Unbelievable we are over half way through 2011 and I am still finishing a project with the end date being the last day in 2010. Never the less I have completed the first stage of the November Challenge, which was to amass a crowd.
I took part in the STOFF Festival in the Kulturhuset in Stockholm, the idea being I would form a flashmob, by canvassing for participants and then indicating the action was to being. I the number I had been set to gather was 20, and 3 participated. That is despite giving the seated audience instructions prior to going on stage. The challenge has inevitably failed, although it did produce a performance I am happy with that relied heavily on instruction and the way people choose to interact with instructions, or not as the case may be.
I think I will re-try the performance in the UK, but take away the instruction, and change the tact of the piece to become a visual spectacle. The piece changes dramatically, simply leaving a performer waving a flag at an audience, however it changes to something that is worth questioning, and that is the publics engagement with simplistic movements in a public environment and their viewing of them as entertainment or not. This would be more of an experiment than a street performance, as being a dancing monkey doesn’t interest me and would detract from any artistic merit the piece may or may not have.
I am still in the process of attempting to get the ethical hair piece programmed, the performance is there, it just needs to take place, almost there!
