Author: Ben Middleton

The T.A.N.K: Performance Reflection

Ben Middleton / / T.A.N.K

One of the highlights of the tank group’s performance I think was the atmosphere we created the moment the audience walked into the room; with the rumble of the tank sound effect in the background with the monotonous chant of ‘From the blood, through the mud, to the green fields beyond.’ We created a sense of unease and tension within the audience since they did not really understand what was so far happening.  Also, with the audience being cramped in right at the beginning it heightened the atmosphere because it gave them a sense of being trapped. Moreover the use of the chairs and netting, although ambiguous at first the audience soon got the idea of what we were creating, plus with the use of the netting whilst the audience would get the claustrophobic feeling we wanted, the netting still gave them some source of viewing, yet, I would have liked to experiment with restricting the audience’s view because the view inside a real tank was limited.

Moreover, the fact we used diary entries from soldiers who were in the tanks during the first world war brought a different sense of atmosphere to the performance ‘narratives provides coherence, a process of emplotment which configures these actions into a meaningful, comprehensible interpretation’ (( Postlewait, T. (1992) ‘History, Hermeneutics, and Narrativity’ in J.G Reinelt and J.R Roach (eds) Critical Theory and Performance University of Michigan Press  pp. 356-368)) By using the diary entries we were bringing the piece back to the community and giving a voice back to the tank which would have otherwise not been there, plus the fact that one of the main aims of the whole safe-bet performance was to bring back the community and the voice to the grandstand. The narratives created by the use of diary entries are self-explanatory and not closed ‘but flexible and dynamic social practices, and this means that the experience of belonging to community always represents a partial account of experience’ ((Govan, Emma; Nicholson, Helen and Normington, Katie (2007) Making a Performance: Devising Histories and Contemporary Practices London: Routledge)) which shows how the audience would have understood the diary entries for actual experience and would have been able to empathetically imagine the happenings, in addition to this, the fact we used German diary extracts as well as English diary entries, we gave a balanced view point of the tank from both the victor and the victim.

However, one of the performances weaknesses was that we were still shaky with our lines, which caused some minor confusion and some delay which stopped the performance flowing fluidly. For me personally I kept rushing my lines from nerves of not fully knowing them and so I continually tripped over my lines which stopped the flow of the performance.  We could have overcome this problem by rehearsing our lines more often so we could memorise them easier to make them flow better, on the other hand, we had to change our lines on the day of the performance since one of us almost did not make it due to serious illness, we had to change our lines round in order to fit this change and so on the performance we got muddled with the lines that had been cut and the new lines that had been introduced.

Another minor problem with our performance I believe was the chairs, although we had practiced placing them perfectly, the chairs can still be unpredictable and in one of our three performances one of the chairs did fall down. We could have tackled this problem by once again, practicing with the chairs more thoroughly or even choreographed the chair sequence so as to move and place the chairs perfectly so as to not let them fall down.

Another issue I think we should have addressed before the performance was the moving of the audience and the flow of the piece, the movement and scene changes were quite slow and I think we lost the energy during the scene changes as we re-positioned the audience for the next bit, also, I believe that in one scene, the  dialogue was slow on delivery between us performers and it also lost some of our energy, this could also be contributed to the fact we had recently changed our lines and were still new to the new lines. We could have combated the lack of energy whilst moving the audience by maybe having some lines to say whilst the audience moved or even we could have started the different scenes earlier in order to counteract this lack of energy in the scene changes.

If we were given more time I would have liked to experiment with more ideas relating to the tank. For instance we wanted to experiment with messing with the audience’s senses. ‘The noise is horrific and the heat was very considerable, and the smell of cordite and engine exhaust fumes was pretty nasty’ ((Mark Dillon (2010) What was is like in a WWI tank? Online: http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/what-was-it-like-in-a-ww1-tank/12726.html (accessed 6th May 2013) )) although we had the sound effect of the tank playing throughout to give them the sense of the sound level, we only had this on low so the audience could hear our dialogue over it. We had, alternatively looked at the smell and feeling of being in a tank, we wanted to create the smell of a tank and its fumes which were not properly vented, we looked at the smell of petrol but we could not replicate the smell without using a highly flammable substance which we believed to be too dangerous. We looked at the idea of having a rag sprayed with WD40 in the corner, on the contrary we decided against this because WD40 is still highly flammable and the rag in the corner might have confused the audience to its use being there.

Furthermore, if we had more time I think we could have looked at making the audience more involved within the project, by possibly making them help us build the tank. They could have gotten a sense they were part of the creation process and understood what we were doing more closely; on the other hand, this would have taken a lot of careful planning since the chairs were tricky to place and even in our final performance one of the chairs slipped causing the tanks to collapse, if we had gotten the audience to build the tank maybe the chairs would have been more likely to collapse and we could not take that risk. Alternatively, we could have made them more involved by maybe getting them to dismantle the tank at the end, unfortunately, due to time restrictions we could not do this because we needed to get the audience back into the main room so they could see the other two performances that were similarly going on at the time.

The T.A.N.K: Part 2

Ben Middleton / / T.A.N.K, Uncategorized

Once we had decided on creating the tank as a model, like the monument to be established on the roundabout at Tritton road, we thought about how we were going to make the tank. Several suggestions were tried from hay to cardboard boxes but we decided on using the chairs from the Grandstand because ‘materials themselves have been limited to those that efficiently make the general object form’ ((Morris, R (1993) ‘Anti-Form’ in Morris, R’s Continuous Project Altered Daily: The Writings of Robert Morris London: MIT Press)) the chairs replicated the tank in an easy, but still ambiguous way. Plus, we liked the idea of creating the tank out of objects that were already in and or left in the grandstand because, like the grandstand they had equally been forgotten about .

Since we decided to build the tank out of the chairs, we experimented with looking at the chairs already being there when the audience walked into the room, this worked well because at first the audience had no clue what it was, being just a pile of chairs and some netting set up in a specific way the tank still looked ambiguous enough that the audience would not understand what it was until the performance was underway and the use of soundscapes and dialogue would help them to understand what the sculpture was representing. Alternatively, we looked at simulating the movement of the tank’s caterpillar tracks with the chairs, we thought this image worked well and we decided to build the tank movement wise whilst the audience walked in.

Furthermore, we looked at how this movement was quite repetitive and we believed that each movement we made should be precise and repeatable; this is since the tank was quite mechanical we wanted to replicate that mechanical sense by making the movements accurate and in a form of repetition. We did this by using the whole group to move the chairs where two people would be in perfect sync with each other on each side to make it look like the tracks were moving perfectly; also, we would hold the chairs over the line of the other chairs to make it look neat and mechanical. We decided to add the mantra of the tank force ‘From the blood, through the mud, to the green fields beyond’ here since we believed that the mantra spoke of the goal of the tank and its forces.

Once we had established this much we wanted to look at how we could integrate the tank to the Grandstand, although the tanks were never really used or tested at the grandstand, however, we know there was trench training on the west common ‘Crenelated earthworks just south of the grandstand identify the location of a former training trench from WWI.’ ((Heritage Connection Lincoln West Common online: http://www.heritageconnectlincoln.com/character-area/west-common/64/description (accessed 25th March 2013) )) Additionally we found a picture in the archives on the first tank, Little Willie on the west common,

Little Willie normal

we can assume here that maybe the tank was brought to the west common to test out on the practice tranches to see whether it would be able to cross the trenches on the warfront.  Even though the tank was never really at the Grandstand we still believed it to be a strong part of Lincoln’s history much like the Grandstand that had been forgotten.

The T.A.N.K: Part 1

Ben Middleton / / T.A.N.K, Uncategorized

One of the first ideas for the Tank group was to create a video recreating the conception of the tank. The video was to use the Yarborough room within the White Hart Hotel in Lincoln where historically we know the idea of the tank was first conceived. We did this because this could be a real starting point for our performance since we could use it as a mapping point and explore the creation of the tank from this very beginning. We also this was a strong point because ‘Relationships between the arts and everyday life became subject to radical scrutiny in the period of the historical avant-garde’ ((Goven Emma et al (2007) Making a Performance: Devising Histories and Contemporary Practices, Routledge p. 18)) we thought this was important because ‘Place is a space in which important words have been spoken which have established identity, defined vocation and envisioned destiny.’ ((Brueggeman, Walter (1989) ‘The Land’, in Liburne G.(ed) A Sense of place: Christian Theology of the Land, Nashville: Abingdon Press)) the tank changed the face of warfare and the idea of war altogether and we believe that this notion of the changing of warfare needs to be highlighted.

We then moved onto looking at turning this video into more of a commercial, or an American-styled infomercial where the presenter tempts you into buying the product being sold, this being the tank, mixed in with soundscapes of tanks and collages of images from testing out the tanks to them on the battlefield. We thought this would be effective because it the audience could take it as if we were trying to ‘sell’ the idea of a tank to them today. Plus it plays with the idea that all the investors of the tank back in the early 20th Century were placing a huge bet on the effectiveness of the tanks, similar to the people who placed bets on the horses at the grandstand.

Another idea we looked at was building a small scale model tank within the grandstand whilst being dressed as engineers and other workers who would have been involved in building the tank. We talked about doing this because ‘The first tank was built in Lincoln by William Foster and Co.’ ((Fish, Elizabeth (2013) Tank Memorial Proposed for Lincoln Roundabout, online: http://thelincolnite.co.uk/2013/03/tank-memorial-moves-to-lincoln-roundabout/ (accessed 20 March 2013) ))Showing how Lincoln is essential to the conception of the tank and how it was vita to helping Britain win the war.  We also wanted to play with idea of building the tank as a scale model because the action to build a small scale model takes precise intricate movements which would be reciprocated in the idea that when originally building the tanks every choice had to be precise and carefully planned in order to make the tank work.

Since this idea of ours it has come to light that a group within Lincoln wish to create a memorial of the birth of the tank on the roundabout at the end of Tritton Road in Lincoln ‘The aim behind the idea… is to remind and educate people on Lincoln’s engineering history, and commemorate the effort made by civilians in the city during the war.’ (( Fisch, Elizabeth (2013) Tank Memorial Proposed for Lincoln Roundabout, online:  http://thelincolnite.co.uk/2013/03/tank-memorial-moves-to-lincoln-roundabout/ (accessed 20 March 2013) ))This idea highlights the fact that Lincoln and Lincolnshire in general was essential to the cause of winning the war.

The Drift

Ben Middleton / / Uncategorized

A drift put simply where you go for a walk through your local town or city with no destination or purpose in order to find the things mostly overlooked by the people who do have a purpose and a destination in their journey.  The art form of drifting has evolved from the romantic walking that came about in Europe during the late eighteenth century which was a response against the age of enlightenment that was occurring around the time ‘a reaction against the material changes in society, which accompanied the emerging and expanding industrial capitalism in the late eighteenth century’ ((Oosthoek, Jan (1999) ‘Romantic Movement, late 18th and early 19th century’ online http://www.eh-resources.org/timeline/timeline_romantic.html (accessed 25th March 2013) )) the idea was to get back to nature, that nature was the key;  the Romantic Movement was this alienation of the city and the move back to the nature because nature was seen as pure .

Drifting evolved from the Romantic Movement to being about the journey rather than on a destination (back to nature).  Instead, it has the aim of ruling out destination altogether ‘first, separation from the community, then a plunge into flux in a liminal space, finally reintegration back into the community’ ((Smith, Phil (2010) Mythogeography: The art of Walking sideways Triarchy Press))the idea of plunging into a flux is that of getting, essentially, lost; this is so you do not rely on where you are going or sign posts or directions to interrupt the flow of walking that is supposed to be coming subconsciously.  However, this form of reintegrating back into community is warned about ‘collapsing back into the everyday and missing the whole point’. In order to overcome this lapse back into the norm and forgetting all about the drift you can do little exercises or tasks to change the route or drift completely. For example, you could have the person use a large leaf as a map, or as they are walking have them look up at the tops of the buildings they walk past.

Linking the idea of drifting back to the Grandstand we can look at the old romantic walking of the eighteenth century.  The romantic walking was about getting back to routes, essentially to nature, but with the Grandstand we could look at getting back to its original use of being a racecourse. Furthermore, since the Grandstand is empty, we can look at it as a non-place, or a place generally forgotten by the public; this echoes the ideologies of drifting since the focus of a drift is to find something generally overlooked by the public.

Well… What are you waiting for?

Ben Middleton / / Uncategorized

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

We all talk about how we have no time. Whether it is how we have no time in the morning for breakfast before work or lectures, or have no time to do the dishes before we must rush off to our next destination. Yet we always claim that we feel like we are forever waiting. How does this paradox of waiting for time and having no time occur? Where does this time go? Do we use this unclaimed time effectively?

Waiting, can be split into two different types of waiting, positive and negative waiting. Positive waiting is the waiting you get when you are excited about the outcome, be it waiting for a film or show to start, similarly it could be waiting when you know you have nothing to wait for ‘the feeling of freedom of being imparted… now that he was ‘sorted out’’ ((Augé Marc (1995) Non-Places: Introduction to an Athropology of Supermodernity Croydon: CPI Bookmarque)) this feeling of freedom when you know nothing is waiting for you. Alternatively, negative waiting is waiting that you dread the end of it, be it waiting for some test results either medical or examination. We all have different waiting periods and reasons for waiting, as we all have different ways of dealing with the times of waiting. Waiting is the period in which we wait for the unexpected to start. We wait for all sorts of things and waiting has become built into our social behaviour and culture. Our waiting is influenced by many variables, there is never a prescribed method for dealing with waiting and yet waiting in certain contexts tend to create a similar pattern of group impatience leading to aggressive strategies that are meant to speed up the process of waiting, and yet we still complain that we have no time. Why?

We believe we have no time for anything and become overwhelmed. We focus on the smaller things of the day: Chores, homework, socialising, what we are going to have for meals and other things. We focus on these smaller tasks rather than looking at the larger picture. We struggle to understand this idea that time is endless, forever stretching on wards without us ‘Time waits for no man.’ We live our lives believing that if we do not hurry, if we do not rush, then all the things we plan to do for that day, week, month, year will never come to fruition, passing it off with a “Oh I’ll do it later” or “It’s not that important I’ll do it tomorrow”.

This sense if waiting can be linked back into our performance at the grandstand, firstly, we can look at the idea of the audience having to wait for the performance to begin, and this waiting would be one of positive waiting, a sense of excitement between the audience members as they wait for the performance to happen. We have, as a group highlighted this waiting by making the audience waiting outside the building before the performance begins. This waiting is also similar to the history of the Grandstand, the betters who would have gone to the Grandstand when it was still open they would have waited for both the races to start and the nervous waiting as they watched the horses racing down and they waited for the winning verdict.

Waiting is a considerable theme running throughout the Grandstand, be it historically like waiting for the races to start, or the present with waiting for our performance, or similarly in the future, waiting for the fate of the Grandstand to be determined by the local council.