In the seminar on Monday 10th February, there were various site specific performances shown to the class in the format of pre performance, performance and post performance. In the section of ‘performance’ the Radio Ballet performance caught my attention as it linked in with my groups’ idea of how sound from the headphones had been interpreted by the participants. My groups’ idea was to also use sound in this way to find out if the participants register the same kind of concept as each other with the use of movement/body language just by hearing the instructions from the headphones.

Also, their performance is based in public places such as shopping centres and this builds a correlation with the performance we will give as our performance will also be in a shopping centre where the public can take part if they wish to. Site Specific can be seen to deal with the use of ‘space’ and with this one of the focus points of the Radio Ballet was the dispersion of their participants as well as to entertain the public. This is what my group aim to do as in using headphones; the participants will be positioned in various parts of the shop or maybe even be positioned in the shopping centre.

As soon as my group entered this shop we knew it was perfect in relation to our subject area. There were plenty of mirrors positioned in various areas of the room, in which this was the idea we had portrayed in our minds. This space in particular (presented in the image) allows our idea of self reflection come into play as we would like our participants, with the use of lighting, to explore the different ways in which lighting creates a mood. This space is ideal as it is its own space which can be closed off from the rest of the room, allowing the participant to focus on what they are doing, away from the rest of the activities happening in the shop.

Space is known as and area in which things exist and move, space has many dimensions: Height, depth and width. However space takes many different forms. Could space be existent during our dreams? And if so what is the difference between dream and real space? Dream space in my opinion is the idea of the subconscious recreating a space in our mind that relates to us. Dreams take place in places that are familiar to us, we have to have seen them, or at least have an idea of what they look like in order to dream about them. Much like the people in our dream, you can only dream about people that you have met, or seen even if it is just a glance as you walk past them in the street.  Real space is a physical space, our bedroom or our classroom are physical spaces. They have boundaries, such as the walls and the floor.

In relation to space we think of places. These places are familiar to us, when we call something a place it inherits a meaning, it is no longer just a physical space, but instead it is a place that holds memories, we hold mental images of it. Pearson talks of a place as “a portion of land/town/cityscape seen from the inside… entwined with personal memory, known or unknown histories, marks made in the land that provoke and evoke.” (Pearson, 2010, 109) Both spaces and places have thresholds, a threshold is seen as a crossing, we have to cross the threshold in order for us to enter the space/place. For example the threshold to my studio is the door.

However when creating a performance space this threshold may change the atmosphere of a room, taking the audience into another dimension. Imagine a ride at a theme park, you step through the door of the attraction and you have passed over the threshold. You are now submersed in a different place it is no longer Alton Towers, instead you are in the towers, immersed in the history of the curse of the chained oak. Just by stepping through over the threshold, your perception of where you are changes.

I was thinking for another idea, we could use illumination to ‘defy gravity’. Which would also link with light. I got the idea from Fighting Gravity who appeared on America’s got talent. Fighting Gravity used glow in the dark balls. It looks like they’ve got sponge balls and maybe painted them with a glow in the dark paint. Could we not use red balls and use them as apples, linking with the Isaac Newton theory of gravity. Here’s some pictures and a video to help explain. 

<a class=”embedly-card” href=”http://youtu.be/4qCDn5SjcTs”>Fighting Gravity – Guest Appearance on AGT 2011 HQ</a>
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Steve Jobs, has nothing to do with Grantham. He also has nothing to do with Issac Newton, although there are definitely parallels between them. Both Newton and Jobs made us view the world differently and that’s what Site Specific is all about. This week we learned about space and what it actually means in relation to us. There is space all around us but our eyes simply view it in mundane ways. I am sat in my room – that is space. In Lincoln – a bigger space. In England – a large space. In the world and even the universe and beyond – spaces that seem unimaginable. Sat typing this blog up I am looking at the space bar, which is in a space all of its own. I reflect on this now because I very much like the idea of non-space, i.e an area that doesn’t correlate with you and what you might be presently doing. In my performance I would like to create a minimal installation, that perhaps forces an audience to eventually see the non-space surrounding it.

However getting back to Steve Jobs and why I picked him in comparison to Newton. There is one thing that links these two geniuses and that is… Apple. The word ‘apple’ has two completely different meanings to these two individuals. To Jobs it is technology and science, to Newton it is gravity and myth. It is these two individuals that have fused together my idea and subsequent pitch for Gravity Fields, 101 things to do with an ‘apple’. The idea is to create an installation that turns the myth of an apple falling and allowing Newton to explore gravity, into educational science. Having already discussed as group various ways to use an apple we plan on creating scientific experiments that would make even Newton himself proud.