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This section provides a time-chronological narrative account written in the past tense of selected events taking place during my performance Lost for Words included as part of Testing Grounds' 2011 programme of performances loosely conceived around the concept of failure. My performance took place in the gallery at South Hill Park, Berkshire. The space adhered to white-cube conventions: walls painted white, polished wooden floors and slightly abrasive artificial lighting. This description concentrates on the first eighteen minutes of the forty-five minute performance. This is to foreground analytical discussion taking place in the next section relating to how, during this period of the performance specifically, I (the protagonist) demonstrated an ability to make use of interruptive processes that were physical and bodily in nature to provoke participation. The following narrative account begins at the start of the performance when my sidekick and I walked into the gallery space. Twenty or so audience members are stood in one corner of the gallery with a cameraman video-recording the performance positioned to one side of them in an opposite corner. The account ends after an activity during the performance involving aspects of audience participation and slapstick has finished.18

1.2.1 A Narrative Account of Lost for Words (2011)

My sidekick and I had a quick gin and tonic and walked out of our makeshift greenroom (the store cupboard) and into the performance space. We didn’t

18 _{For video documentation of Lost for Words, please refer to Appendix Three on the}

welcome the audience. The audience had been instructed by one of the gallery staff to stand in one part of the space. I addressed the audience and read out a quote by Lisa Le Feuvre (2010) relating to the topic of failure: “To talk of failure [is to] to embrace possibility in the gap between intention and realisation.” We sat in the middle of the space and began a conversation in front of the audience (Figure 15). “So,” I began, “I’ve been asked to do a performance about the concept of failure.” My sidekick responded, “I said I would help you with that but I am not quite sure what to do. But I’ve come up with a few ideas. We spoke about them earlier.” I replied, “Do you remember any of it? Can you remember the order that we’ll do everything?”

Fig.15 Lee Campbell: Lost for Words, Testing Grounds, South Hill Park, (2011). Courtesy of Testing Grounds

I grabbed the sidekick’s notes relating to the running order of events from out of his hands and turned it over. I said, “No looking. How many parts are there?” The sidekick replied, “Six” to which I responded, “Wrong! Twelve. See, you did not do your homework, did you!” I then asked my sidekick if he was suitably dressed to do a performance and said, “You should have gone for green. Poor audience. Red. Green. Their eyes are going to be all over the place like a tennis ball. We both decided that we would use the audience in some way.” The sidekick put his right hand on his chin and said, “Maybe ‘use’ is not quite the best word.” I replied, “We’re going to help the audience understand the performance by incorporating them within it. But actually we’ll use them.” An audience member made a huff.

will find very funny,” I told my sidekick. The sidekick replied, “I’m not hearing very much laughter at the moment. I think it is more sneer.” A coughing sound came from the audience. “Telling someone what to do and how to act is bad isn’t it? I would not do anything like that would I,” I said to my sidekick. He did not reply. Audience members are then instructed to form two groups with roughly the same number of people. Allocating myself to one of the groups I gave each person within my group a different number between one and eleven. My sidekick did the same activity in his group. Participants were given a plastic cup to hold up against their ears with cup outward pointing.

Fig.16 Lee Campbell: Lost for Words, Testing Grounds, South Hill Park, (2011). Courtesy of Testing Grounds

We instructed the audience members to occupy different parts of the performance space and told them to not move until instructed. We then exited the space. We re-entered the space. I did so by repeatedly shouting “RIGHT!” whilst placing my hands on my hips and moving my chest and head in a leftwards direction whilst my sidekick shouted “LEFT!” whilst placing his hands on his hips and moving his chest and head in a rightwards direction.

Audience members watched the action and listened to the sound through their cups as extended earpieces (Figure 16). I turned to address the audience and said at the top of my voice, “Now it is your turn. You’re with me and you’re with him. Let’s go!” Following this, my sidekick led a group of audience members to

march around the space shouting “RIGHT!” whilst placing their hands on their hips and moving their chests and heads in a leftwards direction whilst I led the remaining group of audience members to march around the space shouting “LEFT” whilst placing their hands on their hips and moving their chests and heads in a rightwards direction (Figure 17). Just as we were about to complete a full circumnavigation of the space, I interrupted the march by halting proceedings and turned to one of the audience members and asked, “Are you happy with right? Do you like right or do you like left? Well if you want to change over then you can come and change over.”

Fig. 17 Lee Campbell: Lost for Words, Testing Grounds, South Hill Park, (2011). Courtesy of Testing

Grounds

Fig.18 Lee Campbell: Lost for Words, Testing Grounds, South Hill Park, (2011). Courtesy of Testing Grounds

The audience member chuckled at my question. I responded, “Oh am I not that popular then?” The march around the space began again. Realising that I had

correctly, the march was then interrupted again by my announcement for it to stop. Seeking confirmation, I turned to my sidekick and asked him if he was ‘right’ or ‘left’. The march began again once more. I performed the slapstick correctly thanks to being helped by the sidekick. Audience members performing the action started to make mistakes. Laughter filled the space (Figure 18). The march ended.