Visiting the Archive today we stumbled across two of the three racing bet cards for the last ever event held under rules. Monday and Wednesday 16th-18th of March 1964. I found it fascinating that on the day of the event most of the customers would have brought one of these for a mere one shilling when today I’m looking at it as a link to history.
As I have already been intrigued by the idea of before and after I felt I should get as many details from the betting card as possible, the times of the races, amount of horses per race, anything that would give an impression of what it would be like to be there. If it becomes clear later that I can utilise this information e.g. having a performance that lasts from 1:50 -4:15 to represent what seemed to be a typical day at the grandstand back when it was active.
I’m now starting to really like the idea of making the audience of our piece experience the last event at the grandstand through us. Representing the information we found in a way that is both interactive and aesthetically pleasing.