Site specific performance has given me the opportunity to explore material which would be futile if transformed to a black box studio or stage. To explore and create something without the theatrical limitations or instant audience preconceptions provides you with a plain, empty foundation for discovery.
“The presence of an audience is central to the definition of theatre, and the twentieth century saw an explosion of interest in the audience’s role among experimental theatre practitioners” (( Freshwater, Helen Theatre and Audience 2009, London: Palgrave Macmillan). ))
The kitchen provided me with a range of ideas which to begin with were instantly based around visualising images food and consumption. Audience preconceptions about kitchens and mine as performer were hard to stem away from. This challenging lane of thought however provoked me in to thinking about a kitchen were control was restricted or lost. I intended to remove this element of socialising which had been part of a kitchen’s heritage for centuries. I had to make audience respond to the kitchen differently. Going against the norm was a tricky performance idea when the site was set up so appropriately for social engagement and ease. This focus on the lack of control forced me to think about a kitchens purpose and function.
The sounds of a kitchen are what users find familiar. These audio ideas were created through simple experimentation with basic kitchen objects and creating the sounds of different aspects simultaneously. These basic ideas stemmed towards the final result and post production of these sounds. Listening to familiar noises on an audio device initiated a performance element instantly, focused around your senses. My sound manipulation coincided with the element of disorder to create an audio performance that consisted of familiar kitchen site noises collaborated, distorted and edited together to create an sense of digestion and lack of order. To make the listening more performative, features were added to the set to increase the feel of manipulated digestion and consumption.
Audiences’ responses to the soundscape varied. Due to the added sensory features and my chaotic consumption, audiences were forced to visualise the site with the added soundtrack to the performance. The headphones in most cases disabled the audience to converse, leaving the performance to be an individual encounter. Only you know what your body does, and it’s something that is rarely spoken about and so to graphically hear elements of contrasting audio sound clips reinforced the lack of control theme which was evident in my initial planning. Audience members tend to stare at me, as if I was an animal in a zoo, enhanced by the torches this made me feel like an object on display, a cog in a machine that wasn’t working properly, something unreal or dysfunctional. It was very interesting to see that some people had confidence when exploring the jars full of various rotted food as others were tense, anxious, and claustrophobic.
(All pictures taken by myself on 2/5/13 Documentation)
The ability to communicate your message without the norm of speech enabled this performance to become a definite sensory performance. To use senses to transfer messages creates specific independent responses. The reaction to sound, smell and sight vary heavily to those of speech. This excited me as a performer because you were able to engage with them visually, as if they were performing. For the audience/performer shift to be present throughout the performance made the piece heavily link back to a kitchens normal purpose, yet simultaneously taking it out of its original context.
After spending a couple months working on the estate agent idea, the concept of the performance changed – as we could not come up with a name for our performance, when it was finally decided, everything changed, mostly for me. The new concept was called Safehouse – for most of the rooms in the house, this did not affect them, but primarily for me and the CCTV room it did. I had to change my performance to fit accordingly, now I was a ‘spymaster’ in charge of the whole Safehouse, my room no longer needed to look welcoming, so the ‘inspirational’ poster idea was out.
This idea to me was more exciting than the estate agent plan, as soon as I was aware of the change I had many different ideas about what I could do, and where I could go with this. The first thing I did was to get myself familiar with the perception of a spy, I watched two films in particular, the first being called Safehouse –
In this film, Ryan Reynolds plays the ‘housekeeper’ which is essentially what my role would be, the film is American, and with it are the American spies which in this case are the CIA. According to this film, being the ‘housekeeper’ of a safehouse is a small task, assigned to young, inexperienced agents, which explains why the term ‘housekeeper’ is used. On the other hand, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy;
is a film about British espionage, the safehouse used within the films plot, is a place not only to keep from being detected, but is used to pass along secret information, a woman lives there under a pretence that it is her home in order to avoid detection, and in a way she is the ‘spymaster’ or ‘housekeeper’ of that particular safehouse.
These two film versions of the type of character I will perform are completely different in a sense that one is for certain an agent/spy, whilst the other is most likely a civilian. At the same time, both of these characters are similar in their inexperience which is something that I will infact be, although I will be performing it differently in the sense that I want to appear experienced and professional to the audience, so they will believe as much of it as possible.
The dictionary defines the term safehouse as – “a dwelling or building whose conventional appearance makes it a safe or inconspicuous place for hiding, taking refuge, or carrying on clandestine activities” (((2013), Dictionary.com, Online: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/safe+house (accessed: 12 May 2013).)) In keeping with this point, we decided to apply a password/passphrase to the performance; we would give out four different passwords/passphrases to the audience members for each of the four days we were performing. I was told if someone forgot the password/passphrase or said it incorrectly, I would not let them inside, just shut the door in their face. I had to rewrite a new script and a new script for the short video we would be showing the audience, primarily discussing issues such as safety and how they should conduct themselves in the house.
In regards to costume and set design, the term I would use to describe it as a whole – minimalistic, strip everything down to the bare minimum, a spy would have no need for unnecessary objects cluttering up their room, and I wanted to look organised and appear to know what I’m doing. But I am aiming to make the room devoid all any personality, it will be as if I have just walked in a put some things on the desk, and if necessary, will be able to leave in a second if I have to. I need to make sure the audience know that my life in the house is temporary, this is not my home – it is my job. The audience will feel uncomfortable and unsafe in my presence, which is to set up how they should be feeling for the majority of time around the house, “Thus the dwelling must not only express an individual, but at the same time reflect a long past, if it is to give us a feeling of security and stability in life”. ((Bollnow, Otto (2011), Human Space, Hyphen Press, P.145))
Deciding what to do with my space was the hardest part of the whole process, unlike most of the other rooms and their inhabitants, I didn’t have a game plan as such, which I think came from my initial dislike of the room. I had written down ten impressions I had of the room from the first day, clearly expressing what I felt whenever I was left alone in that room –
Isolated
I hate waiting
Sat in silence
Let your standards go…
Random rage
Mindless banality
Separated from the rest
The room where nothing happens…
This room is not interesting!
The only truthful room.
The only observation I took that day was the last point – the waiting room is the only truthful room. It is the only room in the house that is not a façade Knowing this, I felt like I could only use the room for its intended purpose, it brought out the most inspiration in me. It would have to be something that felt corporate; it couldn’t feel like part of the home, due to how it was furnished – “An austere office room with its functional furniture does not have a homelike effect and is not intended to do so, because it is intended to put one in the mood for concentrated work. The furniture must fill the space in such a way that the impression is neither of emptiness nor of overcrowding” ((Bollnow, Otto (2011), Human Space, Hyphen Press, P.144))
I was given the idea that I could perform under the pretence of an estate agent – my room to be the office where I give the audience background information of the property, and the rest of their experience in the house would be a ‘tour’ of the house. This idea resonated with me instantly, it gave me new inspiration, like the room I despised finally made sense, and I started to become excited to work on it, rather that loathing it. Now that I was working with the rooms aesthetics rather than against it, gave me more ideas on how it could be used, and how it would be perceived by the audience, I wrote a rough script on how exactly the estate agent idea could possibly work, starting with the audience knocking on the front door, I answer it, and it proceeds from there. I had a few ideas about how I could change up the furniture in the room, so it could be perceived as both corporate, but also welcoming at the same time:
To make the room seem less bare and therefore more personable, I thought ‘inspirational’ posters in bright eye-catching colours would be a fitting substitute. On the other hand, if the poster concept did not work, I thought possibly a large mirror, or several small mirrors would add an interesting aspect to the space as it makes a room seem larger or “a kind of alternative window, not only to the outside world but on the interior”. ((Heathcoate, Edwin, (2012), the Meaning of Home, London: Frances Lincoln Ltd, P.135.))
My role would be the initiator – the person who introduces the audience to the whole performance, I would in theory be setting up what is to come, the ‘inspirational’ posters would have hints as to what the other rooms performances would be, for example – for the kitchen, the poster’s artwork was of a steaming cup of tea accompanied by rabbit ears – these aspects were not so subtle, yet from an audiences point of view would be completely unexplainable until they saw the kitchen performance.
After my ten minutes of performing, I would lead the audience out, and subject to further decisions, I would guide them either upstairs to Louise, or into the living room/cupboard room.
For the first two nights of our performance my role was to be a curator of my installation pieces as well as a guide telling the audience members which room to go to next. However, as I was on the landing at all times it meant that people didn’t feel free to explore the space or express opinions. This was especially true for the toilet room as even though I asked each audience member if they wanted to explore the room, only two did so.
As an experiment, on the third night I agreed with the performers in the other rooms that I would hide, mostly in the CCTV room, and observe how the audience reacted to the installations without being watched or feeling coerced. This had very encouraging results, with verbal responses to both installations replacing the silences of the first nights, and every audience member looking around the toilet installation.
A Reflection of Invisible Rituals – Video Performance/Installation
My final video consisted of six different rituals, of around two minutes each, played on an infinite loop. The order of the videos came from looking at everyday lives and the order in which people tend to do these actions; cleansing (wiping my face), drying (talcum powder), grooming (brushing hair), moisturising, daydreaming (looking into the camera) and writing in a diary (writing on a mirror). I also put a different twist on all of the videos in order to make the audience think about those actions in a different light.
Above: My final performance video. ((Louise Peason (2013) Louise’s Site Specific performance video. Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAwnDoNSu-A (Accessed: 12th May 2013). ))
For the cleansing, grooming and moisturising videos I tried to slow down or extend the usual way in which we would perform these actions, turning something we would do in under ten seconds, into an action extending to two minutes. This was similar for the drying, day-dreaming and writing in a diary, but as an alternative to extending the length of the ritual I altered the way in which I performed them. Instead of using talcum powder in the usual way, I poured it slowly over my feet until I was eventually covered with powder and stepped out of the frame, leaving a shadow where my feet had been. Inspired by Marina Abramovic and the story of Orpheus and Eurydice my daydreaming video comprised of me staring into the camera, as opposed to a spot in the distance, and ‘snapping out’ of the day-dream when I suddenly turn to look behind me.
For my final video I played with the idea of mirror writing (a style of writing that is also sometimes used for secret messages, like in a diary) as when reflected the backwards writing will actually read forwards. This was an interesting video to observe reactions to, to see if audience members figured out that the writing was actually created backwards.
For my set up of this installation I had intended the mirror to face the staircase so that the audience could see themselves as they came up the stairs, but due to health and safety restrictions, as well as the mirror not being free-standing, I decided to hang the mirror on the wall at a 90° angle to the stairs. This did mean that it was safer for my video monitor and stand as they were further into the landing, rather than being close to the top of the stairs. To the wall with the mirror on it I added a short description of the installation and a backwards clock to add to the theme of reflections and altering the perspective of time in which we perform the rituals. In addition it had a practical purpose, giving me a clock to keep track of where the audience members should be at particular times.
Top Left: The video monitor from the top of the stairs. ((Pearson, Louise (2013) Video Installation [Photograph]. ))
Top Right: The audience’s view of the monitor through the mirror. ((Pearson, Louise (2013) Audience’s perspective [Photograph]. ))
Below: My installation description. ((Pearson, Louise (2013) Video description [Photograph]. ))
Reactions to my video varied, with many responses that I hadn’t anticipated. An interesting comment was that my video might be a live stream of me in a different house and if they asked a question then I might respond. There were also some responses to my mirror writing with people exclaiming “she’s writing backwards on a mirror, in a mirror!” which was very satisfying as I was relieved that people understood the complexity of that clip. The most satisfying reaction to my video was in response to the hair brushing clip, when one audience member likened it to the horror film The Ring which used similar videos of everyday activities just before the girl crawls out of the screen. The audience member feigned fear that he would die in seven days or that I would come out the screen to attack them. This reaction was something I had not considered, having never watched The Ring. It was fascinating to see such a diverse range of reactions to my video, each observer’s own imagination or experiences shaping their interpretations.
If I was to ever re-film this installation or perform in the house again I would create a longer video, either by adding new rituals to it, or extending the existing videos as (due to the ten minute performances in each room) when audience members left the different rooms they always ended up seeing the same clips. I would also find a more effective way of covering my monitor stand as the sheet which covered it didn’t give a very neat finish, although it did serve the purpose effectively of hiding the DVD player and all the wiring. If I could, I would still like to try having the mirror facing the stairs rather than at an angle so that the full effect can be experienced of discovering the installation immediately when coming up the stairs. This would be useful as some audience members did not understand that the video is to be viewed through the mirror and instead stood to the side of the monitor observing it from the front. In terms of the video content I would try to create a higher quality video, experimenting even further with the speed and style of my movements as well as controlling the brightness and focus of my videos which automatically refocused at inconvenient points. I would want to re-film my talcum powder clip as the colour of the carpet was quite distracting and did not match the neutral tones of the other clips.
Life Beyond the Window – Installation
My final installation piece comprised of 50 individual sheets of observations which were photocopied several times. The reason I chose to do this rather than write an entire room’s worth of observations is the amount of time it takes to write a single sheet of A4 paper; the 50 sheets took an exceptionally long time to write by hand but when stuck up covered less than half of the narrow wall. However, the result of sticking up the large number of sheets to the walls, ceiling and both sides of the door was an impressive installation, and unless closely inspected, it was hard to tell that each page was not individual.
Left: Low angle of installation ((Pearson, Louise (2013) Low angle of the Installation [Photograph]. ))
Right: Toilet wall ((Pearson,Louise (2013) Toilet wall [Photograph]. ))
I attached a description of the installation to the door, and set the engaged/vacant sign to ‘engage’ as a subtle message to the audience to engage with the installation rather than become introverted, as is usually the case when one uses this room. I also left the light on and the door wide open so that it could be seen by people coming up the stairs.
Above: My toilet installation description ((Pearson, Louise (2013) Installation description [Photograph]. ))
Below: Engage sign ((Pearson, Louise (2013) Engage [Photograph]. ))
During the performance it was difficult to get any audible responses to this installation but over the CCTV cameras it could be seen that the toilet installation was more interesting to some audience members than the video performance; when I wasn’t on the landing the toilet room was actually the first place most audience members were drawn to. My fellow performers complimented me on how impressive the installation was and they were appreciative of having something interesting to read when they had to use the facilities.
Above: A panorama of my toilet installation. ((Louise Pearson (2013) Louise’s Installation Panorama. Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nx2rW0kDhYE (Accessed: 12th May 2013). ))
If I was to do this again I would dedicate much more time to generating the observations so that the room could be filled with unique pages, thus making it even more impressive. I would also use different sizes, types and colours of paper in order to make the final project look more visually appealing. The variation in size would create an easier way of ‘wall-papering’ the odd shapes and pipes on the walls.
The house where we are doing our Site Specific performance and the home I grew up in have certain similarities so it was slightly unnerving walking up to the landing for the first time, as it felt strangely familiar, especially the layout of the upstairs rooms which sparked a lot of childhood memories.
Above: My landing observations. ((Pearson, Louise (2013) Landing Observations [Photograph]. ))
I spent some time exploring the landing in detail and recorded my observations from different positions in the room, intrigued to see how the changing perspectives influenced my perception of the space. I also quickly sketched the layout of the landing and added in ideas for performances that could be staged within this small area.
The thing that struck me most is that the landing is almost a non-place (it is not a room per se as it has no function other than as a place to pass through) which makes it feel terribly lonely. I toyed with idea of somehow making the landing into a real room, perhaps a room in miniature or like a small flat with bits from every room. This would give a purpose to the previously dead space whilst inverting the idea of what a landing should be.
The landing is also a gateway area for anyone walking up the stairs yet is not a place where people linger for long. Another idea could be to have a gatekeeper/guide at the top of the stairs who would direct the audience around the upstairs rooms or even give them a choice in where they want to go, by giving clues as to what is behind the closed doors.
I thought about using the nails in the walls to hang pictures or photographs to make the room more homely; these might be of our own or staged families. It would also be interesting to hang a mirror within a picture frame to encourage the audience to reflect on their own homes and families.
Leading on from my idea of turning the landing into a room, I decided to try decorating the space as if it was a living room to see firstly if there was enough space for any seating and secondly, to see whether it inspired any performance ideas. Luckily there was just enough room to create a make-shift sofa and chair though it did make moving around the landing awkward for the other performers.
I began to devise a narrative about the history of the house, as well as the etymology of words such as landing and stairs. I then considered the daily rituals which we perform without realising their significance. I was inspired by Edwin Heathcote’s The Meaning of Home (2012) where he talks about mini-rituals such as ‘opening the [front]door… welcomed in the sun and light of the new day’ ((Heathcote, E (2012) The Meaning of Home. London: Frances Lincoln. )) which led me to think about the daily rituals we all carry out, such as brushing our hair, which I know many people perform in the same order every day without thinking, and therefore ritualising it.
However, these ideas were short-lived as it felt wrong to try and disguise the landing as another room rather than explore its own features. I decided to scrap the living room idea, but I did still want to incorporate the rituals somehow.
Left: Chair ((Pearson, Louise (2013) Chair [Photograph]. ))
Right: Sofa side view ((Pearson, Louise (2013) Sofa side [Photograph]. ))
As a contrast to my first idea, I next removed all the extraneous objects from the landing and focused on the movement that occurs within the space and began creating a new performance concept. My plan was to get the audience to play a game, where they had to navigate around the landing only using parts of the floor which would never usually be stood on. In practise it was very difficult to explain the rules and aim of the game, especially in view of the small size of the landing, which would be very easy to cross.
I then began looking at ways of performing which required minimal movement; I played with the idea of rituals again, and sat in front of a mirror on the landing brushing my hair to see if it gave me any ideas. Performing different daily rituals came to mind, but unless I explained them, it didn’t make sense for me to be performing them on the landing; surely rituals such as brushing my hair would be done in the bedroom? So I turned to video art to see if that could produce the effect I wanted while not appearing out of place.
For the video I filmed half hour clips of myself performing a variety of ritualised activities, which I then played on my laptop but which could only be viewed through a mirror placed opposite it. The idea was that the video would become an installation piece set out so that when an audience member walks up the stairs they would first see themselves in the mirror and would then need to position themselves directly behind a monitor (which is playing my video) in order to see it through the mirror. I was inspired to display my video in this way by the film 33 x Around the Sun which is ‘a dreamlike journey into a world where nothing is quite what it seems’. ((Flamin (2005) 33 x Around the Sun, Available at: http://flamin.filmlondon.org.uk/showcase/assets/showcase_items/33_x_around_the_sun (Accessed: 9th May 2013). )) In one scene in a cafe, the beginning is filmed through a mirror, which is eventually revealed during the scene. The idea of not knowing whether a film clip is shot through a mirror or not fascinates me as it creates an Alice Through the Looking Glass perspective once it is revealed.
I was also inspired by Marina Abramovic’s The Artist is Present in which she sits unmoving across from a chair in which audience members may sit and share a moment of contemplation with her.
Above: Background information on Abramovic’s performance at MoMA. ((MoMAvideos (2010) Marina Abramović: Live at MoMA. Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GD5PBK_Bto (Accessed: 9th May 2013). ))
This inspired one clip of my rituals video in which I watch the camera for an extended period of time as a representation of daydreaming, where our eyes are often fixed on a distant point. Though the clips themselves worked well as an endurance piece of film, I believed they were too long for audience members to appreciate the aim of my piece. Consequently I cut my clips first down to 10 minute segments, then finally to a 12 minute complete video with 6 clips of around 2 minutes each, playing on an infinite loop. This meant that audience members who would only be on the landing for a short amount of time would be able to see at least two or three clips.
Stairs
My original idea for the stairs was to number each stair, and to have a fact on the wall which related to that number either to do with the house, the street or about our group of performers. Though this was interesting for some numbers, many of them were uninteresting facts merely acting as fillers.
I then moved on to researching stories involving stairs such as the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice and the Biblical stories of Jacob’s Ladder and when the Queen of Sheba visits Solomon. Though none of these ideas led to any final performance ideas, I did use some of their aspects in my video performance. In both the Biblical and Ancient Greek stories there is a lyre or harp involved which led to the inspiration of my clay model. I also took influence from the ‘don’t look back’ aspect of Orpheus’ story as well as the Biblical tale of Lott’s wife, both of whom ignored the warnings given and turned to look back. In the clip inspired by Marina Abramovic, at the end I turn to see what’s behind me as a subtle indicator to my research into these ancient stories.
Toilet Room
My original idea for the toilet room was to create an anonymous open canvas upon which audience members could leave their messages and memories of home. I also prepared a list of questions that I would ask the other performers, about their ideas or memories of home. Though this did work well as an idea, it would have been time-consuming for all of the performers so I decided to focus on creating an installation through all of my own work.
After reading Georges Perec’s An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris I was inspired to do my own observations of everyday life, which I would then stick up all over the toilet room walls. In this way I would bring the outside world into the private area of the toilet room, subverting the inward-thinking nature of the room.
