A Restoration – Page 2

Voiceless

Charlotte Restall / April 25, 2013May 13, 2013 / A Restoration

Restoration – giving a voice to the voiceless: Grand Stand. We wanted to have a mix between first person perspective of feelings and factual: what would actually have been announced by a commentator as well how we believe the stand felt and currently feels. When delivering them, the audience will be seated on the available steps of the grandstand. We have created two monologues: one which tells the story of a race, using the grandstands voice as a tannoy system. As the audience listen they will be facing where the race track used to be. The other monologue explains in an emotional way what the grandstand has been and how it now feels. I’d like to have the monologue read out with the audience turned to face the building (me stood behind them reading so they can’t see me). This way they will be looking at the building listening to what it has witnessed and felt. To create my monologue I used a book called Overcoming Pathological Gambling: Therapist Guide. This book contains statistics and themes which I have used to gain an inside perspective into gambling so I could write an accurate first person narrative of what it looks and feels like.

“The games are designed in a way to let the gambler believe that it is possible to predict a win. Gamblers who seek the “best” way to obtain the jackpot essentially bet on the idea that they will one day master the game”. ((Landoucer, Robert and Stella Lachance (2007) Overcoming Pathological Gambling: Therapist Guide, Oxford University Press. p. 3))

This shows how gamblers often believe that they will master the ways of the game. The horse races are not something that can be predicted unless the races are rigged or if people who went received inside tips. However, this suggests how addictive gambling is, especially since it’s something that cannot be mastered because house always wins. As well as this, studies by Crockford and el-Guebaly (1998) and Smart and Farris (1996) “have found a strong association between pathological gambling and substance use disorders” ((Landoucer, Robert and Stella Lachance (2007) Overcoming Pathological Gambling: Therapist Guide, Oxford University Press. p.13)). I wanted to incorporate this into the monologue as the Grand Stand would have seen people going through these things.

The whole use of the tannoy system is very much like Mike Pearson’s projects Carrlands and Warplands. Carrlands project (Pearson, 2008) aimed to “enhance public appreciation and understanding” ((Mike Pearson (2012): ‘Warplands: Alkborough’, Performance Research: A Journal of the Performing Arts, 17:2, 87-95, p.87-88)) which we have taken on board and replicated through our performance at our site. We want to increase audience awareness of the Grand Stand which is an almost deserted site with so much history to be explored. Performance enhances the public’s knowledge to a site we want to get more of an audience to the stands since a lot of people don’t really know what it is anymore, it goes unnoticed by the world. Warplands shows the “ways in which a particular landscape has been made, used, reused and interpreted” ((Mike Pearson (2012): ‘Warplands: Alkborough’, Performance Research: A Journal of the Performing Arts, 17:2, 87-95, p.87)) which is what we have achieved with our performance. We want to show what it was intended for – as a stand for horse racing, then other uses during the war and then what it is currently used for.

Finally we are asking for audience interpretations of the Grand Stand which includes their ideas for future uses of the site. In Pearson’s pieces technology played a vital role as it was used to accompany a series of walks. Similarly, “technology plays a significant and transformative mediating role” ((Pearson, Mike (2010) Site-Specific Performance, Palgrave Macmillan: Basingstoke. p. 81)) in our performance. We intend on using technology to direct the audience throughout the whole performance through use of a loud hailer. The informative and emotional dialogue we use will help the audience to visualise the past and history of the Grand Stand.

Sensory Deprivation

Charlotte Restall / April 25, 2013May 13, 2013 / A Restoration

We undertook a task where we wanted to restrict people from their senses. In today’s society we can use technology to predict many things like for example: the weather. We use devices to predict the future weather as well as using it to tell us what the current weather outside is, rather than simply experiencing it ourselves. The worldwide wed offers “representations of cultural memory” ((Peter Matussek (2012): ‘Memory Theatre in the Digital Age’, Performance Research: A Journal of the Performing Arts, 17:3, 8-15.)), not the actual real thing. “Essences of London” by Curious looked at the connection between smell and memories to create an intimate performance. Helen Paris stated they were interested in looking at “What is going on in the brain that makes this incredible connection between smell and memory and emotion” ((Curious presents Essences of London A portrait of the city navigated by the sense of smell. 2004 [DVD] London: Curious Production.)), how smell (senses) trigger memories and emotions.

In their performance they used smells like perfume and food as they spoke of memories they had about the smells (however on the DVD they can’t portray the smell… a type of sensory deprivation is achieve without intention). The words they used were very descriptive which also used the sense of hearing. But what about taking it away? So we were able to do the opposite of Curious and stop the audience from experiencing the sensory emotions. In a way, through depriving our audience of the experience of outside and instead allowing them to experience a representation of it (through written words and onomatopoeia), we take away their senses; stopping an emotional attachment being formed between them and the outside world.

This links back to the Grandstand as it has been voiceless and unused for its original purpose for many years. We tested out how the audience felt to this type of sensory deprivation in order to gain knowledge for ways of expressing how the grandstand might feel. The personification we are giving to the Grandstand through our restoration piece shows how community driven it once was and how the passion and spirit the grandstand once had, has now been lost; creating a lifeless, hollow, ghostly shell of the building that once stood there.

Repairs

Charlotte Restall / April 23, 2013May 13, 2013 / A Restoration

“Cities are multitemporal. The remains of the past are all around us: architecture survives” ((Pearson, Mike and Michael Shanks (2001) Theatre/ Archaeology, London and New York: Routledge.)).

The Grand Stand is in a rundown condition. The stand was last used for its original purpose in 1964 when it closed down and moved to Doncaster; the stand has remained, however the purpose has changed. Some “buildings are repaired, their function changes: a chapel becomes a disco. Their identity is unstable” ((Pearson, Mike and Michael Shanks (2001) Theatre/ Archaeology, London and New York: Routledge.)). With our project we are trying to restore the plotting of the two other stands: the real Grandstand and the Silver Ring stand, as well as reflecting on its past to create ideas for what it could become.

There are an infinite amount of possibilities of what might be; the grandstand has a limitless amount of future potential. We want to re-plot the other two original stands from 1896, when they were first built. This restoration project shows how “cities are multitemporal. The remains of the past are all around us: architecture survives” ((Pearson, Mike and Michael Shanks (2001) Theatre/ Archaeology, London and New York: Routledge.)). Bernard Tschumi sees architecture as “the combination of spaces, events and movements” ((Turner, Cathy (2010) “Mis-Guidance and Spatial Planning: Dramaturgies of Public Space” Contemporary Theatre Review, Vol. 20(2), PP. 149–161.)). By recreating the plots for the other two stands we are able to re-imagine the events that took place within the space. This shows how the memories of the walls were lost to history – after they had been demolished, the memories that once resided in that place are merely ghosts. To recreate the stands we will be using horse hair twine, this incorporates horses of which have played a major part in the races and are still a prominent feature on the West Common in Lincoln. The idea to recreate all three stands came about after seeing a picture from back when the races were happening.

The picture shows (from left to right) what we call currently the grandstand which is in fact called Tattersall’s Stand, then the actual Grandstand and finally the Silver Ring Stand. We wanted to recreate the size of the stands to put it into perspective for the audience to see how big the structures were but also the importance the race course had within the city. Perhaps by seeing the scale it would show the audience how much has been lost by the demolition and the impact it had on society after it was so busy and animated to now: lifeless.

As we take the audience on a journey which ends at our construction of stands, we will be entwining the history to the site in order to create a future for the Grand Stand. Similar to Reckless Sleepers project ‘The Last Supper’ which they created in 2003 where they invited an audience to dine with them whilst they told “and then eat the last words of… criminals… thirteen of these are last suppers” ((Reckless Sleepers, 2013. The Last Supper. [online] Available at: <http://www.reckless-sleepers.co.uk/project.php?id=7> [Accessed 21 April 2013 ].)); we have taken ideas from people in the community as to what they think could become of the Grand Stand.

((The Reckless Sleepers, 2013. The Last Supper. [picture] Avaliable at: <http://www.reckless-sleepers.co.uk/project.php?id=7> [Accessed: 13th May 2013]))

What Reckless Sleepers achieved from bringing back memories of criminals who were on death row and giving back their voices or requests. We have re-created this by allowing the audience to give us feedback for future uses of the stand and then taking the other two plotted stands into the city and so that the whole city can see the suggestions of people in the community. We want to incorporate these suggestions with the plotted stands made from twine – this links the past, present and future of the Grand Stand. During the performance we invite the audience around the Weighing room and outside to look around, learn some of its historical context and then make an informed decision as to what they believe the Grand Stand could become. While the audience thinks about what they have seen they will be able to walk around our map where we will be securing other people’s contributions to the twine. For these ideas to be written on we have acquired betting slips. This not only ties in with the gambling which happened at the race course but also the uncertainty of the future which is like a bet in the sense that the outcome is uncertain.

“Is That Even In Lincoln?”

Daniel Ridealgh / April 23, 2013May 3, 2013 / A Restoration

As part of our restoration site-specific project we have recently finished collecting information and now have the oportunitity to anaylise what we’ve found. After spending a few weeks in Lincoln town centre asking people to answer a quick questionnaire we collated all the data we took. We showed 200 people two photgraphs, one of the Grandstand, Tattershall and Silver Ring stands in the early 20th century whilst a race event was happening, and one of the remaining stand today. Inspiration for this was drawn from a project carried out by John Newling called Make a Piano in Spain. In this project Newling asked 500 people “What do you do to make yourself feel better?”, he then sought out to transform these responses, gathering qualitative data. This is similar to what we have done below, although we asked 200 people rather than 500. The title of the project Make a Piano in Spain, was actually someone’s response to the question he asked, likewise we had a response to our question, “Is that even in Lincoln?” which has inspired the title of this blog post.

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We then asked the question, Do you know where this is?

These five answers were the responses we found. As you can see over half of the people asked could not place this stand in Lincoln as we recieved the “I don’t know” answer from 78 people and “Is that even in Lincoln?” from 30. This in itself is quite alerting information, as you have read from previous blog posts on this site, the Grandstand’s history holds great significance in Lincoln’s past. This then may fuel the interest in our group project as we all immerse ourselves in the history of both the city and the Grandstand. Using this information we can identify that the majority of our audience may know nothing about the grandstand or it’s past. This allows our projects to contain an educational and informative element when we present them to the audience. Another response that gives prominence to this argument would be that 35 people thought the grandstand is “On the golf course”. Thinking the building to be part of the golf course would imply that it holds little significance other than to upgrade the aesthetic of the course to it’s users. The Project as a whole can draw confidence from this information, the grandstand at present holds little demand from the city of Lincoln, so drawing on its past importance and getting the public to contribute to the idea pool for it’s future, may help the building see heights of activity that it was used to 60 years ago.

Next we informed those who had agreed to answer our questions on the high street what it was we had planned, explaining:

“The Grandstand held three day racing meets three times a year for almost 160 years. During World War I the stands, and the surrounding common, were used as an airbase for the Royal Air Force. As you can see in the two photos, the grandstand pavilions were demolished down to one stand in the 1960’s because the Lincolnshire handicap moved to Doncaster. We are creating a project which regenerates these other two stands, hoping that by engaging an audience in the busy past of the buildings, we can change the dormant nature of the stand now into a place people often visit once again”.

After a short explanation of what our site specific performance entailed, we asked our volunteers a second question: What do you think the Grandstand should be used for now?

The biggest response here involved, in some way or form, returning horse racing events to the Lincoln west common, rather than at the showground where some races are carried out currently. This was suggested by 62 people, many of whom mentioned that it may bring a great deal of income into the city and boost the local economy. On the 24th March 1903 a record number of 7700 tickets were sold each day during the race meeting, ticket buyers coming from all over the country, tourists that no doubt contributed greatly to Lincoln’s economy that particular weekend. Sadly the second most frequent response was a call to have the stand demolished, with 37 people suggesting that there was no point having a building lying around doing nothing for the city. Although their want to cut out inefficiency is justified, again the question of lack of knowledge around the grandstand arises. I think back to how extensive my research was to find out the basic happenings of the building. Compare this difficulty to the ease of learning anything about the Lincoln Cathedral or Castle, two buildings that you would struggle to find anyone in favor of demolishing. This leads nicely to another favored suggestion, turning the stand into a museum in itself. Making the information of the grandstand’s impressive history easily accessible would aid the local population to agreeing with our project’s intentions. Again the five most reoccurring suggestions have been represented, the “Other Suggestions” segment contained ideas such as: An outdoor cinema, swimming pool, mosque, football pitch, marketplace, shopping mall, park and ride station, zoo, war memorial and a nightclub.

The Grandstand’s Totem.

Abigail Dawson / April 5, 2013 / A Restoration

One of the leading artists in contemporary performance is widely considered to be Lone Twin, a theatre production company which formed in 1997. In an interview with Christopher Hewitt for the 2004 Brussels kunstenFestivaldesArts, he said they liked to “create maps of social and spatial engagement, suggesting imaginative territories that audiences might physically inhabit and traverse” ((Bilateral, (2006), Lone Twin interviewed by Christopher Hewitt. [online] Available at: http://www.lucazoid.com/bilateral/lone-twin-interviewed-by-christopher-hewitt/, [Accessed 05 April 2013])). The idea of engaging with the space is something we are extremely involved with, and creating a map of the past, present and future inhabitants. Focusing on a project that has influenced some of our performance ideas is Lone Twin’s piece Totem that underwent in 1998. The duo endeavoured to carry a fallen telegraph pole through Colchester’s town centre along a straight line, passing through homes and shops. The initials of those who participated and helped the pair complete their journey were carved into the pole by the artists. It is the notion of collaboration and participation that we are substantially interest in.

In our performance at the Grandstand, we plan to have the spectators encounter all the other pieces at the site. They will hopefully absorb all the stories that are portrayed of the past, the various uses of the stand and landscape surrounding it. By the end we aim for the spectators to have their own grasp of what they then believe the future of the Grandstand. As stated in previous blog posts, they would then attach these ideas onto the twine that we provide, approximately 800 meters in length. Are intentions are for the audience to see the two stand that we have remapped, be removed from the site completely and with the aid of the audience transport the idea filled twine to Lincoln’s high street. We hope to define our location through drawing the audience in and engaging them with the task of taking the future of the Grandstand back to the city, back to the people of Lincoln. We know however that participation should not be mandatory and force it upon our audience, but rather we should invite them to partake if they wish. In a conversation with Lone Twin it states that there should be “no obligation to participate in an active sense; the invitation can always be refused” ((Lavery, C. and Williams, D. (2001) Practicing Participation A conversation with Lone Twin, Performance Research: A Journal of the Performing Arts, 16 (4), p. 8)). Spectators will not engage with the site properly is they are coerced into an activity, instead in Lone Twin’s performances for example they are “permitted to engage in a relation of non-relation, to stand on the sidelines and make their ‘poem’ from the ‘poem’ that Lone Twin have offered them” ((Lavery, C. and Williams, D. (2001) Practicing Participation A conversation with Lone Twin, Performance Research: A Journal of the Performing Arts, 16 (4), p. 8)). Are audience are able to develop their own ideas of the Grandstand from experiencing the pieces however they do not necessarily have to share them, the main aim is to just bring back the awareness of our site to what has been forgotten.

By taking the Grandstand’s future to the high street we hope to bring back some of the excitement back and a sense of community that existed at the site during the seasonal races in the past. Not only can the audience see the suggestions on the twine but so can other members of the public; it opens it up to for everyone to see how significant it was for Lincoln in the past, bringing a sense of remembrance and a small piece hope for the Grandstand’s future.