Due to the rain coming down when I presented my encounter, there is no documentation of it so I thought that I would share the few pictures that I took earlier in the day and say a few words about it.
With my encounter I wanted to add some interaction with the group as a collective as opposed to it being a singular experience and considering my writer background I wanted to add some words.
I found a space just outside of the Valentine building, going down some steps, below ground level, to a door. The area down the steps looked like it had been a place completely forgotten about by people for a time, but still being affected by it. Having litter down there, a degraded little door covering some piping and a metal grate over some water that seemed to be collecting litter as well as leaves and cobwebs. This reminded me of my Nan's orchard as a child.
So I decided to impose myself upon the encounter by taking the group down this set of stairs I asked them to stand on the steps like an audience as I sat on the wall above the encounter and read them this short verse:
The urban decay,
The waste of the nation,
Youth, youth, youth
Decay
Isolation play,
Degeneration,
Take what you can from this station,
The urban decay,
The waste of the nation.
I then wanted some small physical documentation of their own experience or reaction to this encounter so I asked them all one by one to offer a word or sentence after reading this and then asked them to remain and experience the encounter for as long as they felt comfortable and removed myself from it.
The responses given were as follows:
Darkness,
Dreary Doorway,
Trapdoor,
Gridlock,
Cellar Door,
Cobwebs,
Little spider's temporary home.
