Today I actually did some work of my own for advanced two. I nearly felt like an artist again. But none of the reasons I hadn't been into working have been fixed. So, we'll see how long this sticks. Susan was encouraging. I made a 12' x4' wall today. Susan and Sarah were kind enough to help me carry it up to the top of the stairs where I'm going to install it. Did I mention how beautiful, nice and on top of that, buff those two are? I'm very thankful to have them both in my life and they keep coming back. That's more than most people.

The wall was for a project I haven't really told anyone about yet. Pretty much, only Sarah and Susan have heard it. I just kind of finalized the idea today. Before then, it wasn't worth hearing. It felt good to just jump right into it. I'll let Deborah in on it on Monday. I got frustrated with my other project and sat down to think a while, and made a quick trip to Lowes. The main subject of it is this wall, 12 feet tall, sitting next to the room wall in the space. The wall sits nearly vertical. A light hangs just above it casting a spot or sheet of light down it. At the bottom you see a left shoe print on the floor about 18 inches away from the wall. The right shoe print is on a pedal that leans up against the wall.

The scenario goes like this. The participant walks up to the wall. He is compelled to place his feet on the designated spots. Looking down at his feet he presses the pedal. What he might have been unaware of is that the wall wasn't attached directly to the other wall behind it. It was actually just barely leaning on it. While he looks at his foot, the wall falls forward. A bell rings above his head. That prompts him to look up just in time to find the wall falling towards him only to be caught by two anchor cables at a certain angle away from the wall. The shock of this is enhanced also by the light. The light now shines behind the wall creating a back lit, more ominous image. The bell also serves as an anticlimactic event. With this large motion happening, the signal that this is taking place is just one ring of a tiny bell. The person could follow some placed instructions and push the wall back to reset it.

The idea is to put the person in a situation where the outcome is not clear. The period of time the person is pressing the pedal is what I'm concerned with foremost. That instant, the feedback you feel, the changing resistance of the pedal constitutes the only foreshadowing of what will happen. The natural focus is at your foot. Because of the pivot point of the wall, that area has the least amount of movement. You may not even notice that the wall has moved until the bell ring. When you look up, what you may or may not have noticed about what was happening becomes magnified. The small movement at the bottom of the wall was a large movement at the top. The wall hovers over you as a shock and makes you take a step back to figure out what just happened. This "event/ analysis" scenario is something that should come naturally. From there, I want to give them an opportunity to reset it and try it again. It's important for validation of how you think it might work.

posted by cliff

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