- Venue
- Broadway Media Centre
- Location
- East Midlands
This was not the first time that Open City took a group of participants to the streets of Nottingham, and it was the variety of interesting comments in response to previous performances that inspired my own engagement with this one day performance piece.
This ongoing project set up by artists Andrew Brown and Katie Doubleday began in the Broadway Media Centre in Nottingham as part of the eagerly anticipated and innovative fourth Radiator art festival – this year entitled ‘Exploits in the Wireless City’. Radiator this year focused on the progressive development of wireless networks within cities and invited artists to respond to our evolving position, simultaneously as individuals and networks, within a space. As one event in a ten day series of exhibitions, performances, discussions and lectures, Open City: Guided Walk took a physical journey through the city on a busy Saturday afternoon, in an attempt to encourage intervention ‘between the conscious and the habitual’ (Radiator Festival accompanying booklet).
A set of instructions were posted on the Radiator website prior to the event, detailing the necessary technical equipment needed and the short route to be undertaken on the day in the form of a hand-drawn map. The walk would be guided by a pre-recorded sound file featuring the voices of both Andrew Brown and Katie Doubleday, and was to be downloaded by individuals attending the walk. Therefore, this tour of sorts would be personal in the sense of being loaded onto ones own mp3 device and divulged into your ears only, yet simultaneously part of a group narrative, directing other anonymous members of the group with the same instructions. I was unsure whether to listen to the recording before embarking on the performance, especially in not knowing what to expect, but I decided to take the risk of leaving my part in the event a mystery up until the moment itself.
Saturday came, and participants were instructed to gather in one of two rooms within the Broadway Media Centre to watch digital clocks, in order to begin the recording at precisely the same second. Being myself in the bustling restaurant & bar on the ground floor, I looked nervously around wondering who here had signed up for the same rapidly approaching performance. A fumbling with mp3 headphones and an unfolding of maps soon signaled a few individuals, coupled with the twitching of heads in the direct of the clock, counting down to 15.05.00. It was miraculous then, when the moment came, to know that you were hearing the same voice at the same exact moment, in your ears as these various others were. Immediately feeling part of an anonymous collective, we left the building on simple instruction, spreading ourselves along the pavements presumably so as not to form too obvious a group. Within a short time the wireless voices guiding us lead us to a slow walk and then a halt, creating a eerie feeling of collective thought amongst those you have never even met.
Needless to say the reaction of the public reflected this, with reactions varying from outrage and disgust (‘They shouldn’t be allowed to do this here! It’s a public space!’), to bewilderment and amusement (‘They’re waiting for some kind of signal…what are they all looking at?’). Along the course of the half-hour performance, different instructions caused us all at once to look into the air, sometimes with eyes closed, other times to walk in single file. It was this last direction in particular that made me finally aware of just how many individuals made up this strange, outwardly silent group.
The police took an interest in our wireless intervention in the manic pulse of weekend city life, casually picking up our journey and watching with barely concealed interest as we walked, stopped, looked, turned. Whether they were notified previously or happened upon us coincidentally, members of the public took the opportunity to appeal to them for information on our unfamiliar procession, and I can only imagine what they suggested to them as explanation. As I expected, some took our performance as protest, whereas others mistook us for a flash mob – groups which normally perform an unusual or unexpected action for a short amount of time and then disperse, with the aim to surprise and shock. I suppose the difference here was that the feelings of the participants appeared the focal point, allowing individuals to really listen to the city that they breeze through every day, and allowing them the time and a collective space to absorb the environment they inhabit.
