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Within This House (Temple Newsam House) May 2018

Re-animating the World War 1 Auxiliary Hospital at Temple Newsam

Image by Scott Merrylees

As part of the LITE Project looking at creativity and the mobile phone Dr Scott Palmer worked with an interdisciplinary group of students to create a durational performance within the House and a bespoke smartphone tour to be experienced in the formal gardens and terraces.

This was a collaboration with Leeds Museums and Galleries resulting in site-specific, durational live performances and mediatised material at Temple Newsam House.

The project had two key outcomes:

  • An ‘immersive’ relational performance for the general public in Temple Newsam House and grounds on 5 - 7th May 2018, on the site of the First World War Auxiliary Hospital.
  • A digital media experience, accessed through smartphones to provide a free augmented nomadic performance, triggered via GPS location technology. The aim was to provide a lasting visitor experience in the formal gardens and grounds after the live performance had left the site. (Further information HERE)

We developed the performance working from a rich variety of existing research, including materials from Leeds Museums’ archive, Liddle Collection at University of Leeds’ Library, Lord Halifax’s private photography archive and materials held at the Borthwick Institute, (York).

Detailed historical research was funded by the University of Leeds Cultural Institute through its Ignite HEIF Scheme and undertaken by postgraduate researcher Bethany Rowley under the supervision of Professor Alison Fell and Lucy Moore, (First World War Project leader at Leeds Museums and Galleries). The live, site-specific performances based on the historical material was created by students in the School of Performance & Cultural Industries and animated the spaces of the South Wing at Temple Newsam during the May Day Bank Holiday weekend.

Event details Leeds Inspired

Yorkshire Evening Post Article