“Field implies area, openness. But it is still very crowded – in the crowd. In order to draw attention to itself, performance may need to raise itself above head-height.  To lift itself. To suspend itself. To use effects of elevation and falling and floating: fireworks and kites and skydivers. Engaging the full volume or arc of the space. Or it may raise the audience, in arrangements temporary or permanent. The vertical is engaged and viewpoints shift”. (Pearson, 2010, pp. 157).

The concept of destroying preconceived boundaries within a performance space is challenged through our introduction of mirrors. Although, mirroring an entire room (38X22 foot) has its inevitable difficulties, both financially and constructively. A potential development on the idea could be the decision to merely mirror both ceiling and floor, and blacking-out the walls with black cloth material. By doing this we can explore Pearson’s concepts of opening out the “arc of the space” by “engaging the vertical” and shifting the audience viewpoints – whilst (through our own development) engaging the horizontal. Simply by encouraging audience members to lay on the floor, their sensation of reflection on the ceiling gives an illusion of floating in the void, undermining the gravity of the space. By fully altering the positional viewpoint of the audience we can successfully inspire the audience to experience the performance within the space without gravity.

Also, our development of ideas surrounding the “post performance” mirror room being a responsive performance (in itself) to the experience within the space and projecting the pre-recorded responses as an introduction to each consecutive performance will create an instructive reflection on the experience of the individual, and by doing so, narrates a response for further audience members; thus making subsequent performances dependent on interactive participation.

“…wood, for instance is altered, by making a table out of it. Yet, for all that, the table continues to be that common, everyday thing, wood. But, as soon as it steps forth as a commodity, it is changed into something transcendent.” (McLellan, D. (ed.)(2000) Karl Marx: Selected Writings (2nd Edition), New York: Oxford University Press.)

As a group, we may explore the prospect of integrating the audience, taking their presence as tools to shape a line of performance. It is possible to consider that an audience member is capable of becoming a prop. Much the same as we could consider, the space itself as prop or indeed, the mirrors, light, sound, and even the materials used within (and around) the space. Each entity holds the potential to transcend their initial and natural qualities, shifting their existence within the space outside of generic audience “outsiders”, into fully incorporated devices of performance creation.

Using ideas relating to Grantham’s scientific heritage, we decided to play with the idea of manipulating ones eyes in order to create the illusion of defying gravity. After much research and deliberation, one of the methods used to produce this illusion is mirrors. The space itself is rather dull but this has allowed ‘the use of resources, substances and working practices unseen’ in this particular area.  ‘At site, it may be difficult to distinguish what is in play. Anything that has passed the boudary into performance may be pressumed significant.'(Pearson, 2010, 119) Therefor it is imperetive to transform the space into an appropriate stage. However, nothing remains neutral or decorative, and the mirrors will prove massivly significant once the performance begins.

The Anti Gravity Mirror

‘Stand the mirror on the floor or on a sturdy table. Put one leg on each side of the mirror. Shift your weight to the foot behind the mirror. Lift your other leg and move it repeatedly toward and away from the mirror. To an observer, you’ll appear to be flying.If you use this Snack as a demonstration, you can make the effect more dramatic by covering the mirror with a cloth, climbing onto the table, straddling the mirror, and then dropping the cloth as you “take off.”A person standing with the edge of a large mirror bisecting his or her body will appear whole to a person who’s watching. To the observer, the mirror image of the left half of a person looks exactly like the real right half. Or if the person is standing on the opposite end of the mirror, the right half looks like the real left half. The person looks whole because the human body is symmetrical. The observer’s brain is tricked into believing that an image of your right side is really your left side. So just straddle the mirror, raise one leg, and you’ll fly!’ (Doherty, P. (2011). Anti-Gravity Mirror. Available: http://www.exploratorium.edu/snacks/anti_gravity/. Last accessed 27th Feb 2014.)

Mirrors also provide an interesting role within day to day life, which we are hoping to explore. After discussing various mirror related ideas, and the varying meanings of the word reflection, the group decided to explore the ideas of mirrors in popular culture, mainly a hall of mirrors.We found it interesting how the shape of a mirror changes ones reflection, using the refraction of the light. Both concave and convex surfaces provide a different view.Using partitions to separate the room, a hall of mirrors could be constructed, encouraging the audience to consider the effects both physically and mentally.The hall would eventually lead to a small mirrored room where the audience member would discuss how the mirrors made them feel and what they thought of the project in general; whether it changed their views on science, or themselves. These conversations would be taped and used as a soundtrack for the rest of the tour creating an indivulually personal experience.

There are multiple types of mirrors avaliable for use;

“Experimental theatre has always sought other venues. This is not solely through expediency, but to challenge the notion that the auditorium is a neutral vessel of representation, and see it rather as the spatial machine of a dominant discourse which distances spectators from spectacle and literally ‘keeps them in their place’, in the dark, sitting in rows, discouraging eye contact and interaction.”

(Pearson, M. (1997), ‘Special Worlds, Secret Maps: A Poetics of Performance’, in Taylor, A. (ed.), Staging Wales: Welsh Theatre 1979-1997, Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1997, 85-99, 94

The George Centre, Grantham, was erected on the site of the old George Hotel – once an impressive local hostelry built in 1780 – and still retains many of its fine features including the Oriel windows, carved staircase and cornices. In 1990 the site was converted into an indoor shopping centre, using the architectural splendour of the former hotel, which is now a listed building. Although the George Hotel was built during the reign of George III – following a fire which wiped out many properties in that area – there had been a hostelry on the site for at least three centuries before that. As a coaching inn, the George was a popular overnight stop between London and the North, endorsed by Charles Dickens who in Nicholas Nickleby described it as one of the finest inns in England. Grantham is a growing market town with a population of approximately 35,000 and a catchment area of 85,000. Ideally situated in the heart of the East Midlands, Grantham sits on the junction of the A1 and A52. Nottingham, Leicester and Peterborough are all within a 40 mile radius and London is approximately 75 minutes away by high-speed train from Grantham railway station.

(Pearce, H. (2012). The George and Grantham. Available: http://www.thegeorgecentre.com/thegeorge.htm. Last accessed 28th Feb 2014.)

As a result of being given disused shops within the centre to perform in, one of the major obstacles to tackle would be audience movement and interaction, how to encourage the audience to enter and become part of out performance, with ‘no formal arrangement of performers and audience.’ (Pearson, 2013, 156). This kind of freedom within a performance gives both parites an entirely individual perspective and experience, depending on where they are situated.  Breaking down the boudaries of audience performer space really excites me, especially as we are hopefully working with the concept of manipulating ones eyesite in order to appear to be defying gravity.

We got to visit our site this week! It was so amazing to see and envisage our ideas in the space. Different ideas that we have been working on over the past weeks are finally being put into practice. The shop we chose is full of mirrors, and is ideal for the type of performance art we want to create, linking in with the science of reflection.  A particular thing that stood out for us as a group in the shop was the use of the windows. In our performance, we want the windows to be blacked out to stop light escaping inside. Therefore, we will have to work extra hard with the shoppers as they will not be able to see inside. Making it really  eye-catching for passers-by is imperative to make them stop and hopefully to want to come into the shop and explore more.

It then got me thinking about the passerby themselves. They are looking into this shop window, wondering about what they might purchase or what is aesthetically pleasing. ‘The ordinary practitioners of the city…they walk-an elementary form of experience of the city; they are walkers’ (D. J Hopkins et al, 2009, 59). Normal shoppers on a day to day basis pass throughout the city, through the monotony of life and yet are participants in a performance which they are completely unaware of; of merely walking. It therefore makes our job more interesting as knowing performers in the window to try and create a new and engaging performance with our audience.