Having completed a first draft of the audio experience we tested it out along the Brayford waterfront. This brought up many problems with we are now working to resolve. Clarity of voice and tone of voice is vital to the experience and we realised we have not yet been successful in achieving these. Much like Sit With Me for a Moment and Remember(Pinchbeck, 2015) we want the audience member to connect with the voices in the experience without out them having to know who the speaker is. This connection is vital to the audience being fully immersed in the piece allowing it to be as enlightening as possible. In order for this to happen my group needs to re-record the piece with a friendlier, relaxed tone of voice which is more conversional rather than overly formal.

As well as tone we also need to work on the quality of the audio. We had difficulty in balancing sound levels between different voices particularly the recorded phone conversation with Ron and the initial recordings of Kerry. Equal sounds levels are important to ensure a smooth easy listening experience for the audience member. It will also improve the professionalism of the overall performance.

We also found some practical challenges such as the timing of directions and the wandering possibilities of paper boats. We discovered that we needed to allocate more time for the audience to walk between positions on the Brayford and repeat instructions in case they forget. We also found that the poetic moment of placing a paper boat in the water can be dissintergrated when the boat is carried stright into a pile of litter clogging up the Brayford.

These are all challenges that will require our attention before the final performance.

A beautiful moment swept up into a pile of rubbish. 27th March 2015

Pinchbeck, M. (2015) Sit With Me for a Moment and Remember.  [performance] Michael Pinchbeck (dir.)

Allan Kaprow gave precise instructions that when “Something [is] to take place: [it is a] happening.” (Kaprow, 1959) He believed at first that happenings were very playful activities that involved audience members participating for the sake of playing. He would create events such as ‘Eighteen Happenings in Six Parts’ which involved an audience moving together to experience different elements such as a band playing toy instruments, a woman squeezing an orange, and painters painting and experiencing the art whilst having fun. As time moved on his work evolved, and became less scripted and incorporated more everyday activities, this was around 1961-62 when he began to take friends and students to specific sites and make them perform small everyday actions. We feel like this can link to our piece as we hope to engage the audience in a playful way but just by performing small actions such as a hug or a high five. In 2014 a group called ‘This Is Not A Theatre Company’ re staged one of Kaprow’s happenings called ‘pose’ in which they carried a chair around the Fundacio Antonio Tapies in Barcelona and posed in the chair in different places.

This Is Not A Theatre Company; Pose

I feel that this would disrupt people’s everyday routines if they were to see a chair placed within a city so this links to our piece as we aim to do exactly that. The company states “The participatory and interactive nature of a ‘happening’ ensures that each one is a totally unique theatrical/performance experience that cannot be recreated.” (TINATC, 2014) I agree with this statement because even if you re stage a happening it will never be fully recreated because you will never get exactly the same responses from the same people at the same time in the same place and so on. This will be the same as our piece because it relies on social interaction from audience members no one will ever be able to recreate our performance because they wont have the same responses.
We have decided on a speech to tell audience members if they question us on what we are doing we will respond with; ‘This is a performance. The purpose of the high street now is to make you spend money, we aim to disrupt peoples everyday routines through human interaction even if it is just for a fleeting moment and in doing so liberate them from consumerism.”

Works cited;
Kaprow, A. (1959) Fluxus and Happenings [online] http://members.chello.nl/j.seegers1/flux_files/kaprow_chronology.html

This Is Not A Theatre Company. (2014) [Online] http://www.thisisnotatheatrecompany.com/#!happenings/c1gt3

We knew from the beginning that our performance was going to be heavy technically and it has proved to be quite challenging. So far we have recorded the entirety of our performance twice and have recorded other elements of our performance countless times before they were even close to being correct.

Where we recorded was very important to the quality of the sound. “It is particularly important to minimise early reflections from nearby objects such as tables and walls” (White, 2003) different objects can absorb sound so in order to get the optimum recording we had to adjust our surroundings, moving furniture so placing the microphone in an area where sound would not be lost.

Rode Microphone being used to record audio

We are using a Rode microphone to record our performance and the sound editing software Audacity to edit. The first time we began to record we were beginners to using this equipment for spoken word so it took a little while to understand how we were meant to use the technology and also how to speak so our voices were picked up loud enough by the microphone.

Our first draft used a reverb, or a type of echo, we wanted to see if we could add the effect to make our voices seem flowy and a bit mystical. This idea didn’t work “reverb should be used very sparingly unless a special effect is sought” (White, 103) so when re recording we have not use the reverb effect.

Editing the audio on Audacity

When we had finished our first draft we also noticed that since we had recorded at different times then the sound levels were very different, some sections were very loud and others too quiet, so when re recording we did everything we could in one session, meaning that the audio is more level and easier to listen to.

We have completed our second draft and we are not expecting it to be perfect, each time we record we are getting better at understand how the technology works, so hopefully by the time our piece is performed, our sound editing skills will have drastically improved.

White, P (2003). Basic Microphones. Wiltshire: Antony Rowe Limited. 103

On the 27^th of March 2015 we decided to test run our first recording of ‘Against the flow’ with the paper boat ending. Naomi and Rachel listened to the rough first attempt whilst I walked the course with them acting out the place of each person within the piece the audience would encounter. I found the test run extremely insightful into how the piece would work not through the audio but whilst interacting with the site and how the sites conditions can change the performance completely. The Key problem we encountered was at the end of the piece, Firstly we needed a much bigger gap to walk from the central point to the end point as the audio was ahead of us and secondly When setting the paper boat free in the area we chose the boat floated into a collection of rubbish due to the wind direction and not out to water ruining the effective ending. The audio could be easily edited but the winds effect on the water is not something we can predict. I believe we may have to change the positioning of the ending in order to avoid the finishing of the piece being ruined.I also learnt from the experience that waiting for the participator to arrive at your allocated area will be substantially long and will require patience, You must stay in this natural performance state no matter how long you have to wait and be ready when the audience arrive to make your contribution to the piece as meaningful and important as all the others. I personally will be feeding the wildlife and trying to keep a steady flow of birds throughout the day as without been tempted we have the issue that there may well be no ducks, swans or birds to greet the audience member when they arrive. 

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