Once again my idea for the piece has drastically changed. Rather than following up on the idea of an audience utilising QR codes to gain information from St Peters passage, I have decided to film the alley with a 3D camera and relocate it to a studio. This is due to two reasons; one being that of safety as the location is often unsafe during the night and therefore wouldn’t be adequate to take an audience down there and the other is that the piece would be more effective in a studio. In addition, I believe that placing an audience in a dark, atmospheric room while watching the passage unveil before them in 3D is more effective than having an audience walk down the alley in a large group. As well as the audience watching the passage appear before them, I have decided to add speech throughout the piece. This will add variety to what the audience is watching and perhaps alert them to the different aspects of the passage which they may not have noticed before. An example of a passage I may use is based on the work of Georges Perec and his book An attempt at exhausting a place in Paris (Perec, 2010). Throughout the book, Perec describes in great detail the events which unfold in a certain location in Paris over three days. For example, Perec constantly notes the passing of buses, although this happens so frequently that Perec states ‘I’ve lost all interest in them’ (Perec, 2010, 29). The detail in which Perec describes the events in Paris is something in which I wish to capitalise on with my piece. This is because Perec begins to notice things which usually aren’t noticed such as the ‘slight change in the light’ (Perec, 2010, 36), therefore if I utilise this for my piece I can alert the audience of the little nooks and crannies of St Peter’s passage. Thus, allowing the audience to gain a different and more intricate insight into the location.

This is an example of things unnoticed on St Peter’s passage. What happend here? Who did these marks? Why are they here?

Perec, G. (2010) An Attempt At Exhausting A Place In Paris. Translated from French by Marc Lowenthal. Cambridge: Wakefield Press.

After being given the brief during Monday’s session, I immediately knew what I wanted to experiment and explore for the three minute piece. This was St Peter’s passage. During my previous investigations throughout the city, this particular passage remained significant in my mind. The initial discovery of this alley was astonishing because many a time I walked past its location without ever noticing its presence. That was quite odd. However, the most peculiar aspect of this location was the irony surrounding it. The fact that it is a passage, a place which leads to another, named after St Peter, the Saint who holds the keys to heaven, implies that this is a metaphorical gateway to heaven. On the contrary, the passage itself is dark and moody, it is scattered with beer cans, cigarette ends and a ragged sleeping bag. This enormous contrast to what the name of the alley infers is eccentric. Therefore, we wished to focus on this irony and portray a story of a homeless man who lives within the passage. To do this, we filmed the location at night and recorded a monologue written by us. By placing this on YouTube, we could create a QR code to place at the entrance of the passage. The audience members would then access this and the story would unveil before them, without them actually having to ascend down the alley (primarily for safety reasons). We believed that this would be atmospheric and create an experience in which the audience would associate the passage with the next time they walked past it. We also incorporated the notion of pervasive media within this video. Gaining influence from the play ‘I Wish I Was Lonely’ (Walker and Thorpe, 2015), we used the monologue to criticise society and how people are controlled by a phone instead of noticing their true surroundings, most notably that of ignoring homeless people and forming opinions of places which look dreary.

Bibliography

Walker, H. J. and Thorpe, C. (2015) I Wish I Was Lonely. [performance] Hannah Jane Walker and Chris Thorpe (dir.) Lincoln: Lincoln Performing Arts Centre, 11 February.

While watching the Radio Ballet Leipzig (Radiodispersion, 2008), I noticed that the use of an mp3 player within a performance can create a shift of power in social situations. For example, within certain sections of the train station the majority of the people there were “actors”, whose presence outnumbered the non-participating public. This contrasts greatly to what usually happens within society. Thus, this shift in power towards the “actors” forced those who were not participating to became the minority, and perhaps feel awkward. Comparing this to Mike Pearson’s Site-Specific Performance (Pearson, 2010), it is clear that this is an example of a ‘They go there, you and I do not’ (Pearson, 2010, 24) situation. The creators of the piece used an mp3, which didn’t require their presence, to alter the ‘physical stances and body attitudes’ (Pearson, 2010, 24) of the participants in a social situation. It also encouraged them ‘to touch and smell and listen as much as look’ (Pearson, 2010, 25) in a way which opposed social norms which are considered odd. The use of an mp3 interests my own ideas for a performance because it allows a creator to dictate to a willing audience without actually being there, thus allowing the piece to be performed whenever is best for the participants.

Bibliography

Radiodispersion (2008), Radio Ballet Leipzig Main station Part 1 [online video] Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qI3pfa5QNZI [Accessed 10 February 2015].

Pearson, M. (2010) Site-Specific Performance. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

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

Prior to reading Janne Tapper’s article Pervasive Games (Tapper, 2014), my perception of pervasive media and how it could be utilised within site-specific performance was distorted. How could it be effectively utilised to interest and interact with an audience? What techniques needed to be mastered to create a compelling piece? These questions remained on my mind. However, all became clear after reading the article. The referral to a powerful piece ‘played on the streets of Tel-Aviv, Israel, in the middle of a busy intersection’ (Tapper, 2014, 151) where ‘one character was shot and killed, and the body was taken and placed in a dumpster’ (Tapper, 2014, 151) alerted me to how powerful an impact a piece could have upon an unknowing audience. The apparent simplicity, yet also great amount of detail and precision, of the piece made me realise how to begin devising and developing my own project.

This leads on to my investigation around Lincoln’s high-street. Since this is the location for our project, I scouted the area while looking for hidden passages and paying special attention to the buildings and streets as I felt it essential before planning my project. What I found was surprising. While I regularly use the high street for consumerist needs, I never truly noticed the architecture of the buildings and the atmosphere they create. A prime example of this is the arches. While the ancient structure is dominant while on the high street, never before have I properly explored it. The atmosphere generated by the structure while doing this was astounding as I felt transported back into the middle ages where the arches would have had a greater use. Thus, this emphasises that items such as our smart phones distract us from our true and fascinating surroundings and ultimately cause a lack of great opportunities. One building which really caught my attention was that of the Jews house. The building itself stuck out at me and while reading the information signs regarding its past, I felt compelled to research this further and perhaps pursue this as part of my project.

Bibliography

Tapper, J. (2014) Pervasive Games: Representations of Existential In-Between-Ness. Themes in Theatre, 8, 143-160.