So, a small trial again of tug of tango. Bit worried as it doesn’t fit with where the research is going. But am drawn to the game and feel there is something in it. It is a different set of mechanics to what I have used so far, it has elements of a New games Foundation community game. Also interesting is to contrast it to the last two works which featured Imaginative Affordance and meant that I went straight to public testing. With this idea too, I went straight to a public test, but found it unsuccessful and now am returning to a small studio trial, so this is different to how I have developed the other works. Also, the elastic was no good in the work, apart from the danger inherent in stretching elastic. So using slime this time, which had been my original intention.
I have been trying a few different versions, but have come up with a good consistency. I am undertaking this trial with Big Mick again, in a small space at new-bridge studios, often used for installation work. The mechanics are, that we have to go back, in unison placing our feet into the footprints on the floor, and that we have to keep going back, but maintain the slime and stop it from touching the floor, if it does then that is the end of the game. How far can we go?
We try three trials in the space and reach the ends of the space without the slime touching the floor. I filmed the activity on my phone. I filmed from a single angle. It was interesting playing with the slime beforehand, to heat it up so it will stretch, I feel this is part of the challenge, or game, maybe tubs of different slime, so cold, and people have a time period to heat it beforehand. . Apparently according to Mick, I have bakers hands, cold hands, good for shortcrust pastry, but not for heating slime. He was right as when ever I tried to heat it up; but the slime split right away.
The tango added to it I am sure. On the third try, Mick found tango music, and that added to the experience I felt in review. I had just cut steps out for the floor; I am at the mo writing the folk structure, and footsteps for learning dance, is kind of swing ball era way of learning something. I had only cut out six which wasn’t enough. It was interesting how Mick, as the slime started to fall, began to wrap it around his hand, in order to stop it touching the floor, but this is unsuccessful technique, as all the happens is it sags down.
To gain more space I moved to the corridor to give us more length,I decided not to use the steps. Mick worried about the slime getting fluff in the hall, but I was ok with that. Undertaking the challenge, didn’t feel collaborative, but did not feel competitive either. Reviewing the short amount of footage back, it was a strong visual performance, moving from side to side to do the dance steps seemed to need some kind of obstacle maybe, or some way to keep them moving.
Mick in his way really got into us doing it in unison in time to the music. I do think a live player could be a good idea. Also as Mick discovered and directed me, it is best to do it slowly. When we tried to do it fast, it broke, so it is the slime itself has within it a way of controlling the speed of the stretch.
Further the shots of the work in the corridors, made me consider due to the work’s nature, that it is perhaps the best space for the undertaking, and it would be good to find more such spaces, and maybe even the work is specific to such spaces. Corridors in culture I realised feature in sci fi and culture, with the fight scene in the Netflix Marvel shows always featuring a set piece corridor fight. As a child I also remember watching altered states by Ken Russell with the famous corridor scene where the main character is being sucked down the corridor to the beginning of time, and to stop himself, he bangs against the sides of the corridor. So, something about the length of the space, its liminal our edge nature, but alst the confines of the walls. It is a tunnel. In the film inception it is a gravity defying space. I also wondered if perhaps the nature of the slime and its steady falling, is perhaps some comment on gravity. I also wondered about people moving away from each other. This work is breaking strengths I found in instantaneous works, be perhaps is in relation to it being specific to a single public location, the corridor. Considering the research, it breaks some instantaneous rules of encounter, primarily the one about participants being in contact with each other, of a tight location. Is the slime the interface. Is it also a bit like type rope walking or the school of etiquette where they teach you to walk with books on your head. Also starting to wonder about a relay structure, where each pair has to reach another pair in order to release them. So is this a way the game structure can incorporate more players. It is also referencing the idea of people being tether, but hte tether let out, which is a popular astronaut trope.
research 