March 2015 – SITE SPECIFIC PERFORMANCE

Our Pitch/Mood board of Ideas

Ruth Scott / March 31, 2015 / Main Page

As a group Jessica, Harry and I decided to create a small stretch pad filled with mood board ideas, to relate to our overall theme of fairy tales. We researched into three main Grimm fairy tales: Cinderella, Jorinda and Joringel and The Girl without Hands. We used this along with our power point presentation to pitch our idea. Through our research, we found that Grimm fairy tales linked together with use of violence, scenery and environment. In particular, one main factor most of the fairy tales have in common in the story is the use of grain. This could be something that could be used effectively within the installation, as the library itself was originally a grain warehouse.

We received a lot of positive feedback from presenting our ideas and we took on board a lot of advice we received. One main factor within our installation that we need to take into consideration is the thought of quality, to really feel a sense of truly walking into fantasy/fairy tales. In order to make our installation as realistic as possible- props, lighting, costume, sound effects need to be as high quality as possible. We tend to do this by taking advantage of the Lincoln Performing Art Centre props/costume cupboard and also to search around online and in various charity shops to find innovative yet imaginative objects that will fit well to the theme.

Ruth Scott

The Drawing Board – Traci Kelly and Rhiannon Jones

Catherine Hayes / March 23, 2015March 23, 2015 / Main Page

Our group today focused on Traci Kelly and Rhiannon Jones and their work centered around a staircase. The performance art is similar to the work that our group are investigating at the moment regarding mod-rock surrounding the stairs. What was particularly interesting was the way the concrete used in the performance appeared to have been crushed down so that it had become dust that was spread over the stairs and surrounding area. The artists had then stepped in the concrete to create footprints that were leading up to a pair of shoes. What I liked most about the performance art was the simpleness of it. In the photographs the crushed concrete appears to lie naturally on each step with only a few materials added in to enhance the performance.

Changes from our original site performance idea

Jake Lewis Hastings-Eldridge / March 22, 2015 / Main Page

Within our small group consisting of Paul, Sam, Me and Sarah we decided to create a food library. Something that fed from the saying “Food for Thought”. We had so many ideas on how to approach this, from turning a complete row of shelves into a mini supermarket, or having the food as books that people had to check out. The idea that we settled on was cutting off a row of shelves in the library and putting a piece of food, with a riddle onto said shelf. If somebody wanted to check the item of food out, they had to answer the riddle which was found in one of the books in the library. This picture is an example we did with one of the groups in the class. The group involved Jess, Ruth and Harry, who were tasked with finding a book about a blonde haired girl who falls down a hole into a wonderland. Their prize was a muffin. This links in with the story due to Alice eating a cake. However, once we presented the idea to Conan and Dan, we realised that the idea wouldn’t work and it was too much like a game. After talking with Conan and Dan, we decided to maintain the element of fun we had planned but we managed to work it onto the library trolleys. Then after a long week of thinking up ideas, we managed to think up 101 uses for the library trolleys. With these ideas in mind, we have started to think about the materials that each of us will need to make our tasks possible. For example, for the game of Pac Man that I will be organising around the 1st floor, I will need a yellow tshirt and different types of books that I can ‘collect’ like in the original game of Pac Man. Paul, Sam and Sarah will all be the ‘Ghosts’ from the game, so they will need different coloured tops to represent their ‘character’.

We have had difficulty trying to find an exact practitioner to relate our work too due to there being so many different tasks.

Kira O’Reilly

Catherine Hayes / March 20, 2015 / Research

When looking for inspiration for our performance, our group looked towards performance artist Kira O’Reilly and in particular her performance that surrounded stairs and the exploration of movement on them. Obviously as our chosen space for our performance is the library’s back stairs, this was extremely relevant to us. Watching the performance, it became clear how although a simple part of a building, the stairs can be explored in many different ways. O’Reilly presents this by ‘falling’ down the stairs in slow motion, which creates a sense of pure concentration on each step and the impact that has on her body. A particular theme that I took from the performance was danger and how that fitted in with stairs and the movements we take when exploring that space. I found that the slow motion of the piece really helped to focus on the damage that can be done to a body when falling down the stairs. O’Reilly also interestingly focuses on using the entire staircase, taking particular care to go step by step, touching as much of the stairs and handle rails as is possible with her body.

Reseach Around 101 Things to do with a Trolley

Samantha Foster / March 17, 2015April 20, 2015 / 101 Things to Do with a Trolley, Main Page

When we are researching ideas that could help improve our 101 things to do with a trolley we looked at Cie Willi Dorner’s project ‘Bodies in an Urban Space’ (Cie.Willi Dorner, 2007). This performance saw a group of people using their bodies in unconventional ways to create a different perspective of an urban city. This is what we are planning with our use of the library trolleys make people think about the trolleys in an unconventional self and how they can complement our sight of the library.

This work also made us start to think about what we might wear ourselves, as in the video they stand out as they are in different colours but look in uniform so that people know they are part of the same performance. This is something we are going to start looking at if we want to blend in and people not notice us or if we are in uniform and people know it’s us who are the performers.

Another practioner we looked at for our idea was DANDELION PUFF PRODUCTIONS they “seek to let everyone be young and childlike at heart through productions which use humour, make-believe and imagination to bring stories to life.” (Bonell, 2014) This is very relevant to 101 ways to use a trolley as we have had to use our childlike imagination to think of 101 things. We hope to let this imagination rub off on to our audience around the library as it can be a very serious environment. Through looking at this company it helps use get ideas on how we as group might be able to rub off on to the environment around us and maybe even get some audience participation.

Also on Monday’s lesson we started to look more practically at the trolleys and how we can use them in a safe and practical way. For example one of our 101 Things to do with a Trolley is to stack them. But we need to make sure that we can do this safely so we or no members of the public get hurt. We had a little play around and had a looks how we can do this, we took a picture of what it may looks like. IMG_20150316_154101

Also on Monday we went around to the different floors and looked at the best place to do our 101 Things with a Trolley without distracting other people too much, as some people do need to do their dissertations. We decided the less distracting and more discrete events may happen on the third floor so we don’t create too much commotion. But the ones that will be loud and may possibly be annoying will happen on the ground and first floor where people are more torrent to distractions taking place.

Bonell, L. (2014) Dandelion Puff Productions. [Online] London: House Theatre. Available from: http://housetheatre.org.uk/companies/dandelion-puff-productions/ [Accessed 31st March 2015].

Cie. Willi Dorner. (2007) Bodies in an Urban Space. Available from: http://www.ciewdorner.at/index.php?page=work&wid=26). [Accessed 31^st March 2015].

Samantha Foster.