Binaries

We have become very aware that our performance is exceedingly reliant on our audience. This is exceptionally risky as audience members may not be willing to give interesting interaction and therefore our performance will not be fully productive or of value. Because of this we began discussing ideas of how we can become more in control of the performance.

Some of these ideas involved collecting the conversations beforehand and taking these recordings and scripts to create an installation piece. We considered whether we wanted the performance to be passive or interactive, and what were to happen if we were to combine the two: by bringing installation art and conversations in real time together. We then asked questions about our piece, such as how confessional exchange fits into our site, and whether we can alter that aspect.

We were suggested to watch Curious – On The Scent. We loved how the artists controlled the situation and did most of the speaking, and audiences had to listen and watch. We got an eerie feeling from the set and artists actions/speeches, and wondered if we could explore making a domestic setting creepy.

We began analysing the motivations for our performance, seeing how we can adjust our performance. Immediately we identified the focus we have on binaries:

• place/non-place – the site fluctuates between place for the homeless, and non-place for passers by,
• safe/unsafe – safety can relate to the lights we aim to put in the space,
• comfortable/uncomfortable – which appears when we include a sofa and blankets, and friendly conversations,
• trapped/not trapped – passing place means no one considers being trapped,

All of these hold connections to the historical reference of the Stonebow arch where there was once a prison. We explored how a prison is a temporary and involuntary home, and therefore can again fluctuate between a place and non-place for prisoners. A prison also clearly relates to the feelings of being trapped, discomfort, and being unsafe. We began to wonder whether we could bring these binaries into our performance and play with them.

These binaries could be explored through how we perform. Our actions could make an audience member feel uncomfortable, and we could make them feel trapped by asking them to stay in a particular place and leaving them there (this can also relate to the idea of transit and non-place, will they just get up and walk away?).

We can fluctuate between these binaries by making them uncomfortable/trapped/unsafe through one action, and then doing another action that will make them feel comfortable/not trapped/safe again, therefore pushing the boundaries of the binaries.

Thinking about our idea of having a sign, we discussed what could be written on it. An idea we has was a ‘menu’, where we price our tea and biscuits according to what we want out of them. After discussing binaries and watching On The Scent, we decided that the prices could be something like: “1 biscuit = tell us a time when you felt trapped”.

We are going to rehearse ideas with the sofa and other props to discover what could be done with this new idea.