Friday, July 27, 2012

Postcard from Stratford

This is Stratford-upon-Avon rather than the Olympic one, and things are rather more genteel. No lycra-clad exertion required and no records to beat - more likely that you'll bump into someone clad in Elizabethan finery declaiming iambic pentameter. And the worst of the traffic jams are on the water.

You might have expected me to post pictures of the Shakespeare houses or other picturesque sights but while there I went to an exhibition which made me look at things in a different way. 'Of all the people in all the world...', an installation by Stan's Cafe, used grains of rice to represent the individuals behind statistics in a way which made me fully appreciate what they meant. I work with numbers, but no graph or percentage score ever made me think as hard as this did.



4 comments:

William Gallagher said...

Hey, when were you there? By half-accident, I've been in Stratford every Friday afternoon and evening for three weeks. Always there to see a play – but last week I found that rice exhibition.

And you're right, it's incredible how that simple idea produces such shocking vivid results. Also funny ones, but.

Katharine D'Souza said...

Wow, am jealous of your theatre attendance routine! My visit was on a Tuesday and didn't include a play. Am keen on the look of the latest Much Ado though.

I was in the room for quite a while with a range of emotions. Certainly an exhibition to make you think. And do look out for Stan's Cafe's performances if you've not seen them. I loved their recent origami tulips as metaphor for the current financial collapse.

Guy Saville said...

Hey

I like that rice idea - very clever!

Gx

PS - to 'prove I'm not a robot' I had to type 2 random words in before posting this comment. Can you believe the 2 words were 'cake stuff' (and the number 22). Very apt don't you think, Ms D'Souza!

Katharine D'Souza said...

I spend hours setting the 'random' generator to make sure it's appropriate for you, Guy! Just resetting now to 'ice' and 'cream' and '99'.
K x