Session 8: Performance and Globalization

Focusing on the ideas we looked at in our session on performance and the city, we explored the Stratford centre through the lens of both spatiality and movement, and globalization. Firstly we walked through the space as one group and looked at how other people reacted to us as well as experimenting with different speeds. Here are my observations:

When we entered the Stratford centre I noticed that a few people looked at us with confusion. This may have been because the majority of people in the centre were walking as individuals or in much smaller groups. Although we got a few strange looks, for the most part people seemed unconcerned and just continued with their business.

Nextly, we did this same exercise in pairs while focusing on 2-3 square meters of the space. My partner and I focused on the largest and most open part of the centre which was in the middle of all the shops. We firstly stood still in the space and observed, and no one seemed to acknowledge us particularly. Then we tried leaving the space and walking back in to it, and got a similar reaction. When we tried walking around the space in a circle rather than just going from one place to another, a few people did seem confused at what we were doing. The fact that our walk had no purpose or destination seemed to make people curious and they seemed more interested, a few people watched as they walked past. We also experimented with pace and tried walking faster and slower. The faster we walked, the more people seemed to pay attention to us, perhaps because this isn't something you would see in this space on a daily basis. When I did this as an individual, no one really acknowledged me. This shows that when you do something as an ensemble, it can be much more powerful and really grab peoples attention due to their curiosity. This has got me thinking about breaking barriers of peoples expectations. Why can't you walk around in a circle? Why is it abnormal to be in a group of 10 or 20 people? Would it be "normal" to do this anywhere else? What is "normal"? I will be considering these question in the lead up to my performance and would like to focus on doing non conventional things in a very "normal" and public space, where this type of ensemble would not be anticipated.