At first I thought that site specific was about putting on a performance in the place where it was set (such as ‘Look back in anger’ performed in a basement flat with the audience at the opposite end of the action) or for its purpose (so the Drill Hall for a performance in the auditorium about theatre). I vaguely knew that the Drill Hall a military history so assumed the piece would be about the link between military/war and theatre/performance.
After reading ‘Site Specific’ by Mike Pearson I realised that the performance was based on the site and that the site was the performance, rather than the site being empty awaiting a performance to bring it to life. Rather than the performance being made by its content, the site itself and its history make the piece with research creating the performance.
A site can be anywhere or anything as everywhere has a history with individual stories and relations. It doesn’t have to be a physical place or space, if it’s thought of as a site, it is a site. It is only by researching these stories and relations that the site comes alive and without the research, the site is just a place with an unknown history.
The infinite amount of stories means that so much can get missed for trying to find as much out as possible and so by focusing on one aspect, feature or individual history, you can find out more about the site and its history than by general research.