This week I have made several visits to my site, walking up and down the High Street route from the Bail Gate to St Marys Church. This aided me to get a better feel and understanding of my site. It was stimulating to just walk in silence and observe what was happening around me. Listening to people’s conversation, looking at their facial expressions, just watching the passers go by. The speed of peoples walking, the urgency or the tranquil walks. Observing the buildings and the architecture. The old city known as Lincoln.

For my Site Specific performance, I am going to be making a video of the journey of walking from the Bail Gate to St Marys Church. On Wednesday I recorded my first take which was a rough draft to see what it was like. The quality of the camera was great nevertheless the stillness was not. So the recording will need to be re shot again. However there was some aseptically pleasing moments in the video and I do think concept works well.

This is where I begin my journey of the walk and reading Amelie Daems’s Feet by Conan Lawrence, makes me wonder how it would feel to do the 20 minute journey bare foot (Lawrence, 2012). Never mind Amelie Daems’s who walked all the way to Belgium taking her four weeks. “Four weeks of walking leave a foil on the sole, tracks to catch up on the journey just made. Grids, contorted boxes, cross-hatchings; knots of repeated pressure, sweat and balancing (walking as a continued attempt to refrain from falling). Toes bunched up, repeatedly curled into or against contours and sleights of land. A heelprint’s finely striated, bonded reply to ground. The body’s isobaric chart tucked out of sight.” (Lawrence, 2012). The walk that Daems’s has accomplished will never leave as the markings on her feet from the performance will never leave her. Yes physically the marks on her feet may leave but some may scar and even if they do vanish she will always be able to remember the effect that walk had on her feet. This could be seen as creating a map on her feet. The markings are creating another journey solely for her feet.

Many people can walk for hours without their feet hurting, getting blisters or cuts however others can’t. Looking at the concrete at the start of my journey, I couldn’t imagine anything worse than walking down it without shoes. The cobbles pressing into feet, especially my feet which are so sensitive will leave a harsh mark. There has been times when I have been out, and have had to take off my heels from the pain and to walk back home on the concrete, I could feel every grain on the floor. Nevertheless, what I did was wear some unconformable sandals not my usual, to walk down the cobble street and by the time I got to the bottom my feet were throbbing. Not having the comfort of my usual shoes, gave me great pain in my feet. Walking is something which we have to do every day, whether it’s a small journey or a big journey. It’s an important aspect to our daily life’s, we get comfortable and we know what’s best for our feet and what Daems’s did in my opinion was a fascinating journey because I’m sure many people would not be able to complete that journey.

Lawrence, C (2012) Amelie Daems’s Feet. [online] York:  Available from: https://walkietalkietoo.wordpress.com//09/18/bare-feet-conan-lawre2012nce/ [Accessed 13 March 2015].