A Sardine Street Box of Tricks Paperback - 2012

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... A lecturer at the University of Plymouth, Phil Smith 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.