SITE SPECIFIC PERFORMANCE – Page 3

Set in Stone! Final Blog Submission.

Abigail Elizabeth Earlie / May 14, 2015 / Main Page

Set in Stone! Final Blog post by Abigail Earlie.

This blog post is all about my final thoughts and documentation about our Site Specific performance that took place on Saturday, 9^th May at the University Library.

Framing Statement:

The Spectator in the space.’For we are where we are Not’ – Pierre-Jean Jauve, Lyrique

I found it interesting and useful to investigate the works and sculptures of the artist Antony Gormley for our site specific performance. I found his statues of the human body especially interesting, as it relates more to our site specific performance, as we are also looking at the use of body in sculptures to create a performance related to the architecture and history of the library building. The sculptures used by Antony Gormley take up a substantial amount of room in the space used by the artist, however, the space isn’t cluttered by the sculptures but is light and open, and it’s clear to see that the artist had meaning to where and why he placed the sculptures in the space he did. Each sculpture is created by different materials. I will research and look into with more detail, I believe that this will be useful to our performance as a source of inspiration as we could find other raw materials we could use to create our sculptures.Anthony Gormleys artwork investigates the relationship of the human body to space. He asks the question: Where does the human body stand in relation to nature and cosmos. I’m interested and excited about Antony Gormley’s work and I used his work as inspiration in our site specific performance.

For research for the performance I read this book, ‘Making Meaning In The Theatre’ by Gay McAuley. The main chapters that have been useful for my research are ‘The spectator in the space’ and ‘Objects in Performance.’ I have also been researched the artist Antony Gormly, who is a British sculptor from London, who has created many human and body sculptures from ‘rural’ materials. One of the sculptures I enjoyed looking at was called ‘Sculpture for an objective experience of architecture’ (2008), it was a sculpture that was created to examine architecture. As our performance is based on the architecture of the library and the human body we have chosen to Mod Roc body parts and place them in interested and unusual places on and around the libary stair case. Body parts and the image of body parts have been our groups main focus this week as we have researched the architecture to an extent and now are focusing on creating a decent amount of Mod Rock casts to place all over the library. The results of our mod rocking in the past have been very good and the casts replicate real imitations of body parts. The casts when finished have a lot of detail and are very interesting to look at as well as looking very unusual. We created these mod rock casts in the Art studio on the University Campus and found that we can create a lot of material in the space and with the available materials that are on offer. Artist, Ken Clarke has worked in film studios creating human body sculptures for films. Life casting, is a mould created by materials mixed together and then shaped around a human body. These moulds can be placed anywhere and almost instantly they create new and unusual pieces of art. By taking the mould directly from the natural body, the mould casts are extremely lifelike with every detail and every freckle is captured, this makes the casts unique and a performance a one and only. The casts of the body in these moulds create a record of the changes of the human body. A life cast can consist of a pregnant woman ranging to a child’s hands. In our performance we have chosen to take inspiration from Ken Clarke and we have experimented with the variations of body parts that can be cast, we choose to create human hands and feet made out of mod roc and plaster of Paris.

The basis of our site specific performance is to explore the body through space and time in the architecture of the building. The building we are exploring throughout our performance is the library and we will explore the library staircase in detail as we the performers travel up and down the staircase in a variety of ways. The staircase in this library is an interesting structure within the library. The surrounding walls show the history of the building and the aging, the wear and tare of the place.

When we explore the travelling of the body from the bottom of the staircase to the top of the staircase, we shall use a variety of methods to carry out our practise. We shall walk at different speed when travelling up and down the staircase. We have experimented at travelling at different speed up and down the library staircase and we found it to be a different and unusual way to explore the both body and architecture.

Analysis of Process

To prepare for our site specific performance, we spent week after week in the Art studio on campus and we developed a collection of mod rock and plaster casts. When we knew exactly what we were doing for our performance and what we wanted to do, we made a list of all the materials that we needed for the performance. These materials were: plaster or mod roc casts, (or both) grain and a collection of books of all shapes and sizes. The materials wasn’t too costly and we thought that it would be fairly easy to make these casts. We decided to not have grain during the performance, this is because of two reasons, one: the grain was difficult to purchase and expensive and two: the grain could have been a health and safety hard if we used it on the library staircase. So we decided against the grain and just used the materials from art needed for the plaster and mod roc casts and the books which we brought from charity shops. We got some of the books from the charity shops for free, as they were no good or they were extras in the shop. Getting as many materials for our performance for free was great because we needed the materials to be as cheep a possible as we needed a lot of books and casts and if we paid for all of these it probably would have cost a lot of money but luckily Rob (who was in control of the art studio), let us use most of the material we needed. We only had to pay for one box of plaster and we shared the cost between the six of us. The main materials we needed was the mod roc and plaster casts because they were the focal point of our performance. We decided that the mod roc and plaster casts were going to be figurations of the hands, feet and face on the human body. We decided to create hands, feet and faces because we spoke to the man in charge of the Art department and he told us we could make quite a few of these if we wanted to. We wanted to create a lot of these casts to make a bigger impact and to attract more attention. Our decision was to create a lot of mod roc and plaster casts so that we had a lot of material for our performance. To create the mod roc and plaster casts, we went to the Art department at least three times a week, four times if necessary. To create the mod roc casts we would use plaster of paris and water and then mould them on a part of the body, for example, an arm or hand. We also made moulds of the books and then filled them with plaster liquid in order to create a hard, plaster mould. We would leave these books to set for a day and then take the mould off. The moulds of the books were detailed and even had the pattern and title of the book still left on the cast, these details made the performance even more interesting because they left an interesting pattern still on the cast. The plaster casts would be harder to make compared to the mod roc casts, especially when we peeled off the excess material that was used to shape the creations because we had to be very careful not to peel off any toes or fingers which were very fragile. We knew that we wanted to explore the architecture of the library staircase through our bodies and that the connection between body and sculptures was the hands and feet. During the performance we travelled from the bottom of the staircase to the top of the staircase in different speeds, for instance, one of us would either walk up the staircase very slowly, exploring the time as well as the architecture and then one of us would travel up the staircase as fast as we could. When travelling at different speeds, we would be exploring the time it takes to travel at these different speeds, how long would it take to travel up the staircase very slowly? How long would it take to travel up the staircase if I ran? What complications would these bring? We were a little worried that we would not have enough casts a week before our performance so we decided to go to the Art studio four times in the final week before our performance and we created more books, more hands and more feet. I think that our group had a lot of enthusiasm for this performance because we would meet at least three times a week in the art studio and create more sculptures and during the final weeks before the performance we met four times a week. The challenges of site specific performance were in the first couple of weeks after the seminars. We came up with challenges of where are we going to perform, how can we make this interesting, how can we justify what we are going to do? After we came up with these problems our enthusiasm started to die because I think we wanted to have a reason why were we doing this. But once we started to stop thinking and start exploring, we began to enjoy site specific again and we started to have new ideas and new ways of looking at the building. We found the staircase interesting because this is a space that is probably the most quiet part of the library because on the floors there is typing of keyboards and people talking with their friends about essays, but the stairwell is quiet most of the time, I think it’s a unique open space that would be very practical for a site specific performance.

Performance Evaluation:

The performance of our site specific took place on the 9^th May, Saturday at 4:30, 5:30 and 6:30 on the staircase of the University Library. We had three twenty minute performances with a forty minute break. To begin with we arranged the mod rock pieces all over the library stairwell, the only place we wasn’t allowed to put them was on the actual stairs as this was a health and safety hazard. We placed the mod rock and plaster casts in the windows, on the floor and on interesting architecture of the library staircase. It was important for us not just to place the casts anywhere, but to make sure we placed them significantly in the and around the library. Each place for the sculpture had a meaning. As we made our casts of body parts out of mod rock and plaster, some of our sculptures had broken while in storage. The broken sculptures were not a disadvantage because we still used them in our performance and in fact became more interesting to look at because they were broken and deformed. While we were performing, climbing and travelling up the library staircase during the performance, I noticed a few people surprised and interested in what we were doing, they seemed to stop and take note to what was going on, they even took the time to take photographs and to document the mod rock casts! I was very impressed with this, if they are taking pictures of our performance and our casts then this means that our performance is grabbing their attention and this is exactly what we wanted! We wanted to grab their attention as much as we could so that they take note in what we were doing, to make them think, so they would examine the relationship between body and architecture. As we were all dressed in white, and completely focused on the architecture, while we explored the building and I think our focus made the people and students of the library take note as to what we were doing. The result of having a lot of casts of the body, broken hand casts and casts of books placed all over the library staircase, resulted in most of the students that walked past noticing the performance happening on the staircase. This is exactly what we wanted! The disfigured hands (as a result from storage) with broken fingers, looked very unusual but also very interesting. We placed some of the fingers that had broken off in unusual places on the library staircase. For example, we placed five fingers, (standing upright), on a ledge of concrete on the wall of the library. This gave a very eerie effect and again I hope it caught the imagination of the students that were walking through the library. I think that the students that saw this performance on the staircase made them think and use their imaginations. I would hope it made the audience have a broader view of what performance can and might be. This performance didn’t conform to the usual conventions of what normal performance can be, but this was a performance based in an unusual location, performed in an unusual and creative physicality and involved casts of the human body. Some members of the audience that watched the performance took photos and seemed to be very interested in what was going on. After the performance, when we were cleaning the bits of plaster that what left on the staircase, some students came up to us and asked what we were doing and seemed to be very interested. We told them what our performance was about and that this performance was site specific and we were exploring the site, the architecture of the building by using our bodies. We were very happy about this interest because this means that people had thought about what we were doing and why we was doing. Again, hopefully this makes students have a broader view on what performance may mean. We made the decision to wear all white clothes, no shoes and no makeup. We did this to blend in to the background and allow the focus to be on the only parts that were on show, our hands and feet. This performance was different to the other performances I have done, but I have enjoyed it. I enjoyed exploring a new performance space and have learnt that performance doesn’t have to just take place in a theatre, it can take place in unusual and interesting places were there will be an audience who may never see performances, but because it takes place in somewhere very public they get to see a unique performance. I think with site specific, the audience will have two opinions, they will either enjoy the originality or find it a waste of time. Our audience (I hope) enjoyed the originality of the performance because they were investigating and taking photos of the mod roc and plaster casts. I enjoyed the exploration of site specific, I enjoyed finding a new space and researching the history, exploring all the aspects of the architecture, but I think the most exciting part of site specific was understanding that performance can be a number of different things. I never thought that we would enjoy site specific as much as we did, but we really enjoyed creating the mod roc casts, the plaster casts and we enjoyed the physicality of exploring the staircase during the performance. At first, I think the audience were shocked to see this performance happening, but I only think this because they had probably never seen any performance like this happening in this location. We didn’t get in the audiences way, I don’t think we annoyed them and I think they enjoyed seeing us perform. Spite specific has made me realise that a performance can take place in the most unusual of spaces, as long as you make the connection and find something interesting to show and something to make the audience think a performance is nearly always possible. Research is important in site specific, also understanding the space and what you are trying to make the audience think about during and after the performance. Performance Evaluation

Overall, I was very happy with how the performance went and was welcomed in the library. I learnt that a performance doesn’t have to have a stage and be all theatrical to make it a performance. All a performance needs is a site to perform and an audience to understand. After this site specific performance and the feedback we got from the students that saw this performance, I would definitely think about performing in another unusual and interesting site.

Works Cited:

Pearson, M. (2010) Site Specific Performance. London. Palgrave Macmillan.

Wroe, N. (2005) Leader of the Pack. The Guardian. [Online. London. Available from: http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2005/jun/25/art

Final Blog Submission – Andrew Brooks

Andrew Brooks / May 14, 2015May 14, 2015 / Andrew Brooks

Framing Statement

Our group – ‘Shelved’ – will be doing a site specific, intermedia, durational performance installation. It will be all based in the Freezone as well as outside the window in the Freezone. We will aim t do a full 9-5 performance, as though doing a full working day. It will be an exploration of the history of the library as a warehouse and as library. To do this, we will be building shelves. This explores the history of when it was a warehouse through the labour that took place, and by building shelves, we intend to bring the labour back. By building shelves, one of the most common things seen in a library, we will explore the library aspect through building them as quietly as possible as well as archiving the sawdust produced from the shelves.

It will be very much intermedia because of the fact that there will be a fair amount of technology involved in the piece; microphones, sound desk, wireless headphones. This aspect, the sound, has an influence from Janet Cardiff’s 40 part Motet (which can be seen by following the link below):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncWFLzVrwU4

There would be an influence from this as we would like to show something similar in terms of taking a sound or sounds from one place and put it elsewhere. For us, this would mean taking the sounds of a workshop from a warehouse setting (this is what the library previously was) and put it into a library setting. As well as this, we intend to get the audience involved by listening to the sound we create by giving them headphones, so this further takes the sound out of the warehouse/library setting.

By giving the audience wireless headphones, it also get them to listen to what is happening and get them to actually listen to what is happening as oppose to them thinking it’s just noise pollution, another theory we’ve looked at. By telling the audience to listen properly, it tells them not to shut out the noise and listen, not hear.

What they will hopefully be listening to will be a live soundscape of a workshop setting. The microphones we will be using will go as close as possible to whatever activity they are focusing on so that the audience can hear a close up perspective of varnishing over sawing. Listening to the strokes of the brush. The sound desk will be used to mix the sounds so that one can be louder than another, hence why they will hopefully be able to hear the brush just as much as the saw or hammer.

The boxes of sawdust will be links to artist’s books as we are calling the boxes of sawdust books. By categorising them on the shelves, we give them a purpose similar to actual books, plus they represent the shelves too and how long it will take to build them or how loud we were whilst making them. This is almost a form of data collection.

Reaction to the Library as a Performance Space

I normally tend to think of the library as a studious place where some social interaction is allowed (well, in the university library), but I hadn’t considered it as a place to perform, even if we all are performing in that space without consciously knowing or thinking about it. A performance in the library isn’t something that comes naturally to ones thought process, so the ideas that first sprouted to mind consisted of possible social experiments and the breaking of library rules – particularly on the third floor where you HAVE to be silent.

It was this idea of breaking the rules, being rebellious in the library that got me thinking about the more extreme possibilities of what can be done in the library, for example, being purposefully loud on the third floor so that eventually someone will come and tell you to be quiet as the rules are very strict.

However, the first idea that came to mind was something that wasn’t anywhere associated with the libraries history or the purpose of a library, nor was it appropriate for the time of the year. I wanted to use a whole floor and just use it as a haunted library-come-scare fest; something that I knew would be out of the question but would be incredibly fun. After having a couple of sessions of watching videos in seminars and the reading we have done, the ideas of what could be done were increased further. I particularly liked a video we watched of a group of people wrapping the Reichstag as, for me, it made me question why they did it. The whole idea of wrapping something well known, or maybe something not so well known, is something that makes that object a blank canvas that anybody could envisage what the building really looks like or what it could look like in their heads, different to what it actually looks like. This is something that I certainly found intriguing, at first.

As I have previously said, it wasn’t something that comes naturally to yourself when you think of a library, therefore, ideas for this project came few and far between at this early point because there was so much to take into consideration: the architecture, the history, and the uses of the library. So it is relatively difficult to decide at first because of the amount of different aspects of the library it is possible to focus on and create something on or around. For example, it’s possible to focus on why people use the library or the people within the library rather than the library as an object or building itself. As much as this appealed to me, to do a sort of social observation, it was something that I didn’t think would be as challenging as what I would have liked.

Library

Theatre & Architecture: Introduction

In Juliet Rufford’s book, the introduction makes some valid points but, also some interesting points too that show the progression of architecture through the different periods of drama: early Greek theatre, the Restoration period and the modern era of theatres and the architectures influence over theatre.

Rufford notes that the change in architecture of theatres had a link to the change in the audience, which could ultimately change what happens on the stage. This can be seen from ‘the huge size of the ancient Greek amphitheatre [that] demanded large gestural acting.’ (Rufford, 2015, 3) In this period of time, the audiences would be huge and they attended open aired theatres, therefore the actors had to project much more, this is also the reason for the larger gestures on stage. However, Elizabethan theatres, by way of contrast, were much smaller, and from the Globe theatre to the Theatre Drury Lane, there were changes that included going from open aired theatres to indoor theatres, mostly stood to everyone being sat and natural lighting to artificial lighting.

From open aired theatres to the indoor theatres, the architecture of the theatre influences the acting and theatricality because the actors didn’t have to project their voices as much, because their voices aren’t disappearing into the open air. Therefore, the newer architecture of the indoor theatres forced the audience to listen, even if in the Restoration period the audience openly criticised the actors on stage during the performance, but this gave way to the parameters of the contemporary theatres we expect to see today.

‘But perhaps the most significant change of all was that the auditorium lights were turned down… [and]…in the dark, the sights and sounds of the auditorium were stilled.’ (Rufford, 2015, 6) This change in 1876 by Richard Wagner for his Bayreuther Festspielhaus was a game changer in how architecture influenced the way people acted at the theatre. In the Restoration period, the stage and audience were lit in equal lighting because of a lack of technology, although it was cutting edge for its era. Despite the fact no one in the audience would have known to be quiet when the lights went down, it seemed as though it was a natural thing to do, and this was a clear paving stone for what we now expect to see and be a part of in a theatre surrounding.

The technology and the change in design of the theatres have shown how the change in architecture has had a major influence on the expectations from what happens on the stage and the whole theatre experience.

The Performance Process – Part 1

The process through which we have gone has been quite difficult thus far. Attempting to build something in a space that isn’t a workshop requires us to seek out a lot of materials we need, providing difficulties. However, throughout the weeks, there has been a development in our piece: we have gone from wanting to build a scale model of the library and focusing on the history and architecture of the library, to building shelves in the quietest way possible and me monitoring this by microphones around the room; this would also provide a live soundtrack or soundscape of a workshop for the audience to listen as they watch from outside of the Freezone.

Within the workshop, we intend to have a few different things going on at the same time: sawing, hammering, sanding and varnishing. The microphones will be pointed at each of these and connected to a mixing desk which will in turn feed to headphones for the audience to listen to. On the mixing desk, I shall be attempting to make the things you might not hear over others; for example, sawing over hammering, so hopefully, the outcome will be that the live soundscape will provide the audience with sounds they might not necessarily think of hearing or listening to.

When you think of where a workshop tends to be, many people may class this as noise pollution because of all the sawing and cutting and hammering that many people would class as a collective noise rather than individual sounds. However, ‘noise pollution results when we do not listen carefully. Noises are the sounds we have learned to ignore.’ (Kelly, 2011, 110) so by using the mixing desk, the audience will be able to listen carefully to what is happening in front of them. Also, ‘the concept of the soundscape is a broad one, accommodating the complete sound environment in a location and the human response to it.’ (Davies et al, 2013, 224) This is where the headphones come in. As no one but us will be allowed in the room, then the only way for people to hear what is going on will be through the headphones and they will be hearing the ‘complete sound environment’ (Davies et al, 2013, 224) of this workshop environment we will be creating.

Books

Since we are all going to be performing in and around the library, I felt it only natural to write something about books. Not just what we expect from a book, but also inclusion from what we have talked about in seminars where we questioned: What is a book?

So what do we expect from a book? Many pages together to form a novel, or a collection of stories or poems, or something informative. As much as someone may want to avoid books because they don’t like reading, it is hard to avoid them as we grow up with them, we learn from them in school and they can help to shape who we are. In fact, most of us will have had one when we were babies or toddlers and had them read to us from our parents. But also at this early age, they can help us to talk and read, so books are important to us as we grow up.

Books not only help to shape who we are as we grow up, but as we have grown up, we read more and more and learn more and more from the books we read. Even from fictional books we read as teens, the books we class as teen books, can help us understand things socially, help us find ourselves at a time in our lives when we really need to find out who we are. So for me, books are incredibly important to us as humans, so that we can develop and learn.

However, if we look at books from an academic perspective, then they help us learn, but in a completely different way. They help us have an understanding of the wider world and help us form an opinion on matters we may learn about, for example, from a personal perspective on academic learning, I found this in the first lecture for another module. We were told about the politics of teaching and how the arts were basically getting kicked out, and this made me form an opinion of a matter I previously had very little knowledge of.

But as we, as a group, have explored in seminars, books aren’t just something we read, they aren’t just the stereotypical object we fine in libraries or Waterstones, but could be a plastic food box filled with marshmallows and strawberries and inspiring quotes. They can be something we listen to, or even a plastic bottle filled with facts. It’s as if you could do anything and still call it a book, as a book, seemingly, could be anything. Literally anything. Even a plastic tub filled with sawdust.

The Performance Process – Part 2

As the rehearsals have gone on in lesson times, we met up with Darren and discussed the technology that we would be using: the mixing desk, microphones, and headphones. We will also be using either a projector or a TV screen to show the visual aspects of sound.

The programme that will be used so that the audience will be able to see the sound is Audacity. There will be a direct link from a laptop to the screen/projector and this will be in the middle of the room. It’s good to use this as it can help to immerse the audience in the performance as they will be able to hear and see what Billy, Chris and Klaudia are doing, but will also be able to see how loud they’re truly being by the visual element of having a programme that shows them this.

Ultimately, the audience experience of our performance should be about the sound and getting them to listen to the sounds of what is happening in our workshop. We don’t want the audience to just think we are building shelves.

The Performance Process – Part 3

Whilst in rehearsals, we wanted to try different ways of muffling the sound of the tools we wanted to use. Obviously it would be harder to muffle the sounds such as sawing, therefore we thought it best not to muffle the saw and only attempt to saw as slowly as possible to keep the noise down.

We have created a soundtrack of the different ways we muffled the hammer as well as incorporating the sounds of sawing too. There was an exploration of muffling the hammer by using different materials such as sponges and cloths. This is something we intend to incorporate into the final performance.

Performance Evaluation

The final performance on the 9^th May went very well. The audience perceived the idea behind our work, creating a workshop and using the idea of what the library once was (a warehouse) and taking the idea of labour from that as well as taking the idea of being as quiet as possible and the arrangement and sorting from the library aspect.

Although the audience numbers weren’t very high for a performance that lasted the whole day, there was consistency provided that I went to people and asked them to listen to what was going on. From the majority of the audience members, there was a lot of positive feedback as the majority of the audience weren’t other drama students. This was because of the time of the year it is when a lot of students use the library to finish essays, etc. off.

The reaction of the audience was very mixed because a fair few people didn’t know a lot about the history of the library. For example, not many people knew that GCW meant Great Central Warehouse or that it was in fact an actual warehouse before it ever was a library.

There were a lot of strengths to what we had done on the day, the main one for us was finally deciding why and how we were categorising the sawdust that came from the sawing and sanding of the shelves. We knew beforehand that we wanted to and the plan was to look at the decibels and see what the highest reached decibel was making that shelf. However, Audacity didn’t really tell us this information so we decided upon timing how long it took us to build the shelves and after we had built the shelf, how long it had taken to get to that point.

In terms of weaknesses and improvements, an improvement on technology in terms of being able to know the decibel level would have been extremely helpful. This would have been very helpful as we would have had our original way of categorising the sawdust on the shelves.

One other thing we hadn’t considered before, but it had been brought up during the performance was that, because I didn’t contribute much to building the shelves and I went around handing the headphones out and explaining what we were doing to the audience, I could have swapped with someone else in our group as they got more tired from sawing or sanding. Not only would this have given other people in the group a chance to see what it was like watching from the outside, but also give each other a break from the work we were doing.

Overall, the performance went very well, the audience’s perception of the idea behind it and what was going on went down very well as most people seemed interested. For the length of time it took to do our performance, the audience were also very surprised at how we were still going, but this was down to us being determined in the idea of the performance.

Bibliography

Davies, W.J, Adams, M.D, Bruce, N.S, Cain, R, Carlyle, A, Cusack, P, Hall, D.A, Hume, K.I, Irwin, A, Jennings, P, Marselle, M, Plack, C.J, Poxon, J. (2013) Perception of soundscapes: An interdisciplinary approach. Applied Acoustics. 74 (2) 224-231.

Kelly, C. (eds) (2011) Sound. London: Whitechapel Gallery.

Rufford, J. (2015) Theatre & Architecture. London: Palgrave.

Chris Petit Final Blog

Christopher Lee Petit / May 14, 2015May 14, 2015 / Chris Petit

Framing Statement
Our final performance (known as shelved) is an exploration of the history of The Great Central warehouse library. The piece is a representation of the manual labour that occurred within the library. In order to create the performance we will take over the free zone in the library for a full 9-5 day and turn it into a workshop environment. Within this workshop we going to build and construct several shelving units. By doing this we can represent several things such as the labour that took place in the library while it served as a grain warehouse, the labour that went into converting the warehouse into a library while producing one of the most common objects in a library, shelves. Once we had converted this into a workshop area we added another dimension to the performance. By adding microphones the room and offering the public wireless headphones we are able to allow the general public to roam around the library experiencing the sounds that once occurred in the warehouse, in the space it actually happened. This intermedia performance allows for the audience to contrast the history of the library by examining a noisy soundscape which the Great Central Warehouse once was however as soon as the headphones are taken off it becomes a quiet library once more. This intermedia performance is an exploration of the library’s history. From a library to grain warehouse we were able to incorporate subtle and not so subtle aspects of this broad history. This performance can be linked to performances such as Janet Cardiff’s 40 Part motet, Jean Claude and Christo’s wrapping of the Reichstag and Sarah Jane Norman’s Bone Library.

Analysis of Process
When this project was first started we explored the library several times and found a range of spaces within the library which I personally had not previously come across and was unaware existed. These explorations also allowed me to see a lot of the library’s history as a warehouse, throughout the library are steel beams with engravings which show the industry side of the library. This major difference in environment appealed to us as something that has potential to be explored and discover if it would be possible to bring the industry side back into the library through our performance. We floated around different ideas of doing this one which was considered was to convert the library into a workshop situation and wrap the room to turn it into something it is not. By doing this we reflect on Christo and Jeanne Claude’s performance where they wrapped the Reichstag. By doing this they were able to mask the building and then transform it into something it is not. And making a point that at the end of the day it is just a building. This is something that we could explore by covering the room and transforming it into a workshop. It’s turning the room into something it is not designed to be and by doing this we are adding emphasis to the fact that it is just a room and can be used for purposes it is not necessarily designed for.
The workshop idea also allowed us to experiment with the sounds of the library. Whilst doing an exercise in class I created a soundscape on the silent floor of the library and listened carefully to see how quiet it actually was there. This set up the possibility of doing something related to that floor especially since around that entire floor are signs asking us to be quiet, however that’s all it was just signs. We wanted to know what is forcing people to be quiet in this space why we should have to be and who is actually making us be quiet. The difference then became very clear between the warehouse then and the library now and how the space has been adapted for a new function as the area around it had developed. The idea of creating a workshop back in the library suddenly became much more appealing and potentially doing this on the library’s silent floor to create a conflict of times so to speak and allow the sounds of the past to be made in the silent spaces of the present day library.
The more we started to look the more we could start to see divides in the library, divides of the old and the new. We could identify the new additions in a way we had not previously thought about and we began to notice influences on the more recent architecture. We found the a clear difference between the old architecture and the new however they worked well together and nothing looked out of the ordinary. Finding all this inspired us to explore the architecture of the building, the question was how would we do this? We wanted to combine the workshop element with the architecture and the idea that came up was to build and create a model of the library.
By building a model it allowed us to really explore the architecture because we would literally be spending time to build each part of the library. We soon realised we could take this to another level by building the library in sections. We could begin by building it reminiscent of the original architecture by building the library before the recent additions and expansions of the library. We would then follow up by expanding on the model by adding on the parts of the library that were added first.
Utilising the model seemed to be the perfect idea to explore the architecture and the history of the library together and allowed us to utilise the workshop environment at the same time. Our next step as a group was to create a version of the library. We had found a space we believed to have potential on the 3rd floor of the library as it had a small group working room which would keep us out the way of people but had been surrounded by glass meaning people would be able to watch in on us working. The room also had walls which included both recently added and original architecture which allowed for further visual representation of the coming together of these two eras in the library’s history. We decided to build our initial vision out of cardboard so we could keep the noise levels to a minimum and we would be able to get an idea of how we would be able to make this using lightweight materials before using the heavier wood. The model however did not work as we planned we had misjudged the materials we had used and we had been louder than we initially planned resulting in us being spoken to by the library staff and being asked to keep quiet due to other student complaints. After this we decided it would be best to find a more suitable space, which turned out to be the free zone on the ground floor. This space allowed us to maintain many of the same visual element within a much larger space however it too away from the silence contrast. To overcome this obstacle we decided to try and muffle the sound of all the tools and visually represent loud activities attempting to be silent by following library function. Utilising the free zone worked out to be a better space for the project as it allowed us the space we needed.
We then presented our project idea however it was made apparent with our lack of experience the end product would not live up to the projects potential. We decided against the idea of building a model and then decided to build shelving units instead. Building these still allowed for us to utilise all the messages we were trying to portray apart from the architecture. Instead we shifted our focus from the exterior to the interior architecture and what the main point is. Shelves do more than just keep books, they hold data and knowledge and are a key part to the library. They were also more practical for us to construct and we were able to produce more than one. By producing multiple shelves we were able to show how libraries are still expanding and growing bigger as more resources become available.
Once we had decided on what we were building we began the process of designing our end product and we constructed out of cardboard a very simple and easy to construct shelf.

This design required us to use minimal material which meant we were able to produce more of them in one day. Once we had designed our next step was to build one so we sourced some wood and built our first shelf which was a success within its own right, even though it didn’t look the design we were able to see here we went wrong and then we were able to create another which was more successful after we corrected our mistakes.
We were now at a point where we were comfortable with where we were on the shelf itself and so we were able to begin our work on the sound aspect of the performance. Since the performance itself was no longer on any of the main floors of the library we decided to utilise wireless headphones. By using these we were able to allow the sounds to travel through the library despite us being away from any of what would have been original working spaces. We now had to find ways to dull the sound of the tools down however so visually the audience could see us following the library rules of keeping noise to a minimum level. We began by wrapping the hammer with various materials such as dusters, rubbers and sponges and we tried to see what sounded the most muffled to the ear. After installing audacity we were able to measure the decibels of each item and discover that way which was actually the quietest.
Once we had discovered which made the least noise we had to discover which was the most practical to use. Initially the quietest was mixing all 3 together however when the hammer came in contact with the nails the rubber and the sponge both broke eliminating them meaning the best option was to simple use dusters. This however also became impractical as it was not possible to get the force behind the hammer to do anything to the nail and the shape the duster created when it was wrapped around the hammer meant it was difficult to actually hit the nail with the hammers head. We also discover we were not actually able to dull out any other sounds the paint brush was quiet on its own and the sawing didn’t work muffled. Below is a soundscape which features the all the hammers with their respective muffleing.

Once we had gaged the decibel levels through audacity we added the microphones into the project. Once we had added the microphones it we were able to pick up the noise from each tool individually and the decibel level became significantly more sensitive and each noise became much clearer to hear. Utilising the microphones audacity and wireless headphones allowed us to use maximum potential of sound allowing the audience to hear it and be able to witness the sound. Offering this really allowed the contrast between a library and a workshop to be shown. The way we are utilising the sound is similar to how Janet Cardiff used it within her 40 Part Motet. She created her piece by placing microphones in front of each member of an orchestra and the sound is then transmitted to another room full of speaker systems which relay the sound into a live soundscape of the orchestra. In our performance we are also relaying sound through to wireless headphones creating a live soundscape of workshop conditions while focusing microphones on each worker.
Following on from all this we decided to explore the library’s history further. Since the library used to be a grain warehouse we decided to show this by collecting the sawdust which fall from the shelf as it is being created. Inspiration further came from Sarah Jane Norman’s performance of bone library. In this performance she engraves aboriginal words onto bones. By doing this she is giving the bones purpose and treating them as books, the fundamental element on a library. We could utilise this and by collecting labour residue and placing that on the shelf it is giving the shelf a purpose. By collecting data of time taken to create the shelf and recording it on the boxes of saw dust we are able to house data on these shelves, which is a key function of the library, to house and store data. This is also reminiscent of an activity done within the second week where we created our own artist books out of whatever materials we could to show that you can store information any way you feel and it doesn’t necessarily need to be in the traditional words on pages. A book can show data through a collection of pictures or through by a representation of the message you’re trying to get across. This is exactly what collecting the grain was intending to do.
We also felt like showing the manual labour aspect of the library was necessary to include. The fact that the library have very much shifted to mental work as opposed to physical work is apparent. By converting the library into a workshop allows us to represent the physical work that used to take place. We figured we should work an 8 hour working day and include an hour lunch break through the day in order to mirror the average working day. The process was also repetitive by creating the same object multiple time we are able to represent another aspect of the library, the students. While we are performing it will be exam and deadline period for otherstudents. Due to this busy time period students will be going to the library multiple times to find resources and repeating their action by going to the library, doing work, going home then the same routine again the next day.

Performance Evaluation
By adding all this together we are creating a project that could engage the audience on multiple levels and we utilised many different forms of media to create a multimedia and interactive performance which allowed for the audience to achieve everything we intended. We were able to replicate the full working day. From Feedback we received the points we were trying to get across were clear. We also were able to get a variety of different audience members watching for different reasons, some were attracted by the screens projecting the decibels and other just there to have a cigarette taking a look at what was happening. Many of these student when approached were interested in the subject we were addressing and when they discovered the library’s past they were surprised and had no idea it has not always been a library.
Towards the beginning of the piece and after the lunch break the performance felt slow. With there being 3 of us performing but only 1 job needed doing it would take about 10 to 20 minutes to get us all involved in building the shelf because we would have to wait for the wood to be sawed before we could begin the sanding process. I feel like if we had carried on cutting the woo but not began to sand it before lunch we could have all got involved into the production of the shelf quicker and ultimately we could have produced more shelves. I believe one part which we did not allow to shine was showing how we could dull down the tools it became increasing difficult to muffle the tools and so it didn’t really become clear what was being done while we wrapping the hammer in gaffer tape.
Should we do this performance again I would like to try and make difference in sound clearer. I would like to attempt to get a several audacity screens set up monitoring the noise of each floor. By doing this we are able to contrast noise levels further by showing what the noise levels could have been like compared to what they are now. I would also have liked to explore the history further and incorporate some other uses for the building and create other things that would have occurred within the building. I also would have like to utilise some louder heavier tools such as drills and electric saws/sanders and see if it would have been possible to sound proof the roof further in order to use these in a way we could have kept it quiet.
The entire project also allowed me to learn and appreciate the history of the Library. It has taught me about the versatility of the building and allowed me to question what could the Library one day become. It has already become something it was never intended to be so what could it become in 100 years? Will it still be a Library? Will it still be there?

REFERENCES

Spill Festival (2014) Bone Library. [Online] available from http://spillfestival.com/show/bone-library/ [accessed 14 May 2015].

YouTube (2010) Wrapped Reichstag – quickmotion – Christo and Jeanne-Claude. [Online] available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esiErDm62E4 [accessed 14 May 2015].

YouTube (2013) The 40 Part Motet by Janet Cardiff. [Online] available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncWFLzVrwU4 [accessed 14 May 2015].

Christopher Lee Petit / May 14, 2015 / Main Page

EXPLORATION OF LINCOLN
Throughout the first site specific lesson we explored Lincoln to try and discover new places that we might not have been to. We were split into groups then given a list of things we needed to find which ranged from worst place to rough it, to best place to go sledging, best place to see an old couple holding hands and so on. The point in the exercise was to help us see things around us we may not have noticed before and to learn about our city.
This exercise was helpful because it allowed for me to see the city in ways I had not in the past and I feel it did help me increase my observational skills as by looking for items on the list it allowed me to think of places in a way I hadn’t previously thought of. An example of this was when we were able to find an old couple holding hands, this was a task we thought we would find difficult however we were able to find this relatively quickly in a location that we pass on a regular basis.

Exploration of the library
The next few sessions we followed up our exploration of Lincoln by exploring the library where we will be performing. We applied the same sort of practices to this where we search and try to notice rooms/places we had never noticed previously. While exploring I found several rooms such as the Zibby Garnett Library. By searching for these rooms I had to explore parts of the library I hadn’t previously been to. It also allowed for me to learn about some history to the library. By looking at a picture of the library before the extensions were added it allowed us to go outside and see where the extensions were as well as being able to see from the inside where these extensions are.
By going to all of these different places in the library it gave me a better idea of what there is to work with in the library in terms of creating a performance. Another part of our exploration of the library was exploring the sounds within the library. An exercise I did was listening to the sounds of the library. I decided to do this exercise on the 3rd floor of the library (the quiet floor) so that I could see how quiet it really is. Here is everything I heard.
• Fan from the air con
• Pages turning
• People packing their stuff to leave
• Food packets rustling
• Mouse’s clicking
• Printers
• Birds outside
• Chairs creaking
• Sneezing
• Phones going off
• Bottles being crunched
• Paper rustling
• Bags being zipped
• Cars outside
• Train barrier alarm
• Pens clicking
• Train
• Pages turning
• Rain coat movement.
These sounds showed that the 3rd floor isn’t actually as quiet as you would expect. I found that these sounds were quite irritating and annoying. This gave me an idea about possibly doing a performance where I can utilise these sounds in a smaller space where there is one person sat still and then in this confined spaces these sounds are made in a way to irritate.

Library Exploration continued
We continued our exploration of the library by finding a place in the library and drawing it. The place I sat was the food zone. I chose this because it is somewhere in the library I had not been before or even noticed, I had just assumed you could take food to the tables you were on. From there I focused in on the shelving and beams in the library. From doing this I noticed the detail that was around the library and one again I found myself seeing things is had never noticed before. One of these things were the ladders used to reach books on higher shelving. Once again because I had never had to reach anything on a higher shelf I had never thought about how to get these books down.
After we had drawn our section of the library we took somebody else’s drawing and we re-imaged that the picture I took was of a door. The part I focused in on was the door itself. This is because I was interested on what could have been behind this door. This was a no student access area and there are so many parts to the library that I have only just found out about even though it is a place I have been using for nearly 2 years. We then had to digitalise the image and so I took a photo of an open door to express how open doors can lead to new possibilities the same way that an open book can.
Also in this session we watched a video of a town crier called out news however the news was a reflection on social media because the crier was shouting about his dinner and other irrelevant stories. The same as how people on social media post about their dinner and news that no one really cares about. Following this we watched a video of Christo and Jeanne-Claude wrapping the Reichstag in Germany. This symbolised how when something is covered over it can be anything it doesn’t have a main purpose. There is also the feeling that they are blinding parliament to the outside world, a metaphor which is often said. This gave me another idea, could I possibly cover a room in the library with something transforming it into a different place with a different purpose.

Rehearsal on the 3rd floor
On the 17th of March our group was able to book the space on the 3rd floor. We booked the space and began to create a model of the library on a much smaller scale to the one we plan on building in our final piece and out of much lighter materials. This exercise allowed us to gain a rough time gage of how long it took us to build a small section of the library. With that taking us nearly 2 hours we know that building the lager heavier model will probably take more time than the day we originally thought now we believe it will take somewhere between 2 and 3 days.

Presentations
We presented our idea for our project to the library staff and Conan. After we had told them about our idea to turn the library into a workshop and build a model of the library to represent the manual labour activities it got a varying response. The concept works and the idea of turning the library into a workshop was an idea which had a lot of potential to work with. The idea of building a miniature version of the library was not as strong because of the amount of detail and lack of model making experience we as a group had. After brain storming new ideas we landed on the idea of making shelving. This seemed like the most logical choice because they are simple to make, and could also be would be cost effective. The only tools required are a hammer, saw, nails, wood and varnish. This meant we wouldn’t have to get screws, screwdrivers, adhesives and drills as well.
Shelves also seemed a logical choice because they are something that is related to the library and they could somehow be used and stacked to create our own library. The concept has also been able to remain the same and we would be able to monitor the noise levels and attempt to dull the noise of the tool to follow the rules of quiet in the library.

Creating our first shelf
We build our first design out of cardboard and we were able to create something that looked effective and was easily stackable. We also found our dimensions and how wide and deep the shelf would be, this allowed us to figure out how many shelves we would be able to make out of a sheet of wood. And how much we will be spending on wood. We figured that for a £20 sheet we could make us between 20 and 30 shelves.
The next step was building a shelf. We were able to acquire some cut offs of wood and attempt to build our first shelf. This however did not go as well as we first thought. The wood was all cut to a correct size however while assembling the shelf we assembled in in a way that wouldn’t fit together how it should and we ended up with a box as opposed to our design. Another problem we found was the wood splitting this was because the nails we had used were too thick.
This allowed us to get our next shelf correct and we were able to create the shelf to our measurements. One thing we did find a problem with was the shape of the shelf we had a few edged which were not even with each other so we realised we would have to start sanding as well. We found after sawing the amount of dust which came from one shelf. This gave us the idea to jar the saw dust and put them of the finished shelves. This would act as the data that our library would record and store on the shelves, showing the different amounts of dust that came of each shelf.

Sound and Audacity
When we knew about the noise levels we were making with the tools normally we were then able to start applying equipment to soundproof the tools and seeing how the noise levels alter on audacity. Our quietest object so far has been the combination of dusters and sponges. These nearly halved the amount of noise that audacity was picking up, however still sounded loud to the natural ear. We then tried doing this with microphones and adjusting levels on them to create our soundscape. This worked because the combination of sawing and hammering created a sound scape that sounded accurate to workshop conditions through wireless headphones and would nicely remind us of the sounds that would have at one time occurred within the library.

Work in progress
For our work in progress we were able to get the free zone for the morning. While we had this space we were able to find out what would work and what wouldn’t. We felt as a group the work in progress was a success. We were able to accomplish a rough time scale per shelf and were able to get the input of people outside the project and get feedback which was mostly positive. The positive feedback was about the concept and the idea that we have come up with from an artistic standpoint however the negative feedback came from people critiquing our actual skills with the tools and the levels on the mic.
We did encounter problems while we were constructing the shelf. Namely fatigue. We started to feel ourselves getting tired from the sawing the wood and found ourselves changing who sawed on a regular basis. This bought up the idea of possibly including tea breaks in the performance where we can focus a microphone and bring in some other sounds to the performance, while allowing us to pace ourselves and not wear ourselves down.
One thing that did not come across clearly was the soundproofing of the hammer. It wasn’t really made clear what I was doing to it. However what did come across nicely was the slight sound dulling from a sponge and gaffer tape. This is something I would like to follow up on and need to try and highlight more.
The only other issue we came across was us forgetting a few things such as tape measure and spirit level. This did affect our finished product, however despite this I feel confident about the performance. I believe the next step for us is to now create more than one shelf and find new things to put within the space.

Bone Library
Bone Library was performed at Spill festival. It was performance where aboriginal words get carved into bones. The bones then get categorised into alphabetical order. I feel like this could influence our performance. The way she categorises bones could be bought into our piece. We could categorise our shelves by labelling how long it took them to create or by the average noise made by 1 shelf. We could show this by gathering sawdust into a jar and labelling that jar.
By doing this the performance then becomes us gathering data as well as and information as well as representing the manual labour that used to be involved in the warehouse and keeping the noise down to follow library rules. By gathering data we are also able to represent what people do at a library which is to store data in their heads. The time our piece is being performed benefits the data message especially because it is a time where the library will be full of students researching for deadline essays.
Spill Festival (2014) Bone Library. [Online] available from http://spillfestival.com/show/bone-library/ [accessed 28 April 2015].

Final Blog Submission – 101 things to do with a library trolley

Sarah Schamberger / May 14, 2015May 14, 2015 / Sarah Schamberger

Framing Statement

The final performance of our site specific performance “101 things to do with a library trolley” took place on the 8th of May 2015 in the Great Central Warehouse Library in Lincoln. It lasted from 9.30 a.m. until approximately 4 p.m.
The trolleys are essential to the working processes of the library, serving as tools to facilitate the purposes of the library. We wanted to take them away from their utilitarian existence and explore 101 alternative ways to use them. In Fluids (1967) Allan Kaprow built structures from ice and left them in twenty sites around Los Angeles until they melted. “Kaprow believed in the organic connection between art and its environment and that “the `quasi-architectural structures` of the ice blocks would activate the place for the spectator, encouraging them to see the site from a new perspective as the structures transformed the environment before transforming themselves into puddles of water.” (Govan, 2007) In the same spirit, our aim was to transform the trolleys and through transforming the trolleys also transform the environment of the library.
Another 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 part of the architectural or utilitarian structures of the city, thus underlining or contradicting them (Cie. Willi Dorner, 2007). This performance called attention to inanimate things such as signs, stairs, doorways and benches, but because of the bodies that were now shaped around them, people were able to perceive the objects and the space in a new way.

“What becomes important […] is also the social practices that are engendered as part of the space-making processes of the particular site that an artist may observe, articulate and manipulate.” (Govan, 2007) When doing a site specific project one must consider those social practices which created the site and which are still part of the site. The library is a work space and is generally used for research or educational purposes. “101 things to do with a library trolley” was a complete clash with those purposes. Some of our 101 tasks were meant to integrate themselves into the regular workings of the library. Others were meant to contrast with them, thus “[challenging] notions of easy congruence between performance and site: […] the `fit` [was] not […] a comfortable merging with the resonances of the site but […] a reaction against them.`” (Pearson, 2010) We were aiming to create moments of amazement caused by the apparent absurdity of the tasks. In this sense, our piece was a “connection between art and everyday life” (Pearson, 2010). With some of our tasks we were aspiring to make mundane objects and activities seem bizarre, much like Gob Squad in their piece called Work in 1995. This took place in an office building and the performers appeared to be working in this office. They “interacted with telephones, photocopiers, filing cabinets, yet, […] they sought to `make strange` the activity” (Govan, 2007).

Analysis of Process

The work for our project started with the collection of ideas and the creation of a list of 101 things to do with a library trolley. We then divided that list between the four of us so that everyone was responsible for 25/26 things. After this, since there were many things to think about, we made a schedule for the day of the performance. We wanted to perform the 101 tasks on end with no gaps in between. Some of them were going to be performed by just one person, some by two or three and some by all four of us. Therefore, coordination and planning was key. Everyone had to know exactly what they were going to do at what time. Our initial estimate was for each task to take three to five minutes, but we later adjusted this time, assigning 10 minutes to each task to incorporate difficulties. For the final performance we booked group room 3 on the first floor to store the equipment and prepared the trolleys for their tasks.
After the planning we each had our 25/26 tasks to think about. I will talk about what my tasks where and how I approached them in a moment. First of all, I had to make a list of the equipment I would need and start to collect it. I also went to the props cupboard at the LPAC. I decided which tasks would need practicing and which would only be done in the performance to lend spontaneity to it. Another thing to consider was on which floor each task should take place. The effect a task had was different depending on which floor it took place because the atmospheres on the separate floors differ greatly from each other.

The first task was arranging the trolleys outside of the library. We had to try this to find out in which places they would transform the environment in the best way. The interest in washing (a mundane task) the trolleys (mundane objects) lay in calling attention to the activity. We took them outside and, rather than just wiping them down, washed them with water and sponges. The original plan in filling the lift with trolleys was to only have trolleys in the lift and let them go up and down by themselves. This might have caused moments of surprise when the doors opened for people. However, as we had to get permission from the library for each task, I asked and unfortunately was told that someone would have to be inside the lift with the trolleys. Each one of the “replacing the books with objects/clothes/food” tasks happened on a different floor. I took books out of a shelf and moved them to group room 3, using the trolley in its traditional way. When I came back out the trolley would hold either objects, clothes or food and therefore be turned into a shelf, wardrobe or shopping cart. Likewise, the shelf in which I then placed the items was transformed as well. This also presented an interesting visual effect (see the pictures below).

Some of my tasks involved wrapping the trolleys. This was inspired by Christo and Jeanne-Claude who create a lot of work which involves wrapping natural structures or man-made structures such as buildings, and monuments, with fabric, cloth or textile. For example, in 1968/69 they wrapped one million square feet of the Little Bay coast in Sydney using fabric and ropes. In 1985 they wrapped the Pont Neuf in Paris (Christo and Jeanne-Claude, 2015). My idea was to cover the original structure of the trolley to turn it into something else. I chose toilet paper and newspaper as materials which connect to the library. Toilet paper is used at the library, completely unrelated to the actual purpose of the library, whereas newspapers – journals, magazines – are things which can be found on the shelves of the library. Through wrapping the trolley and attaching pages of novels I intended to change the relationship between the trolley and the literature. Usually a trolley is loaded with books, turning the trolley into a means of transport and the books into something that needs to be transported. Instead of this relationship in which the books are weighing down on the trolley, I wanted to highlight the beauty of both trolley, and novels in decorating the trolley with novel pages. I changed this task later as we were also going to use one of the ergonomic trolleys in the final performance. The somewhat lighter structure of that trolley sympathized well with the idea of reversing the notion of a heavy load of books resting on the trolley. Therefore, I did not wrap it but instead hung the pages from it, creating the impression of a mobile. The idea of the aquarium was oriented on the concept of the children`s game of using a box to make an aquarium. The trolley was this box and I wrapped it in blue paper and put colorful paper fishes in it. The wrapping for those tasks happened where people could watch. The wrapping for the parcel and gift, on the other hand, was done inside group room 3, because they involved moments of surprise. The parcel trolley was going to be pushed to the ground floor with the intend of causing wonderment as to what was inside. The gift wrapping paper was going to be wrapped around the trolley with one of my group mates in it. The trolley was going to be pushed to a study floor and left there. She then was going to appear unexpectedly. All of these tasks needed much preparation. First of all, I had to get a lot of equipment and I then had to try each task to see how it would look and how much of each material I would need. I also had to pick the novel pages and make the fishes for the aquarium. Please see the pictures of all of these wrapping tasks below.

There was another kind of tasks which involved a person performing an activity on a trolley. I was reading a book and drawing a picture while being pushed on a trolley. We tried these tasks to see if pushing and navigating would be possible. These tasks are obviously activities connected to the arts and to the library. Just by the fact that they were performed on a trolley, they had a powerful effect when we tried them out. It was subtle but presented a very strange picture. It was, however, yoga on the trolley which caused the most interesting, astounded looks from people. For this I had to learn a few yoga positions and then try them on the trolley to see if I had enough space and could hold my balance. Yoga fitted very nicely into the quietness of the third floor while at the same time being a symbol of the importance of the balance between intellectual and physical activity. For making the trolley into a piece of art I created a sign saying “The Library Trolley”, such as an object in a gallery might have as a title. The trolley was meant to be transformed into a precious, valuable piece of art by treating it as such. Turning the trolley into a piece of art in this way was also going to turn its surroundings into a gallery. We were acting as a person working at a gallery and a visitor of the gallery. This worked very well on the silent study floor. For the task of collecting objects around the library I got things such as glass pebbles and feathers. I put them in the shelves across one of the floors. Then I went around with the trolley to collect the objects and arranged them on the trolley. This was an illustration of how, much like when gathering knowledge, things can be collected from different sources to, step by step, create something beautiful (see the picture below).

Making books out of play dough connected to the notion of reproduction and documentation. Documentation can be done purely for archiving purposes, but on a deeper level it means to take one thing and translate it into another medium, such as picture or film. In site specific performance, this can mean the creation of a new piece of performance. The play dough book was a reproduction of the books in the library. At the same time, it was the transformation of a book into a new medium, thus the creation of something completely new. “The reproduction of a painting or object, however perfect, is always, definitively, its betrayal.” Reproductions are sensitive “to their own limits, they are willing to concede the impossibility of reproducing the object” (Kaye, 2000). Below are pictures of the play dough I made at home and of the final result.

For the secret mail, my group mates were seated on different tables across a floor and I came up to one after the other with the trolley. The trolley held an envelope saying “confidential”. They each opened it, read the letter inside and put it back. This task was meant to create the notion of a shared secret. The fact that the letter was being delivered on a trolley highlighted its significance. Please see pictures of the envelope below.

For the construction site, the trolley was going to have large boxes and bags on it (please see picture below). One person was going to appear with the trolley, unload it at a place in the library and then push the empty trolley away. It was going to create the assumption that something large was going to be built or was going to happen. Then a second person was going to appear with an empty trolley, coming from the other side, load everything on the trolley again and leave with it, completely diffusing the suspension. I borrowed large boxes from the props cupboard at the LPAC but I also used the bags I brought on the day of the performance which contained all my equipment. This was going to happen on the third floor as the notions of silence and construction site would be a vast contrast.

With the couch trolley I reversed the roles of a couch and a library trolley. It required pillows and a blanket and me sitting on the trolley. Meanwhile, books were placed not on the trolley but on a chair. The best friend and the bag trolley both involved taking the trolley with us everywhere we went but not pushing it like a trolley. For the first one we treated the trolley like a person. This meant, for example, talking to it and hugging it. For the latter one, the trolley was holding things which are usually held by a bag. This was experimenting with the concept that a bag is used for its convenience whereas taking a large trolley everywhere is not convenient. The comments-about-the-trolley-project-in-the-library-box trolley held a box and pens and paper, giving people the opportunity to leave positive or negative thoughts about our performance. At the same time, it gave us a means of evaluating our performance.
For our final rehearsal we performed eight of our tasks in a row. Please follow this link for video footage of this rehearsal: https://youtu.be/2LsJaYPQu0M. The rehearsal provided us with a good sense of how well we were organized and how physically demanding the work was. One of the tasks I did for this was to push the trolley. In the final performance it was going to involve all four of us each having a trolley and walking across one floor making sure to cover every bit of the room. The trolleys were going to be empty and pushed for the sole purpose of pushing them. The interest in this task, when I tried it, lay in how to deal with obstacles. It was important for this task to navigate around obstacles and to always keep moving.

Performance Evaluation

Our final performance worked well in terms of its organization. All of our tasks went smoothly like we had planned them. We also saw reactions of interest and surprise from people. However, after a few hours of performance we were told by library staff that they had received some complaints about noise. We therefore had to adjust our performance accordingly. We tried to take more care in opening and closing the doors quietly and we were pushing the trolleys more slowly to reduce the noise. Unfortunately, our group let itself be influenced to the extent that we performed many of the tasks inside of group room 3 and in the small bit of corridor in front of the group room. I am not sure that this was the appropriate way to handle the situation. The experience as emphasized how crucial it is to know exactly what you are aiming to achieve. When working in a non-traditional venue, especially if it is a work space such as a library, you need to be aware, as a team of performers, whether the work you are presenting is in harmony with the space or if it is “a reaction against [the resonances of the site]” (Pearson, 2010). If you are doing the latter, you need to accept that some individuals might not agree with your work. We did expect this but did not intend to change our performance to the degree that we eventually did. It would have been good to prepare for the final performance by doing our tasks for a longer period on end. This way we could have seen the reactions we would get and whether a particular weekday or time of day would work best. Nevertheless, this would not have been a very reliable indicator as not the same people are at the library at always the same time. “At site, the audience may be incidental […] and obdurate.” (Pearson, 2010) One aim of any site specific performance should be “to both locate and relocate the individual, drawing their attention to the site whilst simultaneously challenging pre-conceived notions of the site when the real world is shifted momentarily “out of focus” (Hunter, 2012). If you cannot achieve this result and wish to adjust your performance, it is very important to find the right way to do so. If I could do the performance again I would place the trolleys in different locations over the library and perform the tasks without moving the trolleys. Another good idea would be to take the trolleys outside. This would take the performance to a new level. Not only would it be 101 alternative ways to use the trolley but it would also take the trolley to an alternative environment.

Please find below a montage of our final performance or follow this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbS_O70DEl0.

Bibliography

Christo and Jeanne-Claude (2015) [online] Available from http://christojeanneclaude.net/artworks/realized-projects [Accessed 10 May 2015].

Cie. Willi Dorner (2007) [online] Available from http://www.ciewdorner.at/index.php?page=work&wid=26 [Accessed 11 April 2015].

Govan, E. (2007) Making a Performance: Devising Histories and Contemporary Practices. London: Routledge.

Hunter, V. (2012) ‘Moving Sites’: Transformation and Re-location in Site-specific Dance Performance. Contemporary Theatre Review, 22 (2) 259-266.

Kaye, N. (2000) Site-Specific Art: Performance, Place, and Documentation. New York: Routledge.

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