text:
Crossmaglen Benefits Office closure fight continues
SINN FEIN MLA Megan Fearon and Councillor Terry Hearty are keeping pressure on Social Development Minister Nelson McCausland in relation to his decision to close Crossmaglen Benefits Office.
During the past two weeks Cllr Hearty received a petition which had been signed by hundreds of concerned residents of south Armagh. He passed the petition to colleague Ms Fearon and Mickey Brady, who on Monday 15th April presented it to the Assembly.
"I presented this petition to the Minister to demonstrate the need to retain this vital service in Crossmaglen." Ms Fearon said.
"It clearly shows the depth of feeling among local people who value this essential service.
"Crossmaglen is one of the most deprived rural wards in the North. This, coupled with the fact that there is also a high level of disability among the population, means that any reduction in services is very keenly felt.
"The Minister may not be aware but the cost of a Crossmaglen to Newry return bus ticket is in excess of £7.00. This places a severe financial burden on someone who must survive on benefits. This is unfair and cruel and I call on the Minister to reverse his decision and retain this office."
Councillor Hearty has also been besieged by people from Crossmaglen who have tried to use the 'customer first' helpline which is designed to replace the permanent office.
"I have received numerous complaints from my constituents who have described the telephone service as a disaster. One individual was holding on the line for 34 minutes while another hung up after 30 minutes talking to what he described as 'a robot'.
"These people are entitled to their benefits. They should not be degraded in this manner and forced to fight for what they are entitled to. I feel that the service should be renamed 'customers last' as this would seem to more accurately describe how people are treated.'
RelatedCrossmaglen Benefits OfficeMegan Fearonsinn feinTerry Hearty


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A DUI is not a mere traffic ticket, According to Ft. Lauderdale DUI Attorney William Moore, but rather a serious offense that can have lifelong effects on your future employment or education goals. A conviction for DUI can have devastating effects on your insurance and privilege to drive. Remember, an arrest for DUI in no way amounts to a conviction. The State Attorney's office is charged with the great burden of proving the allegations beyond and to the exclusion of any and all doubt. William Moore has been attacking mistakes made by police officers in DUI arrests over a decade and posts the more successful cases on the internet every few months so that they may be reviewed by potential clients. Mistakes made by police officers during the investigative process of a DUI can be devastating to the prosecutor's case in chief. Most often this is the result of an illegal stop of an individual's automobile, excessive force, and/or the length of and reason for a stop. It is important to remember that a police officer must have probable cause before an arrest is made and that failure to follow strict guidelines leading up to and following that arrest may result in an outright dismissal of your case.
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A failure to give Miranda warnings as well as implied consent warnings may also seriously damage a case pending against a DUI defendant. Sobriety checkpoints have been a big topic of debate, and the strict guidelines imposed on law enforcement to conduct such roadblocks are so stringent that very few DUI convictions are obtained as a result. The law offices of William Moore has challenged such unlawful infringements on motorists for years with great success. We will vigorously fight for your rights and seek to protect not only your liberty but also your privilege to drive an automobile.
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In this article, we argue that a growing body of evidence from developmental neuroscience suggests the role of basic processes, namely attention and approach/avoidance build to form more complex social abilities, like morality.
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In tonight's episode of the Geocaching Podcast: The guys give thanks to geocaching and all that it has brought to us over the years.
HHH – Thankful for 9+ years of getting outside and exploring. Even if it is in my neighborhood.
HHH – Thankful for my geocaching partner Wife Amy who many times instigates us going out geocaching.
HHH – Thankful of the interesting surprises i have encountered in my travels.
HHH – Thankful for never really knowing what I am going to find with every geocache I try to go for.
IF – for the CO's (and also the Reviewers) who've taken the trouble to place and maintain the caches I've found.
IF – for the people who've found my caches and left interesting logs for others to read.
For health, enough money for the petrol, and good enough weather to cache!
I know where I want to go. I have all the stops (at least primary ones) identified. Now, I need to find the most efficient route possible, that gets me from a starting point to a destination point. Oh yeah, and it has to be free, because as we have all recently learned, Geocaching is Free, right?
Google maps does a good job, but you're limited to 10 stops. I was currently trying to plan for an attempt at the Geotour-GT77, "Butler County Donut Trail". It has 15 stops, plus starting at my home address and ending there too, so I need 17 stops.
Google searches revealed several tools for planning a route, but they all want an address! Now I have to figure out how to convert coordinates into a street address. I did find a couple that took coordinates, but they were also limited to the number of stops on the route.
What's a cacher todo? Any hints, tips, applications, or other tools would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for the show, and hopefully some suggestions!


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A few months ago we did a Q & A with Dorie Greenspan, cookbook author, foodblogger, pop-up cookie baker, Friend of Pierre, and generally nice person, on the occasion of her new book, Around My French Table, which was slated to come out this October.
Imagine our surprise when -- unlike many new restaurants, and dinner dates -- the book showed up even earlier than promised. (Thanks to @ruhlman, who spends more time online than we do, for the heads up.) So we thought we'd take the opportunity to ask Greenspan a few more questions. It's kind of an occupational hazard.
Squid Ink: So are you happy with the new book?
Dorie Greenspan: I'm thrilled with the new book! In some ways I feel like it completes a story. Baking From My Home to Yours was a personal record of 30 years of baking at home. With Around My French Table I not only get to prove to people that I was a responsible wife, mother and friend and fed everyone 'real' food before I brought out dessert, I get to write about my longstanding love affair with the food, people and culture of France. Together, I think these two books might be my culinary autobiography.
In addition, I was very lucky to work with the same team that made Baking From My Home to Yours so beautiful -- Alan Richardson, Karen Tack and Deb Donohue -- and I think they outdid themselves (no easy thing) here. We did a bunch of the pictures in my kitchen in Connecticut - which is where all of the recipes were tested - and it was tremendous fun. It was like a big grown-up pajama party with a lot of great food. I loved when we had Pumpkin Stuffed with Everything Good for an afternoon snack. Not that we needed a snack after breakfasting on Cheez-it-ish Crackers and lunching on Moules Mariniere, Chicken-in-a-Pot (the cover recipe) and a lot of Slow-Roasted Tomatoes.
SI: What's your favorite recipe from the book?
DG: You know that's an impossible question to answer. I know you do. I'm not even sure I can narrow it down to five favorites. I love the food in the book! I love it because there are wonderful old recipes (like Beef on a String, which is my traditional New Year's Eve party dish), surprising new dishes (like Coconut-Lemongrass Braised Pork) and so many recipes that are both easy-peasy and chic (like Anne LeBlanc's Avocado and Pistachio Nut Oil - the title and the ingredient list are almost the same).
Since I can't choose a single favorite, here are just a few of the recipes I make over and over: Gougeres; Salmon Rillettes; Cheese-Topped Onion Soup; Salmon and Potatoes in a Jar; Tuna, Mozzarella and Basil Pizzas; Lamb and Dried Apricot Tagine; Café Salle Pleyel Hamburgers (leave it to the French to teach us something about our national icon); Endives, Apples and Grapes (another dish that's easy and chic); Marie-Helene's Apple Cake; the Sable Breton Galette. I'll stop. Can you tell I love this food?
SI: What have you been doing this summer?
DG: I spent the last part of the summer in Paris, where I worked with the terrific filmmaker, David Turecamo, on two videos, one in which Yves Camdeborde, chef-owner of the really, really popular Le Comptoir, and I make his Tuna-Mozzarella Pizza in his kitchen, and the other in which the adorable Alice Vasseur and I work together in my kitchen to make her Sweet Cheesecake Tart, a recipe she learned when she was 7 years old and going to Le Cordon Bleu. Stay tuned!
SI: Any more cookie pop-ups in the works?
DG: Stay tuned here as well. My son and CookieBar partner, Joshua, and I are baking up something special for the holidays.


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Welcome back from what we hope was a fun and relaxing summer break! We look forward to a fabulous 2018 - 2019 academic year. This year Peterson is fortunate enough to have two Vice Principals. We will be working together to ensure the safety and security of the students. This year we have divided our roles so we are more efficient in handling our day to day tasks. Mr. Masur is responsible for attendance, facilities, assessment, ASB activities and technology. He will work closely with teachers and students to oversee the 1:1 Chromebook roll out. Ms. Keneman will focus her energy on student services, counseling, curriculum and instruction. She will work closely with staff, students and families with our new wellness services. Both of us will also oversee student safety and discipline. Ms. Keneman has students with last names from A - L while Mr. Masur the charge of students with the last names of M - Z. Please feel free to contact us with any concerns or give us a friendly wave when you see us out front helping with traffic!


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Students banned from the usage of mobile telephones at school in Australian nation
Home Cell Phone
(CNN)A ban on mobile phones in school rooms turned into announced inside the Australian state of Victoria on Wednesday. The ban that allows you to observe primary and secondary college students is designed to crack down on cyber-bullying and lecture room distractions, the Victorian authorities stated in an announcement. While a few colleges in Australia have already banned cell telephone use, this marks the primary statewide ban within the u. S. A. It will start from the primary school term of 2020.
"Students can be required to interchange off their phones and save them securely in lockers from the start of the college day till the very last bell. When emergencies arise, mother and father or guardians can reach their infant via calling the college," the declaration stated. Victoria Education Minister James Merlino said he didn't count on the move to be "universally famous" but said it become the "proper issue to do" on his reputable social media.
The move isn't always without precedent. Australia's largest nation, New South Wales, banned cell telephones in primary colleges in 2018, and France has banned all smartphones and smart gadgets from faculties. Australian Education Minister Dan Tehan stated in a statement that he supported the Victoria ban. "When I speak to dad and mom and teachers, the overwhelming majority want action on banning cellular telephones in the lecture room," Tehan stated in an assertion.
In a 2019 survey of approximately 2,000 Australian adults, through Monash University professor Neil Selwyn, nearly eighty% supported a limit on cell-telephone use in schools, even as one-1/3 supported an outright ban.
Ann Marie, a secondary faculty essential at a university in Victoria, told ABC Radio Melbourne that students at her faculty had agreed to restriction their cellular cellphone use throughout the day, explaining that they were hoping to lessen "bullying, distraction, and one-upmanship."
But there have been some concerns. The Australian Education Union Victoria stated in an announcement that at the same time as it supports the ban: "We can not lose sight of the benefits that technology, including cellular telephones, can bring to excessive pleasant teaching and learning." Some pupils with special desires may be exempt from the ban,alongr with folks who require phones to display health conditions orthoses who have obtained permission from a trainer.
Does this suggest that our government has to find a way to turn off all cellular telephones in case of something like this going on?
Do they need a tool to turn off certain cellular telephones from the device, even as leaving first responders' cell telephones activated for communique?
And what about hackers, which might be capable of sending out tens of heaps of bogus text messages, or name hundreds of people right into a lure, or degree a rebellion?
These are all questions we want to reply to. We want to remember that the equal technology we create to enhance our productivity and society and assist us in our daily lives with our families and friends can also be used against us. And what happens when our smart telephones become smarter than us? Some agree with, as I do that they have already got. These days, most of the clever phones have synthetic intelligence systems inside them, for instance, a text messaging program that guesstimates which keys you will press subsequent or what you are trying to mention. It offers you advice so you can fill inside the clean. Making your texting very short.
This is a very comparable technology that Google uses while searching and offers tips as you are typing to prevent time. This is just one form of synthetic intelligence in our smart telephones and cellular phones these days. Many mobile telephones let you use speech popularity to dial cellphone numbers, search your databases, or navigate the displays on your cellular phone.
The latest smartphones may be capable of informing you while you are in proximity to a Starbucks, after which they give you GPS directions to locate that place. This has massive implications for outlets, advertisers, and customers alike. They will start to know your styles and habits. All these technologies are to be had now, and we will see them shortly. Your cellular cellphone will also grow to be a charging device hooked on your credit card records. All this technology exists today.
But what about the technology which can be just over the horizon?
We've currently visible at Comdex and CES indicates the first generations of projection cellular phones, that is to say, video convention enabled cell phones which allow you to the task to the opposite birthday celebration onto the closest wall or onto a desk so that you can watch. This will obviously be observed using the Holographic mobile telephones, just like those we saw in the Star Wars trilogy.
All this stuff could be available within the subsequent 5 years, and you'll maximum probable have them in case you purchase one of the high-tech mobile phones shortly. At first, these technologies will fee loads more. Still, those fees will come down because the variety of units constructed goes up and as more Chinese additionally buy their first cell smartphone, adding every other billion people who very own such devices, consequently bringing the price down for all people – significantly!
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COMMUNITEA
Framing Statement
"In nothing is the English genius for domesticity more notably declared than in the institution of this festival—almost one may call it so—of afternoon tea. Beneath simple roofs, the hour of tea has something in it of sacred; for it marks the end of domestic work and worry, the beginning of restful, sociable evening. The mere chink of cups and saucers tunes the mind to happy repose." (Gissing, 2005, EBook).
Our main interest lay in connecting people, creating a sense of informality, generating laughter and conversation. We set out to explore the peculiarities of Lincoln's community. Is there a distinct quality or flavour of Lincoln that separates it from the rest? What does the average member of its community have to say? What is their story? Taking inspiration from Rimini Protokoll's 100% City, we recognised that "for statistical purposes, people are regularly converted into pie wedges, bars and curves – which are then used to make political arguments or to create economic cost-benefit strategies. What if these statistics were given faces?", or in our case voices? (Rimini Protokoll, 2014).
Taking influence from The Usher Gallery's display of tea related porcelain in gallery three, we pondered upon what tea represents. We came to the conclusion that, while holding a level of uniqueness for each individual, it often symbolises a moment of peace and serenity, a coming-together, and a preparation for a new day- a new beginning.
Everyone has a level of individuality when it comes to tea: their tea-making process; the memories the beverage elicits; the connotations they project onto it; and lastly, how they take it. All this being so, we saw that the end of communion in today's society can be achieved by the same means: a cup of tea.
Utilising a 'good old fashioned cuppa' as an instrument of rapport, we knocked on doors, sat down with the people of Lincoln in their own homes, and had a conversation with them, delving into their opinions, personalities, and habits via the topic of tea. On March 16th we set out to interview 100 people, ensuring a diverse sample. Those interviewed were invited to the gallery on May 9th to share a further cup of tea with us – bringing the process full circle. We collected the audio from the interviews as well as pictures of the participants' hands around their cups. We compiled this, along with footage of the tea making process into a short film. Likening the community of Lincoln to a piece of art, the results were projected onto the wall of gallery three in the Usher Gallery on the 9th of May, where museum-goers who viewed the video were invited to 'a cup of tea and a chat' with us.
We knocked on 218 doors. 169 doors opened. 154 rejected us. 15 welcomed us. 24 people were interviewed. All about tea.
Analysis of Process
Ephemeral Art. February 17th.
The notion of performance as momentary is one that our tutor, Aylwyn, discussed in the seminar. Her delivery of The Many Headed Monster by Joshua Sofaer made me aware of something that I had previously not considered (Sofaer, 2015, lecture). I realised the importance of the audience's impressions of the work: Pre-performance. One work cited was Kidnap by Blast Theory, a work where advertisements were shown, and the participants, having a full understanding of the work, chose whether to take part (Blast Theory, 1998). It was their choice, and their signing of the disclaimer held them to their decision. Blast Theory's calculated decision to have an informed participant is a significant one, as the lecture noted that the participant's knowledge changes the psychology of the performance; the subject is no longer a passive spectator, but rather an active participant.
"Our impression of the work becomes the work itself" (Sofaer, 2015, lecture)
Even more so than pre-performance, I was drawn to the idea of performance itself being ephemeral. Marina Abramovic and Ulay's Imponderabilia typifies this notion (Abramovic and Ulay, 1977). The immediacy of the performance was something I never considered prior. It happens in a moment, with no expectations. It is a surprise for the participant, so surprising in fact that their participation in the piece borders on the subconscious. The choice of which naked figure they face has no time to be premeditated. This spontaneity is an area I find compelling, a territory of art that has much to offer.
Site Dictates Performance: Thoughts on Ergonomics. February 18th.
In Site-Specific Performance, Pearson puts forth the idea that "the engagement of the performer at site is in essence ergonomic" (Pearson, 2010, 171). In The Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus, ergonomics is defined as "the study of the efficiency of persons in their working environment" (Tulloch, 1997, 499). An ergonomically charged working environment would be one that maximises all aspects of performance, readiness, and proficiency while minimising threats, restrictions, and limitations. In a normal working environment this is simple; elements of the space are coordinated in a way to achieve efficiency, whereas performance in a specified site contests this notion. The site cannot be ergonomically charged as altering the site's components refines its essence. It is already apparent that by the very nature of site-specific performance, "to move the … work is to re-place it, to make it something else" (Kaye, 2000, 2). This therefore applies to the site itself as if it is no longer in its original form the meaning of the site is distorted and by default so is the performance.
This is a concept which has revealed to me the importance of considering the gallery in its unaffected form. The site dictates our work, rather than our work dictating the site, as "the very engagement [with the seemingly hindering conditions] may form the substance of performance: ergonomics as performance" (Pearson, 2010, 172). The notion of site dictating our end product has left me to consider what my performance partner and I can utilise. We have seen many interesting stimuli that may lead us to performance: the architecture of the building, the statues in the Usher Gallery, and the contrasting darkness of the space with the porcelain tea cups in gallery three to name a few.
Performance Ideas & the Value of Art. February 25th.
Upon our first meeting this week, we had five main topics that we were interested in:
The (in)accessibility of art for the working-class;
Whether the pieces chosen to be displayed in museums are bias, why should x be displayed and y not?;
Raising questions as to the value of pieces of art, an average spectator may ask why Yves Klein's IKB 79, a canvas that seems to be simply painted blue, can stand in an art museum, whereas a detailed portrait by an amateur artist cannot (Klein, 1959)? What makes one more valuable than the other?;
The connection of people. Relationships among communities that transcend data and statistics. Breaking down the formalities of everyday life in order to create a casual and relaxed atmosphere, enhancing potential for moments of affinity.
The aforementioned trouble of overrepresentation of white middle-class males.
In our discussion we discussed the performance aspects we were interested in such as immediacy of art, audience participation, and the authenticity of the performance/ moment/ meaning. Something that also struck us was the purity of Abramovic's performances. The simplicity and clarity which she shows serves to promote her original idea.
Through many more discussions we had a performance plan. We thought of separating white males from the rest of the audience and having them create a piece of art on one canvas, while anyone who was not white or male created a separate work. We were then to display these pieces in the Viewpoint gallery. The piece by the white males would be displayed with a sign exhibiting its sale for a high price while the other work would advertise a low price.
We felt that our idea incorporated all of our interests and worked well, but we lost sight of the simplicity we wanted to achieve. To us, our plan seemed clear and calculated, but we discovered obstacles in the planning of our piece: with obstacles came solutions, and with our solutions came obscurity of meaning. Now, focusing on representations in art, much the same way Rimini Protokoll's 100% City does, we aim to show a representation of Lincoln through selecting a range of people and documenting something about them (Rimini Protokoll, 2008-2014). This is an idea that we feel can achieve Abramovic's simplicity while not losing sight of our original aims and intentions.
A Sacred Practise. March 9th.
Our idea of portraying Lincoln's community through art seemed like a simple idea, but we required a medium through which to show it. We discussed our troubles of finding this medium with our tutor, Aylwyn, and reached the conclusion that drinking tea is a common-place ritualistic custom that typifies the English way. Tea-drinking is a stereotype of England that most households conform to; a way of connecting individuals and a form of collaboration over a common interest. This idea of congregating via a mutual appreciation is one that we thought critical to our practise, as this assembly is synonymous with participatory performance, a typical characteristic of the module.
My performance partner Tom and I researched this area of site-specific performance and saw that Quarantine's work was exemplary of what we wanted to achieve. Their performances Eat Eat, Coming and Going – In The Neighbourhood, and The Slightest Movement all revolved around seeing communities as collections of individuals, a field of study in which we wished to explore (Quarantine, 2003; Quarantine, 2008; Quarantine, 2008 & 2012). The medium through which this was performed was often through food, a concept of which our performance is closely tied to. The director of Eat, Eat, Renny O'Shea believes that "everyone has food to celebrate something – a birth, a death, a marriage. We have powerful memories of exquisite food, sacred food, hunger, the taste of something we didn't want to eat, the smell of the kitchen we grew up in. We all have to eat" (O'Shea, 2004). Tom and I saw this and believed it to be pertinent to our performance. We believe that drinking tea is an experience that brings people together, it is a break from the stresses of modern-day life. It serves as a moment of calm, stillness, and tranquillity, separating one from the intensities and tensions that we experience on a daily basis. These moments of serenity are therefore "sacred" to individuals in today's culture, binding our performance with the practises of Quarantine.
Our plan has been formed and seems simple. We drink tea with 100 strangers in Lincoln. We audio record the conversations we have with them, and we ask them a list of six questions:
What order do you make your tea?
How do you take your tea?
What brand of tea do you buy?
Invite three people alive/ dead, famous or not to drink tea with you. Who and why?
What is the best cup of tea you have ever had?
If you could only have three cups of tea for the rest of your life, when/ where would you have them, who with, and why?
After this, we take a picture of their hands around their cup. The audio and visuals we collect will then be installed in the Usher gallery on 9 May 2015. We invite the participants to see the installation on that date, to see the projection of the video, and then to join us for "a cup of tea and a chat".
This performance has purity to it, as our intentions are clear. We aim to create an ephemeral experience for the participants, a sense of community, a coming together, an informal happening that highlights the conventional act of "having a cuppa". This project will underline Lincoln's community, accentuating its different cultures, characters, and lifestyles. The work will frame our findings as an artwork, likening the people of Lincoln to the pieces seen in the galleries, creating a sense of importance of the city's culture, showcasing the exploration as a celebration of Lincoln's differences and similarities alike.
Photo is my own.
Failure: An End In Its Own Right. March 20th.
On March 16th, we commenced our performance. We set out through the streets of Lincoln and knocked on 36 doors. At 11 of these doors there was no answer, whereas 25 answered. This alone seems successful, but after 22 rejections, including excuses that are dubious at best, we have realised how challenging our performance is in reality.
The fact of the matter is that we are two nineteen-year-old males, knocking on strangers' doors, asking them to stop what they are doing, let us into their homes and make us tea. We are aware of the conjecture that this process may raise, as in England, there seems to be a growing level of scepticism and distrust of our neighbours. When looking at other practitioners of participatory performance, we knew the task in hand would be difficult. However, we saw that our task was to engage the audience of Lincoln, a quiet and relatively peaceful city in England, whereas past practitioners have had a much heftier task. We considered the Face 2 Face project in Israel and Palestine by JR and Marco. They noted that these two dangerous territories contain "mountains, sea, deserts and lakes, love and hate, hope and despair embedded together", yet "the crazy thing is that the guys accepted" to be part of the project (JR, 2007). In comparison, our task is not to strive for change or shift the course of a civilisation, it is to simply meet people and drink tea.
Furthermore, the rejections, the excuses, and the unanswered doors are of value. We aim to explore the community of Lincoln, and each failed opportunity for an interview is a telling of the community – it represents unwillingness, isolation, and a sense of solitude that successful interviews may not possess. This is a continuation of my thoughts on ergonomics. The restrictions, difficulties, and limitations of performance must not be resisted, but rather embraced. The struggle against these factors is performative. The endeavour to create a piece lends itself to the end product. That which hinders us can be shaped into performance itself.
Ms Cottrington. April 21st.
Despite our difficulties in engaging participants, our determination has not been hindered. Since our first endeavour, the statistics of our outings are as follows:
Doors Knocked On: 180
Doors Unanswered:46
Doors Opened: 134
Doors Rejected: 121
Doors Where We Were Welcomed: 13
Interviews: 22
We are now more confident in our interviews and outer initial meetings with strangers. We were aware that Quarantine's participatory processes are "lengthy and discursive, a mix of rigorous practice, seemingly aimless conversation and moments that somehow stick, apparently discovered by accident", but we were unaware how much this would apply to our practise (Quarantine, 2015). On April 19th, we had a widely successful day, 29.41% of the doors we knocked on welcomed us in.
In the course of the day we met an extremely influential character, Yvonne Cottrington. Yvonne hailed from Guyana and was a retired nurse of 83. She provided us with the most welcoming air we have experienced and gave us an interview that was nothing short of compelling. She lived alone and was truly intrigued by our stories and our performance. She spoke extensively with us about her upbringing and her children, her faith and her outlook, and not to mention, her views on tea.
She was so welcoming that we stayed at her house for a substantial amount of time and she refused to let us leave empty-handed. We were given a packet of tea bags by her, and to repay her generosity we will arrange transport for her to the gallery. To bring the performance full circle, once she has viewed the video, we will use the tea bags she has gifted us to show our appreciation of her gesture.
Picture is my own.
Photo credit: Fenia Kotsopoulou
During our performance on May 9th, my performance partner and I sat around a small, picturesque table that faced the projection of our video and evoked a welcoming environment for museum-goers. We offered them a seat and introduced ourselves before introducing our looping video, at which point they were free to talk with us, or to simply sit and watch the projection. After a period of time, we offered them to go upstairs with one of us to have 'a cup of tea and a chat.' Many concurred, and all participants produced refreshing conversation.
The experiences we had with the strangers were testament to our goal of bringing people together, and exploring the community of Lincoln.
Through continued interaction with Ms Cottrington, we had arranged a taxi for her which arrived at the Usher Gallery. She viewed the video and exclaimed with joy upon seeing her hands and hearing her voice within the museum. We made her tea with the tea bags she gifted us and talked about our performance, her background, and the group's experiences with tea. Her contribution to our performance is priceless. We have arranged continued interaction with her and our communication with Yvonne will continue for the foreseeable future. She is a prime example of unheard voices, and the experience with her can now be cherished through our performance and documentation of process.
Our final performance was hugely successful. We engaged the public and had conversations about tea, history, and went as far as commenting on humanity. We achieved our aim and established a sense of community.
If the performance was conducted again, we would consider the difficulties of when too many people were in the room. Often the gallery felt clustered, and when certain spectators desired our total attention, others may have felt alienated by the experience due to our lack of interaction with them.
The documentation of such an experience is one that I would never consider in a traditional theatrical environment. My study of site-specific performance has truly converted my outlook on performance. Prior to our project I would have believed that the interviews and pictures were a means to the performance's end. However I now see that the documentation of a process is as important – if not more so- than the final product. Abolishing the proscenium stage and engaging within a site has led my performance partner and I into a realm of performance that neither of us experienced. The voices of those we encountered would not have been heard, the stories would not have been told to the audience they were, and a lot less tea would have been drunk.
Our project boasted a simple aim through a simple means of a simple pleasure. A community connected by tea. The drinking of tea dramatized into a positive experience for all involved. A sample of Lincoln was explored and the results were celebrated. Friendships were made and our performance introduced us to characters we would unlikely socialise with. It brought us together in the English way.
Our final results are as follows:
Knocked on: 218
Doors not answered: 49
People interviewed: 24
Abramovic, M, and Ulay. (1977) Imponderabilia. [performance art] Bologna, Italy: Galleria Communale d'Arte Moderna.
Blast Theory (1998) Kidnap. [performance art] England and Wales, 15 May – 17 July.
JR (2007) Face 2 Face. [performance online] Various Locations: Israel & Palestine. Available from http://www.jr-art.net/projects/face-2-face [Accessed 12 March 2015].
Kaye, N. (2000) Site-Specific Art: Performance, Place and Documentation. Oxon: Routledge.
Klein, Y. (1959) IKB 79. [paint on canvas on plywood] Lincoln: The Collection (loan).
O'Shea, R. (2004) Eat, Eat. [online] Quarantine. Available from: http://qtine.com/work/eat-eat/ [Accessed 4 March 2015].
Pearson, M. (2010) Site-Specific Performance. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Quarantine. (2003) Eat Eat. [performance art] Leicester, England: Leicester Haymarket Theatre, June.
Quarantine. (2008) Coming And Going: In The Neighbourhood. [performance art] Liverpool, England, November.
Quarantine. (2008 & 2012) The Slightest Movement. [performance art] Manchester, Aberystwyth, London, Dublin, Falmouth: UK.
Quarantine (2015) How We Work. [online] Manchester. Available from http://qtine.com/about-us/how-we-work/ [Accessed 4 March 2015].
Rimini Protokoll. (2008-2014) 100% City. [performance art] Various places and dates.
Sofaer, J. by Walsh, A. (2015) The Many Headed Monster. [lecture] Site Specific Performance DRA2035M-1415, University of Lincoln, 4 February.
Tulloch, S. (ed.) (1997) The Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus. 3rd edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Daniel John Smith