March 2013 – Page 5

Racing Silence.

Rachel Miller / March 6, 2013May 13, 2013 / The Odds Are Stacked

Mike Pearson states in Why Performance (2011) that ” Performance can enhance public appreciation and understanding” ((Pearson, Mike (2010) Site Specific Performance, London: Palgrave Macmillan)) When discussing our preferred outcome for the performance, the overall decision was about giving the Grandstand it voice back to the community of Lincoln. Therefore i found Pearson’s point very relevant to our site piece as the Grandstand is no longer being used for its original purpose or hardly at all. It is now just merely a site being seen through the window of a car or a caged looking obstacle in the periphery of a drifting civilian. However instead we want to make it a site to be seen and appreciated for its true history and its role in being an important part of Lincolns heritage. As well as identifying the Grandstand as being isolated in terms of where it is situated in relation to such historical buildings as the Cathedral, the building its self can be seen as quite misunderstood.

In relation to past class exercises Myself, Eloise, Emma, Charlie and Kash expressed our interest in resuscitating the Grandstand’s voice through a silent performance but with written opposing themes on post it notes which we placed over our mouths. We stood in front of a projection depicting an old sepia photo from the Lincoln Handicap. This showed a busy scene of the site alive with crowds of people and therefore was the antithesis to our sticky silence. There was one element of a crowd sound which we played to enhance the business of the picture behind us. With neutral faces as we tore each layer of post it note off, each singular word dropped slowly to the ground. Such themes as winning,losing, loud quiet, grief were written in capitals all relating to the feelings and atmosphere of what the spectating audience would of been experiencing and therefore we wanted our audience to think about what those losses were and what was the lasting affects from going to a day at the races. Were any of those themes linked with memories made in that place? Our developing performance we also found related well to Pearson’s statement that ” Performance can provoke questions about the attachment of memory to place” (( Pearson,Mike ( 2011) Why Performancehttp://www.landscape.ac.uk/landscape/documents/eventpapers/toolkit/1whyperformance.pdf Accessed 12/3/2013 )) In particular we wanted to focus on the theme of loss and what it feels like to loose.

As a result from feedback and observation of our performance we found that the way in which the post it notes had been dis guarded on the floor, was quite representative of forgotten lost or thrown away betting and race tickets. Furthermore our interest continued to now focus on loss and what those possible failed gambles on horses did to people and families living in Lincoln at the time and equally now, in a present day betting shop.

Finally we drew our attention to the horses themselves and their voices. As the only living and breathing main purpose of the Grandstand, we considered as they loose a race, how much their passiveness as an animal, fades them into the background and that their experiences and treatment in the space is missing or not even considered accountable.

The Horse as a missing body, the unspoken hero’s of keeping the Grandstand breathing for as long as it did. This leads further to more questions of comparing the difference between the spectators loss from a race, and then the horse/ horses that loose the race.

Taking into consideration that horses have been bearing the weight of he human race for thousands of years apart from animal activist groups possibly and My Little Pony horses their silence has been long lasting however that relationship between the two different species has remained close. Some earlier evidence of this is shown below and proves how the Horse has been a key figure of helping advance technology.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrRUDS1xbNs

Shown above is one of the first moving motion pictures. Created by photographer Eadweard Muybridge in 1878. Called ” Horse ( Occident) trot with sulky) and taken at Palo Alto stock farm in California triggered by a trip wire as the horse galloped down a track past twelve stereoscopic cameras. This short revolutionary film helps to show the beauty and mechanics of the horse itself as a body and what power it emulates. ((Muybridge Eadweard,1878,http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrRUDS1xbNs,Accessed March 6 2013))

However as we run our race through victory and defeat will they continue to run theirs in silence but after our performance who will reign supreme?

T.A.N.K. Part 1 – Museum of Lincolnshire Life

Callum Pepper / March 6, 2013May 10, 2013 / T.A.N.K

Last Wednesday afternoon a group of us ventured up to the Museum of Lincolnshire life to see what information and documents they had on the first tank. On discovering the museum and its interior, it struck me how little I knew about life in Lincolnshire and the history that surrounds Lincoln. The museum itself is a listed former barracks built in the 1857 for the Royal North Lincoln Militia, in its present form, it is a collection of social history that reflects on the culture of Lincolnshire, also featuring a large selection on the areas military history.

The section that intrigued me the most was the First World War and how Lincoln had played a major role in its duration. A small part of the area had been built up like a Trench and that as you walked through you would be stepping back in time witnessing horrors of what Trench warfare would have been like, mannequins lie on the tops of the trenches injured or trying to get to cover, barbed wire stringed across the tops, even a soundscape of a battle echoed through the passage and the sense that death could been only a footstep away. Previous research that I had found indicated that the area of West Common, which is across from the Grandstand had been used to practise digging Trenches, handfuls of men craving their way through the earth, changing the landscape of the area, making their mark.

The main aspect of what we had come to see was located in the Transport area, The Tank. During 1915 the Landship Committee had decided that a new weapon was needed for the war, to conquer trench warfare. They commission William Tritton, William Rigby and Major Wilson of the war cabinet to come up with a design and that Fosters of Lincoln (owned by William Tritton) where to build a ‘Landship’.

On September 22nd 1915, William Tritton sent this famous telegram to the Admiralty.

“New arrival by tritton out of pressed plate STOP

Light in weight but very strong STOP

All doing well Thank you STOP

Proud parents” ((http://www.friends-of-the-lincoln-tank.co.uk/4.html,accessed 5th March 2013))

Little Willie was born.

Little Willie would change the face of warfare forever…….

Researching The Site – Part II

Jordan Benjamin Holland / March 5, 2013May 12, 2013 / Personal Posts

After discovering that the Common was used to test Military Aircraft, I decided to use the remainder of my time at the Lincolnshire Archives to further investigate the presence of the Military at the Lincolnshire Grandstand and in doing so, I discovered the following document at the Lincolnshire Archives.

The above photographs are of a document which refers to the death of the Red Baron.

There was nothing written or printed on the document which suggested when it was written, nor who by, other than the words written on the front of the document which read:

THE END OF THE RED BARON

BARON VON RICHTHOFEN

Presented to the Workers in the Aircraft Works

AS A SOUVENIR OF THEIR PARTICIPATION IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE “CAMEL” B7270

Clayton & Shuttleworth Ltd. Lincoln.

As stated in my previous post ‘Researching The Site – Part I’ Clayton & Shuttleworth built aircraft which were tested on the Common opposite the Lincoln Grandstand.

The following is a picture of the “Camel” which the front of the document refers to.

The text in the document goes into small detail about an encounter between British pilots, the Red Baron and the aerial combat which followed. It also claims that a Sopwith “Camel” was responsible for the death of the Red Baron.

The account found in the document could become integrated into my performance because the aircraft allegedly responsible for destroying the Red Baron may have been one of the aircraft which Clayton & Shuttleworth tested at the Common. However, the Lincolnshire Archives had no more documentation regarding this claim, so I have no evidence other than the account found within the document in question, so for the moment this idea will be put on hold.

Researching The Site – Part I

Jordan Benjamin Holland / March 5, 2013May 12, 2013 / Personal Posts

In order for me to expand my knowledge of the Lincoln Grandstand I visited the Lincolnshire Archives. During my time there I discovered one of the roles the Lincoln Grandstand was used for – the Common opposite the Lincoln Grandstand was used to test Military aircraft during The First World War.

The above photograph is a book found at the Lincolnshire Archives.

“Besides Ruston aircraft, the Common was also used to test Robey-built Sopwith Gunbus machines and, later, Bristol F2Bs built by Marshall of Gainsborough and Handley Page aircraft built by Clayton and Shuttleworth.” ((Walls, John (1974) Ruston Aircraft Production A Souvenir of Ruston’s 1,000th Aeroplane Lincoln: AERO LITHO COMPANY (Lincoln) LTD.))

This quote, taken from the book pictured above it, clearly presents evidence that the Common was used to test Military Aircraft. This link between the Lincoln Grandstand and the Military connects with one of the concepts I am pursuing for my performance and that is the concept of becoming one with those who came before you. I now have a potential theme for my performance – the Military.

One Muddy Day

Eloise Fitt / March 4, 2013May 7, 2013 / The Odds Are Stacked

Last week we were asked to go to the grandstand and create a performance in the second half of our lecture. However, Rachel, Emma, Kash, Charlie and I decided to go and explore the west common and to try and get a feel for what an actual horse looked like, felt like and smelled like. Mike Pearson states that ‘Performance can function as innotive mode of enquiry and as a research output,’ (Mike Pearson, 2011) and we asked ourselves how our performance could be considered a research output if we hadnt actually done any reasearch ourselves! With that in mind we trekked out to the area of the common where the horses all were gathered, we just didnt consider the terrain before we did! It had obviously been raining at some point in the past as the ground was soaked through and the noise our feet made as we walked through was horrible, kind of squelchy! However the thing that struck me the most was the smell of the who place. It was a mild day and you could almost smell spring bursting through the clouds. The sun was trying to break through – which made our journey slightly more enjoyable that in previous weeks when we were all cold through!- maybe making some of us more daring than others, and eventually we reached our destination after passing a large number of manure piles on the way that didnt smell too nice! I think by the end of the day Charlie had gone off the idea of bringing Horse manure into the grandstand as the amount we saw was enough to put anyone off!!

Works Cited:- Mike Pearson 2011, Why Performance?