Arts of Urban Exploration

This reading highlights some interesting points about exploring urban spaces through artistic practices. In a society an artist can not just freely approach any space they wish and use it artistically. Unfortunately we live in a world where there are laws and what some people’s interpretation of fun activities, cohesion and solidarity, through performance in a community, are disruptions to others. If a group of artists want to come together in a chosen public space and use certain architecture around them, they need to be aware of their boundaries. Public space is used by the public based around the norms and values that are set by a society. So when that space is used for a marching riot, or artists acting in the middle of a road, this situation becomes unfamiliar to what is the norm and could be classed as an obstruction.

It also discussed how we write the city as artist, by doing certain artistic activities. How the people add a new layers of history to the space or city, by engaging with their surrounding in an unfamiliar fashion. Creating a space where accessibility is open to more people, in the way they observe or experience, space, place and objects around new interventions. This becomes a new piece of history to new audiences in how we explore and use our city. We also discover new emotions in how we critically analyse our city, from the ways we set out to behave as people towards out surroundings. How we use the space of a city is never ending because there is so much for us to explore and absorb. Even though there is a lot of space to use, artists have to take into account that, big corporations and people of the law can limit this, if we don’t interact and make them aware of our purpose of the space.

As activists, situationists and artists engaging performance with the urban city, we delve so far into the history that surrounds us, when re-enacted sometimes this process can create critical discourse within it’s community. I believe the art form is a risk but also portrays some interesting blurred political lines, within a society. For example Guy Debord discovered that France was segregated through class and demonstrated this through a map. Revealing that where France had been reconstructed in cities such as Paris, with new buildings the working class people did not suit this new formation. The working class were moved to the outskirts of France and the wealthy people remained within the reformed areas. This type of art form can provoke angry responses from audience members also create conflict within a country or community.

As an artist this when exploring urban spaces or creating my situationist map, I need to be aware of the social and political state around the areas and spaces I choose to research. The main question this reading has highlighted for me is, what message do I want to send out to my audience. Also when I have researched enough in depth what do I is right to portray to my audience, as an artist.

excavating my chosen square metre site that retrieves memories

My chosen site is my back garden because when I moved into my new house, the back garden is the first place I met my housemate, who I have built a strong friendship with. I use this space to think and clear my head when I feel stressed. Looking up at the sky always wondering where the planes destination ends, is one specific thing I do when in this space. There is a glass jar that sits on an abandoned table filled with cigarette ends and I never empty it, because it reminds me of when me and my housemate have had personal convosations in this space.

There is a motorbike that belongs to the neighbours and it always reminds me of the day I was going to call the police because, I thought a stranger was driving around my garden on it. There are very big orange plant pots that have been dumped at the back of my garden and are ignored by my neighbours. The fencing is fairly new and there is a big gap at the end of it, that leads into my neighbours garden. They have constant access to my garden and use it occasionally. There is a rusty bike resting up against a plastic water tank, that is situated on the right hand side of the garden. There is green and white metal shed to the back of my garden on the right and it surprises me why my neighbours, do not put their junk in there.

My neighbours on the right always keep to the themselves, they make little conversation with me. The guy that lives there probably thinks I’m weird because one night, around 11 o’clock I was chucking stones at my house mates window, to let him know I was out the back having a smoke.

When the weather was nice and the sun was out all house members cooked BBQ food in the garden, with drinks and loud music. It was nice because it is a place we all feel comfortably and kept our little party private.

Potlatch, Psychogeography, Derive and Detournement

This reading gives the reader an insight to the fascinating activities, artists and theorists have shared from their experimental work, in Psychogeography around the urban city. Psychogeography that was defined by situationist Guy Debord is a technique on how people explore urban environments by drifting around, building a relationship with their surroundings and finding new discoveries. It also shares information on the history of the French Journal called ‘Internationale Lettriste’ who published unique ideas for Psychogeography, Detournement and the derive. They also proposed that street lights should having switches on them, allowing residents to control them. I find this very odd in some respects but I know this is because it is not the norm in our everyday life. I do not agree with it because not all people in society behave in a manner, where they would not like to harm others and people having this control who abuse it could cause harm to others. The journal changed to ‘Potlatch’ that was influenced by anthropologist Marcel Mauss, who’s work studied the exchange of gifts between tribes of British Columbia and Alaska.

This conscious study also allows a person to become aware of the way our everyday life is controlled. The journeys we take everyday are for a purpose, we create a routine and sub-consciously do this on a daily basis. So the urban environments specific effects and laws, control the behaviour and emotions of individuals. But when artists or people take time to drift and delve into specific environments that draw their attention, creating new pathways could highlight the zones that are normally neglected.

The reading also discusses ‘Psychogeography’ the act of people who exploring the urban environment through curiosity absorbing the space around them and stumble upon by chance. This makes the finer details of a space, or even lost objects more noticeable. I believe this is correct to your conscious approach and slower pace, that will make finer details of your surroundings more noticeable and will give you the time to take pleasure in them. A point made in the reading is that people’s relationships with architecture, social and political can be described as psychogeographical. This is due to the peoples emotions and behaviour that engage with the geographical environment. How they use it and why, also what they connection they make and memories they leave behind.

This is followed by the term ‘derive’ which means drifting and deliberately trying to lose oneself in the city. ‘Derive’ was seen as a mode of experimental behaviour linked to the conditions of urban society and examples of this were regularly published.

Following thes concepts, Potlacth also discussed the theory of ‘Detournement’. This is defined as involving the transformation of both everyday ephemera and significant cultural products and old master paintings which would then be re-presented within a new artistic context.

Looking at this article, researching these concepts will definitely add something extra to creating our performance as I would have covered other angles. Each theory is highlighted in the work our class is hoping to do so developing them further will be very interesting.

My independent research for my performance

I went to the Dalston archive to do some further research on the two specific buildings that interested me on my drift. I started by asking the lady working in the archive if I could view the oldest maps she has, on the area of the canal and South-gate road, where the buildings are situated. These are some of the maps I viewed with the dates and development of the area. The maps also reveal how the area has developed, what buildings were destroyed and new builds that appear on a later date. I you observe closely the Thomas bros building expands on the space it is using and states, the building was being used as a factory.

This is the area in 1839

This is the are in 1862

This is the location in 1935

The talk about the Situationists map

It was really nice to create a map of all the interesting locations, buildings and spaces we discovered. I was surprised when we created then discussed our creative map, the details we remembered from the walk. We were conscious to our surroundings and painted a geographic memory of the places that really stood out for us. I feel an instant relationship with the Thomas Bros building already because, I took the time to stop and talk to people using and living the building. Standing in the landlords office and having a friendly conversation about the history could mean I have left my mark on that building. I was there for a reason, I discussed my interests and I learnt something about my surroundings. Being spontaneous and just drifting but not knowing where we would end up, or what we what find made the experience more exciting. This made me more observant to my surroundings and made it easier to spot some interesting architecture.

A drift of specific sites/ ideas for my project

Today I took a walk along the Regents canal observing the buildings ans space around me. The first building that stood out for me was called Thomas Bros on South-gate road. It was built in eighteenth centure and has been used for numerous businesses. I had the opportunity of talking to the landlord of the building who informed me that the building was used for textile and fabric printing, manufacturing tents for the army and now different spaces are rented out as artist studios. The building still holds all of it’s original brick work and has not had much refurbishment done to the inside. one half of the building is now a cafe for the public. The landlord of the building give us as much information as he could remember about the building, but I will now go back to Dalston library and research the building further. I will definitely be using this building on my tour guide.

The second building that stood out for me was the Rosemary Branch Theatre That has a more contemporary look to it, than the first building observed. I feel there is a lot of history behind this building and would like to research how it looked when it was first built, what it was previously used for and what memories it may hold. I aim to find further information about this building in the Dalston archive.

My whole journey was interesting as the landscape was beautiful. I felt the canal split the area, separating the original buildings to one side and the more more modern build to the other. The canal has multiple canal barges with old brickwork around it. There are mini bridges over the canal with original brick work and there are multiple desire lines created by the public. I feel this is a person having a relationship with the landscape and leaving a scar.

Map of my walk to the station

Recorded walks to the station with obstruction

Walk 1: I stepped out of my front door and there were three bins obstructing my path way. I moved the bins back to their correct spot and turned left out on to the street. The wind was blowing viciously and I could hear a high pitched ringing sound in my ears. I observed there is a lot of general waste scattered on the path way of my street, which makes the area look really untidy. There are cars parked bumper to bumper along each curb side, either side of the road. All of the houses look the same apart from one mint green house, that really stands out amongst the rest. There was a dog ripping open a residents bin bags at the end of my street, whilst barking and growling as different waste was falling out.
Turning left walking past the construction site I observed big bags of cement being moved by a JCB and on the other side of the road children played outside the local news agents. There are numerous houses on this street that have signs advertising spare rooms to let. When I continued to walk past the construction site a guy put his hand up to be, indicating me to stop. This is because another load of cement was being transported from behind a big wall.

When I eventually got passed I turned right on to the main road and found myself walking behind a guy with earphones in. He was rapping rather loudly and doing small head gestures. As I carried on walking I began to listen to people passing me on their mobile phones and not one of them were talking english. It stood out to me at that moment that I live in an area where most of the people in my area are Indian. The Northcote pub was empty and there were empty glasses left on a table outside. I noticed there are signs on this road indicating it,s a one way street. All the houses on this road also look the same and they do not even have pretty gardens, just cluttered drive-ways or just a path to the front door. Then I passed a bus stop with two young girls waiting both using their mobile phones, while they were waiting for the bus. I took a left turn onto a short street that has big trees either-side of the road and where the branch has grown out of the ground, the pavement has risen and moulded around the branches. This could result in a person falling over if they do not observe carefully where they are walking.

Turning left on the road that leads to the station is really noisy, from the passing vehicles and pedestrians talking. The pace of things around me become so fast on this road. There are continuous horns beeping from cars and buses obstructing each other. Visually it’s much brighter from the retail park that sits behind the station. I can see the big illuminous supermarket signs projecting their store names. There are bright blue railings on each side of the path way leading up to the station and just outside, was a guy in a bright orange jacket, selling the big issue. He approached me asking if I wanted to buy a magazine, I refused and walked into the station.

Walk 2: There was a slight shock as I walked out of my door today, as there was a fairly large fox standing by my wall. I jumped with fright an the fox ran across the road. I turned left and started my walk towards the end of my street, where it was fairly quiet compared to other days. This is maybe due to the fact it was getting dark and was around 6 o’clock. Turning left out of my street the men were packing away materials from the building site and thankfully, no diggers were obstructing my walk way. I carried on towards then end of the road turning right out onto a busy road, where cars were cueing bumper to bumper down the road. Three guys appeared in front of me removing a table from a van that was parked in the road. Passing the pub on my right three guys were laughing and joking, whilst sitting on wooden benches outside, smoking cigarettes. I carried on walking down the road listening to cars beeping their horns in frustration, due to the busy traffic. It was very windy and the on either side of the road were blowing side to side.

Turning left at the end of the road on to a small quiet street, where two people were chatting to each other from their doorsteps. This was nice to see as it reminded me of my street back in Wales. As I walked past the lady on her doorstep smiles at me whilst nodding her head. At the end of the road I turn left, which brought me out on to the main high street that is a, big contrast compared to the other streets I’ve walked through. There is so much noise from the cars, people talking, shouting and the bus’s engine roaring with a loud horn noise coming from the breaks. People are rushing past me, bumping in to each other and the majority of them are on their mobile phones. Approaching the station I realised I needed to top up my Oyster card, which left me cuing for ten minutes as it was so busy. The station is quite small, so many people are squashing up against each other, un patiently waiting to get through the barrier for their trains. There was a guy shouting in the the station who looked highly intoxicated, asking people if they had any spare change. In the station to the left is a tiny sweet stall, where people were lined up to buy refreshments and papers and the man is quite friendly. Standing waiting to top up my Oyster card absorbing this atmosphere, has opened my eyes to how much I purposely ignore of my surroundings, on a daily basis.

Site Exercises As ways of telling, As ways of doing by Mike Pearson

These exercises indicate that it is important to share valuable information about ones self. What is specifically interesting about you and why. Sharing experiences and meories you have encountered that are personal, portrays to a person there is a lot of history about you. People who have scars have them for a reason, there is a story behind it and while this appears on the body for the rest of your life, it will always retrieve that memory of how it got there.

This applies to a person when they enter a building what information does it share with you. is there a story why half of the building has it’s original materials from when it was build, and the other half has been renewed. What relationships, experiences and situations have ocured in this building and that describes it’s history and the memories it holds. There is always something specific you will remember about a building it will have a scar that stood out to you.

Pearson, M. (2010) Site-Specific Performance. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillian

Mike Pearson White House Yard

Pearson created a performance with mike Brookes for St Margaret church in the village of Sonov situated close to the town called Broumov, Czech Republic. In the eighteenth and nineteenth century it was commissioned by German Benedictine monks. He collaborated with the theatre group Mamapapa from Prague, as there was many issues involved in locating performance within heritage. Also the sensitive surroundings within this village so they would need to employ their work in a interpretive medium. The agricultural village has had many cultural and political changes throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth century, due to the many wars that have taken place. A big factor that took place was in the twentieth century when many people who lived in Broumov that remained using the German language ,refused to accept citizenship of Czechoslovakia and, following the Munich agreement September 1983, agreeing to giving up their rights of Sudetenland.

Due to this German monks were removed from the churches and relocated with two and a half million other Sudeten Germans, to Germany and Austria. There was no German people left in Sonov and Churches were locked and forgotten about, leaving them to deteriorate for over fifty years. The churches were reopened in 2001 for one week being used for lectures and artistic presentations. This was allowed so people in the community could see a strength and development of relationships, between the people and the local landscapes. It was also supported so the people of the community could gain a knowledge of their own roots.

Pearson chose to stage his performance through an intervention both transitory and ephemeral, the lightest touch. He achieved this through mediated imagery and video projection in a community that uses very little technology. By the use of technology he was able to project his gathered research of the church and project it back to his audience in an anachronistic way, by projecting the history of different time periods in different rooms of the church. This was because the rooms that had been refurbished to a more contemporary look that portrayed a re-enactment of it’s lost tradition, could surface memories that layered underneath this new look and cause conflict with existing inhabitants.

He took mini interviews from local people in the area asking if they knew where the church was and half of the community had no idea it existed.

Pearson, M. (2006). In comes I. Performance, Memory and Landscape. Exeter. Exeter press

This project has encouraged me to think carefully in the way I present my performance. Research in depth into the spaces I choose to use. Because sometimes communities have suffered certain political and cultural changes and certain buildings, have had a big part in that change. I understand now that just because a building that was once used as a religious space and in the present day lacks religious resonance, can not be portrayed as a bad thing. I need to represent what was good about a certain building or space in the past, meets the needs for the people using it in our present day today. This is whether it is being used and named something different, but the important thing is the history will never be forgotten.