Tried the slime dance again, two different corridors.I feel I have found a good slime mixture now. SoundRob commented on how good it felt, and held together, and Murray too on how this was a high quality feeling slime as they fondled it. I do want live tango music with the work. At the mo, whenever I do it, I do it with us humming a tune, which could be a way of doing it, or by playing Claude Debussy on my phone, Claire delume.
I have already mentioned the way film uses corridors and when I mentioned this to Murray, he mentioned the corridor fight scene in the movie Oldboy. This led to the way the corridor affords various fight scenes, with the ability to bounce of corridors, or to as in inception, change the logic of upside down of corridors. Sound Rob then mentioned Polanskies film Repulsion with the hands coming out of the walls. Murray also mentioned Labyrinth, but then he thought that more of a hall. I Found out it is very hard to film in corridors and get the full experience, os maybe reconsider as also wondered about a four player version, where you have four bits to pull.
I came up with this idea after trying it with animator Thom, who has helped out before. As when he held the slime, he moulded it into a figure, kind of morph like, which I found interesting, and people around said stretch Armstrong. It was interesting how making the slime anamorphic gave the thing a different dynamics as we made ooh pain noises as we pulled it. It is hard to show the purposefulness of the footsteps, I understand, but playing the game artwork with Sound Rob, in the corridor on the 6th floor, we both said how we found it hard to look at the footsteps and do the slime. This is something that has come up before, with participants, in relation to Swingball Shakespeare. But this Is not a real criticism as that was the purpose of the challenge, you had to read the test. Here with the dance steps, yes I want people to dance away from each other, but maybe it is more of a guide than a strict lusory obstacles. It isn’t an obstacle at all, more of a rule.
It is the extra outcome from the activity. Yes you could play it where you go backwards as far as you can without the dance, and this seems to happen after a couple of turns, but be good to keep the dancing in. I have been looking at developing the dance steps. But also don’t want it becoming like Wordplay. I think the inclusion of music will give it more prominence the dancing backwards. It is the metaphor of the work. It is a really good activity and challenge. We all seem to need to shout at the result. It fulfils something, Fiero!. The heating up of the slime beforehand has also become a central part of the activities it affects the distance reached.
So there is also the idea you have a minute to mould the material. This slime is def the best for the activity and hope I can replicate it. I feel it could be exciting to try in a public setting, but wonder if maybe it is too simple, it is instantaneous, but wonder how immersive it is. The four player could work, and maybe make it competitive, not sure, need to try this next. As, it could be, then that each person have a piece they pull. Still thinking about some kind of poles or stands that the slime reaches. How would more complex dance steps affect it? I also thought about people placing the steps for each other.
But maybe this is a different activity. Who knows? There‘s something, though not imaginary affordance, how will people take it, in public. It doesn’t translate the experience, maybe it is too instantaneous. It is a great challenge though. But is too communal maybe, be good to have people going against each other. Maybe the way to do it is that each person takes one turn, and it must break on the other person try. Will try this, but not sure that is poss as too easy for the person not moving to cheat. Also it is important to go straight away after kneading, so the slime doesn’t have a chance to cool, as then it snaps quickly. Murray wondered if even steps was best, and Rob had a technique he had started where he held the slime hand high.
While it does go against the proximity rule of instantaneous structures I have been developing. I feel unlike with the music work Pivot, the actual stretching of the slime, connect the participants, and fills the space as it is expanded. It seem to reveal alost the architecture around, and shows how corridors are connecting spaces.
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