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 16^th-18^th 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.

It’s true that, upon visiting the grandstand for the first time, I knew nothing about it. It was exactly for this reason that I tried to stop myself from creating ideas to use for the assessment and it became clear that even though I hadn’t heeded my own advice, I should have.

What I imagined I would feel from the inside of the building was: death, loss, fall from grace etc. when in reality it is fairly welcoming when you get used to how empty it is. In stark contrast to the silence, rust and forbidden areas of the outside the inside seems to stubbornly hold onto it’s former glory.

It is the contrast that I am now most interested in. I would be very happy if I could come up with an aesthetically interesting performance which reflects the Inside/outside, cold/warm, old/new feeling that being in and around the Grandstand gives me