As we have changed our piece to a mainly audio performance we have collected a range of sounds from the high street. For example, coffee shops, food chains, door bells and old fashioned till sounds to name a few. These sounds, we believe make up the high street but we want to put a twist on it. When we creating the rabbit hole idea we thought about using the sounds we recorded and warp them, therefore we would have some sort of control over the blindfolded audience member that we are leading around the space. When they entered the space they would hear a normal coffee shop and as the 15- 20 minutes continued the sounds would get more strange, as would the atmosphere. We would circle them round the room and possibly sit them down in intervals to further the confusion. All of this is will contribute to the theme to liberating the audience from the mundane nature of the high street.

When exploring this further and researching sound walking I found that in 2001 Traux found that, “’listening in search’ as a form of analytical listening, where the individuals focussed upon hearing sounds relating to their activity.” (Davis, 2009, 18). We want people to be ‘listening in search to this experience, to explore a deeper sense of what the high street actually means.

Davis, W. (2009) Research into the Practical and Policy Applications of Soundscape Concepts and Techniques in Urban Areas. Research into the Practical and Policy Applications of Soundscapes Concepts and Techniques in Urban Areas. 18.

Whilst making final changes to the script before recording we were inspired to look further into the University itself and its relationship with the Brayford. Upon further investigation we found that the Brayford plays a prominent role in the University Coat of Arms. The two swans representing strength, self-confidence and loyalty with the “reversed pall is a representation of rivers and canals”(University of Lincoln, 2011). Though perhaps the most significant discovery was that of the meaning behind the University motto; ‘Libertas per Sapientiam´ which means ‘Through Wisdom, Liberty’. (University of Lincoln, 2011).

The Univerity Coat of Arms (Univeristy of Lincoln, 2011)

This concept of wisdom resulting in freedom is especially compelling when considering our own projects’ theme of liberation. Our focus has primarily been on the freedom of water and the interconnectedness it causes. Largely inspired by the Heraclitus quote “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for he is not the same man, and it’s not the same river” (Good Reads, 2015). The idea that water is constantly changing and has the ability to take us almost anywhere in the world is truly liberating concept. This brought me on to think about the freedom of site specific performance itself, liberated from the constraints of a traditional theatre.

Ferdman discusses how site specific performances have evolved to include new forms of media, which means that “Sites today can therefore be virtual, and group events can take place remotely” (2013, 7). Allowing for numerous new forms of interaction between the performer and audience without the need the performer to be physically present. This new flexibility allows for even more freedom for the performer liberating them further from traditional performance practises.

Reference List

Ferdman, B. (2013) A New Journey Through Other Spaces. International Bibliography of Theatre and Dance, 43 (2) 4-25.

Good Reads (2015) Good Reads: Heraclitus: Quotes. [online] Available from http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/77989.Heraclitus [Accessed 28 March 2015]

University of Lincoln (2011) University of Lincoln Coat of Arms. [online] Lincoln: University of Lincoln. Available from http://www.lincoln.ac.uk/home/abouttheuniversity/press/identity/coatofarms/ [Accessed 23 March 2015]

In order for all 4 members of our group to get an equal amount of time with each sign, we decided we needed to find a way of swapping the signs whilst still making it a performance, this meant we couldn’t simply just pass the signs on nochalantly. There had to be purpose to the movement, almost a ritual, the swapping of the Signs should be a performance in itself.

The idea of ritual lead us to the idea of the changing of the guard and after watching videos of different ceremonies in different countries we came up with a simple set of movements that allow us to swap every half an hour easily, we then went on to practise in order to ingrain it into our memory. We will continue to this so that it will become 2nd nature, this is will enable us to not have to speak to each other during the performance much like in the actual changing of the guard.

The idea of this ritual made us also realise that it was important that we had an order of events for the day , so we knew what signs we would be holding when. We decided that it was important that we didn’t have both compliment and sit for a while one after the other, as from the trials we have done these he the least response so we decided to mix these up with handshake and highfive to make it easier for ourselves. We also decided which sign would be where on the highstreet, making it so it goes in order of levels of contact, complement being the least followed by high five then handshake and finally sit with me.

During our piece we aim to change signs with each other every 30 minutes to allow each of us to have an equal amount of time with each sign. We have decided that to do so we will be completing a ritual type routine in which we act out a ‘changing of the guard’. By researching and watching various videos of the changing of the guard rituals outside buckingham palace and other places we have devised a routine in which we will change our signs in the middle of our site. By doing so we will continue to obstruct everyday life as we will be placing this uniform ritual in the middle of the high street which is not something to occur in everyday life, thus allowing us to keep liberating society from their social norms. A known situationist slogan used in the May 1968 uprisings was “La Beaute est dans la rue” or “Beauty is in the street” by making our routine a ritual to occur every 30 mins and keeping a purpose whilst walking to get to our meeting place I feel as if we are displaying this situationist slogan and putting some beauty in the street. To then carry on this ritual and theme when finishing our piece we will march out of our site never breaking our ‘character’ and continuing to walk with purpose until we are no longer on our site thus keeping the beauty within the street.
This diagrams display the devising of our routine to ‘change the guard’.

After finally feeling like everything was falling into place by the beginning of last week, our feelings could not have been more different by Friday. Lincoln council, who we have spoken to often via phone and email over the past few weeks, had assured us that though our request to use the doughnut stand/Phoenix health centre was still being processed, it was very likely that the permission would go through.

It didn’t go through.

We are in a similar halfway stage with permission to use Marks and Spencer’s outside wall (though a formal, written request has now been made after a verbal confirmation was made a few weeks ago, and we await their reply). In the meantime, we took to the high-street to see if there were any more suitable locations for our piece, should M&S fall through. Unfortunately, because of the nature of what we want to do, the only suitable places were off the beaten track.

This space can be found opposite the old mall.

This abandoned shop can be found in the old mall at the top of the high-street.

This space can be found downstairs in the Waterside Shopping Centre.

This space is the side of Primark along the Brayford.