Slippery Slide

Instructions: Create a 1-2 minute performance/concert using ordinary tasks and using FLUXUS ideas. Sound must be primary. Found sounds are everyday - both naturally occurring and man-made, machine-made. Must be collaborative.

For this project, my partner, Zoe'e, and I thought about the rhythmic sounds that the hand clapping game, Slippery Slide, makes. Zoe'e actually taught me how to play the game because I had never played this particular one (I have played others). During our performance, we had our audience sit in a circle, facing towards the outside. We sat in the middle of the circle, and proceeded to play the game. We didn't want the audience to watch us because we wanted them to only focus on the sounds and imagine how we were making them. As the game progresses, it gets a lot harder because there are more "claps". For example, round 3 has 3 claps for each move, etc. We messed up a lot of times, laughing when we did, and had to start over from the beginning. Our goal was to make it to 15, but we messed up at 11, and just gave up because it was getting a little bit frustrating. I was also worried about the audience getting bored because they weren't actually watching us. Despite the ending, I think it went well. After it was over, someone mentioned that it would make a good video performance, with the camera just focused on the hands. The video could then be projected on multiple walls. This idea was particularly inspiring to me because I can see how the audience got a little bored because the rhythm was very repetitious, especially because the game couldn't be seen in our performance. I think that watching the hands move and make sounds would be very interesting.