Performing the museum

Group: Emma Kinsey, Winona Makanji, Chloe Nugent and Jessica Carter.

Final pitch

Performance name: Detour.

Main concept of the performance: The aim of our performance is to engage with individual senses (touch, smell and hearing) of the participants in order to generate an alternative perceptive of the artworks being shown. We will focus on manipulating the participants through providing a different experience for the individual.

General idea

We will set up three stations outside of The Viewpoints Gallery. Each station will be set up according to each sense (touch, smell and sound). . After they experience the sense we will lead them into the viewpoints to view that specific artworks that we have chosen. (The Elephant Tusk, Time after time blow up and Untitled (the bed) and Old England) During the process we will ask the participants to document their interpretations by writing their responses to the art in a coloured pencil (of their choice) on a piece of paper. We will collect the pieces of paper throughout the process in preparation to create a piece of art in which we will exhibit within the viewpoints gallery on our performance day. The idea we have for our artwork is to smash mirrors and create a collage using the pieces. After this we will write the participants reactions to the artworks in the colour in which they chosen.

Relevance/ Relation to setting: We often go to the museum to observe artwork and artefacts, so by taking away the participant’s sight we are asking them to focus more on their other senses in order to convey an alternative perspective.

Participants during process: 4 people for each sense tour. The age rage starting from 6 years. Hoping for a good age range.

How to attract the participants: We will make an open Facebook event and advertise ourselves through twitter. We will also make posters to place around the university, as well as leaflets to place within the museum.

The information we will include is the number of participants members we are looking for, (12) the age range of the participants, date, times of the performances, contact details of the facebook group and a company email and a brief explanation of our concept.

Organisation of the participants: When we have collected our audience we shall ask if they have preference of time and who with. We will send them a formal invitation to come along to The Viewpoints at their specific time. We will urge the participants to come 5-10 minutes earlier and meet in the reception so if the times do not go to plan we are not waiting for participants.

Elephant Tusk (Hearing)

We will play 4 recordings of different sounds relating to the use of ivory, i.e piano.

Each participant will only hear one out of the four sounds at a time for the duration of 1 minute, we will then lead them into the viewpoints to view the tusk. During this time we will ask them to write their first impression/thoughts/emotions of the artwork on the piece of paper.

Recordings: We have been in touch with Darren regarding mp3 devices on which out participants will listen to the recordings. We are still awaiting a reply, however we can buy cheap mp3 players for £3 each.

Time After Time Blow up (2007) (Touch)

The participants will explore this photograph though touch. Each participant will experience one out of the four objects that relate to such things as destruction, war etc.

Just like the hearing experience, they will touch the object for 1 minute, and proceed to write down their first impressions/thoughts/emotions

Untitled (The Bed) and Old England (2007) (Smell)

This drawing will be explored through smell. The smells we will choose will represent life itself.

After smelling the scent for a minute and then write down their first impressions/thoughts/emotions

Antecedent practices

Marina Abromovic – Influenced our curiosity of using the human body as a focus in a performance.

Blast Theory –Interested us with involving the spectators within the performance and allowing them to be the centre of the process. As a group we enjoyed the idea of technology in the ways that Blast Theory use, by having a performance that explores the ways in which technology ‘lend themselves to a certain type of intimacy’; And inspired by their concept in which they used for their performance Ghostwriter: ‘A million objects give rise to a million thoughts’. Using conventions from this performance by making the participants hear another opinion/story which may shape the way they originally portrayed a piece of art.

Pigeon Theatre– Inspired by The Smell of Envy, using the idea of smell to create original thoughts in response to a subject.

Due to over complicating our idea we caused confusion over our general idea. So in a following meeting we decided to collect our ideas and form a new performance. We want to concentrate on the idea of the ‘male gaze’ and what we find attractive and why? The connection with this within the Usher Gallery is because most artwork in there is created by men about women, therefore how men see women. In our performance we then want to explore this and make the audience become more aware of this.

Image from: http://www.womensagenda.com.au/images/stories/flexicontent/m_pitching_ideas.jpg