Play tested the three games at newcastle college in the cafe area, first go in a semi public space: ‘word play, I doff and sign language duel’, and surprisingly ‘I doff my Hat’ seemed the most effective with the participants. I had six participants, students that had been chosen by the teacher in performing arts and dance. This firstly meant that I could try out I Doff My hat with more pairs as I had not got more than two pairs so far, and that was with me playing in as well. It worked surprisingly well considering how badly I thought it was for playing before. It is pretty simple to explain and the participants went at it immediately. . I have also changed the game mechanic, after the talk with Aki, so that the circle is gone,and instead it is a King Of A hill game,with others trying to become king of the hill. So this means if you win you stay on, or you are central. Their victory as King Of The Hill, is signalled by wearing of hats,and that they get to say the small victory and perform the hat doffing.
Choreographically I let them kind of assemble how they wanted too. I didn’t play in at all. It was a better structure, as felt people were more into playing and it made the gameplay more immediate. I let people do the declaring when they wanted to show they had the routine, rather than having a fixed time, and beating each other that way. I thought about if you get it wrong you drop out, but instead, I let them carry on in the gameplay so all could play. They were very effective at judging each other, and coming to a census, and often when pairs declared they were seen as not having mastered the Shake, so the round continued. It was interesting to watch as they approached it differently. They watched the screen rather than each other as they attempted to do the handshakes. Doing it in the cafe was interesting, it is a liminal half space, a betwix location, as it is the entrance, but also a cafe and reception area. The first handshake sequence, did allow a certain intimacy, beyond the hands, as it ends with a hug of sorts. The single small screen did work fine, for putting the instructions across, but doesn’t really affect or control the space at all. It was interesting as well, that when those that declared, and thought they hand it, a they did it, they realised they had done something wrong, and they themselves admitted to this as soon as they had finished. When they communicate between themselves
about the shakes, it is done very visually, all the time there are hands and arms flying around, as each set explain where the other set went wrong. When they try the first one, it has lots of hand holding, is very tactile, and is very ballroom dancing. The second pair to try, were very vocal, and one of the girls was more directional with the other one. They also put on a big display when finished, putting hands up. But the other pairs, showed physically where they had gone wrong. So the I Doff my hat, went well, and everyone got into the spirit of it and it seemed to get everyone excited, to wear the hat. People really shouted out and made themselves known when they thought they had the handshake. It was all a lot more open than I thought it would be, as often after showing the shake, it was turned down as an accomplishment and their undertaking was accompanied by mocking noooos from the other pairs. There was the idea of collusion and that the pairs were playing up the sense of conflict. Often I felt that the pair knew they hadn’t got it, but just wanted to declare and see if they could bluff their way through to a win.
Not sure exactly the relevance of the small victories thing. It did though seem to exhaust itself after four rounds, I could feel the energy dip. Watching back the footage, the handshake game, with the couples, seems kind of dancerly, almost ball dancerly. Nobody around us came over to take part, though people around did watch.
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