February 2015 – Page 3 – SITE SPECIFIC PERFORMANCE

What is the Space?

Eleanor McHale / February 16, 2015 / Main Page

Looking round the library you suddenly realise you are not in an ordinary surrounding. You have been transformed to a different world. A place you can feel at home surrounded by all the different information; where if you wanted to learn about the human body you could do. But not only are you immersed with the stories there you are also immersed in the architecture that is the library. It isn’t just what you see it is how you feel when you enter and really think to yourself how lucky we are as a society to be aloud all that knowledge in one place. That education is a gift and so is the ability to be able to use these books free of charge. An unspoken bond between the library and the community is shown when you are aloud to borrow however many books you need as long as you bring them back so other people can also experience the book like you have done. The mix of both the old and new building shows the history of the library previously being a grain factory and that is still a place of hard labour and work.

If you listen closely you can faintly hear the workers shoes hitting the hard floor and the old machines brimming to help the workers. This mirrors the University of Lincoln students sat at other machines, these being the computers, still working similarly to the workers at the grain factory. A cycle that seems to carry on and will hopefully carry on in this building.

Eleanor McHale.

Salon Adrienne

Catherine Hayes / February 16, 2015February 16, 2015 / Main Page

Adrian Howells creates an artistic piece centrered around a hair salon and explores the bonds that can be made with the clients that visit there. He investigates the relationship between the hairdresser (portrayed by himself as Adrienne) and the client he is looking after. The video shows the break down of certain boundaries we may expect these two people to have; normally at a hair salon there would be a certain amount of small talk between the client and the hairdresser but to a certain point, not usually revealing anything that could be seen as ‘personal’. Adrienne asks the clients to take ‘a long hard look at yourself in the mirror’, commenting that usually people start to describe the superficial things amount themselves such as ‘the bags under my eyes’ but Adrienne pushes them further, getting them to concentrate on the metaphorical things they see when they look at themselves. To enable his customers to share more about themselves, Adrienne will always give something back to them, a personal thing about himself that then creates a bond of trust and respect, meaning that the client can then respond and share something equally as personal. What’s interesting to think about with this video is what effect the piece being set in a hairdresser has upon the performance. Personally, I think that it symbolises how a hair salon can be quite a personal space, where people become very aware of themselves, thinking about both flaws and positives about themselves and how exploring this is important in understanding the mindset and emotions of people in certain places compared to others.

Creating a book.

Eleanor McHale / February 15, 2015 / Main Page

The Woman Who Drew the Stars.

Midnight. A small alcove is seen dimly lit. A family fire is causing the light; creating a flickering effect on the rest of this dark world. Almost like it was the only light left in existence. The street was very ordinary it had around eight houses each side of the road and an old post office that had been closed down for what seemed like an eternity. The small town of Dudley was neither nice nor nasty it just seemed to appear at being satisfactory reflecting its residents well. Down past the post office and up passed the houses lived Francesca. The alcove was the entrance to her home and her existence. Francesca was a pretty girl and so was her life and nothing had ever been simpler than that. Or so she thought until the 23^rd of April, in which she discovered her life was about to end. Many people had dreamed of the future of what it may or may not hold. If they would be happy, or rich or married. But no one ever imagines the end. What happens then when the lights go out on this world? And why would you? But for Francesca Stone that was closer than anyone would ever hope for.

Imagine your last day to see your family, or your friends or your soulmate. Now imagine what your life would be like if you never even got to see the person you are meant to spend the rest of your life with. What would you want your final image to be? Maybe a new born baby opening its eyes for the first time; or your parents on results day or even the first time you bought your new pet? Francesca’s final image was her mother crying by her bedside wishing for her daughter to be okay.

You see Francesca had be going slowly blind from the age of sixteen; it was no surprise to her but she would never know her final day. When the lights go out one last time and they never come back on again. However I don’t want you to have any misconception of Francesca Stone’s life. This is not a sad story; this is a very happy story in which bad things have happened. She lived a good life and felt everything more than anyone will ever know. She lived more in her eighteen years than others do in a hundred. She laughed and loved and danced and she was everything you could ever wish to be.

Have you ever seen black like the black where you can’t wait to turn the light on? That’s what blindness is. Francesca left Dudley hospital with a grip on her mother’s arm she had never been particularly close with her mother but then again her choices weren’t very ranged with who she would have around her. She looked up to the sky she could feel the sun on her face; she could feel it but she couldn’t see it “I’ll never see the sky again” she thought to herself it was a thought she had but as soon as she said it. She regretted it.

Eleanor McHale

Finding ‘Space’ On The Third Floor

Abigail Elizabeth Earlie / February 13, 2015February 13, 2015 / Main Page

The openness and peacefulness of the Third Floor in the library makes it my favourite place in the building.

Who inhabits the space?

Students Usually spend time on the third floor because like me, they find it easier to do more work in the quiet and open atmosphere. The lighting also helps achieve a more productive atmosphere, it creates a space where more can be done, it feels open and available to do work. It’s a atmosphere of positivity. I find it such a productive atmosphere that I would like to investigate the possibilities of performance around and within the space.

I think that the architecture of the roof is interesting, and I enjoy the amount of light that it draws attention to.

Abigail Elizabeth Earlie

Performance Ideas

Rebecca Elizabeth Bierton / February 12, 2015April 15, 2015 / Main Page

Architextural features of the library?
– Could look at this literally or metaphorically
– Playing with the original structure or looking at how we could alter the architexture?
– Turn the building/space into something else

Industrial side of the library?
– Look at the way the library was used before
– How we could bring the past into the present
– How the past meets the present anyway within the library literally
– Look at spaces where the warehouse meets the new library building

Literal Library?
– Using the library in a literal way
– Looking at literal books and reading
– How reading can be used to educate?
– Reading can be used for pleasure and to relax

Creative Library?
– The way the library can be used for other activites (rehearsal etc)
– The way spaces can be transformed

Social Library?
-Looking at the way the library is used to promote group work and discussion?
– How friendships and relationships are formed and created in the library?
– The idea of the social aspect, coffee shop encouraging this?

IT Library?
– Idea of the access to all information
– How IT connections can help and hinder the library
– Online library?

Factual Library?
– Seeing the library as for factual use only
– The rooms that are purely for work and research (third floor)

Text piece – creating a literal story rather than a creative piece? Some kind of performance structure?

Soundscape – lights out? recreate areas of the library via sound, recreate the industrial past and slowly bring it to the present?

The People Who Use The Library – Look at who uses the library and why

Re-draw parts of the library. Create a blank canvas and literally re-draw areas of the library. Different sections could be re-drawn to give a better understanding of the material. For example, canvas the Drama section of the library and draw over it the tragedy and comedy masks, drawing shakespeare and illustrate Stanislavski techniques. Architexture could be re-drawn with images of skyscrapers and buildings. The IT section could make illustrated reference to the world wide web and everything it has to offer. This could be the performance and people could come and observe you drawing over the sections they know with an illustrated stereotypical representation.

Rebecca Elizabeth Bierton