Week Four: a narrative turned performance

So I decided to use the recollection of an actual event that happened in my space and use it to create the basis for a performance piece, keeping in mind I have absolutely no knowledge of performance art when it comes to the making of a performance, I really only have a bit of knowledge about the theoretical concepts behind certain works.

Right, so... THE EVENT:
It's nothing all that dramatic and life changing but while walking up there one day I decided to sit on this massive square flat rock in the sun to have a rest right near the flat that is my chosen sight. After a minute or so this little snake slithers out of the bushes on the opposite side of the track from me and stops to bathe in the sun right across the track. Now even though this was only a little snake, here I was marooned on a rock, unable to move for fear of dying in the middle of nowhere. I could jump onto the track because I would have been in striking distance of the snake and I couldn't jump behind me because there was a giant bush behind me. So I was stuck. Luckily the snake moved along pretty quickly and I don't think it was even aware of my existence.

THE IDEA-
So this event got me thinking about how it would be interesting to base a movement piece around the emotion of fear and the effect it has on different people. For example, in this event it made me freeze, unable to move or think of a way out. Some people face fear with a more head on attack approach and others have the first instinct to run. In making the performance site specific I would get the performers to react to the natural objects around them. Jumping off rocks, running away from trees and being frozen with fear over the movement of a branch. This is probably more of a site generic installation if you don't take into account my personal experience but it is still a response to an event the site where it happened.

Week Three- Denis Wood and Janet Cardiff

Week three we had presentations on Denis Wood and Janet Cardiff. Seeing as I did the presentation on Wood, it's pretty easy for me to come to the conclusion that his early work doesn't really fit into my chosen area. His early work is minimalist industrial based work and to use my outdoor, natural area as a basis for this sort of work doesn't really sound right. His later work in cartography would be a brilliant way of approaching my site, or any site for that matter. His maps of his childhood neighborhood shows that he has a personal connection with the area, just as I have a personal connection with my chosen space. Wood tends to map the things that people don't normally notice like the street lights, Halloween lanterns and the route that the underground pipes take. In keeping with this theme, if I were to map this area I would not go for the typical markings like the trees and bushes that surround the flat. I would map things like the line that the sun takes over the clearing, the path I take to get to my favourite spot. I could also map small things like the placement of the animal droppings or the animal made tracks and paths over the clearing to show the type of natural place this is.

As for the work of Janet Cardiff she has already created a work perfectly designed for a setting such as mine. Her 2012 work called FOREST (for a thousand years...) is a sound installation in a forest that goes for around 28 minutes before it loops back to the start. This idea of an installation piece that engages through the sound of the audio and the sight of the space around you, the feel, smell and taste of the fresh air and your surroundings would be an overwhelming experience.