So lots of changes and adaptations, and lots of thoughts on the whole thing. I got a great window to do it, the large window of the Tyneside cinema film school space. It meant also the Murray could be warm inside. Also as I was using the Tyneside window, people from the Tyneside came over to do it. So it is my first real test with the public and how they interact with it. I also had my first real go with it in public. Also, people came from the building next door to have a go. It felt good to be doing it. I felt this work addresses several issues in the research, in terms of affordance:
The affordance of the work: Now watching the public have a go, I feel greater certainty, but also I feel that there is two notions to the gamefulness, there is us as the creators, overcoming many obstacles to make the work, and then the public, using the templates to create the figure. Also in environmental factors affecting affordance this work is reliant and the temperature on the day, and the amount of light there is, in terms of sunlight and how much it is illuminating the window. So this is an obstacle for us. This time I found that the temperature was higher, and the window warmer, and this saw the condensation evaporate quickly.
This led to the affordance of the work, and the affordance of the window into a plane onto which to create the angel, that dissipate quickly. On the disjunctive aesthetic, this time I was also filming the blowers, and it was prominent, the noisy street against the blowing and concentration of those involved to fill up the template. I had a try this time, so was in the work, I found that I had to blow hard to fill the template, and the challenge of getting every edge so the figure would look great, or so I thought. This also bought in the notion of the REVEAL – is this some form of mechanic In that until you pull away the template, no one is sure what the angel looks like, or how well it has formed. I pulled it away dramatically and quickly, to push it out of shot.
This also meant though that us, and the people trying it out, would react enthusiastically or not, to the reveal and how well we thought they had created the angel. It fulfilled the element of some games, that the outcome should be unexpected, and also the notion of virtuosity, the way they people blew, and then the whipping away to reveal the image. Is this work, the affordance, in some manner about making people feel like they have created the image, that they have almost created it, it feels more than tracing, as the outcome depends on so many factors, that can’t be controlled, so it adds chance. But seeing it in relation to skill, there is a skill in the breadth.
The words already on the window, designating the space, provided a good gauge for us to work out where to place the angel, so it can it a reference point in space. People were up for doing it, and some asked to do theirs again if they felt it wasn’t right. It is a bit infuriating filming it, as have to stay to the same space, and can often see the angel better from diff angles as the light changes, but can’t move the camera. Maybe this can be something. Some blowers seemed proud of their angel, or give it the thumbs up. It seemed to create a spirit of community between us and them. I am also developing it now, so it is across a number of diff windows, looking at diff backdrops, so can see how it fits together, and it moves from Newcastle to Gateshead.
Thinking on the notion of gaps, of breaking things up so something other than the work itself, but the people who are part of it, can come through, and that I have to talk about data soon, is how I show the data. I feel the work would be most successful, if people understood, the audience, how it was made, that people blew into the templates. Originally I saw this as some kind of hidden almost cheat, but now I see it as the interface, that connects the blower to the work. So it is the seductive interface that offers the re-affodance. But on the notion of gaps, of splitting the work apart, I need to bring the template and the blower’s into the work. Now I am building it in chunks, which are made of bits, it could be that between each chunk, like a 5 second animation, you have a 20 second clip of people blowing, etc.
Perhaps this is the art, and the game, we are making it hard for ourselves to create the work, there are many factors out of our control. It depends on the environment, and the ability of those that breathe. I feel this is a full realisation of the ideas around affordance, and re-affordance in relation to art. But also the idea, tat the template is like a dream catcher of sorts, it catches the breath and manifests it as the object!
Once the Tyneside had agreed to letting us use their space, it felt a more proper undertaking. It brought people over; it was more comfortable to do. Before we were old the whole time, here we could pop in and out, and film it in comfort and heat. It made the whole experience more comfortable.
I got an email from one participant afterwards saying it was fun to do. I noticed that one lady who found it hard, afterwards Murray pointed out it was because she had her phone in her hand, and that was making the template slip.
watching back the footage there is a kind of intimate connection between the blower, and the window, as noted, it is like you are telling it secrets, it reminded me also of the wailing wall in Jerusalem. If looked at in relation to proximity, the closeness you have to go to the glass is part of the works transgression. It seems very personal
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This work also has because of the environmental concerns a sense of tension as to what it will look like and how it will take.
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It is interesting to see it form a wider shot the angel.
research 