/ed

The live streaming is the first chance I have had to stand outside the performance and see it moving. Stills do not engender the same response in me. What did I see?

The angle that we were forced to hold our heads to see out of the helmets, to see the end of tape reels or threads we were using.

Our intense concentration for the task in hand.

The mass of repairs on the sawdust body.

Both of us working on this one body.

The jelly body just hanging limp and almost discarded, not needing any more attention.

What do you see? http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/30991943

What an amazing two and a half hours of slashing and repairing. We were directed, we responded and we did our best to keep the bodies together as they slipped, fell over and spewed jelly, sawdust and feather innards round the arena.

It evolved in unforeseen ways. The bodies didn’t behave as we expected, nor did the live audience. But that’s ok by me because that is what I expected- the unexpected. Make sense? Comments overheard: ‘keep them going before they freeze’, ‘this makes them take a photo and this one move the bodies’.

We documented it with a time lapse camera that we programmed wrong and pointed at an odd angle, we took photos when directed, we didn’t collapse as I feared though half way through I stabbed myself with a blunt pair of scissors and oozed blood that was indistinguishable from the red jelly.

Where does this take us? Another performance? Another making? Lots to process.

Sally: I’ve just tried on my bustlebelt and the hoop is round my knees- back to the drawing board….

Sophie: oh – how did that happen?!!!

Sally: It’s first time I’d tried it on with tools on and the weight drags it down so I’m now putting straps on the corset and raising the blind slats to higher slots. Bit fed up. Also eyelet on ribbon not durable enough so may have to redo. Feeling overwhelmed.

Sophie: Jelly looking good in fridge (phew). Is there anything I can do to help you? (being an omnipresent superhero)

Sally: I think I’m getting sorted. Now replacing straps with vinyl – looks better than the ribbon and easier because I don’t need to do eyelets. I can have the corset slightly slacker too now I have the shoulder straps on. Just hope the tools are in the right place after all this. I’m very good at constructing intricately then discovering it doesn’t work. I used to do physics like that- pages of mathematical computations, but as the original equation was wrong, they never worked out. Thanks for the offer of help- I think you might have enough on jellariously.

Sophie: Jellariously is the best word I’ve heard in ages – Submitting it to OED now for official approval! I know the feeling re wrong work I made a self ironing ironing board light box once – spent months and £s on it same problem, should have worked out basics first. I think we need an official advisor to intervene early doors but then that would be no fun!! GO FAILURE!

Sally: Or alternatively, we could be Failure Advisers as we know how to do it so well…

Sophie: Career possibilities are falling at our feet!!

Preparations are now coming together well now (I say this with fingers crossed to avoid tempting fate, let alone failure).

Armed with three brooms, 4 big wheels and eight coasters (which turned out to be the wrong ones – drat and double drat, back to RS Componants) I went to visit my ‘superfixer’ Hugh, who will be performing some ‘practical magic’ to make it all come together and turn them into three chariot/trollies/support systems.

Having seen Sally’s amazing bustlebelt I was starting to fret that I hadn’t started my own. However trusting in serendipity I have waited until ‘the time is right’. It was all dorment in my head, but responding to how the materials reacted to the idea produced some interesting results. Still to cover the internal hoop so that the whole thing is white.

Next week – first job is to collect a ton of sawdust – hope it fits in my car……

And it did! We now have a space at Tempting Failure: http://www.thomasjohnbacon.com/2013/02/tempting-failure-2013-programme-line-up.html

Not a big space, well, shall we say not a wide space but then we will accommodate ourselves accordingly. So now we are thinking forwards at a rate of knots, having to actually get on and make the pieces that will become a dynamic whole. Construct, modify, challenge, modify again, deconstruct, re-construct. The whole will be a moment on a longer continuum. We will achieve actualities, documentation, realities. So watch this space for now.