Category: 101 Things to Do with a Trolley

101 Things to do with a Library Trolley Final Submission Post

Jake Lewis Hastings-Eldridge / / 101 Things to Do with a Trolley

Framing Statement:

My group’s Site Specific Performance of a “101 Things to do with a Library Trolley” was an interesting

task to think and develop. The idea to work with trolleys stemmed from wanting to have fun in the

library, while also maintaining the original use and rules of the building. The library trolleys themselves

made all of us in the group think outside of the box, because we basically had a blank canvas that we

could do anything with. The first thing we had to do was come up with the tasks, and then split them off

for people in the group. We all decided to take 25 each, with Paul getting an extra one. The 25 tasks I

was in charge of were:

Conversations via the trolley

Obstacle course

Dining Experience

Pac man

Taking the trolley up and down the stairs

Hotel Trolley

Stack the trolleys

Pushing it upside down

Trolley race inside

Sleeping

Play football

Trolley race outside.

Music trolley

Barricade with trolleys

Lion King

Pick up trolley and carry it.

Trolley taxi

Writing a book while riding a trolley and explaining your ride

Nerf gun shield

Rehearsing a play

Mime

Trolley bin

Make a musical instrument

Planking

We performed on Friday 8th May 2015, between the hours of 9.30pm and 3.30pm. We originally were

going to perform from 9am until 6.40pm, but as the day went on we gained more and more noise

complaints. This was partly due to the fact that our ‘basecamp’ was in Group Room 3, so we had to keep

disturbing people whenever we left the room. Something that we could not help, or stop was the noise

coming from the trolleys. One moment they were quiet, another minute they were screeching around

the 1st and 2nd floor.

Due to the complaints we decided to speed our way through the rest of the tasks, and we finished them

all in the room and/or in the corridor next to the group room. In the rehearsals for said tasks, we

identified problems so tried to work around them. The ‘audience’ we had started off laughing and

enjoying the performance, but as the day went on they became more and more annoyed. We wanted

the audience to become part of the piece by inviting them to take part in the different activities, but

most of them wanted to focus on their work instead of a drama performance. Even when we offered

free food, and water people just ignored us. As a group we expected all the students to dislike our piece,

because we knew how noisy the trolleys were, and also the fact that students were writing their final

essays and dissertations. It wasn’t a good combination, but it was something that we had to do and

couldn’t avoid.

Analysis of Process:

When we first started the module, we decided to walk around the library trying to find where we wanted to base a performance. One day after our weekly Site sessions, I and Naomi Jones took a walk up to the Third Floor and we found it very atmospheric. The only thing we could hear when we sat down was the quiet tapping of the keyboards, and the whirring of the computers. This created a sort of eerie yet concentrated environment that reflected the hard working passion of the students that inhabited it. Compare this to the history of the building and it would have been a very different story. The typing and flicking of pages, would have been swapped for the banging and crashing of the Railway Goods Warehouse. From the picture below, you can see the clear time jump between the past and the present. The way they have managed to maintain the history of the building, while also adapting it for modern day use. This combination of old and new creates a unique location for performances. As a group we realized that performing on the Third floor wasn’t a viable option due to the strict silent policy. With this in mind we decided to go to the second and first floor, here we discovered shelving that wasn’t being used and were just empty. We all sat around in Group Room 3, and spoke about the ideas that we could do with the shelving. A few ideas were thrown around, but the idea that we decided on was 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. We tried the task in class with a group. 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. We linked this to ‘Blast Theory’ who’s mission statement is “Blast Theory is renowned internationally as one of the most adventurous artists’ groups using interactive media, creating groundbreaking new forms of performance and interactive art that mixes audiences across the internet, live performance and digital broadcasting. Led by Matt Adams, Ju Row Farr and Nick Tandavanitj, the group’s work explores the social and political aspects of technology. Drawing on popular culture and games.” (Blast Theory, 2015) we also linked the food with knowledge idea, because we all agreed as part of a group that students like to reward themselves with food if they manage to complete a certain amount of work. However, once we went to present the idea to the class we were told that the idea was too fun, and that we did not have reasonable evidence to prove that students reward themselves with food after doing a certain amount of work. After talking to Conan, he managed to give us an idea that hadn’t been done before in the library. He told us that the trolleys within the library, were something that were always overlooked and maybe we should try and get them involved in our idea. We were tasked with doing ‘A 101 things to do with a library trolley’. The idea sounded difficult, and we had a lot of problems with not being able to come up with 101 things without thinking of the same idea twice, however after 2-3 weeks we finally had an idea of all the tasks we wanted to do. These were:

Conversations via the trolley

Obstacle course

Dining Experience

Pac man

Take trolley up and down the stairs

Hotel Trolley

Maze

Stack the trolleys

Pushing it upside down

Trolley race inside

Sleeping

Play football

Trolley race outside.

Music trolley

Barricade with trolleys

Bank

Pick up trolley and carry it.

Trolley taxi

Writing a book while riding a trolley and explaining your ride

Nerf gun shield

Rehearsing a play

Mime

Trolley bin

Make a musical instrument

Planking

Train trolley

Food Trolley

Jousting

Car trolley

Dodgems

Create a rowing team

Walk around like the grim reaper

Self-moving trolley

Curling

Bowling

Use it as a canoe

Surfing

Steps

Follow someone and use the trolley as a disguise.

Dancing

Aeroplane trolley

To not push the trolley but get it around the floor in a way

Trolley conga

Card game centre

Homemade theatre system

Safari

Thumb wrestling arena/Arm Wrestling

Magic station

Tea trolley

Stationary on the go

Chair

Make Facebook on the go

Doll house trolley

Re-create classic film scenes with the trolley as your set

Wardrobe

Building a fort

Writing an essay while riding a trolley

Wedding of the trolleys.

Meditation

Tetris with books

Advice trolley

Inspiration trolley

William Shakeshelf

Composing a poem as riding a trolley

First aid trolley

Take it for a walk

Waiting staff trolley

Hiding with it

Cuddly toy zoo trolley

Movie quote

University facts

Check how you look trolley

Use as a sun bed

Taking selfies with the trolley

Shoes Shelf

To carry books

Wrap up the trolley with someone in it like a present

Wrap in book pages

Make the trolley a piece of art

Fill lift with trolleys

Wrap it up with newspaper

Secret mail

Yoga trolley

Place the trolleys out side

Collect objects around the library to make art in the trolley

Fish – Aquarium

Wrapping trolley in toilet paper

Trolley wash

Books out play dough

Paint while riding a trolley

Construction sight trolley

Bag trolley

Replace the books with props

Replace books with clothes

Replace the books with food

Comments about the library

Reading while riding

Great literature trolley

Put a large box over the trolley

BFF TROLLEY FOR LIFE

Just walk around with them

After we decided on all of the tasks, we then had to break them up into which ones we wanted to do. This proved pretty easy, because we did most of the ones we made up ourselves unless people wanted to change. We then had to rehearse the tasks to make sure one they were safe and two they were achievable. We managed to get a few strange looks for example with the sleeping task people asked my group if I was ok because I was just asleep on the trolley. After trialling few of the more abnormal tasks, I feel we began to gain in confidence about performing the other stranger tasks in front of the whole library. We wanted to maintain a sense of fun while using the trolleys, so audience members could join in if they wanted to. With some of the tasks that involved props we tried to use things that could be related to the library. So in Sarah’s task of wrapping the trolley in pages, we used the idea of stories and books to reflect the sole use of the library. With the conversation trolley, I personally wanted to maintain the library’s silent rule, so made the trolley into a sort of text service where each member wrote a message to another and I had to transport it to the intended recipient. This is the link to the final performance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbS_O70DEl0 , in the final rehearsal for the performance we tried most of the tasks like ‘stack the trolleys’, ‘sleeping’ and ‘planking’. With the sleeping task I wanted to personify how people feel whenever they do all fighters in the library. With every task, we tried to think about the members of the public and what they would gain from it. For example, with the food trolley and free water trolley we know that some students get hungry while at the computers but don’t want to leave their desks in case they break their concentration or their ‘work flow’, this is why we decided to offer out free food and water. We tried to link back to the buildings history by bringing in the ‘heavy lifting’ tasks such as carry the trolleys up and down the stairs, carry the trolleys instead of pushing them. One piece of work which inspired us was Cie. Willi Dorner`s project Bodies in Urban Space. A group of dancers placed themselves in certain spots around a city as if to become a part of the architectural or utilitarian structures of the city, thus underlining or contradicting them (Cie. Willi Dorner, 2007). This performance called attention to ordinary items around town such as signs, stairs, doorways and benches. We hoped for our performance to become something similar to this. But on a smaller scale. The point of the piece was to take something that people see every day, and make it do more than just the one purpose it was created for. We followed in the idea of Bodies in Urban Spaces because we only did tasks for a few minutes so people saw it once and then never saw it again. We decided to schedule the whole day to make the whole day run smoothly. This is the timetable for the day.


Event		 Which Trolley Other Equipment Where Who’s Needed
09:00 Arranging trolleys outside Any N/A Outside All
09:10 Washing trolleys Any Wet wipes Outside All
09:20 Trolley race Any N/A Outside All
09:30 Comments trolley Any A Comments box, paper and pen’s Ground Floor All
09:40 Obstacle course & Try and get the trolley round without pushing it Flat & 2-Sided N/A & N/A Any Floor & Any Floor Jake and Sam & Paul and Sarah
09:50 Car trolley & Hotel trolley Flat & 2-Sided Torches, Horn sound etc. & Toiletries Any Floor & Any Floor Paul and Sarah & Jake and Sam
10:00 Compose a poem & The library trolley Any Pen, Paper & N/A Any Floor  & 3rd Floor Sam and Jake & Sarah and Paul
10:10 Conversation trolley & Props-on-the-shelf trolley Any Pen, Paper & Props 3rd Floor & 1st Floor Jake and Paul & Sarah and Sam
10:20 Pac man 2-Sided BOOKS!! Any Floor All
10:30 Pushing it upside down & Hiding with it Any & Flat N/A Any Floor & Any Floor Jake and Paul & Sam and Sarah
10:40 Funeral & Toilet paper trolley Any N/A & Toilet Paper Any Floor & 1st Floor Paul and Sarah & Jake and Sam
10:50 Haunted trolley & Barricade & Music trolley Any Fishing wire/String & N/A & Speakers 1st Floor & Under Stairs Paul and Sarah & Jake and Sam
11:00 Fort & Drawing trolley 2-Sided & Flat N/A & Paint, brushes, canvas? Under Stairs & 2nd Floor Sam and Jake & Sarah and Paul
11:10 Train Trolley & Clothes-on-the-shelf trolley Flat & 2-Sided Conductors hat, sounds of train & Props from prop cupboard Any Floor & 2nd Floor Paul and Sam & Sarah and Jake
11:20 Play dough trolley & carry books Flat & 2-Sided Clothes & N/A 3rd Floor & Any Floor Sarah and Jake & Sam and Paul
11:30 Dancing 2-Sided & Any Food & Speakers Ground Floor All
11:40 Stack the trolley Flat & 2-Sided N/A Ground Floor All
11:50 Jousting Any Wrapping Paper Tube Ground Floor All
12:00 Dining & waiting trolley 2-Sided Plates, Cutlery, Glasses, White Sheet, Candle? Any Floor All
12:10 Follow someone with a disguise & Musical instrument Any N/A Any Floor & Any Floor Paul and Sam & Jake and Sarah
12:20 Magic station & Card game centre Flat Cards & Coins Any Floor & Any Floor All
12:30 Tea trolley & Cuddly toys zoo Flat & 2-Sided Tea, Kettle, Paper Cups & Cuddly Toys Any Floor & Any Floor Paul and Sarah & Sam and Jake
12:40 Wedding trolley Flat & 2-Sided Veil, Top Hat Ground Floor All
12:50 William Shakeshelf & Novel pages trolley 2-Sided N/A & Pages from books 2nd Floor & 3rd Floor Sam and Paul & Sarah and Jake
13:00 Trolley taxi & Aeroplane 2-Sided & Flat Cardboard Any Floor & Any Floor Jake and Sam & Paul and Sarah
13:10 Aquarium & safari 2-Sided & Flat Blue Tissue Paper and Cardboard Fishes & Binoculars, Explorer’s Hat 2nd Floor & Any Floor Sarah and Sam & Paul and Jake
13:20 Conga Any N/A Any Floor All
13:30 Writing an essay & Reading trolley Any & Flat Pen, Paper & N/A Any Floor & 3rd Floor Sam and Paul & Sarah and Jake
13:40 Secret Mail Any Pen, Paper 3rd Floor All
13:50 Pick it up and carry it & Doll House Any & 2-Sided N/A & Doll House Items Ground Floor &  Any Floor Jake and Paul & Sam and Sarah
14:00 Chair & Planking 2-Sided & Flat Cushions & N/A Any Floor & Any Floor Paul and Sam & Jake and Sarah
14:10 Movie quote & Classic Literature 2-Sided Movie Quotes already written & N/A 3rd Floor & Any Floor Sam and Jake & Sarah and Paul
14:20 Steps & Shoe shelf Any & 2-Sided N/A & Shoes Any Floor & Any Floor Paul and Sarah & Sam and Jake
14:30 Wardrobe & Mime Any & 2-Sided Clothes, White sheet & N/A Any Floor  & Any Floor Sam and Sarah & Jake and Paul
14:40 BFF trolley & home theatre Any N/A & Laptop, Speakers, Black cloth 3rd Floor & Any Floor Sarah and Sam & Paul and Jake
14:50 take it for a walk & Food-on-the-shelf trolley Any Dog Lead & Food Any Floor  & 3rd Floor Sam and Jake & Sarah and Paul
15:00 Arm Wrestling Any N/A Ground Floor All
15:10 Titanic Any N/A Stairs All
15:20 Yoga trolley & Advice trolley 2-Sided & Any Playdough & “Advice” quotes already written out 3rd Floor & 1st Floor Sarah and Paul & Sam and Jake
15:30 Meditation & Piece of art trolley Flat & 2-Sided N/A Any Floor & 3rd Floor Sam and Jake & Sarah and Paul
15:40 create rowing team Flat Wrapping Paper Tube Any Floor All
15:50 curling & first aid Flat & 2-Sided Coins & First Aid Kit Any Floor & Any Floor Paul and Sarah & Jake and Sam
16:00 Gift trolley & thumb wrestling Flat & Flat? Wrapping Paper & N/A 1st Floor & Any Floor Sarah and Sam & Paul and Jake
16:10 stationary & Newspaper trolley Any Stationary & Newspaper Any Floor & 2nd Floor Paul and Sam & Sarah and Jake
16:20 Lion King Flat N/A Any Floor All
16:30 Bag trolley & food trolley 2-Sided Items from Bag & Food 1st Floor & Any Floor Sarah and Sam & Paul and Jake
16:40 Parcel trolley & Maze Flat & Any N/A Any Floor & 1st Floor Sarah and Sam & Jake and Paul
16:50 taking selfies with trolley & Surfing Any & Flat Phone & ??? Any Floor & Any Floor Sam and Jake & Paul and Sarah
17:00 use as canoe & use as sun bed 2-Sided & Flat Paddle/Wrapping Paper Tube & Sunglasses Any Floor &  Any Floor Paul and Jake & Sam and Sarah
17:10 sleeping & inspiration trolley Flat & 2-Sided Pillow/Cushion & Inspirational Quotes already written 3rd Floor & 3rd Floor Jake and Paul & Sam and Sarah
17:20 bowling & Tetris Flat Plastic Bottles, Small ball & Objects Any Floor & Any Floor Paul and Sarah & Sam and Jake
17:30 Construction site & Dodgems Any Working tools & Cushions! 3rd Floor & Ground Floor Sarah and Jake & Paul and Sam
17:40 facebook on the go & trolley bin Any Facebooks Statuses Written out & Bin Bags 3rd Floor & Any Floor Sam and Sarah & Jake and Paul
17:50 rehearsing a play & Trolley Lift Flat & Any Play’s & N/A Any Floor & Lift Jake and Sam & Sarah and Paul
18:00 writing a book while riding trolley & check how you look trolley Any Pen, Paper & Mirror Any Floor & Any Floor Jake and Paul & Sam and Sarah
18:10 university facts & nerf gun shield Any Facts already written out & Nerf Guns 3rd Floor & Any Floor Sam and Sarah & Jake and Paul
18:20 play football Any Football Ground Floor All
18:30 Complaint trolley Any N/A Any Floor All
18:40 Pushing Trolleys Any N/A Any Floor All

Evaluation of the Performance:

Overall, I feel the performance went well. We started the day feeling confident but as the day went on and Paul got taken to one side to be told that the library desk had received many complaints I feel it knocked our confidence a little. We decided to stick to the basecamp we had made in Group Room 3 one to save on noise, and two we were out of the way but with the windows people still looked in and were intrigued. I personally was expecting to annoy a few students, but not as many as we did. But as I said before, it’s something that we couldn’t help.

 

Works Cited:

Blast Theory (2015) Blast Theory: Our history and approach. [online] Brighton: Blast Theory. Available from http://www.blasttheory.co.uk/our-history-approach/ [Accessed 15th May 2015]

Cie. Willi Dorner (2007) Bodies in Urbana Spaces. [online] Paris: Available from http://www.ciewdorner.at/index.php?page=work&wid=26 [Accessed 15th May 2015]

101 Uses of a Library Trolley – Final Submission

Paul Chappel / / 101 Things to Do with a Trolley, Paul Chappel

101 uses of a Library Trolley

At the advice of Conan and Dan, we decided to change our idea from the Food Shelves to something more manageable. Our idea is, on the day of the performance, our group will complete 101 different uses for the mobile library trolley’s. As there are 4 of us in the group, we have split the list into each of us being in charge of 25 tasks (I drew the short straw and have to do 26 tasks). These tasks range from the simplistic; walking with a trolley, to the bizarre; playing Pacman. Though one person is in charge of organising and planning the task, it may require more than one person to complete the task. Furthermore, some of these tasks will need to be rehearsed and practiced before we do it on the day of the performance. We are hoping that we will be able to complete all 101 tasks on the day, we have estimated that it will take us around 8 hours to do all of them. We will also record each completed task and edit it together as evidence.

  1. Train Trolley
  2. Food Trolley
  3. Jousting
  4. Car Trolley
  5. Dodgems
  6. Create a rowing team
  7. Funeral of a trolley
  8. Self-moving trolley
  9. Curling
  10. Bowling
  11. Use it as a canoe
  12. Surfing
  13. Steps
  14. To move the trolley without pushing or pulling
  15. Trolley conga
  16. Card game centre
  17. Follow someone whilst using the trolley as a disguise
  18. Dancing
  19. Homemade theatre system
  20. Safari
  21. Aeroplane Trolley
  22. Thumb wrestling arena
  23. Magic Station
  24. Tea trolley
  25. Stationary on the go
  26. Chair

The initial aim of the performance is to show how we can take an object, in this case a library trolley, and use it in a way that it was not designed for. In our case, 101 ways uses that a library trolley was not design for.

 

Work in Progress

On the 24th of March, we performed and tried out 8 tasks (2 tasks from each person’s category) in the library in order for us to get a feel on how it would be like on the actual performance day. It also highlighted any potential issues we might encounter on the day.

The Tasks We Did:
– Tetris
– Pushing trolleys around
– Riding around on a trolley
– Writing an essay whilst riding a trolley
– Carrying a trolley up and down the stairs
– Arm Wrestling
– Creating steps to climb over
– Sleeping on a trolley

The feedback we got from the performance was that we needed to be less shy about performing in the library, also we needed to know where in the library we are doing each task, as well as a defined plan for each task. We also realised that the time limit we’ve given for each task (10 minutes) may be too long for some of the tasks. However, after discussing it as a group, we decided that to keep it. The reason is that though it may be long for some of the tasks, the extra time that  it gives us could potentially be used as a buffer in case we run into any issues on the day.

 

Influences

I personally feel our main point of inspiration for this performance is Cie. Willie Dormer’s Bodies in Urban Spaces. What these dancers do is they choose specific locations outside in a busy city, and use their bodies to fill up gaps in architecture or use their bodies to create several interesting shapes and sculptures in locations which pedestrians use or walk past; buildings, steps or market squares.

“By placing the bodies in selected spots the interventions provoke a thinking process and produce irritation.” (Dormer W., 2007).

The performers are only in these locations for a few brief moments before dismantling their creation and running to their next location to create their new “sculpture”. What this means is that the audience (the public) only see these people for a few moments before it has regressed back into the original architecture. Seeing how the performers leave no evidence behind that they were there, except for the audiences memory, this has an effect on how the audience will see that bit of architecture in the future. Next time they walk past that place they will remember the performers using their bodies in an odd position to fill a gap in a building. As these sculptures are created in public and semi-public places, this means that the audience could be anyone. It also means that the unsuspecting public are the audience, and have no choice in the decision. Using no props, other than their bodies, and the local town or city’s architecture as it’s setting and performance space, it appealed to our idea for our performance. We are using the library trolleys, an object that most people see in the library and assume only has one purpose, and do 101 things with it that would make people question it’s function when they see it after our performance.

We also looked at some of Blast Theory’s performances, as most of their work centres around the use of games and involving an air of playfulness with the audience. However we decided against using anything too specific from their performances because we failed to incorporate elements of their work into our performance idea.

 

Our Meetings and the Final List

Our meetings mainly consist of us going over our list and organising it into: the tasks, when we do that task, any equipment we will need for that task, if a specific trolley is needed for that task, where that particular task will be performed and who will be involved in the task. In many respects, we feel that the creation of the list is as much of the performance as the practicality of tasks we will undertake. After weeks of altering, adjusting and changing small things, we have our completed list.

This will act as our aid on the day, the plan we look to help us through each of the tasks.

 

Event Which Trolley Other Equipment Where Who’s Needed
09:00 Arranging trolleys outside Any N/A Outside All
09:10 Washing trolleys Any Wet wipes Outside All
09:20 Trolley race Any N/A Outside All
09:30 Comments trolley Any A Comments box, paper and pen’s Ground Floor All
09:40 Obstacle course & Try and get the trolley round without pushing it Flat & 2-Sided N/A & N/A Any Floor & Any Floor Jake and Sam & Paul and Sarah
09:50 Car trolley & Hotel trolley Flat & 2-Sided Torches, Horn sound etc. & Toiletries Any Floor & Any Floor Paul and Sarah & Jake and Sam
10:00 Compose a poem & The library trolley Any Pen, Paper & N/A Any Floor  & 3rd Floor Sam and Jake & Sarah and Paul
10:10 Conversation trolley & Props-on-the-shelf trolley Any Pen, Paper & Props 3rd Floor & 1st Floor Jake and Paul & Sarah and Sam
10:20 Pac man 2-Sided BOOKS!! Any Floor All
10:30 Pushing it upside down & Hiding with it Any & Flat N/A Any Floor & Any Floor Jake and Paul & Sam and Sarah
10:40 Funeral & Toilet paper trolley Any N/A & Toilet Paper Any Floor & 1st Floor Paul and Sarah & Jake and Sam
10:50 Haunted trolley & Barricade & Music trolley Any Fishing wire/String & N/A & Speakers 1st Floor & Under Stairs Paul and Sarah & Jake and Sam
11:00 Fort & Drawing trolley 2-Sided & Flat N/A & Paint, brushes, canvas? Under Stairs & 2nd Floor Sam and Jake & Sarah and Paul
11:10 Train Trolley & Clothes-on-the-shelf trolley Flat & 2-Sided Conductors hat, sounds of train & Props from prop cupboard Any Floor & 2nd Floor Paul and Sam & Sarah and Jake
11:20 Play dough trolley & carry books Flat & 2-Sided Clothes & N/A 3rd Floor & Any Floor Sarah and Jake & Sam and Paul
11:30 Dancing 2-Sided & Any Food & Speakers Ground Floor All
11:40 Stack the trolley Flat & 2-Sided N/A Ground Floor All
11:50 Jousting Any Wrapping Paper Tube Ground Floor All
12:00 Dining & waiting trolley 2-Sided Plates, Cutlery, Glasses, White Sheet, Candle? Any Floor All
12:10 Follow someone with a disguise & Musical instrument Any N/A Any Floor & Any Floor Paul and Sam & Jake and Sarah
12:20 Magic station & Card game centre Flat Cards & Coins Any Floor & Any Floor All
12:30 Tea trolley & Cuddly toys zoo Flat & 2-Sided Tea, Kettle, Paper Cups & Cuddly Toys Any Floor & Any Floor Paul and Sarah & Sam and Jake
12:40 Wedding trolley Flat & 2-Sided Veil, Top Hat Ground Floor All
12:50 William Shakeshelf & Novel pages trolley 2-Sided N/A & Pages from books 2nd Floor & 3rd Floor Sam and Paul & Sarah and Jake
13:00 Trolley taxi & Aeroplane 2-Sided & Flat Cardboard Any Floor & Any Floor Jake and Sam & Paul and Sarah
13:10 Aquarium & safari 2-Sided & Flat Blue Tissue Paper and Cardboard Fishes & Binoculars, Explorer’s Hat 2nd Floor & Any Floor Sarah and Sam & Paul and Jake
13:20 Conga Any N/A Any Floor All
13:30 Writing an essay & Reading trolley Any & Flat Pen, Paper & N/A Any Floor & 3rd Floor Sam and Paul & Sarah and Jake
13:40 Secret Mail Any Pen, Paper 3rd Floor All
13:50 Pick it up and carry it & Doll House Any & 2-Sided N/A & Doll House Items Ground Floor &  Any Floor Jake and Paul & Sam and Sarah
14:00 Chair & Planking 2-Sided & Flat Cushions & N/A Any Floor & Any Floor Paul and Sam & Jake and Sarah
14:10 Movie quote & Classic Literature 2-Sided Movie Quotes already written & N/A 3rd Floor & Any Floor Sam and Jake & Sarah and Paul
14:20 Steps & Shoe shelf Any & 2-Sided N/A & Shoes Any Floor & Any Floor Paul and Sarah & Sam and Jake
14:30 Wardrobe & Mime Any & 2-Sided Clothes, White sheet & N/A Any Floor  & Any Floor Sam and Sarah & Jake and Paul
14:40 BFF trolley & home theatre Any N/A & Laptop, Speakers, Black cloth 3rd Floor & Any Floor Sarah and Sam & Paul and Jake
14:50 take it for a walk & Food-on-the-shelf trolley Any Dog Lead & Food Any Floor  & 3rd Floor Sam and Jake & Sarah and Paul
15:00 Arm Wrestling Any N/A Ground Floor All
15:10 Titanic Any N/A Stairs All
15:20 Yoga trolley & Advice trolley 2-Sided & Any Playdough & “Advice” quotes already written out 3rd Floor & 1st Floor Sarah and Paul & Sam and Jake
15:30 Meditation & Piece of art trolley Flat & 2-Sided N/A Any Floor & 3rd Floor Sam and Jake & Sarah and Paul
15:40 create rowing team Flat Wrapping Paper Tube Any Floor All
15:50 curling & first aid Flat & 2-Sided Coins & First Aid Kit Any Floor & Any Floor Paul and Sarah & Jake and Sam
16:00 Gift trolley & thumb wrestling Flat & Flat? Wrapping Paper & N/A 1st Floor & Any Floor Sarah and Sam & Paul and Jake
16:10 stationary & Newspaper trolley Any Stationary & Newspaper Any Floor & 2nd Floor Paul and Sam & Sarah and Jake
16:20 Lion King Flat N/A Any Floor All
16:30 Bag trolley & food trolley 2-Sided Items from Bag & Food 1st Floor & Any Floor Sarah and Sam & Paul and Jake
16:40 Parcel trolley & Maze Flat & Any N/A Any Floor & 1st Floor Sarah and Sam & Jake and Paul
16:50 taking selfies with trolley & Surfing Any & Flat Phone & ??? Any Floor & Any Floor Sam and Jake & Paul and Sarah
17:00 use as canoe & use as sun bed 2-Sided & Flat Paddle/Wrapping Paper Tube & Sunglasses Any Floor &  Any Floor Paul and Jake & Sam and Sarah
17:10 sleeping & inspiration trolley Flat & 2-Sided Pillow/Cushion & Inspirational Quotes already written 3rd Floor & 3rd Floor Jake and Paul & Sam and Sarah
17:20 bowling & Tetris Flat Plastic Bottles, Small ball & Objects Any Floor & Any Floor Paul and Sarah & Sam and Jake
17:30 Construction site & Dodgems Any Working tools & Cushions! 3rd Floor & Ground Floor Sarah and Jake & Paul and Sam
17:40 facebook on the go & trolley bin Any Facebooks Statuses Written out & Bin Bags 3rd Floor & Any Floor Sam and Sarah & Jake and Paul
17:50 rehearsing a play & Trolley Lift Flat & Any Play’s & N/A Any Floor & Lift Jake and Sam & Sarah and Paul
18:00 writing a book while riding trolley & check how you look trolley Any Pen, Paper & Mirror Any Floor & Any Floor Jake and Paul & Sam and Sarah
18:10 university facts & nerf gun shield Any Facts already written out & Nerf Guns 3rd Floor & Any Floor Sam and Sarah & Jake and Paul
18:20 play football Any Football Ground Floor All
18:30 Complaint trolley Any N/A Any Floor All
18:40 Pushing Trolleys Any N/A Any Floor All

 

Of course we will not be able to stick to everything on the list on the day as unforeseen issues may alter: whose involved, where we do it, the equipment we’ll use etc. None the less, the list will form as a base for our work.

 

Concerns I Have…

Although we have had a lot of planning and preparation, I do have a certain amount of concerns as to how the performance will go on the day. Firstly; the fact that we are doing the performance for such a lengthy period of time (Roughly 9:00 till 18:40) without any formal bathroom break or any time to rest will put a strain on our motivation on the day. Secondly; the fact that we will not have any defined costume/uniform in order to identify us as performers I feel might not give us what little professionalism we might be able to attain from a performance like this. Instead Samantha is going to make flags for us to attach to the trolley’s we will be using. And lastly; my concern lies with the fact that we are performing 101 different tasks in the middle of the library, during the busiest time of year. People will be busy with revising and writing essays while we’ll be next to them doing 101 things with the trolleys, essentially distracting them. We’ve got permission from Lesley to do everything on the list as well as to use Group Room 3 as a base room for the day, but none the less, I feel we will end up getting a lot of complaints on the day.

 

After Thoughts

We had been performing for 4 hours (roughly 50 tasks) with everything going well as we were ahead of schedule, until a librarian pulled me to one side and told me that the desk had received several complaints regarding us and our performance. After a quick group discussion, we decided to do the rest of the tasks but only in Group Room 3, our base room. Though this constrained our performance with a lack of audience, it did mean we managed to complete everything else on the list in 2 hours, meaning we ended 3 hours earlier than we predicted we would. One of our tasks was to give free food out from the trolley; I personally put it near the end of the list, as way of an apology to everyone close to our base room who had to endure us going past them with a trolley time and again. One change that we had to the list was that the kettle needed for the ‘tea trolley’ was not working, so as a substitute we handed out cups of water to students instead. With regards to costume/uniform, I personally wanted something similar to Bodies in Urban Spaces, with all the performers in brightly coloured hoodies. Despite my misgivings about a lack of costume/uniform, however the flags on the trolley’s worked well and had the desired effect we wanted. In some ways, it was better than if the performers were in uniforms. If we were in uniform it would have distanced us from the audience, which was not what we were trying to do, because we were in normal clothing we could slip into places with our trolley’s virtually undetected, and it was only when people saw us doing something out of the ordinary with a trolley that they realised we were a performance. They would then see the flag and know who we were. In all, I think the performance was a success and all of us involved are pleased that we managed to complete all 101 things.

 

Documentation

We asked our friend and fellow student, Naomi Jones, to film us do each of our tasks, which she was kind enough to do, on the day. We wanted video evidence proving that we did do all 101 tasks on the day. Unfortunately, 5 of the tasks failed to upload, so I resulted to cutting them from the final film draft. The editing took a while for me to do, as I had to compile 101 clips, cut them all down to 10 seconds each, put music to it in order to make it interesting, get approval from everyone in the group and then upload it to “Youtube” in order to make it accessible to everyone. None the less I am pleased as to how the film looks and feel that it accurately shows the hectic atmosphere of the day. The music used in the film was a little easier to do, I wanted a mixture of upbeat music, but nothing too well known, to be played as famous music would distract the audience from the film. However for some of the tasks; “Lion King”, “Titanic”, “Barricade” etc. the appropriate music had to be played for each one. The film combined with the music makes for 17 1/2 minutes proving our hardships and our work for each task on the day.

 

Bibliography

  • Dormer, W. (2007) Bodies in Urban Spaces [online], Cie. W. Dormer Studio 70, Available from: http://www.ciewdorner.at/index.php?page=work&wid=26 [Accessed 27th March 2015]

Video of 101 Things to do with a Trolley.

Samantha Foster / / 101 Things to Do with a Trolley, Tasks

Here is a short video of us trying out some of the evens that are going to take place. This is what it is like going to be on the day just random little events that people get to see with the trolley being used in different ways then what they should be used for.

Here is the link to The trail of 101 uses of a Trolley: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YplA5JkFHuk

Reseach Around 101 Things to do with a Trolley

Samantha Foster / / 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 31st March 2015].

Samantha Foster.

Food Library – Experiment

Paul Chappel / / 101 Things to Do with a Trolley, Main Page

On Wednesday the 18th of February, we were asked to test out our idea for our final performance. Our idea is that during the day we set people who want a piece of food, a question or a riddle which relates to a certain book title or passage in the library. The reward for the correct answer is a snack of some kind.

In our miniature version, we tested out an example of a question and reward system with the groups in our class. Everyone in our group came up with a different question to test on the other groups. My task was: “Find a book that was written by a Drama Lecturer at the University of Lincoln in under 15 minutes”. The premise being that, even though we as students are taught by these lecturers, we are unaware of their work and how it is kept within the University Library. The group had to find the book without resorting to the dependency of technology and the search tablets within the library. Unfortunately the task turned out to be a lot easier than I had intended it to be, within no time at all they had found 1 of the 10 known books which were in the library. So, I gave them an additional task to try and find another book by a drama lecturer… which they did just as quickly as the one they found the one earlier. The group were very pleased with themselves, deservedly so, and were rewarded with their snack – a bag of sweets.

The simple idea behind the task is that students are motivated to learn through a physically active game as well the prospect of free food as an award. In my mind, it builds upon the idea of both: the metaphor “Food for Knowledge”, and the student food-reward system (where a student rewards themselves with food if they have completed the amount of work on their essay that they have done)

 

Paul Chappel