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PROJECTSPACE - Station/Stationary – case study

Context
Background
Station / Stationary, Artistic Statement
Proposal
CYOG08
Challenges
Funding

Context
The commission, Station/Stationary, originates from the Gateways strand of Cheshire Year of Gardens 2008 initiative and forms both one element of the arts programme and the marketing strategy for CYOG 08.

Key Gateways into the County have been identified in the CYOG 08 business plan for the focus of environmental enhancement schemes. These Gateways include the stations at Chester, Crewe and Warrington Bank Quay.

The arts programme commissioned a work to be included in the Gateways scheme for Crewe Station. The original parameters for the commission were that it was to be temporary and could be installations, performances or interventions. With an aim to demonstrate the positive impact that artists commissions can have in within broader schemes, such as the Gateways Marketing Strategy.

In addition, the commission needed to relate to both Crewe Station and Cheshire Year of the Gardens 08 and to have a lasting legacy through demonstrating and advocating for best practice in public art.

Background
The process by which Cheshire Dance and The BodyCartography Project were selected for the Gateways commission was by direct invitation.

Discussions between the Arts Service of Cheshire County Council and Cheshire Dance began in January 2008. This commission is based on a programme of in-depth research and development, initiated in May 2008 with Cheshire Dance’s professional development programme Pollen8.

As Crewe Rail station is a major rail interchange and ‘gateway’ to the North West of England, it was vital that the station manager at Crewe Station was integral to the discussions with Cheshire Dance and, as such, was involved and informed about the development of Cheshire Dance’s proposal for the commission.

Station / Stationary, Artistic Statement
The BodyCartography Project investigates the physical resonance of space in urban, domestic, wild, technological and social landscapes through dance, film and installation work. We activate space and challenge social and perceptual limitations of physical freedom and imagination. We engage and provoke audiences in diverse
contexts through collaborative processes with independent artists and communities. In our site work we invite participants to enter their animal-like appetites and childlike curiosities for physical investigation through engagement of the sensorial body. Working on a visual, kinaesthetic, tactile and aural level we aim to articulate the very process of perception and discover the innate composition of the spaces we research and perform in.

Moving between fact and fiction we will reveal the intricacies of Crewe Railway Station, one of the most historic railway stations in the world through the eyes of locals, visitors and commuters and explode its potential as a vehicle and medium to make art. Through sensorial investigation, imagery, action, humour, music and sound we will reveal not only the concrete physical characteristics of the site but also unveil and distil material from the more mutable aspects that transpire over time such as the pedestrian movement, weather, time, the stories of passengers and the sites imagined, remembered and actual history.

In Station/Stationary we will investigate ideas of speed, time travel and journeying to transform the viewers perception of time, space and place through live performance, sound and video projections. The audience will be invited to wander through the station and experience the work at their own speed. Taking their own internal journey whilst journeying around the station but never necessarily boarding a train.

How do the acts of walking or waiting engage us in an understanding of place? As we walk what is our bodies relationship to time, measurement, change, duration, distance and decay? How does speed orient/disorient the body? How does transportation that moves us faster than our own ability to move through landscape transform our understanding of place? Amidst an ongoing repetitive activity, such as waiting, walking, riding in a train, where does the mind and imagination travel to? In waiting, what are the small dances that manifest in our body, maybe below our conscious awareness? How do interventions, ours/others, change our perception of the environment? How can actions or images taken completely out of context re-engage us in our immediate surroundings or transport us to a completely different perception of where we are?

Proposal
We propose to design a series of discrete activities within the station that can be viewed in close-up or from a distance down the length of platform or where natural sightlines exist. This would include up to fifty live performers and up to three video projections (as is technologically possible). The viewing order and locations would be specifically designed (see Appendix)

The audience will be issued an audio headset and a map in exchange for some form of ID at the entrance to the station. The audio headset will allow audience members to have a more of a self-directed experience and allow us to work with adding layers of sound to the performance which may be difficult to do through speakers alone within the station. This could be with a limited number of high quality audio headsets (in-kind or rented) or cheap cd / old cd walkmans.

The audience would travel through the station in small groups or individually to witness the work amidst the reality of a functioning train station. The whole station and everyone in it or passing through it will essentially become part of the art work at times generating an ambiguity between pedestrian and performer. At particular viewing stations the audience will witness people engaging in specific activities, small groups unified in simple action. Eg A marching band, a group of people jumping or Irish dancing.

At some points the audience will be incited to action (by choice) becoming a possible 'participant' for someone else’s viewing of the work. An accessible route will have to be taken into consideration.

The duration of the viewing from each 'station' of each event would be left largely to the discretion of each group in order to incite participation and invite personal curiosity. Some of the video would transform the interior of the station to another time and place completely, maybe an era before the station existed or the view from a window of an incredible train ride or one of Cheshire’s incredible gardens. Other imagery would include life size people waiting, watching and moving in those specific spaces into which the image is projected who could be joined by their real life doubles for specific choreographed dances.

CYOG 08
As mentioned earlier, Station/Stationary is linked to the Gateways Marketing Strategy through the animation of the station with the temporary commission.

Gateways is being led by Visit Chester and Cheshire, they and their strategic partners aim to animate the core gateways coming into Chester and Cheshire for Cheshire’s Year of Gardens 08 through joint activity branding the region at the garden gateway to Liverpool European Capital of Culture 2008.

The objectives of the marketing strategy are:

• Create gateway features – striking garden displays, garden related art or community environmental projects at major entry points such as main railway stations, airports, motorway and trunk road boundaries, canal junctions, or gateway attractions to create awareness of the Year and contribute to an enhanced image of the county and the region.
• Promote Cheshire as a gateway to Liverpool in 2008, creating regional (Liverpool & Cheshire) itineraries for visitors
• Improve and increase visibility at gateways to the northwest such as Warrington Bank Quay & Crewe stations, Manchester & Liverpool airports.

Evaluation of this commission and of CYOG 08 will be key in the impact of the Station/Stationary commission to these objectives.

Challenges
As Crewe Station is not common site for public art commissions there were many challenges to resolve.

With figures for an estimate daily footfall at the station at 8,797, the safety of passengers and staff is the primary concern for the station manager. As such, risk assessments are a key task for the project manager.

There are many health and safety regulations to be followed; for instance, the sightlines of drivers were to be kept clear and sound installations cannot distract from announcements and busy periods in the station were to be avoided.

Many of these issues have been resolved between the artists and the station manger, and the primary activity for the commission will take place on the abandoned Platform 12, with a number small interventions happening across the station, within the sightlines of audiences on Platform 12.

Funding
Station/Stationary is a feature project of CYOG 08 and funding has been received by Arts Council England, North West; North West Development Agency, Cheshire County Council and partners include: Crewe Railway Station, Virgin Trains and Crewe & Nantwich Borough Council