In the words of Guy Debord, a drift is a journey through a town or city in which a person would “drop their usual motives for movement and action, their relations, their work and leisure activities, and let themselves be drawn by the attractions of the terrain and the encounters they find there” (Govan, 2007, p. 141). That is exactly the case for the drifts that we as a class underwent. By allowing ourselves to become a blank canvas for the environment around us to paint, we discovered more about the routes we take on our daily routines.
Below is a video-presentation introducing how to start your own drift and some of the discoveries I made on my most recent drift.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76ydfd0neZU
I invite anyone to tell of the discoveries they made on a drift or indeed to post their own video presentations below.
“Look for things that create light”
This question was asked of me by an anonymous class member to complete on a drift.
Considering it, I decided to carry out my drift at night, I thought that it would be interesting to see how many unusual lights that I could find.
As performers, we are often familiar with different ‘lighting’ on stage. This ‘artistic’ lighting is seen as skillful and creative, however, do we ever notice the accidental beauty of street lighting? Or the way a car light catches on a road sign and makes it shine like the moon? This was the challenge that I took upon myself, to find lighting that was accidentally beautiful and contrast it with that which is purposefully attractive. The city of Lincoln was completely changed by noticing these lights. Even parts of the city that might look ordinary or plain in the daytime were lit in such a way that they became intriguing and sublime.
Below I have added a slide show of pictures that I took to represent some of the fabulous scenes that I came across. On the drift I used a coin to determine which route I took which resulted in some rather solitary and unusual places. The slideshow starts at the end of my drift and rewinds to the beginning. I have depicted the drift in reverse to show the journey in a different perspective, I felt that the whole experience was abnormal and even slightly haunting at times and so I wanted to convey this through the slideshow by using music and transitions.
The original theme set for our piece, as our set was undecided was that of ‘waiting.’ This daily occurrence and task of waiting is something as seen as an inconvience and not noted in a positive light. Shakespeare expressed his hatred for the ardious task of waiting ‘ I will wait, though waiting so be hell’ I began to explore the prospect of waiting by performing simple edits to my process of when I had to wait. Looking around and seeing something before unnoticed, overhearing somebody’s conversation and being educated on a different opinion or story, began to become regular occurrences when I was killing time for a train to arrive, or propped up in a queue for coffee. My mindset of waiting began to change, it made me take the time out to engaged with my surroundings when normally I would have impatiently be consumed with my own thoughts.
The idea of looking around more was explored further in set tasks of drifting. The idea of walking around a familiar place but taking turns I wouldn’t, entering doorways I hadn’t before, walking down unfamiliar streets. These tasks appealed to my inquisitive nature and I found myself captivated in the tasks and the reactions I Received when doing them.
The ten drifting tasks I was set varied from making conversation with a stranger to taking routes at different times in the day. The three tasks I felt that where the highlight of my drift were;
1.) Sit cross-legged in a public place and note people’s reactions
2.) Travel a short distance with you eyes closed
3.) Find secret places in a building
The first I received many confused looks and a buzz of attention from simply changing position, I became very self-conscious and uncomfortable as I noted the amount of looks I was attracting. The idea of self-awareness became drastically heightened and insecurity as my action of sitting down was met with judgmental murmurs and distasteful glances.
The second task, I found the hardest. I had to travel a short distance with my eyes closed, I chose the walk from the LPAC to the bridge next to the library, I got a friend to film and guide me if I was going to hit into anything dangerous! I found again my other senses heightened and my pace slowed down as my steps became tentative, as I was unsure of my surroundings that normally are so familiar. I felt foreign on a route I know so well, simply by removing one of my key senses. When I saw the site for the first time I was hit with such a similar sense of something being so familiar but foreign at the same time. Having seen the grandstand so regularly when I drove into Lincoln, I had never properly explored or admired it. Here is evidence of my eventful unneverying experience walking from the Lpac to the brigde.
The third task I found most intriguing was discovering secret places and stairwells. I chose a place familiar to all of us; the corridors of the LPAC and found without trespassing some hidden corners and doors I had never noticed/found before. I recorded my discoveries even though loosing my voice! And noted the excitement I felt opening doors I had never come across before. The sense were much more alert as I was taken into dark spaces and sight became not my main sense of translating where I was. The explorative vibe I often experienced as a child began to flood back to me and the idea of trespassing in a public building became evident, as the suspense of ‘being caught’ was overwhelming. I applied this notion of surprise and thoroughly searching unfamiliar doorways and stairwells when we got onto our site ‘ The Grandstand’, by discovering a hidden corridor connecting back offices from a regal conference room. In the video below I logged my findings on the site and the explorations I discovered in the Lpac.
The skills and inquisitive confidence I had obtained from these tasks lead me to view the site differently. Not wanting to use obvious spaces and exploring around the site externally.
As group we were sent drifting to do task number 3 “Sensitization” from an extract of ” The handbook of drifting”. We adopted the roles as detectives, as if we were the last humans alive and to find meaning in everything. With a similar belief to Emma Govan et al when discussing The place of the artist that “There is a recognition that a space is not empty but full of meaning.” ((Emma Govan et al,2007,Making a performance ” Devising histories and Contempary practices”,New York: Routledge)) So when we came across this broken Vodka bottle we applied our own interpretations to what we think it would mean and what its purpose of being on that particular place of the floor. Who had dropped it there? Was it thrown in anger, sadness, or inebriation ? The meaning we decided to give this bottle was more like poetic symbolization than literal; The Likely hood that the student ended up as smashed as this bottle is most probable. Or that was the aim they had when buying the drink. Then again it is only Smirnoff Ice and that doesn’t do much but its a start. From observation the head/neck of the bottle is the most damaged part which is generally the most effected part of the body when consumed. It messes with your head, interrupts any logical thought process and can break your view on reality. The location of the bottle we felt could of reflected the consumer themselves as well; lying down, somewhere on campus/halls/accommodation feeling and looking like rubbish… Que the play on words. The headache in morning the is the only evidence of the night before. Really does put into perspective the whole you are what you eat. In this case drink.
During our drifting task in class on Wednesday Kash, Chloe and I were given the task to look for sharp angles. Whilst looking around we noticed that the train barriers coming down created an angle that I had never noticed before. It made me wonder, what else was I missing while walking around Lincoln everyday? It seems I spend half my life living in a town that I’m missing most of! Needless to say when I walked to uni the next day I paid a lot more attention to my surroundings!! Interestingly one place that Michael has picked out for us to look into using for our final performance is the grandstand that you pass when you come into Lincoln. The grandstand seems to be largely igonored and I’m not entirely sure what it is actually used for. I had seen it before he showed it too us but Ive never really paid much attention to it and I’m hoping that over the next few weeks we can look more into thi splace and discover a bit more about it.
