I think the final project performance was JUST about passable, mainly due to showmanship and our generall welcoming and warming attitude as a team. We shared all the knowledge of the docks that we knew, I felt that our progress defined and hindered the performance as a whole and the space wasn’t our place of choice. But the thought process of creating the performance and the discussions as a group were really productive, and our idea was very creative as we worked on past and present day docklands and not just focused on the past as some of our peers had done.
I have learnt a lot about the truth in what really happened in the docklands around the 18^th century, we tried to show this and make the piece as authentic as possible but improvising the whole thing was not a good take. My personal views on how this has affected me on the future have been the fact that this has been a test on my part to show that I can do better in performance and with trying one can create ideas unimaginable; I say this because as some people had a week or even two weeks to immediately change their performances, I believe me and my partner did the most we could to create something in hours before the performance was to take place. I think that this has been an exhilarating experience for me in the sense that I have learnt so much about myself, in the quick thinking department and also working within a team.
I found that, from researching into the docklands and the way of life then; I believe that it was a hard life and they had no other choice but to provide for themselves and their families. It was manual labour of the highest degree, as most of the machines used were of manual mechanisms and nothing around the docks in that period was electrically powered.
I think by doing this timeline, we were taking a side of the story that is rarely shown and depicting it in a way that showed the  passengers thoughts and feelings. Although we never had a large audience I feel that those who did see the video began to understand the meaning behind it. Our lecturer Mark Hunter highlighted the point we were was trying to make about the bias advertising and the contradictory points being brought forward around poverty and tourism.
I think by creating this performance I have gained a satisfaction within myself, of self achievement of learning about the lives of the local people in the 18^th century, and how people don’t understand how they felt and how they lived back then. Our tutor had told us he had enjoyed the performance as the final performance took a more comedic approach to the idealistic views of past and present day docklands life and highlighted that we had a good choice of prop use.

After the performance, I feel that I have failed myself in delivering worthy content for our final; but inn turn I feel that within myself I have created a new insight of the docklands, having learnt a lot about the area and the history, and to me I feel that it means just as much as being successful in the module.

In the Future

As well as suffering a disastrously bad performance nd just about everything going wrong, there is a good amount of learning that took place here as this has prepared me for future tasks, in hindsight we as a group put far too much importance on someone who wasn't IN the group and therefore had no obligation to get it finished. so next time i will make sure that we have a backup plan on something so important as the feature of our peice, for example have another guitarist on call incase one floppes or even pay for one to come and perform, which was somethinfg we never even considered at the time.

The Final Straw

Sorry it has been so long since my last post but we nearly gave up on the idea of doing our final performance as everything went wrong at the last hurdle.

We decided to go to uni and just explain to mark what had happened but figured that the mercy option was out of the picture given that we had both been absent from quite a few lessons.

We ended up doing  makeshift performance on the day, grabbing things that we could use to make something that vaguely resembled our previous idea and managed to do this on a sub par level which our audiences saw as little more than a joke, however we continued and gradually throughout the day made our performance a little better each time.

I was in charge of designing the props and giving it the feel of a performance and raz was in charge of the lines and information given to the audience.

I made an origami boat and used some blue tissue paper to imitate the sea and gave the audience a lecture bout my valuable 'cargo'

BIG Problem

Ok so my friend who was meant to be playing guitar for us has had to go and visit a relative in poland who is very ill and he is unsure of weather he'll be back in time for the performance...

i have spoken to raz and he assures me that he'll find someone to play guitar no problem, and if not he'll learn guitar in time fo our final performance.

Lecture

This lecture was an independant research session and no one from my group was in so i just went over what notes I already had in my bag and exchanged ideas about the project with people from class.

This lesson was very unproductive and apart from a few opinions on my ideas i didn't get much done at all.

Update on project idea

Everythings going very well at the moment plans falling into place and now we can see where improvements have to be made as our performance would like to connect a bit more closely with the docks and dock life in the late 1800's - early 1900's.

We decided that we would ourselves play the role of workers at convenience stand selling fruit, newspapers and generall produce to the public.

We decided to do a bit more research into what came in and what was traded at the docks in order to be covincing salesmen and make good songs that would show we had done our research.

here is a list of some of those things:

Spices

Canned Food

Dried Fruit

Rice

Grain

Alchahol

Sugar

Tea

Coffee

Bread

Meat

Swords

Chocolate

Antiques

Reserch findings

I found this picture of a weathermen, bargemen and lightermen workers union photo which gives valuble insight into what the dress sense was like back in those days.

Old English Words

Here is some of the Old English Language we will be using in the songs for our final performance.

art - are
bequeath - To give or leave by will; to hand down.
beseech - request, ask.
besought – asked, made request. (past tense of beseech)
betwixt – between.
canst - can.
cometh – comes, or coming.
dearth - (durth) scarcity or scant supply of anything; want or lack.
dost - do, does.
durst– Dare; to have the necessary boldness or courage for something.
fere - friend, companion.
fullsome - rich, plentiful.
hath - equivalent of modern has.
henceforth - from now on.
hither - here.
huzzah - Huzza or huzzah is first recorded in 1573. According to a number of writers in the 17th and 18th centuries, it was originally a sailor's cheer or salute. (Old French, huzzer, “to shout aloud;” German, hussah!)
mere - An expanse of water; lake; pool.
midst– Middle, or among. e.g., "in the midst of the storm…
nary - None; absolutely nothing; not even close to anything.
The good Jester also included an example of the word's usage:
"Thou dost hast nary an inkling on coveting thine lady."
naught – Nothing. (Did you know our modern word “not” is actually an abbreviated form of this Olde-English word, which was itself a shortened form of “no whit” or “not a whit”?)
onuppan - above.
overmany - a lot.
pece - silverware, fork.
prithee - contracted form of "I pray thee", i.e., I ask of you, I beseech thee, etc.
proby - apprentice.
pudh - horrible.
shall or shalt - will
seek - (O.E. secan, to seek) To go in search or quest of; to look or search for.
syllan - sell.
tallt - to stand above others in a snobby way.
tarry - to linger, deliberate, wait, stay, or pause.
thou - you
thee - you
thine - your
thither - there.
thy - your
trow– To think or suppose. e.g., "Wilt thou labor for naught? I trow not!"
whence - From where, e.g., "Whence, comest thou?" would translate to the modern "Where do you come from?"
wax - to grow, to become.
whither - To where, e.g., "Whither thou goest, I shall go." translates in modern English as "Where you go, I will go."
wilt – This one is tricky. It can mean very simply, will; but then it could also mean what a flower does without water, or what I do when asked to cook - it all depends on the context…
wist - knew; past tense of wit, e.g. He wist that his love was coming...
wit– To know, e.g., Canst thou wit what the day shall bring?
wrought - done, made, created; e.g. "...see what God hath wrought..."
ye - polite form of thou.
yore - years ago.

Progress...

Right! So we've came up with what format the final piece will be, we'll be performing songs using words that are not in use nowadays words such as ''Toerag'' (a piece of cloth poor dockworkers wrapped around the foot for comfort and protection, having no shoes) and ''prithee'' (i pray to thee, an endearing request)

For this to work well, we will need:

1. A Guitarist to play along whilst we recite our songs.
2. A Table to lay out all the key words and pictures so tht people can decode our songs and gain further understnding of the lyrics.
3. A morris dancers uniform (makeshift probably).
4. Printed photo's
5. A Tamborine

We made it our first step to find a guitarist as this was a feature we could not do without and it seemed like a good idea to tackle this first so i called up my friend who plays guitar and proposed the idea to him offering a small reward for which he accepted, so we began our plan of action.

Delayed Museum Trip

Last week the class went on a trip to the London docklands museum but i unfortunately missed it due to being unorganised. We both understood that this was a very important trip and that if we missed it we would have a HUGE disadvantage in starting our assignments and blog so we decided that after the class we were in we would go to the museum, its a lovely day outside so why not.

Here are some photos of things we saw which inspired us to come up with the 'final' idea for our piece.



1: The opening of st-Katherine's docks

2: An Ancient torture device

3: The reconstruction of 'sailortown'




My initial understanding of what the meseum would be like was that i would be somewhat bored the entire time, much like the previous Tate Modern trip we had taken prior to this. But to my suprise I really enjoyed this trip as it helped me understand what it was like to live in the early days of the docks and what the average persons routine and daily life entailed. We took lots of pictures at the museum but mostly o words as we knew that the direction we wanted to go (incorporating songs into a performance) but didn't quite have an idea exactly planned out in our heads just yet. I learned a lot about 'Apprentecips' which were basically a socially accepted form of slavery.

A Sudden brainwave

On the woolich audiotrail tracks there was a song that was played that was an old 1927 song by John McCormack http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viW5rT2duoc&feature=player_embedded  that we found ourselfes singing with our own silly lyrics in place of the ones already in the song and this gave us an idea, lets make our stall, installation, acting peice (we hadn't decided on the format just yet) with music!

Audio walk around the Docks

I missed the walk on the day that it was arranged as i had work, however myself and another from our group went and completed the walk a few days after. As we stopped at each of the 11 locations we listened to a track detailing a personal account of how things used to be. These tracks were people talking about the history of the docks.

A -  Accents
B -  Burning
C -  Cease-fire
D -  Development
E -  Environment

F -  Factories
G -  Gallions
H -  Housing Estates
I -  Industrial
J -  Job Prospects
K -  King George V
L -  London
M -  Maritime
N -  New
O -  Olden

P -   Pubs
Q -  Quay
R -  Residents
S -  Sign

T -  Trenches
U -  Union

V -  Victorian
W - War

X -   

Y -  Yeast
Z - Zebra  crossing

We couldnt find anything for x that related to our walk, we weretempted to cheat off the other groups bu we decided to leave it out beacuse it shows that not everything goes to plan in the way you had expected and you sometimes need to let somethings go and move on to the next task.

The research begins....

I was absent from class today due to lack of funds so i decided to do a bit of research on the docks and their story and i found this website which seems to be dedicated to all things related to londons history of the docks, a valuble rescource for future planning methinks.

http://www.parishregister.com/londons_docks.asp

Lippard Reading

 

After reading through this with raz when he got back from uni I felt that lippard was trying to tell the reader that how ones surroundings can give them the sense of belonging and sentiment; I believe this relates to how the people in the docks lived in the past and how the community used working together as a valuable tool in etching their lives and forming a new society, the people of the docklands.

I believe a lot of the class struggled on the knowhow of the use in terminology and what lippard meant by this, but after some brainstorming on it we found it clear and productive towards the task we had to do for our project. (below is a photo of the brainstorming process)

Module Description

Here is a look at the task i have been given for this terms work.

Project Brief - ‘Docksiding’
AprilFest is UEL’s 2012 annual celebration of culture, creativity and performing arts. Your brief is to produce an artwork for the festival, which will take place in the week of 23rd-26th April, 2012.
The focus of this year’s project is the Royal Docks and dockside at UEL’s Docklands Campus. Using ethnographic fieldwork, archaeological and archival research methods you will explore and map the life and history of the docks - recording the manifold stories, histories and uses, both historical and contemporary. You will apply this research and fieldwork to the creation of an artwork which responds to the docks. Integral to the brief is your interaction with a community that you will identify and work with - this could be the UEL Docklands staff and students, or another group that you find during your research process. The only restriction is one of location: your community must interact in some way with the Royal Docks and dockside. There are no restrictions to the form that your work can take, but it must be developed in response to, in collaboration with, or for that community, and be realised or sited on or near the dockside.

You will submit a project proposal in week 5 (24^th February, 2012) outlining your approach and intended outcome, and deliver your project as part of AprilFest during the week of 23^rd 26^th April, 2012.

CW1 Project Proposal   30% - Submitted in week 5 (Friday 24^th February 2012)

Your proposal will outline all of the key elements addressed in weeks 1-4, acting as a blueprint for how you will undertake your project.  Please complete the ‘Public Project 1 Project Proposal Form’ on UEL+ and submit to the SED.

CW 2 Project Portfolio 70% – Submitted in week 13 (Friday 4th May 2012)

This document will provide evidence of the through-line of engagement from the conception of your project, through planning and delivery to evaluation. Your portfolio will be in the form of a blog.

This looks like fun!

Introduction to Public Project 1

Hello And Welcome to my UEL Project blog!!!


This is my first Public project of my first year at UEL and today's introductory lesson has showed me some insight into what the first steps will be as part of the assignment, I will be adding pictures, video and anything that helped me along the way to show you how it all came together.

Today's lecture focused on an understanding of what the module contains such as; the process of our work, the recommended readings and the coursework (this blog). the module guide itself provided lot of information which helped me to get a greater understanding of what we'll be doing in our own time and in our weekly lessons.