A healthy dose of voyeurism. Nothing to be ashamed of.
I don’t feel, especially in London, that we are allowed to look at other people properly without a confrontation, maybe leading to someone popping you on the nose. (This happened to me on the way back from school once in Clapham Common, outside Shalamar). So it does feel special when you get the chance to have a good stare, because we are interesting, us people.
About a year ago, I helped out in the You Me Bum Bum Train production and had that chance, due to the glare of a spotlight. Last week again – this time watching groups as they moved around with headphones on an audio walk in an old town hall. From their point of view, ears full of voices, music, mind wandering into the past. From mine, silent shuffles, the odd chuckle, a domino of gazes all 5 seconds behind each other.
No reason to feel exposed, if you’re the one with headphones, I mean, it was really some kind of beautiful choreography from my eyes. And what do you care anyway? You see me watching but you’re happily lost in your own world, we’re immersed in two different things.
To do the Memento at Limehouse Town Hall audio walk – look here.