Conditions: The participants are from the various buildings and areas we go too. I bring along Sarah as an expert tester, as she is a Maypole professional, she also provides musical accompaniment, accordion, drum, whistle.
Reflecting on the day it was all a bit tight, in order to get to all the different locations as rather than walking tried to aim for poles that were different, but also to move about the city a bit to places I thought people would be in decent numbers. For this testing I had an expert tester, in Sarah, who agreed to come out and try the maypole out and add musical accompaniment. She has been doing maypole workshops for a number of years. We undertook locations near the library,which proved fruitful as the staff came out, Gosforth high Street, also a good spot as near where the Community foundation is, the Blue Carpet outside the laing art gallery and the Metro Station. At the library location I noted people around the work, passers-by commenting how they wished they could do it as we were packing up. Also some of the Library participants afterwards said they were only getting warmed up and they wanted to do more. I was a bit stunned that people enjoyed it so much. For the library one, as there was a large group I decided to move far back, to try and see it in context. I did think a drone shot would be nice. The library was interesting as the manager came out to ask us what we were doing, then she went back, and then she came out with a large number of participants from the staff of the building. (I had cleared this with the council). When we went to Gosforth the Community foundation people came out and had been in a meeting the whole day, and so were really eager to get out and do something physical as they kept saying. Everyone came out and was a bit shocked, like the director as well. I overheard comments that it was a good team building exercise and one said it expressed their core values!
Working with Nexus and getting people into the metro to have a go didn’t work as I thought and I didn’t really have many there, and also there is no pole structure with clearage. So after trying a few things decided to do it in the ticketing bit, it was a bit awkward. Part of the game mechanism of choosing the correct pole structure for the undertaking came to the fore there. It was challenging doing the dance through the turnstyles, so it made the activity more of an achievement when completed. We chose a red post box at Gosforth that the Community foundation people wanted. The expert tester Sarah seemed happy with the way we were doing it, and she suggested some small poles, so she didn’t seem married to the idea of height of the pole. In the beginning we also started out using trees, which was the first time I had done this, had only perhaps wanted to use only street furniture, but wondered how the trees in the locations would look and fit in with the other objects we had been doing. It either normalises the maypole through its rural connection, or will make it seem more of an island in the urban environment. The wrapping of the objects works I felt watching it happen. But also the wrapping is easier to achieve than the unwrapping, this actually is quiet a puzzle, working out a way out. I felt like imposing a rule that they mustn’t cheat by letting go of any strands.
It did today seem to have many of the aspects of arts magic circle in its operations and the way it pulled people in round. Each Maypole was also when we did it in busier parts of town, surrounded by people taking photos and videos to post online. So it did have impact. If I look at some of the aspects of Arts magic circle, that I was putting forwards, it has the Gravity to draw people in, and it has a transformative element, it Amplifies the actions. It seems to bring people together. While the library work, for expediency, had only the very basic walking around the pole, the participants in it did act out, adapt slightly parodic dance moves of their own as they circled the pole. This time, due to a better idea of how the final works would fit into the gif maypole tree, I found myself concentrating on shot composition, that would make it fit into the overall tree structure, with the pole central and going through the shot. Though the just walking around the pole, is a bit flat looking, the weaving is important. Is just walking around the pole, and then back again, really got any sense of challenge or mastery. With the maypole, the idea that the ribbons slowly decrease in length as the pole is covered, means that the participants get closer and more intimate, with the participants transgressing the normal space around bodies, and as they intertwine. The shortening ribbon also adds more challenge and interesting to see how close they go before they consider it done. Sometimes it is right up to the last inch.
Examining the library pole activity, their is a sense of collusion, of parody in the staff that overcompensate in their moves. How does that fit with the incorporated participant. You set the factors so the person in the activity acts in a certain way, the extra dancerliness of the participant, is something that is transferable to a viewing public in the work after the fact.
Sarah the expert tester did mention keeping the ribbons tight, and not having slack, and how the people hold the ribbon with one hand half way raising it. Sarah noted that the music bought more people over and made people do it easier. n the end of the library turn, instead of shouting hurrah, they all shook their ribbons violently which I thought was very effective.
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