Today we had access to The Tote at 2pm, with every room available for us to investigate. Within the first five minutes it was clear how differently the space presents itself when stripped of what I thought were its defining qualities – the people, the loud music, the chatter and buzz. The way the light poured in through the windows and illuminated the stained floors and scuffed walls gave it all a soft, almost heavenly aura, which hopefully in our documentation plays well to the idea of this place being a sacred, ritual site.

There was plenty of evidence of people, materialised in sticky footsteps by the bar, marks left on tables from pints and messages inscribed on almost every surface. Feeding further into the aura of the place was the gentle hum of fridges and generators in almost every room, providing a gentle bed to our tranquil, somewhat meditative time spent there.

I found the experience to be really engaging and exciting and feel as though we’ve captured some interesting content. I’m looking forward to getting together to experiment with these fragments and finding their overlaps.