Lincoln Drill Hall Project

27/1/2016 marked our first day on site at the Drill Hall. We were given a tour, then allowed to roam to look around for ourselves. This video is a recap of the tour we were given as filmed by myself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtavykdyuXY

After this, we were asked to attempt “drifting”, and were asked to form small groups to do so. Adam and I decided that to begin our drift we would flip a coin to choose a direction to walk in, and so we ended up walking down Freeschool Lane and ended up entering the Lincoln public library. As we walked around slowly I noticed a display advertising the Dry January campaign, with a small pyramid built out of plastic cups (see photo below). I also spotted a large section of local history books and newspaper archives. We walked out through a different door than the one we entered from, and found ourselves in a small courtyard with a seemingly pointless wall. I took a look behind it and discovered a building that seemed to hold toilets, and possibly other rooms. We then went back through the library to leave and return to the Drill Hall. I definitely think that being in a place when you have no designated purpose opens your eyes to things you might have simply dismissed or not even noticed if you had a clear goal in mind.

 

Using the idea of Drifting me and my peers decided to explore inside the Drill Hall and around the town centre. The images that court my imagination and attention the most were at the back of the Drill Hall. When drifting I realised the little detail you wouldn’t notice if you were walking with a purpose and with speed. Following the Handbook’s idea of ‘Avoiding shops, cinemas and galleries’ I decided to take photographs at the back of the drill hall as its a less accessible site and because it is not in a busy area like Lincoln city centre I will feel more relaxed and open to different ideas that may help with my idea sand work proses.

 

Jake, Jaimie, Sophie and myself explored different aspects of The Drill Hall. There was part of the theatre which we found very intriguing.

 

 

Taking inspiration from the Handbook of Drifting I explored the Drill Hall and the surrounding areas of our site. This was done in order to discover unknown qualities or spaces through the technique known as ‘drifting’.

Initially I found the exercise frustrating, as the aim of drifting was to walk slowly and focus on the surroundings but I found it difficult to walk without purpose and to continuously walk without pre-empting where I was going. Eventually I found the drifting useful as it allowed me to notice areas and spaces in and around the site that I was previously unaware of.

The exercise also gave me an opportunity to photograph the space and possible locations for my site specific performance, below are some of the images collected during the process of ‘drifting’: