Ritual Encounters

Rituals are part of what make us human, they are acts which permeate, define, and enrich our social and cultural worlds. Rituals are enacted by individuals to an audience, they have narrative structures, promote bodily movement in space, and create moments of ephemerality which mediate and unify person, other, and place.

The presence of ritual in contemporary life is often overlooked and unseen, however, when we consider rituals in their broadest sense, as structured processes which illicit a distinction from ‘ordinary life’, we open our eyes to ritual essences in a plethora of contemporary and social practices, and we can learn much about ideas of identity, power, and community through their analysis.

Studio “Ritual Encounters” considered tourism as a form of contemporary ritual. By delving into the ritualistic aspect of a tourist’s experience, the studio reflected on the impact of recurring ‘pilgrimages’ and ‘rites’ for the holiday-maker, but also the destination, and local community.

Sited in Blackpool, studio “Ritual Encounters” questioned the consequence of sight-seeing rituals; pre-determined actions, such as taking photographs at key locations provides a sense of achievement, consistency and structure to the tourist, but these actions disrupt the day to day lives of the local community.

Blackpool is layered with ideas of temporal play, curiosity and fun, as well as notions of intrusion and perhaps trespass. The studio explored the performance, experience and consequence of tourism in relation to broad themes of identity, power, and community. We layer theoretical, historical and social perspectives to investigate Blackpool, its history, and its community-in-flux. The studio was concerned with the human experience, meaningful encounters and the use of architecture as a mediating tool between the conflicting priorities of tourist, place, and resident.

Studio tutor