a triarchy press publication
A Sardine Street Box of Tricks
by Crab Man and Signpost
Publication Date: 14th February 2012
No of pages: 84
Book type: Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-908009-57-9
List Price: £7.50
Offer Price: £5.00
A Sardine Street Box of Tricks is a handbook for anyone who wants to make their own 'mis-guided' tour or walk.
Written by 'Crab Man' and 'Signpost' (Phil Smith and Simon Persighetti – both members of Exeter-based Wrights & Sites group), the book is based on the mis-guided 'Tour of Sardine Street' that they created for Queen Street in Exeter during 2011.
The book is designed to help anyone who makes, or would like to make, walk-performances or variations on the guided tour. It describes a range of different approaches and tactics, and illustrates them with examples from their tour of Queen Street. For example:
- Wear something that sets you apart and gives others permission to approach you: “Excuse me, what are you supposed to be?”
- Take a can of abject booze from the street or a momentary juxtaposition of a dove and a plastic bag and mould them, through an action, into an idea
- Attend to the smallest things
- Examine the cracks in your street and the mould on its walls, note its graffiti, collect its detritus, observe how its pavements are used and abused
- Set yourself tasks that passers-by will be intrigued by: they will enjoy interrupting and even joining in with you
- Draw upon ambiguous, ironical or hollowed-out rituals to complement the multiplicity of your walk with intensity of feeling or depth of engagement.
- And so on…
Readers' reviews:
'The book has been a revelation...'
'Brilliant...'
'Inspiring!'
'I love the book...'
'Thank you for making a chore-like walk into something more thoughtful.'
'I have been thinking of opening my walk more to the public, so this is very inspiring.'
Tags: drift, derive, mythogeography, psychogeography, wrights & sites, mis-guide, ambulatory improvisation, multiplicity, phil smith, simon persighetti
About the authors
Crab Man and Signpost. (Photo: Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery, Exeter)
Phil Smith (The Crab Man) is the author, co-author or presumed author of several Triarchy Press titles, notably:
- Mythogeography: A Guide to Walking Sideways (Triarchy Press, 2009).
- A Counter-Tourism Pocket Book (Triarchy Press, 2012)
- Counter-Tourism: The Handbook (Triarchy Press, 2012)
A lecturer at the University of Plymouth, Phil has written extensively on walking and street performance. He is also a prolific playwright, dramaturg at TNT (Munich) and a member of the Wrights & Sites group of artist-researchers.
Simon Persighetti (Signpost) is a lecturer at University College, Falmouth. His background is in community arts and touring theatre including work with The Crack Collective and Gog Theatre. He spent four years teaching visual arts and drama in Zambia.
As a core member of tEXt Festivals, he is involved with writing in many forms including his BBC radio play Maps (1985), the Edinburgh Festival production of TRAIN and the more recent Love Bites performed in Berlin and Munich, all have threads of travel and journey at their heart.
His urban exploratory work has included projects in Copenhagen, Zurich, Vienna, London and New York. He has also written scripts for the commercial theatre, including an adaptation of The Snow Queen (2006) and A Christmas Carol (2007) for The Brewhouse Theatre Company.
Simon is a member of the Wrights & Sites group of artist-researchers.
Readership
A Sardine Street Box of Tricks is designed to help anyone who makes, or would like to make, walk-performances or variations on the guided tour. It has already been used by performance artists and by students of drama and site-specific performance.
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