Macbeth - Level 1, Set 5/9

Week 5

6: The Original Chart

You will notice differences from the Full Colour Chart, (#2)

This chart was drawn on unbleached calico, with felt-tipped pens,

Using a slightly different arrangements of some of the scenes,

which are all placed ‘inside’ the witches cauldron.

(If you fold and refold calico, it doesn’t tear, as paper does.)

Each scene includes drawings, as well as quotes from the play.

They’re barely legible here – but this chart dates back from the early 1970’s.

Importantly, this (first) ‘Original Chart’ is unique, lively, messy, and personal.

That’s how it is supposed to be.

It’s captures a dynamic, interactive, sense-making process

- it’s not a static product.

And the witches’ cauldron ‘holds’ everything.

This Chart has a ‘character key’ where England ‘should’ be.

It’s packed with quotes from each scene,

covered with illustrations.

It’s a personalised, sense-making space,

not a bland ‘AI’ abstraction ...

Instead, it’s overflowing with (personal) agency and context ...

(with wall-to-wall ‘skin in the game’)

There are texts, images and, if possible, voices too.

These images and texts are powerful examples of what happens /

what’s disclosed/ what’s disguised/ fake news’d/ or just plain lies.

The scenes are all situated in or around the Celtic Cross.

In an age of connectivity and mixed media, this begs

for a feast of digital media, links, ideas, and collaboration.

It is a space where the consequences and ironies of events

can be traced from scene to scene, through

i) the geometry of the chart (the structure), and

ii) the detailed tapestries of the text (the layers of resonances: +ve and -ve).

You can map out the settings and events in each scene,

preferably with your own icons for each character.

Even Nature - like Birnam Wood,

and the costumes / the robes of office /

are ‘players’ in the play.

Ideally each user, or group of users, creates their own chart.

The texts you use, and the links you insert,

provide the evidence for how you make sense of each play.

To explain how this works I’ll show you a few examples from Macbeth;

the way the geometries of the chart, and the fine tapestries of the play,

work together.

Next week ... Examples from the play / charts #1