It’s been a little while since my last post and that’s mainly because I contravened my rule of not doing any unrelated performances. And so, last night I found myself interpreting four performance scores from 1970 in a cold warehouse gallery in Norwich, having spent the preceding week feverishly trying to publicise the event. On top of this, it’s been a busy week for the project.
On the 13th I travelled down to the New Wolsey Theatre in Ipswich to deliver my Harmony flyers and to take a look at the stage. The staff are lovely, and have reassured me that my original concern about performing in a venue with 400 seats was unfounded because for PULSE they curtain off some of the space to make a more intimate 100-seater studio theatre. Phew. I’d been gearing up to it just to be prepared, but the performance is designed to involve participants and focused listening, and is therefore much better in a smaller set-up. I have been drawing pictures of my stage plan so I don’t get into a muddle with the vast amount of AV equipment I’m planning on using (see photos).
Another bit of good news is that via DACS I now have permission by the Estate of Remedios Varo to use a projected image of the painting in the performance. This is a huge relief, and although it will cost a bit in licensing fees it is going to be essential for the audience to see a high-quality reproduction in the absence of the actual painting.
On the 20th I went to London to see some exhibitions, and was very excited to see Jeremy Deller pass me on the escalator at Liverpool Street Station. To celebrate, I went to Oxford Street to test out the functioning of my Pin Drop hypothesis. Not really: I was going there anyway to do that. I was just extra excited. I have decided that the only fair way to decide if you can hear a pin drop is to not look at it hit the floor. It’s significantly easier to imagine a sound (or mentally amplify it) if you can see the source. So, I dropped two pins whilst looking surreptitiously into shop windows and the results are as follows:
1. Corner of Berners Street/Oxford Street, looking into Waterstone’s window: You can’t hear a pin drop.
2. Corner of Oxford Market/Market Place, looking at information post: You can hear a pin drop. But only just.
I also tried it outside Queen Elizabeth Hall and couldn’t hear anything, but that has a funny gravelly concrete floor surface so I wonder if that affects it? I will do a study on different surfaces too, just to be fair.
