When thinking through a way to display the scrolls I’ve been battling between having people interact with the scroll and also displaying the scroll as something ‘sacred’. Karema gave an incredible piece of feedback during my feedback process yesterday:

I wonder how accessible the scroll was for viewers in the show. It looks stunning, but it also made me feel as though it was something sacred.

The sacred element of art work and the slow process compared to the immediacy of the digital are something I actively want to get across when displaying. This is something I researched during my research paper and is an important element to my art however this also limits feelings of accessibility.

Beyond this, through experience and anecdotes I am aware that leaving a piece to be handled throughout a busy private viewing and exhibition can be risky.

Karemas feedback got me thinking more deeply about how I tackle this issue. I voiced this issue with my father, who is helping me to create the stands for the pieces and we came to the conclusion that perhaps a performance piece could enhance the pieces accessibility and also show the scrolling of the pieces.

I imagine several people sitting around the piece on chairs, relaxed, absorbed on their phones. Scrolling in a way that perhaps makes it seem that this is what we have actually decided to do during a private viewing at CSM. We are being rude, but not in a way that would shock many as we have become accustomed to this behaviour. After a period of scrolling three of us would get up and begin to wind and unwind the scrolls. During the time we are on our phones, technological sounds, much like the one I have used on my piece ‘Interfearance’ that replicated haptics used by LLMS would play. When the scrolls are being interacted with, soundscapes of llanymynech would play. This also enables to me to incorporate more natural elements into the displaying of the piece.

In order to do this, I will try to coax my friends to get on board. I am lucky that one is an actor, one a singer and one up for anything if it involves having an audience.

This brings my piece from a static, sacred display and into an experience.

Inbetween performances I will be with the pieces but encourage (I originally used the word let… I am trying so hard to break my perfectionistic ways) people follow the lead of the performers, winding the scrolls themselves. The accessibility comes for mirroring what they have seen, and actively seeing the pieces move.