Scent.

From the first time that we as a group stepped into the Grandstand building we were intrigued, bewildered and passionate. Knowing that this space had such an overwhelmingly rich history but was, unfortunately, so unused at the present time was a shocking and inspiring juxtaposition.
War is a recurring theme within our group. The Grandstand had such a role to play within the 1st and 2nd world wars, it was involved in army training, and trench practice and it was also closed during both of the wars. This led me, Jamie, Sophie and Phoebe to think about the women that would have been associated with the Grandstand before the wars and during the wars. What would have happened to the women that worked there? Are there any parallels between them and the women that use the Grandstand now?
We began looking at involving the audience’s sense of smell within our pieces, taking inspiration from reminiSCENT by Jim Drobnick in which he explores the relationship with scent and memory “If the sense of smell appears to be eclipsed by the other senses in western culture, there is one realm in which it retains an almost mythic power – memory” ((Drobnick, Jim  (2009) ‘Sense and ReminiSCENT: Performance and the Essences of Memory’ , Canadian Theatre Review, Issue 137, Winter: p.6-12)) At first we thought that using a perfume that the women of the Second World War would have worn and spraying it on letters would be effective in taking the audience on a journey through time, we experimented with this somewhat. However, as our research deepened we decided that we wanted to instead, take the audience on a journey back to when the Grandstand was alive and bustling with people “As much as smells conjure memories, they also conjure places”  ((Drobnick, Jim  (2009) ‘Sense and ReminiSCENT: Performance and the Essences of Memory’ , Canadian Theatre Review, Issue 137, Winter: p.6-12)) , We discovered that they would serve gingerbread and fruit to the crowds of spectators at the Grandstand, which would have created an aroma specifically related to the atmosphere of the races.
Another level of scent that we wished to include was that of tea. We know that the Grandstand is currently being used as a sort of ‘community centre’ and we found teacups  saucers and a kettle on the site therefore there will probably be tea being served regularly. Since “tea is –after water- the most widely consumed drink in the world”(Deadman,P (2011) ‘In Praise of Tea’ Journal of Chinese Medicine, October: 14-8))  and has been in available in Europe since 1606, almost everybody can relate to the smell. Within Britain it is the drink associated with home and comfort, community and togetherness. Therefore we decided that it was essential to combine the audiences personal memories of community based activities, with the imagined atmosphere of the day at the races. This not only links together the site with the performance but also the past, present and maybe even future of the Grandstand through scent alone.
This research helped us to create a part of the piece so far in which we aim to combine the image of the women working at the Grandstand previous to war, having to leave and abandon their ‘normal’ tasks, to contribute to the building of aeroplane wings or to join the WAAF. This is something that would have happened to the women of Lincoln during the war; it disrupted the community and changed the way the Grandstand was used. We have tried to do this by creating layers of emotional and memory evoking material using scent, visual aids and sound to devise an effect such as the one Cage talked about in Kostalanetz; “I would like the happening to be arranged in such a way that I could see through the happening to something that wasn’t it”(Kaye, Nick (2013) Site-Specific Art: Performance, Place and Documentation, London and New York: Routledge)) We want the audience to achieve this level of vision when interacting with our piece. The scent of the piece should be the first thing that hits our audience as they walk through the doors. The mixture of tea, gingerbread, fruit and the damp of the unused building will mingle together to form a potent aroma, representative of all of the different aspects of the overall performance narrative.