Week 3

Week 3

We began this class by talking about last weeks readings and in the following group discussion a lot of points were made which helped me to understand the readings as when i read them alone i found these two particularly  hard to grasp.

We then started working on our piece, as we were in a very large group of around 8 people it proved very difficult to get everyone to concentrate and focus their efforts but a few of us separated ourselves from the main group and began brainstorming.
we came up with the idea to get people to stop for a cup of tea and a biscuit and find out about them, exploring ideas of self-identity and communal perception.

Then we went on a walk just around the corner to a rooftop space where a previous performance had been held. there was two brick walls painted with words that the inscribers wished someone had told them. i felt that this showed us as a class that a performance doesn't have to be a performance in the general traditional sense, but it can also be a thing you wouldn't generally regard as a performance.

After the car park Claire took us to the steps outside Stratford station to observe and to also scout for a location in which our performance could be held, this seemed to be a day in which most of the people in class had very low energy as i remember most people just sat on the steps complaining about how cold it was/tired they were, nevertheless our group solidified our plans to do our performance inside Stratford market.

Banes, S (1993) ‘Equality Celebrates the Ordinary in Johnstone, S (2008) The Everyday – Documents of Contemporary Art, London and Massachusetts: Whitechapel & MIT Press pp.113-119

Banes starts off by talking about egalitarianism and john cage, john cage created music using objects found around the house and his view was that the noises made by these homemade instruments were just as likeable as noises made from purpose-built musical instruments.

In that time in society, the usual was praised and the unusual cast aside and ignored, with this Banes then elaborates on Cage again stating that the work of Cage changed the norm into popular culture and performances from after then started to focus on everyday actions too. 

Sheringham, M (2007) ‘Configuring the Everyday’ in Johnstone, S (2008) The Everyday – Documents of Contemporary Art, London and Massachusetts: Whitechapel & MIT Press pp.141-147

Sheringham starts off asking the question ''should we pay attention to the everyday?'' the 'everyday' is a compilation of constructs, happenings and things that bond us as we nearly all experience them. Sherringham then goes on to say that these everyday actions  should not be ignored, as the everyday actions we do play a vital role in our possibly new everyday actions for the future.