Mythogeography works: performing multiplicity on Queen Street

Abstract

This paper considers the exploration of, and performance on, a single street in Exeter, UK, as guided by an idea of ‘mythogeography’ and a determination to address a place as a multiplicity of meanings, objects, accretions, rhythms and exceptions. It explores the virtues of and obstacles facing a performance made ‘on the hoof’ in both senses – ambulatory and improvisatory. It draws on the idea of ‘mythogeography’ originated in the work of Wrights & Sites, sprung from a growing awareness of how the multiple meanings of certain sites, particularly those designated as ‘heritage’ or ‘touristic’, are ‘closed down’ and an aspiration to represent multiple and diverse meanings resistant to such a monocular politics of place. Contrasted with previously ‘exemplary’ work, enacting only the possibilities that a mythogeographical approach to place and space might offer, the paper explores how far a performative ‘mis-guided tour’ (titled in publicity A Tour of Sardine Street) was able to generate a work of ‘realised’ geography applicable to the street and the city as an analysis as well as an aesthetic provocation.

Keywords:

• mythogeography
• street performance
• limited myth
• the everyday
• heritage
• performance as research

Notes

1. Examples of other ‘mis-guided tours’ are documented at http://www.mythogeography.com/2009/11/a1.html.