________-Safe House-__________ – Page 16 – Where living becomes a performance.

From cowboys in the street to rabbits in the kitchen

Elizabeth Soper / February 24, 2013May 13, 2013 / Performance process, Research

Lone Twin’s performances are public involved, and performances are built on the interaction they have with their audiences and the reactions they get from them. Gary Winters and Gregg Whelan, who were the founders of Lone Twin, are not actors, and do not use acting in their work, they perform as themselves. When discussing their work, Gregg spoke; “So it’s not at all an actorly thing; it’s just a reporting back, and trying to give it some space.” ((Williams, David and Carl Lavery (2011) Good Luck Everybody: Lone Twin: Journeys, Performances, Conversations, Wales: Cambrian Printers)). This is something I have mentioned before that I will be doing – not acting as if I am a rabbit, but just being myself in a rabbit costume.

One of their performances called ‘Totem’ involved them dressed as cowboys carrying a full sized telegraph pole in a straight line through the city of Colchester. Some members of the public would stop and ask them what they were doing and others would even join in and help them carry it for a while. Their work includes the public and that helps them structure their performances: “The first times that it happened people were suddenly, without any framing of it, inside the piece, doing what it was we were doing.” ((Williams, David and Carl Lavery (2011) Good Luck Everybody: Lone Twin: Journeys, Performances, Conversations, Wales: Cambrian Printers)). The notion of interacting with the audience, their lives and their stories over a cup of tea in the kitchen while dressed as a rabbit I think will be very interesting to see how they actually do respond.

Pinocchio Pipenose Household Dilemma

Another idea that could be incorporated is having some sort of installation piece, which would be interesting as some of my ideas were to completely change the purpose of the space, which is the concept of installation art. Paul McCarthy’s works show the way he used fairy tale like characters and changed how they are viewed, making them absurd and shocking. One example would be in 1994 when he dressed in a Pinocchio costume with a mask and a long plastic nose attached to it, in a house like setting. In the piece he uses the nose to blow bubbles in a bowl of ketchup and force feeds chocolate spread through another Pinocchio nose and then covers himself in it. It is something to be watched and doesn’t include interaction with audience members. The idea of using fairy tale characters works well with my performance as my idea came from The White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland. Perhaps creating something absurd could also work as the dislocation of having a giant rabbit in a kitchen is initially quite surprising and this concept could be played around with.

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McCarthy, Paul (1994) Pinocchio Pipenose Household Dilemma, Online: “http://www.mutualart.com/Artwork/Pinocchio-Pipenose-Household-Dilemma/7CACBC3406FEFD05” (accessed: 24 February 2013)

Safe House

Lizzy Hayes / February 23, 2013May 10, 2013 / CCTV, Home, Rooms, Uncategorized

In getting a ticket for our performance our audience members fall subject to a false sense of security- they are welcome in the house because we have allowed them to be there but we do not actually live there. Is it really our home to invite them into? Are they really welcome? And are they really safe?

When I think of a ‘safe house’ I think of a discreet property that houses an occupant who needs to be kept safe from something or one. It is a temporary base for a hidden person. It is structurally a house, but very rarely a home, just as our property is, blending in nicely with the surrounding area.

Image by Jozey Wade 2013

In my experience of fictional ‘safe houses’ on television or in film the houses are very rarely safe and are often infiltrated by the enemy. While this is obviously for entertainment purposes the characters responsible for the victim are left shocked and confused as to how anyone could have seen past their high security system. But the answer is clear to me: a safe house is only as safe as or maybe even less safe than any other house on the street: it is just as easy to break into, just as likely to be burgled and because of its ‘secret’ resident, a much higher target of crime.

It is also easy to assume that those kept in safe houses are there under the protection of the law: someone in danger, someone on parole, someone whose identity is too precious to be introducing themselves to their neighbours without an alias. However, research has shown that ‘safe houses’ are often used against the legal system for other purposes. Human smuggling and trafficking for example require safe houses in which illegal migrants can be housed without being discovered. Leman and Jansses state that in some countries “large smuggling networks in which the victims have a long way to travel need safe houses to conduct their business.” (( Leman, J, & Jansses, S “The Various ‘Safe’-House Profiles in East-European Human Smuggling and Trafficking.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies Vol. 33, No. 8, November 2007, pp. 1380 )). It has been found that in these situations the safe houses may not only be used for temporary accommodation, but as a prison in which the migrants are held as hostage while their families are forced to pay more money for their safety or a brothel like establishment. Statistics suggest “that a minimum of 50 percent and upward of 80 percent of human trafficking victims worldwide are women (U.S. Department of State 2005; U.S. Department of State 2010). Seventy percent of female victims are trafficked into the sex trade…” (( Perdue, T, Williamson, C, Billings, M, Schart, J, & Boston-Gromer, R 2011, ‘In the Matter of Human Trafficking in Ohio: The Pursuit for Justice Continues’, Women’s Policy Journal Of Harvard, 8, pp. 4, viewed 17 April 2013. )).

While this statistic is disturbing, it appears that one room in our house has accidentally created a performance that could, when paired with the title of our piece, have a deeper meaning than was previously intended. The set up of the sexual element of the bedroom piece could easily represent not only a sex slave in terms of a BDSM arrangement but also a hostage situation in which a woman kept as a sex slave in a ‘safe house’.

While the bedroom is perhaps the most controversial room in our house, I’m not sure our audience will feel safe in the hostile living room environment or the peculiar child’s room environment either, especially considering that the technology normally used for a persons security is being used to scrutinise their every move.

The Art of the Eavesdropper

Lauren Simpson / February 23, 2013May 8, 2013 / CCTV, Performance process

It is proposed that the ‘eavesdropper, perhaps, would be the auditory equivalent of the voyeur’ ((Fitzgerald in Iddon, Martin (2010) “Plato’s Chamber of Secrets On Eavesdropping and Truth(s)”, Performance Research, Vol 15, Issue 3 p. 6-10)). The voyeur seems to be a common theme emerging through our performance so it would be nice to extend that theme to listening. Making it clear to the audience that they are not only being watched but also heard in specific rooms could be interesting. They would act differently in those rooms to how they would when they think there is no surveillance e.g. the bathroom and toilet.

The act of ‘listening in’ implies that there is something to overhear. So, ‘to be, listening, is to be aware that there is a secret:’ ((Iddon, Martin (2010) “Plato’s Chamber of Secrets On Eavesdropping and Truth(s)”, Performance Research, Vol 15, Issue 3 p. 6-10)). This implies a breach of privacy, which is something we would have to take into consideration with our performance. The audience would probably have to be made slightly mindful that the CCTV is in operation. This doesn’t have to be a hindrance to performance, however. We could make them slightly knowledgeable without overdoing it, in the hope that they forget about the cameras during the performance. Or, we can make them too aware and monitor their reactions. A couple of ways to do this could be put a poster of Banksy’s iconic image in the waiting area for them to subconsciously notice.

http://www.adambowie.com/weblog/archive/2008_04.html (accessed 23/02/13)

Another possibility is to highlight the CCTV camera in every room. This could be done with signs or lights. It could be as obvious as arrows pointing towards the camera or just subtle signs.

http://snippits-and-slappits.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/top-11-ways-big-brother-or-sister-loves.html (accessed 23/02/13)

This idea could spark many reactions depending on the audience member, which will mean every performance is radically different. We won’t know until the performance happens.

Cot room- my first steps

Angela Michelle Graham / February 22, 2013May 10, 2013 / Rooms

My initial reaction to the cot room was that it was creepy, purely due to my prior knowledge of the use of the space. The room doesn’t have heating, the wall papers peeling and there is only a cot inside, not forgetting the mould, I fear for my health. How long does it take for black mould to kill you?

The thought of anyone, let alone a child, being expected to live in this space (I wouldn’t call it a bedroom) is despicable. This led me to thinking about how our bedrooms are our sanctuary as Heathcote dictates “of all the rooms in our house, it remains the most intimate, the most private and the most precious” ((Heathcote, Edwin. (2012). The meaning of home. London, Frances Lincoln Ltd.)) but when we’re children this isn’t true as our parents come and go as they please, they choose the furniture, and they choose what’s no longer wanted. The room isn’t the child’s, but what the parent decides it’s going to be, pink for a girl, blue for a boy, dinosaurs, princesses or spaceships, most of this is chosen before the child is even born, so how can they call it their own?

I was lead to consider how a child makes their own spaces, yes, that’s right I made my own den in the cot room. I began by simply lying beneath the cot but it felt too exposed I felt more trapped than hidden, almost imprisoned which linked well with the houses purpose. But not the sense I was aiming for so I decided to hide more thoroughly (well if I was a child I’d believe I was better hidden) I achieved this by putting a bed sheet over the crib and shimmying, not very elegantly, back underneath and all of a sudden it was a different atmosphere as if I couldn’t see out they couldn’t see in. I felt shielded protected and with just my feet poking out,

hidden as if I had gathered some power from this place which I had created. I remember having that same feeling when I was young after putting four chairs into a square and stealing the bedding off of my parent’s bed to cover it. They don’t know if your there or if you’ve left this den for them to discover as people realised when entering the cot room, as I managed to pull my feet under the crib with me (which was surprisingly comfortable), people were then unsure as to whether I had left or not. I let them know by grabbing their ankles, muhahahahaha; Conan was wise and asked from the door if I was still within my room.

After my return to the real world from my den I looked back on my initial feelings of being trapped within the cot and based on its and the rooms aesthetics it made me think of prison. It made me think of how people within their cells try to claim it as their own, even though it very much isn’t, this can be linked to children and when they make dens. I also thought children and prisoners linked through the fact they are both trapped. A child in the sense this is their family and they are to remain with them till they are old enough to look after themselves (except in extreme circumstances). However for prisoners it is a form of punishment in order to act as a deterrent for future bad behaviour, but after reading John Podmore’s “Out of sight, out of mind Why Britain’s prisons are failing.” ((Podmore, J. (2012) Out of sight, out of mind Why Britain’s prisons are failing. London: Biteback Publishing Ltd.))

After reading this I realised this isn’t always the case and that some criminals become complacent in prison, even continuing their illicit activities from behind bars, their complacency however is similar to that of most abused and neglected children. These children don’t accept what is happening is wrong and put their heads down and do their “time” without complaint, even twisted into believing they deserve it. And I wonder could we force are audience to feel trapped? Force them into thinking if their quiet and do as their told they’ll leave without any harm done to them? Put them in a place of stress forcing them out of their comfort zones and into the mode of what the house is used for, pretending to be a house of neglect and abuse?

Human Space? Heart Space?…..or rather OUR Space!

Samuel Davis / February 22, 2013April 8, 2013 / Documentation, Home, Research, Rooms, West Parade

“So we ask, what does homeliness mean and how is it created?” ((Bollnow, O.F (2011) “Human Space” London: Hyphen Press p.142.))

This is an interesting thought, how does one create homeliness? If we apply this notion to the house on West Parade, we can look at the aesthetic and objects of the house. Most room’s contain furniture to identify the use of each space (i.e. bed = bedroom, sofa = living room) however would these room’s still create that sense of homeliness without the furniture? In the living room we have experimented with the feel of the room, simply by moving the sofas into different positions has made us feel more relaxed and made the room more homely.

Keeping the doors shut moves onto another factor that adds to the feeling of homeliness, warmth. Feeling cold instantly changes the mood and feel of a room, I think this is perhaps why the ‘cot room’ creates the opposite feeling of homeliness as there is no radiator meaning it is always cold which makes people feel uneasy. ‘What does homeliness mean?’ – Personally, I think it is a dwelling in which you can feel comfortable, relax and be yourself. However, I think this is only possible if the environment can totally put the individual at ease. “Warmth, seclusion, size, security, stability, history and objects” ((Bollnow, O.F (2011) “Human Space” London: Hyphen Press p.144.)) are all factors that have the potential to make a space feel homely. It is these factors that we want to weaken to challenge the notion of home and make the audience distinctly aware that this space is not a home.

“One must also be able to see that the room has been lovingly cared for. But even though disorder and neglect have a disquieting effect, an excess of orderliness is also oppressive, because one is afraid of disturbing the order. The room must also show that it is lived in, and this means that certain signs of life – a book that has been laid aside, work that has been begun – should be recognizable in it.” ((Bollnow, O.F (2011) “Human Space” London: Hyphen Press p.144.))

This stimulus is at the very heart of what our group intend to create as we plan to play on the fact that a room should be lived in by placing stacks of empty pizza boxes and alcohol bottles all around the room.

The living room of the house on West Parade showing pizza boxes, beer bottles and other materials. Photograph by Sam Davis. (Please click on the picture to view the Living Room page to learn more about our performance ideas)

Using this as an extreme of a home that has been lived in, will subvert the audiences thinking of how a home should be presented and feel. The living rooms aesthetics already provide a contrast to the belief that a home should be cared for, the wallpaper is stained and peeling.

Creating surroundings that show they have been cared for and lived in will always be artificial in a performance. This is typified from the history and the use of West Parade house as it is set up to represent a certain dynamic. However our space can be changed and moulded to present a different home artifice. An artifice that says: “Everything looks okay on the surface, but is it ?”

Photograph from Human Space book cover. ((Bollnow, O. (2013) Human Space. [image online] Available at: http://www.mottodistribution.com/shop/publishers/hyphen-press/human-space.html [Accessed: 22nd February 2013].))