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Unknown Pleasures

Part 1 Project 2022
Louis Alexander Gross
Leeds Beckett University | UK
Located in London’s Borough Market, ‘Unknown Pleasures’ responds directly to the historical context of Southwark. The project uncovers underbelly activities that used to entertain traders of Southwark. Brothels, bear fighting and undocumented theatres were events that became a part of everyday life in the 18th and 19th century. The project frames the performances of current everyday events, helping to act out site- specific cultural repair.

In a World post pandemic, UK theatres require immediate regeneration. While the project is a critique on the future of theatres, it also enacts a scenario where goods are in short supply due to post Brexit trading issues. The Unknown Pleasures Theatre had to establish a black market in order to survive.

The invention of a black market was created in reference to the darker activities that were once became ‘performances’ on site. These scenes became synonymous with illegal activities that evaded the law.

The project uses a hybrid between analogue and digital methods of representation that leave human traces imprinted into the process, such as cyanotype and screen printing; a type of performance in itself. Self-developed analogue photography methods became a way to explore spatial and user experience through a documentary style format.

Louis Alexander Gross

Tutor(s)

2022
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