For this test had the for of us. As it is a two player game, not as much pressure as there was with (M)ollie to get large numbers of people for it. The day before I decided to walk around the town and find the posts that best fitted the game. I have been planning with Chris to make a more elaborate contraption os it fitted the poles better. I needed it higher as having it at hip height last time, the outcrop on the pole made the actions hard to perform. But as walking around looking for location, I realised that the lamposts have different heights for the outcrop bit, that stops the cord falling down. Bit of a revelation. So now it was more a hunt for the lamp posts with the correct height of outcrop. Thi became the game. Then I started to see different kind of imaginative affordance, as in I felt unlike in Mollie, this work is about the ubiquity of a single object, here the light, and making that the work. Also rather than changing locations, this work was about the game itself played in a single location. So there are different ways to use objects in the place. Also is this about the difference of place, area, location, etc. So this more about a single appropriate object. I have also found that now with this works and the previous (m)ollie that the studio tests are in public locations not in the studio. Is the work becoming more about place somehow. I printed out aess lines this time, as before had twenty, but realised that just getting to two or three is hard so don’t need so many lines. I found a nice pole by the church.
We went straight into it, as they seemed to understand the rules immediately with little explanation. They seem to get a great satisfaction from whacking a swingball. The pole I had found which was the perfect height was much better than the one before.
Thom after playing with me did comment that it was like playing together and like playing against each other. So very dekoven and the Well Played game.
Murray also I found wanted to play it a few times and try to beat his score. Go further in the text. He said he felt the challenge. He has played all the games and this is the first time he was really engrossed by the task
Getting further than the second line is really hard, Thom got as far as the third line on his own, and we all cheered.
One observation was that though it was getting participants to say the word and use the Iambic, the rhythm was broke as participants were leaving the ball swing around a couple of times before hitting it, giving them a better chance to see the line and read it. So it isn’t immediate and the scan of the sentence is not there. Is this though in some way the strength of swingball and its magic crayon effect in that it gives you a few chances to hit the ball your turn if you miss it. Though Rob commented on how Thom was reading through the text beforehand. Is this a cheat?
Though we said it would be great to get good at it, to fully master the text, so we could do it instantaneously with no lag and actually get the scan. Would that be more a true rally, what is a rally in swingball?. But then you would need a skill level beyond the notion of the instantaneous structure. But that could be an added mechanic, in that there is a time limit in the number of seconds between shots, or rotations. It rained but everyone seemed ok carrying on.
Thom said about dance games, like dance dance mat, and how they have professionals playing together, and this could be like that.
I still think be great to set a number up, Murray thought maybe in same location like a car park and have people playing round.
It did seem really easy to convey rules and everyone got straight into it. With this people happy to keep going. Happy to play on and really enjoy it so far. The challenge is there. Maybe when observing it I felt that the participants had entered into a state of flow. Thom said he felt challenged to get as far into the text as he could.
For the idea of conduit playing, at one point, I was reading the text for Rob as he hit it. So this could be an area to explore.
Maybe there is a different two player structure, maybe there could be other ways of playing it.
I still find that they don’t pronounce the words as loud as I’d like, even with the added emphasis of the thwack. They do internalise the challenge, at times, of saying the words, rather than pronouncing them aloud.
I did find myself doing I doff my hat to you sir, when Thom won. I wonder if maybe the hats could be worn for this.
Looking at the footage as well, tried to see the difference between single player and double player. Als Murray said he wanted another go, so a win for the game there I feel. You can Watching back footage it is in some way humorous when they miss the ball and swing into air, repeatedly. This is part of the swingball mechanics, that you can miss and the ball continues and then returns. Due though to the ball wrapping around the ball, and shortening it makes the batter move in, and this is where the humour is I think. Murray is also able to gauge and comment on his own play when he feels he has done well or not. So he is grading his own performance. Thinking about the text on the page, and how to show the Iam, at mo it is marked in a normal poetical manner, maybe need to update this in some way, make it look more gameful, and the hitting section more vibrant to signal hit this.
research 