Professional practice: Helen Stratford:

Helen Stratford is a practicing artist and teacher at Sheffield Hallam university and conducts performative research in and around public space. 

She has created many performance art pieces including 'Mechanical operations' in 2009 and 'A day with a duck' in 2012. 'Mechanical operations' was based in Cambourne, Cambridge and focused on how spaces are created and maintained within an area, how they are maintained and what rules and regulations make up a space. through this Stratford found that every space can be designed accordingly to a different set of principles. 

Stratford mentioned that during her performance pieces some of the techniques and processes that she finds the most helpful within her work are drawing, mapping, interviews, talking to people and researching the historical context about the area. 

during Stratfords piece 'A day with a duck' she found that there was and immediate negative reaction to the ducks from the locals of Ely, stating that they're incomers, not locals and some even stating that they would like to shoot them. 

To take her piece even further Stratford created parody tourist leaflets for a 'duck led tour of Ely'.  Through tis performance piece Stratford found the  lengths that the locals and local authorities would go to get rid of these 'incomers' such as oiling eggs to stop them from hatching, not allowing people to feed the ducks of land  and even implementing a £2500 fine for feeding the ducks as they considered it littering. 

One of Stratfords more recent performances was called 'Public S/pacing' and was performed in 2024, this was a piece about chronic pain and explored what life is like for people with chronic pain.  For this performance Stratford lay down in Sheffield train station and the blanket used was a physical metaphor for disability. 

Some of the main points that I took away from this lecture was the research that goes into a performance piece and where it is performed and that by doing this you can convey your message and intent in a better way. I believe that interviews are also an important aspect of performance art as you can accurately gather data and see wether your piece has been a success and the affect that it has had, this will then allow you to perfect your next performance.