The Richmond Hill Archaeological Wunderkammer

This participatory event was set up at the annual Richmond Hill Street Music Festival in Richmond Hill, Port Elizabeth on the 21 June 2014. It was conducted as a means of continuing the theme of mapping space and objects, and the activation of “non-art” space as "performative play" spaces that I had started in the Richmond Hill Participatory-Performing-Play Arts Expedition and in the central Walkabout/Eat Central project. I set up an “Archaeological Mapping of Richmond Hill”, which entailed asking visitors to collect objects that they found on their visit to Richmond Hill, and to bring them to the Arts and Culture Tent to be ‘collated’and added to the Richmond Hill Archaeological Wunderkammer. In the tent, I set up an “Arts Laboratory”, complete with wooden laboratory or examination tables, a trolley, a pin-board, and a series of white sculpture podiums – all on which visitors could place and examine found objects. In the laboratory, visitors could also draw, examine, play with or ‘dissect’ objects that they had collected, or objects that were already a part of the collection. I created pamphlets (see pamphlet directly below) to hand out at the festival which contained ‘instructions’ for visitors, asking them to collect objects and bring them to the tent to take part in an archaeological mapping of the area. I also created a series of prompt or cue cards (see below pamphlet) to aid viewers in participation and play. Below is what ensued.

Central Walkabout and Eat Central Project

This two-part project was organised and instigated by the Trinity Session (Marcus Neustetter and Stephen Hobbs). You can find out more about them here: http://www.onair.co.za/broadcast/

The first installment entailed an exploratory walkabout in the suburb of Central, Port Elizabeth. A group of Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) Fine Art students partook in this exercise as a means of developing ideas for an intervention or art event, to coincide with the Grahamstown National Arts Festival, which would take place at the Athenaeum gallery and/or surrounding area of Central. 

The walkabout acted as a means for me to conduct an interactive activity which was based on the idea of developing an understanding of a space via mapping. I provided participants with a pamphlet (see pamphlet flyer below) that contained a street map of Central and ‘instructions’ for the mapping process. In the instructions I asked that participants construct their own maps and understanding of the space of Central. They were asked to collect tangible evidence – objects, tracings or rubbings of textures, drawings, lists of special sites, colours, animal sightings, plant life, street signs, paper trails, etc – which would be collated to form a big map of all findings as an alternate map of Central or a “Central Walkabout Map”, marking that day and activity in particular, even if it made no sense as a guide to viewers outside of the project. The maps below were drawn by the students on the day of the walkabout and are the result of this exploration.

   

The Eat Central project was the ensuing second installment to the Central Walkabout. The Trinity Session sent out an invitation asking for participants to go on their own food expeditions in Central and record the food and people that they experienced there via photographs, film, sounds bytes, interviews, and any other medium they might deem suitable. My contribution consisted of the creation of an “Eat Central Map” or “Food Map” of Central, following on from my mapping exploration conducted at the Central Walkabout. This entailed the documentation and mapping of a “Found Food Sites Expedition”, in which I would explore Central's food outlets or “found food sites”. Included below is my Eat Central Map, as well as a series of photographs of the facades of the food outlets - taken on my cellphone camera as I conducted the mapping of them. If you're in Port Elizabeth, feel free to print out and use the Eat Central Map to conduct your own food expedition of Central and make additions to the found food sites!