Site Development Week 1 & 2

When initially devising in our space we decided to remove all the objects that cluttered and caused safety hazards and began to explore the empty space, exploring the perspective that this space could offer for us. We didn't just explore the space but the factors around the space such as the sounds that can be heard from outside and around the space and how clear those were, I did this through sitting in the space for 5 mins silently observing the sounds with my eyes closed in  order to heighten my other senses and allow me to find the heart of the atmosphere.

Here are some words that sprang to mind:

• dust
• decay
• children
• footsteps
• enclosed
• suffocated
• corporate
• whine
• moan
• mental
• closed
• open
• paradox
• crisp
• nobbled
• stone
• reverberate

 Also the use of light that we have explored in our Theatre Workshop lessons from studying Artaud, this taught us the importance of light, there being a green light in the enclosed space we decided that this creates dark and sinister atmosphere in the room and that we could possibly explore the meaning behind green lights and so I researched further. It automatically clicked the association between a Green Light and the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel "Great Gatsby" that I have been studying in English Literature.

"To Gatsby, the green light represents his dream" 
http://thegreatgatsbysandm.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/green-light.html

The idea of a dream like state enticed me and my peer Felix offered the idea of exploring Artaud's 18 Seconds, the idea that a display of something from a mans head will take 18 seconds for him to see but for it to be reprojected it will take an hour or two. We listened to this clip in our space and the ideas formed for many of us to use this space as a display of someones mind and the audience being able to see the person who's mind it is attached to the walls by wires and the things that occur outside of the walls would be what he is seeing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YShtXbIbrW0

We also liked the idea of shadow and silhouette that this room produced and used the objects that were found inside the room as a barricade to prevent the light getting in, it gave it a moody and jealous feel and we began to find connotations of jealousy and a dungeon like quality to it also. I found the space incredibly malleable in both sessions and that it as a simple space had interesting and diverse features, but it still had an intricacy and clean feel also. Choosing this space was useful because it meant that we could increasingly test and develop ideas and I felt less attached with them as I went along, because of our groups ability to contribute and change as we continued to discuss further possibilities and directions we could take with this piece.