Following a previous blog post about finding a sign in which we can evoke an equal degree of participation from our audience members we took to looking at the fourth plinth in Trafalgar square. The fourth plinth is a blank platform in Trafalgar square which was originally intended to hold an equestrian statue of William IV but due to insufficient funds it was left blank. When trying to decide what to display on the plinth in 1998 the RSA put forward the option of displaying three temporary contemporary sculptures to be displayed at separate times. Once this had occurred it was decided that this be a continuing theme on the plinth and have it as a rolling programme of temporary art works. We feel by the plinth doing this it allows the public to have an equal degree of participation as they are allowed to display their artworks. An even greater example of public participation with the plinth was when Antony Gormley performed ‘One and other’ on the plinth where he used members of the public at different times for an hour each as his artwork. He said “It will be an experiment, I imagine that there will be extroverts who will see this as an opportunity to do the biggest part trick ever. But I have no expectations. I would be absolutely happy if somebody got up there with an umbrella and just stood still for an hour. The idea is that this will be a portrait of Britain made out of 2,400 hours of 2,400 people’s lives.” (Sooke, 2009) We have decided to something similar with our final sign and will encourage the audience to write down what they would be comfortable holding up to the public for social interaction. The sign will be a large whiteboard with ‘What would you write?..’ written at the top and on the flip side of the sign, we will be handing over a whiteboard marker allowing the audience member to write on the board what they would hold up and then to continue this participation we will be asking them to hold the sign for a minute or two and taking a picture of them holding the sign and maybe getting some public participation.

Sooke, A. (2009) Antony Gormley’s Fourth Plinth, Trafalgar Square. The Telegraph, 26 Feb. [Accessed Online] at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/4838343/Antony-Gormleys-Fourth-Plinth-Trafalgar-Square.html

There is a large rainforest in Cameroon, central Africa, inhabited by people known as the Baka. They are hunter gatherers and are experts in forest life, living off the land as nature intended. They are known throughout Africa for their hunting, musical and dancing skills.

Music is an integral part to the lives of the Baka people, it is used to tell stories, important announcements and ritualistic purposes.

I was guided towards the Baka’s water drums, a technique used to create music by hitting water in certain ways. On face value it looks very simple but it takes years to learn how to create different tones and volumes using only water and their hands.

Our site specific performance centres around water and using water to create music is a unique and quite entrancing way of using water. We will not be using this in our piece as we cannot physically go in to the Brayford, but knowing about different ways people use water is helping us understand and appreciate our own ways of using it to live.

Whilst researching for content for my QR codes, I stumbled across a link to the website of Blind Ditch projects who “bring together varied voices from the communities we work with, to create unexpected arts and performance events in everyday spaces.” (Blind Ditch, 2013)

I was inspired by their work “This City’s Centre” because their focus on performing a different view of the city centre was similar to our aims. But more importantly I was inspired by their method of live streaming and method of encouraging the public to upload their own elements of performance directly on to their gallery. Taking photos of their view of the city from their windows offers anonymous and always different views of the same space, making me reflect back on the idea of revealing ‘layers’ of our own high street from my previous blog.

“By hearing the voices of your neighbours, of people who have walked the same stretch of pavement over and again, just like you, and having their ideas, opinions and thoughts flow into your ears as you contemplate the exact same view that inspired those thoughts, you just might – as I did – feel increasingly connected to the people around you.” (Exeter Insider, 2013)

This lead us to consider the benefit of organising a separate blog specifically for our QR codes that the audience and members of the public can access on-line on the performance day or at a later stage by scanning a QR code to access it.

A number of videos were available on their website that enabled me to view their work further. Although the link would not allow me to import the video to this blog as it has been made private, I am able to produce the link to the webpage in which readers can view the video of Blind Ditch’s performance piece ‘Here and Now’ – the piece that inspired me to consider how we can incorporate audience interaction within our performance on the high street.  http://www.thiscityscentre.net/performance/

Exeter Insider (2013) This City’s Centre 2: Linger. Exeter Insider. [online] Avaialble from: http://www.exeterinsider.co.uk/2013/08/this-citys-centre-2-linger.html. [accessed on 15th March 2015]

Blind Ditch (2015) This City’s Centre. [online] Available from: http://www.thiscityscentre.net/watch-live/. [accessed on 15th March 2015]

Being rejected by the retail owners that owned the wall in which we wanted to perform our piece on, meant that we had to rethink our performance.

However, we were focused on retaining our intention to encourage the audience to view the street and its purpose differently and break the flow of the high street. Therefore reading “a sardine street box of tricks” gave us the skeleton idea of ‘layers’. “Imagine you are archaeologists of the meanings of your street, then your walkings are excavations”. (crab man and signpost, 2011, 32) This inspired us to use the idea of layers in our piece; uncovering the layers of the high street and revealing them to the audience by layering them in QR codes.

Crab man and Signpost (2011) A Sardine Street Box of Tricks. Exeter:Blurb. 30-32

Developing my performance has taken many different twists and turns throughout the past few months. However, recently my performance gained inspiration from a play called Penelope Retold (Horton, 2015), a solo piece depicting the life of Odysseus wife during his absence. The way in which the actress, Caroline Horton, switched from different persona’s is something which I will base my performance on when changing to the different speeches. The way in which Horton interacted with the audience is also something in which I will use during my performance. While I only interact with the audience once within the performance, I will take inspiration from her strong tone and confidence when speaking to an audience member,

Furthermore, the 3-D film with which I am using has experienced some problems, the main one being that the computers haven’t recognized the files. However, fortunately we have found a way round this problem but instead of using a projector we may have to use regular 3-D film.

In terms of my actual performance, the idea has once again further developed regarding the items I will be using. I have found more items, such as cigarette ends and a sleeping bag, which will enhance the authenticity of my portrayal of St Peter’s passage. In addition, rather than myself solely speaking I have decided to add a voice recording and piece of music at the end of the piece. While creating diversity within the piece, it also allows the tone of the performance to become much more authentic and thus develop the dark atmosphere I will to create.

Bibliography

Horton, C. (2015) Penelope Retold. [Performance] Lucy Doherty (dir.) Lincoln: Lincoln Performing Arts Centre, 20 March.