After presenting our idea for SSP, we received positive feedback in particular being how our research and performance link directly with one another. Our presentation spurred us to think about the element of film, and how it could be interesting have an ‘unfinished’ film until the showing, where it could cut to us live finishing our research with the audience, adding the final pieces to our canvas.

Having decided on the question: ‘What does Lincoln mean to you?’ we set to making our postcards. Although this question can be seen as a broad and daunting one, we hope that sticking with it to begin our process will help us when developing our idea, having collected our information.

I wanted to discover what it is to perform, what should and is considered performance and how we should go about distinguishing between what is art and what is not a subject I personally feel to be over analysed. Every person, in one way or another is a performer, whether they are conscious of the fact or not. This however, does not mean that every task you carry out in everyday life should be classed as a performance, and praised as a piece of art when all it really is, is reality. In my opinion, performing is when I am conscious of the fact that I am doing something, and want to impress other people by doing so. This often sparks me performing for myself because I want to do well, but when pleasing others or being praised for your work, is when I feel something should be considered performance.

Site Specific Performance then, I find hard to place within this perspective. Although in one sense it can be exactly as it reads, it can also be seen as a whirlwind of confusion and unappreciated due to its unusual nature. The reasoning behind SSP however, is to honor the ordinary by making it the unordinary. By taking performance out of the theatre and moving it to a space that is representational in a less than obvious manner, brings a new light to the experience, both for audience and actors. Every performance, no matter what, or where it is, is different. Nothing can be exactly as it was before, because lightning does not strike in the same place twice. You may then question film, and how that can change from one showing to the next. I appreciate, that the film itself, remains exactly the same, however the showing of the film is the performance, which changes every viewing. This reflects back to my mentioning of John Cage, each showing of his ‘Experimental Music’ would have created new and different sounds, therefore creating a new performance each time it was performed. Although I think this to be slightly pretentious, I see the meanings behind it, and why it is considered art.

Having decided on our performance to begin our research we will take to the streets of Lincoln asking the community what Lincoln means to them. We will give each member of the public we speak to a postcard, in which they will be asked to answer the question in no more than a few words or a small diagram. Once they have done so, they (if co-operative) will have their picture taken whilst holding up the postcard. Whilst doing this, we will make a video of our process, inviting the public to take part, if they so wish. We do however, anticipate the response to be more negative than positive, and will therefore act on behalf of our extended cast. Once we have collected this data, we will devise a piece of Physical Theatre to represent this, which we will also film and edit into what we will present as our final piece. Our performance then, being a video of Lincoln and what it means to us and our local community and our chosen site being many areas of Lincoln, surrounding the city centre where we will find a variation of the public. We are desperate to incorporate a wide variety of age groups, classes and cultures, as we were surprised enough to all have different views, considering we are all of similar ages and interests.

We found our next step to be the discussion of our findings in link with our individual research, shaping our performance ideas. One practitioner from this I found interesting was John Cage and his lecture on ‘Experimental Music’. One of Cage’s famous performances is his solo piece of a man and his piano, sitting in complete silence for minutes on end. His percussion and music would then come from the confused audience, using everything from coughing and sneezing to audience members asking and discussing what was happening. This piece of music frustrated people so much, they often left. Cage, at first, did not understand this and once said: “It seemed to me that composers knew what they were doing, and that the experiments that had been made had taken place prior to the finished works, just as sketches are made before paintings and rehearsals precede performances” (1958, p.g.1). As music changed, he came to realise that having his music classed as experimental, was not a bad thing, and used it instead to describe the music he was interested in and passionate about. He said: “I have become a listener and the music has become something to hear” (1958, p.g.1).

An audio tour I came across with an interesting performer/audience barrier was located in a shopping mall. Each person involved in this performance was unaware of who else in the mall was listening to the tape, and when they were instructed to work together, the results were very successful. The atmosphere within the mall changed considerably and due to the unusual circumstances, the performance was definitely one of a kind. This type of Site Specific Performance ensured that the audience were involved and gave all types of people the opportunity to take part of such a dramatic experience. Although direct instructions were given, the boundaries were pushed back in that the audience could not just sit, watch and take in the performers on stage but be a part of the act and add to its specified nature.

Works Cited
Cage John, (1958), Experimental Theatre, Accessed Online: http://www.kimcohen.com/sethtexts/artmusictheorytexts/Cage%20Experimental%20Music.pdf
Date Viewed: 09.02.12

Taking Lincoln by foot this week, we hoped to see the city in a new light with the intention of discovering options for a future site for our final performance. Ensuring that we did not become sidetracked from the point of this outing, we were asked to pick a site and to document the journey there and back, making certain we came back a different way to the way in which we got there. As documentation, my group and I took pictures of moments we felt were significant to our journey.

Although the most obvious site in Lincoln to visit is the Cathedral, we did not purposely decide to end up there. After meeting as a group just once before this session, we were still very open to what we wanted to achieve for this module. Although we all were keen to incorporate an element of Physical Theatre alongside film in one way or another, as for idea of performance and destination, our basket was empty. The feeling was mutual to look for an outdoor space, where we could really come to terms with the site, and working close by the Cathedral was an initial idea of bringing the historical context of the city together with the present day. As the criteria for the module is so broad, and far from what is considered ‘normal theatre’, having an outdoor performance would allow a greater variety of audience, with the hope of attracting someone who has never seen anything like it before, and furthering their knowledge of what should be considered theatre.