The section that struck me most in Etchells 8 Fragments was Observation/Coincidence. He talks about how we walk by people every day not interacting. For instance, “we pass each other like objects on a projection line.” (Etchells, 1999, 79). It both has such poignancy and relates to how Chloe and I are working. We are creating a dream- like space on the high street. One of the performance features will be freedom to speak as you wish. So Etchells could be a great influence and enable us to create a space in which we can utilise the “endless possibilities of passing each other on the street” (Etchells, 1999, 79).

Etchells, T. (1999) Certain Fragements. London: Routledge.

Tuesday 3^rd February, I decided to spend some of my day sitting in Costa. I took my laptop, notepad and pen and connected to the free Wi-Fi which was a bonus. I needed the public and workers to look at me and think of myself actually doing something, instead of people watching! I ordered myself a hot chocolate, in fact a few hot chocolates while I spent my time just listening, observing peoples story’s.

My challenge was to sit in a location such as a park, café or bar and listen to the stories spoken.

I reached Costa at 12pm, lunch time which to me seemed like the logical thing to do as there should be a respectable amount of stories to listen to. I stayed until 4pm. Surprisingly it was fairly quiet when I first got there. A few members of the public were jotted round, some on their own and some in pairs. The biggest group I seen was a four. What I noticed in a lot of cases was once people had ordered what they wanted and taken their seat, there wouldn’t be much of a conversation just the usual, how are you and how’s your day been. This was reasonably common throughout the day, which to me was strange as you go for a coffee with friends to have a catch up but really it seemed as though some people went more for the coffee and cakes.

However there were a couple of conversations which I did engage in, hopefully without being noticed. A woman and man, who would probably be in there early 20s I would say were talking about their memories that they have had with one enough. The guy was talking about his birthday a few years ago which was at his grandma’s house. Which the girl Alison, her name was interrupted laughing quite hysterically as he joined in. They were laughing because she had dropped his birthday cake. Alison said she still can’t believe she did that and she will always be clumsy. They were still laughing. This conversation was so nice to indulge in as you got the atmosphere of such a happy, loving couple. The happiness and joy spread to me. It just felt as though that niceness was passed on to me. Like when they say vitamins are good for you, which felt good for me to watch and see.

What I really noticed was that if there was a conversation/situation that wasn’t very nice, it made myself not feel very nice. For example there were two women sitting down having a coffee, and a baby in the pram. One of the woman was explaining how her little one had not been feeling very well for a few days now. So she took him to the doctors and she had just been told to keep giving him calpol. He had a temperature which had been keeping him up, this had been causing him to be quite ratty. This just made me feel great sympathy towards the lady and the baby boy as you could see the distress she was in from worry about her child and also the lack of sleep for the both of them.

My experience just listening, was actually quite fulfilling being able to hear the stories of people’s daily life’s, problems, happiness, sadness. It’s amazing how everyone has something totally different going on in there worlds but some extremely similar. I thought it was fascinating because there is a lot of time when you will just sit down and won’t really pay attention to what is going on around you. For example with myself, if I am on my own I would just usually go into my own world.

I do believe my experience could be the start of a well thought performance. A performance about the world and the different lifestyles people live. The different emotions, feelings and atmosphere we as humans can create.

Natasha Nicolaou

To help us explore the possibilities available in site specific, using a list of suggestions, me and Rachel decided to create a forest in the city. Originally discussing the idea of buying toy tres we decided against this in favour of photographs. The use of photographs allowed us to combine the idea of media with the exercise. Allowing us to gain experience with one of the many possible forms of technology we will be using in our final piece.

A peaceful image of trees set against the hustle and bustle of Lincoln  High Street.

A more literal version of a forest in the city

The start contrast between the peaceful images of nature against the cold concrete and non-stop action of the street was quite powerful especially when considering that without human interference the area would have been just that peaceful.

Placing the photo in front of a bookstore was also powerful. The idea that a forest was in front of a what basically is a store of destroyed trees was both saddening and intriguing. It served me a reminder that in the business of life people often fail to think about the rest of the world around them. Also the idea that the forest is being shown through technology demonstrates a stark contrast between the natural and the man made.

Before the workshop on Monday, I had a faint idea about the direction my performance was heading. This included research into both the topic and what methods would be executed to achieve my goal. However, all this changed after the workshop and the introduction of QR codes. The simple, yet effective idea, of placing QR codes around the high street really caught my attention. Perhaps a narrative could be constructed by placing them in different locations to discuss the history of the high street. Perhaps this method could still be used to include the audience and the public. SImple, yet so effective.

After my exploration of the high street last week, I decided to add to my research and look around the Lincoln collection museum to uncover more of Lincoln’s history. I found some very useful things in relation to how the high street of Lincoln has changed over the years. From Roman to Anglo-Saxon cultures to the modern one we live in today, Lincoln and its high street has vastly changed. In addition, the research conducted within the museum has developed my ideas of what I want to show the audience when exploring Lincoln’s high street. While the idea of the treatment of the Jewish community is still prominent within my mind, I also wish to explore some of the ancient folklore of Lincoln  as I feel this has been forgotten by the public and rarely known by the student community. This also allows me to research in greater depths the history of Lincoln, perhaps visiting the archives next week.

Finally, after the workshop on Monday we were instructed to go on the high street and conduct an experiment. I decided to ask the public about what there dreams were so that I could understand how the public would react to pressure from an “actor”. Sean McEvoy, a 20 year old student studying English (picture below), told me that his dream was ‘to become an author. Nothing appeals to me more than sitting down and writing for the rest of my life. It’s my passion’. Diane, a 46 year old Lincoln community member, stated that ‘while I may be getting on, I still have my dreams. This might sound daft but I’ve always wanted to be an actress but now I feel to old to try and achieve it. I was probably never good anyway’. Through my questioning of people on the street I discovered that more people were unwilling to talk to me about dreams than actually discussing them.

Sean McEvoy

Based on a list of instructions, our aim this week was to pick a task and perform it. Alys and I chose to “leave messages of friendliness and enchantment on trees”. We modified the task a little – there are surprisingly few trees in Lincoln Central – and instead stuck the messages to lamp-posts and phone boxes. We had video evidence of this but I can’t upload it, so I’ve screen-grabbed some of the footage instead: