This week’s session saw our group discuss influences for our performance. Our main influence is Marc Auge and his theory on places and non-places. As we discussed further, another possible influence could be Adrian Howells and his performance Salon Adrienne. We saw similarities between his work on confessional exchange with audiences and our developing idea of inviting members of the audience into our newly transformed place and talking to them. With this in mind, we can start to develop a structure for how we will approach interaction with audiences and what we want to get from them (and even what we want them to get from us).
During this session our group also conducted research into our idea; this included doing a survey and getting the public’s opinions (the results of which will assist how we form our final performance, we will ask more people each week), and conducting experiments regarding connections between the public and the archway. To start, we counted the number of people walking through the archway in the space of two minutes. The results we received from this was:
Between 11.56am and 11.58am on Monday 29th February:
66 people walked through the archway heading down the high street
49 people walked through the archway heading up the high street
115 people in total walked through the archway
This information gave us an insight into the mass of people travelling through the archway on a standard weekday. With the numbers being very high for only a two minute period, it left us with no doubt that there will be people walking past our performance and therefore many potential audiences for our piece. We also conducted a sound test for two minutes, as we believed this recording would assist our understanding on how social or unsocial the space under the archways is. The results showed that any conversations were only spoken in transit and there was never anyone who stopped and used the space as a social place to talk. This also supported our theory that the archway is a non-place for the general public and not somewhere where social life is generated. I found the sounds of footsteps very interesting to hear as they echoed around the stone arch, filling the archway with an endless sound of footsteps mixed with distant chatter.
I also gathered a video of the feet of passers-by. This was my favourite form of media to collect as the video showed people not only walking far away from the camera but also walking very close to the camera, showing urgency as well as a feeling of negligence by the public not taking enough time to avoid or even notice the camera.
Later we organised a tour of the Guildhall, which is the building occupying the top of the Stonebow Arch, to learn more about the history of the site (which I voice recorded for reference). We discovered that the building is a council room where council members still meet. Inside there is a bell which is rung for five minutes before each meeting starts. We were curious about the use of the bell being used as a method of summoning and allowing conversation/discussion, we questioned whether this could be incorporated into our performance; this is something we are currently exploring.
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