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The town of Folkestone on the south Kent coast in the UK once enjoyed a thriving identity as both seaside resort and gateway to Europe. From the 1960s onwards a gradual decline set in with the advent of mass global travel, culminating in the deathblow that was dealt by the nearby Eurotunnel’s inauguration towards century’s end, which signalled the end of the town’s ferry link to the continental mainland. A concerted attempt has been underway for a decade now to revitalise the town using the arts, creative industries and education as the drivers of regeneration. One of the main initiatives in this endeavour was the introduction in 2008 of the Folkestone Triennial, a three-month summer event in which high-profile international artists were commissioned to produce sited artworks for the town. Focusing on the third triennial in 2014, this article analyses some of the ways in which artists have sought to engage and identify with notions suggested by its title,Lookout. In particular it will outline a curated constellation of artworks – or complex – that implicitly inscribes itself into the townscape and is characterised by installations that are sited in elevated locations, from whose respective vantage points they contemplate what the future holds for Folkestone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers the author's insights regarding the aspects of practice-as-research and its roles in active audience concept. Topics discussed include the establishment of the research practice as productive and valid critical inquiry theatre which encompasses the investigations on the modes of direction, the aspects of reflexive practice as creative research method in visual arts, and the roles of the spectators on audience participation.

The concept of ‘liveness’ has become a key theme in performance studies, linking important ideas of presence to contrasting perceptions of audiences as passive consumers or active participants. Forming the second part of an Arts and Humanities Research Council funded investigation into ‘Young Audiences and Live Theatre’, this paper seeks to contribute to this debate by presenting a detailed picture of what the experience of live performance means for one segment of the live theatre audience – teenage school pupils – in one specific context – a school visit to a production of Othello. The paper follows an interconnected chain of responses to the live experience, directed by the process of self-analysis and reflection begun by the research participants themselves. The result is an experiential understanding of how for these young audience members watching live theatre was about far more than simply sitting down and watching a play. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]