spatial practise to explore the concepts of time. Our work is also exploring the historical and cultural context of the artefacts that the room holds. The clocks are integral to the site as a whole, as they are to our piece. In its early origins, clock making was the most technically advanced job around, and during the 1800s and 1900s, was a means of flaunting wealth and status. Clockmakers would usually also be involved in making scientific instruments, due to their technical skills and knowledge. Focus, concentration and perseverance were needed in the art of clock making and these are traits which we will have to bring to our piece as performers, as our piece is durational and will be both mentally and physically exhausting.

The work we have been developing in workshops has led me to research further into other site specific performances by other companies. One that specifically interested me was a work entitled ‘Stop the Clocks’ by Tin Box theatre.

Tin Box theatre is a relatively newly established company, who performed a site specific work called ‘Stop the Clocks’ in 2011. Their piece took place in a disused coffin fitting factory in the centre of Birmingham, and presented the story of a fictional woman called Mary, at different stages of her life until her death. The work was inspired by the history of the factory and the testimonies of ex-employees. I think their chosen site is similar to the Collection and Usher Gallery due to its rich history.

Works Cited

Joanne Tompkins, Anna Birch, Performing Site-Specific Theatre: Politics, Place, Practise. Palgrave Macmillan, 2012

Jane Rendell, Art and Architecture: A Place Between, IB Tauris & Co, 2006

The Effects of Time

Stephanie Jackson / February 26, 2013 / Possessed Time, Research, Video Research

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