Joe Hollis and Kira Palmer are the only two artists involved within this project. Together we are creatives, directors, producers and technicians. “To work successfully, a producer requires self-knowledge, confidence and a sense of self-worth. Preperation means exploring yourself. What do you want? What excites you? What bores you?” (Jones, M. cited in Dean, A. p14). Joe Hollis has a background in clowning and acting. He has participated in small festivals in the past creating walkabout acts using clowning and manipulation. An act he has created with a colleague is called Hollis and Callis, which is a clown piece about two street cleaners. Kinesthesia was a small challenge for Joe with creating the soundscape. In the past he has created smaller scale soundscapes, so this project has pushed his music knowledge further than before and added extra challenges for him to overcome. Myself, I have a strong background in dance, and also acting. Other experiences include co-organising a small festival in Surrey in 2009 called Landirani Live, working with promoters for club night events, DJing and Street Arts based practices. I am working and performing at many festivals this summer and am looking to co-organise larger festivals in the future. My experience in soundscape performance is minimal, so this new company has been a challenge so far, but my experience within performance and music in the past has helped to create this work.

Below is the link to the facebook event page and the website page. There is also the soundtrack to download to your phone or music device. 

We created this piece so that it is not necessarily site-specific. The track can be downloaded by anyone and used in most places. It is best to be used in a high street, as it works well when there are passers by. It wouldn’t work in a field or forest for example.

When we started the company we decided to create a small contract. The contract was as follows:
Each group member must attend each meeting. If unable to attend they must give 24 hours notice with a valid excuse. If notice is not given they will receive a strike.
If more then 15 minutes late to a group meeting (without a forewarned and valid reason) a group member will again receive a strike. 3 strikes and we as a group will bring the arising matter to the tutors attention.
Work input –
If a member of the group is not putting sufficient effort into the company and performance, it will be discussed between us. If they continue to slack and fall behind, the matter will be brought to your attention and they may be removed from the company.
Ethics –
If a member of the group is prejudiced or judgemental to another member of the group, or anyone involved in the making of the performance it will not be adhered to. Their attitude will not be taken lightly and their lack of professionalism may result in the removing of them from the company.

Once we had finalised the concept for our performance, we chose to do it in Winchester High Street. We went there with our soundscape and walked it through, both taking different routes and meeting back at the buttercross to share our experiences. We made sure to test the sound on different devices and headphones. It seemed as though everything would work ok. The way we advertised our performance was through social media. We made an event page on facebook with information and the download link. We also made a website which had posters and the download, and it has had 144 views so far. We kept pushing the facebook page through messages, status’s and posting on friend’s walls. It was important to us to have a reasonable sized audience so that passers by would notice something going on, rather than just two people wearing headphones for example, which could easily go unnoticed. The main reason we decided to do a soundscape in the end was mainly through the help of our tutors and the response from our classmates during our workshops. Using the polytunnel was an interesting concept, and visually would have been great, but there wasn’t enough substance to the whole piece. We needed a journey, and we wanted to have a good outcome with very minimal spending. Without transport, it would have been very difficult for Joe and I to set up the tunnel and the rest of it’s design. I am glad that we moved on from our original idea, and without it we wouldn’t of approached our final concept. On the day Joe and I arrived early to place up signs to contain our audience. We laminated A4 signs in case of rain, and after the performance we made sure to take them all down. We brought with us a video camera to document the experience. We also asked questions at the end of those who were willing to be filmed. As I mentioned previously, we chose to do the performance in the high street because of the heavy flow of passers by and shoppers. We wanted our audience to be integrated into the mundane and busy lives of the people in Winchester. I believe this worked reasonably well when we came round to our performance. The location was also easy for people to access. We wanted them to come to a place that they believed that they knew reasonably well, and make them take it in deeper and notice things that they may have taken for granted. When asking the audience if they felt that this had happened, the majority of them did mention something that they hadn’t noticed before. The majority of response was positive, saying that they enjoyed the experience and that it was reflective and relaxing. A couple of people found some of the directions quite trying, for example staring through a shop window made them nervous. “You might regard the window displays as a city-wide picture-book and see what stories they have to tell”  (Hodge, S. et al. 2006:46) This was different for each person, which is exactly what we wanted. Some people needed a slight push and it was out of their comfort zone, whilst for others it was simple and easy and didn’t require a second thought.

There were about ten people who came to the event. We were happy with this and didn’t expect many more, and it seemed to work quite well. It soon proved difficult to film people on their journey as everyone went in different directions from the start. We were glad that people took different routes and didn’t nervously stick together. People didn’t seem to have a problem downloading the track, and most were quite intrigued by the different use of media. It worked well taking a traditional journey concept and making it contemporary by using social media and D.I.Y downloading. This is a concept I believe works quite well if you have an invited audience, especially if they are of a slightly younger age. It meant that passers-by would not be able to join in, but if someone was really interested and had a smart phone on the day, it may have been possible for them to download the track directly from the website onto their phone. This was something Joe and I considered, setting up a small booth with the download link. We decided in the end that we didn’t feel that we would attract enough attention. People in the high street will either be shopping, or going to and from work. We assumed that the majority of those people would not be willing to take thirty minutes out of their day to partake in our journey. If it was a five or ten minute journey, this would have definitely been a stronger option for us, and gives us a wider and more diverse audience. In hindsight we could have advertised wider than through social media and Internet. We could have posted the website up so that people were intrigued and went on it not knowing what they were going to find. We are glad that we managed to do this performance on such a low budget, as we believe that it turned out as planned and went smoothly.