(yf150, 2010)
After playing with the idea of celebrating all of the Drill Hall’s history through an interactive time capsule that explored key moments of the building’s past in a tour of the senses, we accepted that this concept may become too complicated and that keeping things simple can in some cases be better. The military history intrigues me most and I would like to expand on the idea of polishing some boots while performing a text however with a group of 4 this may become quite repetitive and too static.
In our third discussion over a basic concept for a performance, we decided on footprints as our stimulus because we were interested in the idea of prints from the boots soles being exhibited to represent the drills and the soldiers’ history that is left behind, therefore bringing the past into the present with a performance installation. As we also wish to incorporate audio into our idea, we thought about looking at war poems like the one above – Dulce et Decorum est.
(Hartemink, 1996)
Not only could we make boot prints before our performance as well as during, we also have considered incorporating the audience by re-creating a recruitment process, whereby we would ask audience members to take the boot we provide and make a print themselves which they can sign, leading them to recognise that the prints symbolise soldiers who were regular civilians just like them. Once the hall is filled with prints (which will have been placed to look like soldiers performing drills) we would like to rearrange the prints into an image. Currently, we are contemplating between the outline of Lincolnshire so as to connect it directly to the Drill hall, and a Fleur de Lis which is featured on the walls in the Drill hall’s cafe and is on Lincoln’s coat of arms. However, we still need to contemplate how we will break down our idea in pre-performance, performance and post-performance.
Work Cited
Hartemink, R. (1996) Lincoln. [online] Netherlands: Heraldry of the World. Available from: http://www.ngw.nl/heraldrywiki/index.php?title=Lincoln [Accessed on 2nd March 2015].
yt150. (2010) Poetry Analysis Wilfred Owen: Dulce Et Decorum Est. [online] London: TES Global Ltd. Available from: https://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/poetry-analysis-wilfred-owen-dulce-et-decorum-est-6038977 [Accessed on 2nd March 2015].