Performance day reviews

Today was performance day in the library and I have written three reviews about three different performances that I witnessed.

The first performance I saw was "The tree of stories" by Sherelle and Georgina. Here is a video of the performance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Pe_dg9ZhPCk#!

I thought that this performance was very interesting in its presentation. The cardboard tree stood out and seemed to grab the attention of a lot of people. I liked the idea that the tree represented the body of the UEL library and each leaf showed a story or an opinion about the library. I personally participated in the creation of this in that Sherelle gave me a paper leaf and asked me to write my favorite place in the library on it. People seemed to be very willing to write down their favorite places and add them to the tree of stories and I think Georgina and Sherelle did well in finding participants and actively asking people to join in. This performance ran throughout the day which meant that people could keep adding to the tree and by the end of the day they had a very impressive amount of stories written on it. Overall this was a creative and interactive performance that utilized the library space effectively and was enjoyable for people.

The second performance I witnessed was Fitness Geek by Shanice, Shanice, Hande and Yughiny. Here is a video of the performance: http://publicproject1.wordpress.com/2013/05/12/fitness-geek/

This was a two-part performance in that it included a video running throughout the day as well as a live work out routine that was performed in front of everyone in the library. This idea was very creative in that they took certain movements you would see in the library on a daily basis such as a reading a book or sitting in a chair and turned them in to a workout routine encouraging people to be more active while studying. The video was played at the same time as the live performance which made it eye catching and interesting to watch. A few students did join in with the work out routine and a lot of people stood around to watch. The group also shouted instructions as they performed the routine so that people could remember the steps that they were doing if they wanted to join in. This was a very creative use of library space and certainly caught peoples attention. I think this performance was very successful

The final performance I witnessed was "We are the world" by Simona. This performance was a creative art display on the ground floor of the library that showed the multi-cultural aspect of the UEL library. Simona had gone round the library and asked people about their nationality, also taking some photos, and she then displayed them as an art form on a large poster board. The display was easy to view and she had included some statistics about the percentage of people from each different country which was very interesting to learn about. She also included some information about the different languages UEL library users speak. While viewing the performance she also explained a bit about her own culture as she is originally from Lithuania. She explained that UEL is such a global university and she wanted to raise awareness of how many nationalities and races of people enter the library each day. This was an educational piece and seemed to engage peoples interest, especially overseas students.

Today has gone very well overall.