Govan introduced the idea of the place being ‘known’ by the performer and posed questions like; how long until we know the site? How long until you can lie about a space? What happens when a site specific performance is moved? These questions delve into the actual reasoning of the site of a performance being specific. He wrote about Foucault and the performance by IOU that was based within a hospital. This was based around Foucault’s reasoning of seeing patients as their illness and not as individuals. IOU reacted to this to address its belonging to inequality. They used real experiences from patients in the hospital and turned headphones into drip bags. They considered the site as a contested space as a hospital, to them, is a place between health and death and where physical and emotion battles are fought, both for the patient and the doctors/staff. I read a book called Musicophilia written by Oliver Sacks that speaks about music is a static fragrance in the mind that ignores situations like dementia. In this, he spoke about Foucault’s ideas of identity being lost when diseases and illnesses are contracted. He slandered this idea as, if anything, neurotic and/or internal issues can allow you to show sections of your person that haven’t been seen before – out of the horror, there are still glimpses of beauty.

The reading also referenced Lonetwin and their ownership of space and aspects of negativity in the space. This is in relation to their piece Walk with Me, where they walked for paid employment but found local citizens walking with them in their own spare time. This posed an issue within a site-specific piece as they may be engaging in performance, but the site is familiar or relatable to them, giving the participation a sense of ownership.

The most relevant reading to my piece would be Rebecca Schneider’s Reperformance. She writes about archives being more valued than the actual event, and in relation my site performance, the archives ARE the performance. The performance itself, drinking tea with locals from Lincoln, will have finished and we only have the documentation as remembrance and proof. The archives are the Reperformance, as the performance will have been done one hundred times before the instillation can take place.

Works cited:

–          Lord, B., 2006. Museum and society. University of Dundee. Available at: https://blackboard.lincoln.ac.uk/bbcswebdav/pid-928440-dt-content-rid-1720812_2/courses/DRA2035M-1415/DRA2035M-1415_ImportedContent_20141103010200/Foucault%20%26%20museum.pdf [Accessed 22nd March 2015)

–          Govan – Revisioning Places. Available at: https://blackboard.lincoln.ac.uk/bbcswebdav/pid-928346-dt-content-rid-1720819_2/courses/DRA2035M-1415/DRA2035M-1415_ImportedContent_20141103010200/govan%20revisioning%20place.pdf?target=blank [Accessed 22nd March 2015]

–          Govan – Routes and Roots. Available at: https://blackboard.lincoln.ac.uk/bbcswebdav/pid-928347-dt-content-rid-1720820_2/courses/DRA2035M-1415/DRA2035M-1415_ImportedContent_20141103010200/govan%20routes%20and%20roots.pdf?target=blank [Accessed 22nd March 2015]