What did you think about today on your way to work?
What do you look at when travelling to and from work?
What do you hear or listen to when on your way to work?
What do you think about the sounds of London?
How would you describe London to you, for example, is it your home/working place/where you live?
How often do you stop when travelling around London?
I sent the questionnaire round to people, who worked 9-5, it was important to me that I received answers from the people who would make up a majority of the passersby during my piece. I speak about Waking up the Sleepwalking City, but to do so, I need to understand the politics on the body. This is something I’ve spoken about in my previous blogs, every day we walk along socially constructed routes via socially constructed ways of walking which affect what we see, creating this herd like nature of people in the city. My work is to invite people to resist the status quo which renders us asleep, but instead act out our desires, and be an individual within the collective, even if it is momentarily.
So to understand the asleep city, I sent round the questionnaire, asking about the use of sight and sounds in the everyday, to see how narrowed the everyday city inhabitant’s relationship is to the city due to these restrictions put onto our bodies. Many answers for the first question “What did you think about today on your way to work?” revolved around work, which is something inevitable. Everyone has to go to work to earn a wage, to live, which is the reason behind the nature of the ‘sleepwalk’; it is not necessarily a choice, but a consequence of this Capitalist lifestyle. I need to be aware of this, and how this affects the everyday body and its relationship to the surroundings. I want to speak to these people, take their words and use them in a way that creates a dialogue with the asleep, inviting them to momentarily relate to the surroundings, not as a hindrance, but rather as a way to brighten their day, become that individual, rather than another sheep in the herd.
The answers for “What do you look at when travelling to and from work?” were mainly directed at people and roads, and sights that were on the same level as one’s eyes, rather than directed towards the sky or ground. However, there were answers that related to nature and ‘lingering’ on sights, however, this was often then contrasted by the fact that the people did so through the lens of a camera. Unlike my dancers, who have learnt how they see, and really been able to pick parts of the landscape to connect to. The sounds of London were described as ‘noisy’, used as a derogatory word, many people suggesting they cover it up with their own music. I was very interested to see how people related to London, as a home or as a place of work, there was quite an equal divide between people who saw it was a home and people who saw it as a place they live/for work. For me, this shows the extent of the sleepwalking city, and how much work has drowned ones desires into a machine for work. The answers to “How often do you stop when travelling around London?” reiterated this, as many people stated how they only stopped when they were forced to, and similar to the sights, when they did stop, it was through the lens of a camera in order to take a photo.
I divided the answers into ‘Awake’ and ‘Asleep’ answers, as I wanted to contrast the responses and invite the spectator/passersby to relate to the answers, as well as seeing the other point of view, possibly to see what they are missing. I don’t think people are metaphorically asleep because they choose to be, but instead, we all a mixture of the two, but in most circumstances the ‘asleep’ has proceeded due to the power of rules in our society to act a certain way.
I created two characters which spoke the verbatim, Alice, took on the ‘awake’ responses and Chloe assumed the “asleep” answers. This meant that Alice’s answers included connections to the city, via stopping, looking and enjoying what London has to offer, and Chloe’s character used the questionnaire responses that were based around work and rushing.
We started off by experimenting with the script abstracted and in sentences, in order to create a relationship between the two characters and their scripts. We improvised with moving in the corresponding ways. So, Alice, who took on the ‘awake’ responses, was experimenting with contrasting pedestrian movements and eye lines whilst saying the words. Whereas, Chloe, explored with dissecting and understanding pedestrian movement whilst saying her words; this is when the contrast really came out of the words. Chloe began to speed up a lot of her words, and used breath a lot, and Alice was really slow and sweetly spoken.
I then minimised this, so they just saw and responded with script to me asking them the questionnaire? They then took all this energy and understanding from experimenting into smaller gestures and becoming a slightly exaggerated version of that character, awake or asleep. For the piece, I took away me asking the questions, but instead they looked at the passersby/spectators and responded to them as if they were asking them a question, in order to really build a connection between the performers and watchers.
The words were revisited later on in the piece with the two dancers being attached and conversing with each other, this was to represent one person but the direct pull between two states of being, one wanting to stop and appreciate, and the other in a rush. This became the hardest to accomplish, because the dancers were working with each other rather than against, it became exciting when they were really pulling from each other and creating images that saw this passion.
The voice outside became problematic; because I was not working with people who were vocally trained or actors it meant that their voices often became lost under the hustle of London, rather than being an accompaniment. We worked with Experience Bryon who did a workshop around her techniques using the 3-part breath; this enables one to take the voice along the top of the mouth to gain a better tone. Using the phrase ‘project’ lead to Alice and Chloe shouting which meant there voices didn’t carry and the words sounded angry, however what the Bryon’s vocal technique did was to carry their voices into the space. It was a bit too late on in the process for them to become experts with Bryon’s tone technique, however what we all took away was the 3-part breath which was really useful as it also helped calm them before they spoke and gave them a longer breath, meaning that they didn’t rush their words.
M.J.B
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