For the past few weeks our group has gone into the High Street and we have been performing “social experiments” for lack of a better term. The aim of these “experiments” have primarily been to gauge audience response around the spot we will be performing in come the final performance.
To add context to what we have been doing, we have done research into a spot on the High Street; a bridge with a raised platform, across from Stokes, known as the High Bridge. From research it was discovered that an obelisk currently residing in St. Marks at the end of the High Street used to be on the High Bridge. It was demolished in 1939, and rebuilt in 1996 in its new location. Our intention is to make a model of this obelisk in the spot where it originally was positioned.
“So consider an archaeological artefact. Do not begin with the question ‘What is it?’ Instead ask ‘What does it do?'” (Pearson & Shanks, 2001, 53)
Our “artefact”, the obelisk, was formerly used as a public water conduit. Our intention is to create a model of this obelisk out of water bottles in its original location (the High Bridge), before dismantling the model and providing the bottles to the public. Part of our aim is to bring the audience into the performance by having them stick labels on the bottles using a variety of questions centred on the High Street. As mentioned, at the end we will hand this bottles out; thus recreating the obelisks original purpose. This has somewhat been inspired by the Tilted Arc sculpture designed by Richard Serra and the controversy of it’s moving.
In preparation for this we have been experimenting with questions with themes from Forced Entertainment. Such questions have included, “What is the best place on the High Street?”, “Tell me a story about the High Street”, and “If Aliens were to visit Lincoln, where would they land?”. The intention behind these questions was to see what kind of response we would get.
Works Cited:
Pearson, M., Shanks, M. (2001) Theatre Archaeology. London: Routledge.
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