September 21, 2003
movement with consequence
I want people to have a good sense of what I want them to get out of one of my pieces by nothing more than the form, and a scenario. I would like the entire interaction to be implied. The form of the piece should have a commonly discernable relation to the body. The participant should know what to do. I want other "smart" characteristics that will help give the scenario a beginning, middle and end. I working towards getting a completely non-verbal, non-written means of instruction. Right now, things are getting less and less instruction. In some cases it may still be necessary. Most often, I made need just a small set of instructions, to get people started, that would have an ending implied only through what they discover during the interaction. I'm running through some other types of devices that I can use to define the interaction better. For one, I could give them a consequence that is directly affected by a movement I want them to examine. Something I've seen in this vein is a plant that is watered by means of pedaling a stationary bike. In a piece I described earlier I try to use sound, in this way, as a more immediate effect. Also something else I'm playing around with is setting a time limit. Sometimes the consequence that might fit well with movement is too distracting from it. People might get caught up in the goal, or what the affected thing means too much to notice the movement. So, if I set some time limit for the interaction, that will provide for a nice ending. In some cases, I'm thinking that a timer will be set and that will just signal an abrupt end like at halftime at a football game. In other cases it a very similar way, but more indirectly, have a timing mechanism or some sort of counter that stops the consequence that they have been interacting with, like a pay phone call being cut off after your 10 minutes are up. The two aren't that different.
