A Michael Chekhov Mis-Guide

Simon Persighetti & Phil Smith

Dartington Estate (November 2005)

atmospheres, lines in the table cloth, vodka and milk, a performance walk around the sites of Michael Chekhov's actor-training at Dartington Hall in the 1930s, ordered by one of his student's training diagrams, informed by the conversion plans for his former-rehearsal studio (to a chicken shed).

Walking Newtown: A Mis-guided Tour of Newtown

Simon Persighetti

Newtown, Exeter (May 2003)

Hosted by Newtown Community Association, thirty adults and children were escorted on a walk around their own neighbourhood and introduced to the concepts behind An Exeter Mis-guide by members of Wrights & Sites, via explanation and sharing of the book's concept pages. The walk comprised a visit to the former claypit, where the bricks for building the city were produced; a cut through someone's house; the hanging of socks on the ghost clothes lines of demolished houses; the writing of a postcard to the former Post Office; the naming of the fallen in the First World War at the parish monument and a ceremonial opening of Belmont Pleasure Grounds.

Participants were invited back to the community hut for tea and discussion, where there were requests for a repeat tour and ideas were shared about other routes that could be explored.

Passages

Simon Persighetti

Exeter's Underground Passages (April 2001)

Passages was a subterranean journey through the arteries of the city. This Year Of The Artist residency took place in Exeter's Underground Passages, a 13th Century tunnel system, which channelled water into the city. In collaboration with historians and members of the public the artists created site-specific events using music, text, light and video to explore these ancient waterways.

Face This Way

Simon Persighetti

Leskernick, Bodmin Moor (Spring 2000)

A collaboration with Martin Hubbard & Mike Venning of Falmouth College of Arts and anthropologist, Barbara Bender, of UCL. The work consisted of on-site experiments on the Iron Age settlement of Leskernick, Bodmin Moor, Cornwall. Using sensor, photographic and movement devices, the team explored the issue of thresholds and the alignment of doorways in relation to the landscape. An interactive installation of some of the outcomes of this work was shown at the Between Nature conference at Lancaster University in July 2000.

Short Day : Long Line

Simon Persighetti

Countess Wear to Cowley Bridge Inn, Exeter (December 1999)

Short Day : Long Line was a pre-millennium experiment devised to gain some experience of the notion of the Time Line. Executed by Joel Segal (Angelcast) and Simon Persighetti, the duo dressed in white suits emblazoned with the Big Ben clockface, and drew a continuous white chalk line from one edge of the city of Exeter to the other (4.5 miles). The work began at dawn on 22nd December 1999 (the shortest day) and ended at Cowley Bridge Inn.

Pleasure Grounds

Simon Persighetti

Newtown, Exeter (Spring 1999 & Spring 2000)

Pleasure Grounds ran in two phases, 1999 and 2000, with Theatre Students from Dartington College of Arts. The work consisted of visible and discrete experiments in site-specific performance practice, and focused on the Newtown area of Exeter. The works included choreographies in the park, outside-to-inside video projections, an interactive CD ROM map of the district, a performance walk around the boundaries of Belmont Park, fairground attractions, a Newtown banner parade with local children and park angels.

The projects were hosted by Newtown Community Association, with support from Exeter City Council Play Training & Resource Centre and Newtown First School.