Day four

Day: Thursday
Who: Paul Sutton and Max
Where: MR8
Time: 10-6

Today when we arrived it was a bit all over the place we were allowed to spend the day working on things for our map and creating the map itself. We then all split off and did our own thing. Personally I feel like today would of been as beneficial out of uni as it was inside. I didn't have any issues with the stratar map and thank fully all of my pins went on without an issue, and I had already decided and set up my lines for the map which meant it was a case of organising the pins themselves.

During the day I helped film several videos and made a video of my own for the shoe museum, I also took pictures of everyone being the symbols for their Northampton houses and posted them to the appropriate map points.

Evaluating my use of the methodology is difficult for stratar as there isn't a right or wrong way of using the map. Luckily I listened and took notes when Paul was giving the tutorial earlier in the week because it meant my uploads and arrangements went off without a hitch.

Day Three

Day: Wednesday
Who: Paul Sutton
Where: MR8
Time: 10-6

Today we looked at lip syncing, we watched lots of videos in the morning of all different standards, after each one discussing whether or not they would be classified as drama. In most cases the answer was yes. As much as I like watching them some of them didn't meet the methodology behind the project, which is to juxtapose a song to the visuals in order to repurpose it, some of the videos that we saw weren't very good due to the fact they didn't meet the proposed methodology of lipsyncing.

We then made our own, instead of just letting us go off and do them, paul got us in groups and asked us to make 5 pieces of drama, mixing between action and still images. We then performed them very quickly going round the circle and Paul played a track over the top, then was then a discussion as to what the use of the track did, this helped to form more of our methodology for lipsyncing, for example we all said the music added a level of pace and humour to the piece, it also took away any awkwardness from both a performers position and the audiences. These were just a couple of important things we felt we should consider when making our own.

When trying to find songs and contexts that juxtapose each other but that complimented our themes was difficult, in the end we ended up working semi individually with each of us coming up with our own concept and idea and the two others acting as crew and doing the videoing and playing the music...this worked best for our group due to the differences in what we had all done already and also our levels of understanding of the task. Me and Fran spent a good hour trying to explain the both the lip syncing task and the stratar map task in the end Paul had to come and talk to us, specifically arlinda and explain everything.

During the day I filmed two lip syncs one, was 1000 miles and we filmed it as my lip syncing in a strange place with random people. The second one of mine was fly me to the moon which we filmed with me laying on the grass and I have tagged it to Abington Park due to the history and tourist attraction that it has become especially in the last decade.

I also assisted with arlindas student union video and Frans ghost town that I filmed and came up with the idea for this was helpful for two of us as we were both doing hauntings of northampton lines. The versatility of the lip syncs cab be shown through this example as I used it for the haunting of an old pub and Fran used it as the haunting of the magician within the university building.

When looking at my lip syncs I have worked within the methodology of the subject, my lip sync to 1000 miles is about feeling like an outsider whereas the song it's self is about feeling at home and working to make someone smile. My video is not only a juxtaposition but also repurpose's the song.

My second lip sync is about flying to the moon and my video was shot with me laying on the ground, so it was straight away a visual juxtaposition, no to mention the songs lyrics were about being in love and wishing to kiss someone, I then attached this song to Abington Park and spoke about the hangings, repurposing the song as a trip to heaven from the gallows instead of the romantic love song everyone knows it as.

I did initially struggle with the use of lip syncing for the map, just due to the confusion on how it was useful in terms of showing our surroundings...but after watching some more YouTube clips it started to make more sense and meant I made some effective lip syncs for my map.

Day two

Day: Tuesday
Who: Paul Sutton
Where: MR8
Time: 10-6

Today we started on time with a game where in pairs you had to touch different body parts together, then we played, run, stop, jump and clap, like usual swapping the actions with the juxtaposed word.

We were then briefly introduced to living newspapers, I already knew about these including their history and influence/purpose. We were presented with a news story about job contracts and hours from the BBC and were asked to create a living newspaper for the story, I suggested using brechtian signs and potentially essence machine movements along side music and a news reporter we tried this and found it worked, we juxtaposed our serious piece with dolly partons 9-5 playing over the top.

Once we had seen everyone's living newspapers Paul showed us C and Ts versions including videos on how to make them. There were several videos and we watched 6 of them including 5 rules for creating a living newspaper.

The rules were;
1: be funny
2: be direct
3: juxtapose
4: agitate
5: let the facts speak for themselves

The majority of the groups had included all of these things instinctively anyway and I thought the videos were aimed at primary school children instead of our age which felt very patronising.

We were then asked to write down everything that annoyed us on a strip of paper on the floor once we had done that we got ten ticks which translated to votes for others agitations. Once everyone had voted we had a conversation about the most ticked which ended up being liars and ignorance, this Paul said would make the undercurrent of our living newspapers, it would affect our editorial decisions when creating our own.

We then broke for lunch.

When we came back we got into groups and looked at news stories that are present and local to northampton. My group looked at the hauntings of northampton, lauren found an app that could simulate ghosts, we then spent two hours playing around with the app and figuring it out, it was really stressful and we had to work really hard, however, the end result was amazing!

We created two videos that were set up as interviews, using real stories and reports that had happened in and around northampton town, we then dramatised the interview and put it in our ghost App, it looked really affective and was well worth the two hours of stress! It also met all of the criteria for a 'good' living newspaper and followed the methodology set up by Paul.

We then had a conversation about what we thought about the activity and it sparked lots of confusion about what we were actually being marked on and how we were being marked. Hayley then came and attempted to clear it up, however, just like us she didn't know what our task was, so we came to the conclusion we would write one ourselves tomorrow.

We were then set one final task to do on the way home, to create a photo story and to the narrate the photos with dramatised versions of what the camera saw. Doing this was difficult due to driving home back to kettering however I got some really important images that spoke volumes in themselves. With my camera voice over the top they work really well on my map.

Day one

Day: Monday
Who: Paul Sutton
Where: MR8
Time: 11-6

This morning we were introduced to a very late Dr Paul Sutton, after initial introductions we played some simple spacial games involving getting into groups of paticular sizes, when in groups of four we played another game which involved physically
Transforming into an object I.e a toilet, a washing machine, and a car.

We then played two more spacial games;
One- we picked two people and had to be at equal distances apart from both of them at all times.

Two- we had to then pick two different people and one was a bomb and the other was our shelter, then the persons role changed and our shelters became the bombs.

Both of these games were then in post conversation related to the world in which we live in and how or if it relates to the issues or points that were raised in the game. Throughout the conversation several things were discussed such as politics and religion and even destiny and cancer.

We then had a presentation on C and T from Paul on what c and t do and did. We had an explanation as to what the website entailed and what each part meant.

Then we broke for lunch.

When we got back from lunch we were introduced to geotagging through the app Aurasma, we were creating augmented realities round the uni, with this app and creating an opportunity of participatory performances for an audience when moving around the university. Before sharing our work with each other a debate was sparked about whether or not it was theatre, when asked I said that what we had just done was not theatre, I thought it was drama and had the potential to become theatre but it couldn't be theatre without real people!

The night before...

So tomorrow is my first day with C&T! I'm super nervous but also massively excited!

If we do a final performance I want to know if I can take a directors role instead of a performer, I also want to talk to there artistic director, Paul!

What I've found out so far is...c and t is all about making connections, it's about giving young people a tool to be able yo communicate globally and also to, with the help of teachers, kick the curriculum into creative shape.

Our six values – collaboration, creativity, intelligence, learning, originality and quality – are only truly valuable to us, when they are underpinned by a seventh – inclusivity.

Soooo nervous!!