Madding Crowd: Empty Space and Speed Changing
That is exactly what we are: a mad crowd. Places to go, places to be. The premise of the game: look for empty spaces in the crowd, in other words on the floor, and fill them in. You want areas with the most empty space, and these are often freed when someone sees a more attractive piece of land to walk on. This is then done at varying speeds, all the way from slow motion to super speed to confusion. Another interesting part of the game was to all progressively slow down at the same time and eventually come to a stop, with no eye contact or physical indication. We just had to 'feel it'. The same was done to start walking again. An added bonus is to like always, explore our levels.This game increases our awareness of the space around us and how we can use it, but it also incorporates the notion of the group: to do things together, to feel when we are doing it right or wrong, like one big brain.
I must say that at first, I did not fully understand the concept of the game, and stood in my little corner on my big patch of land that no one could steal, since I thought it was a competition to see 'who has the most land'. I soon realized we were actually performing a regular, nonstop cycle or exchanging and giving away (land), in such a way that we ended up being one, much like in the game 'machine'. The real 'connection factor' came up when we started speeding up, slowing down, coming to a simultaneous stop and a simultaneous start. In the beginning, when the new speed was announced (lets take '3' [moderately slow] as an example) we would all interpret what speed '3' really meant, and try to match that with our own walking speed. This however lead to everyone having different speeds, so we ended up having to observe at each other, in order to make such 'decisions of interpretation' as one person. The same was true for coming to a simultaneous stop: we would have to observe everyone, and match the group. Coming to a start was however different. One or two people would take a hesitant step coming from our still energy, and everyone would almost immediately start walking.
Madding Crowd: Giving and Taking the 'Energy'
The second distinct part of 'madding crowd' comprised of all of us standing very still, exactly like statues. One of us would then take our 'energy of stillness' (even though we were all perfectly still, we all had the energy of initiative or thought or even just future movement) and start walking. That person would then 'give' the energy to someone else with a movement or 'feel' of their own, freeze, and that chosen person would replace their walking. Soon, taking was incorporated, and we could now 'steal' the energy from the walking person., and we ended up being at least five people walking among the statues, giving and taking 'energy of stillness' all along exploring different levels. The purpose of this aspect of 'madding crowd' leaned more towards an exploration of levels as well as attention to our surroundings including feeling 'movements with purpose', in other words, moving with a reason for moving (or without... get me?).
Since we both didn't have and yet had control on whether or not we got energy, in other words had power yet didn't have power on whether or not we were frozen, we needed to be very aware of what was happening around us. I remember feeling how I wanted the energy so bad, because if I got it, it would give me a purpose, rather than stand there like a statue, so I tried my best to see and hear what was happening around me. That energy that we were holding for so long was then released as an exploration of levels. I remember being stuck in a bent forward position for almost 7 minutes (ack the pain!). When I was finally 'freed', my exploration of levels was intense: I became a graceful ballerina, and finally has a 'purpose' (but it was soon taken away...).
That is exactly what we are: a mad crowd. Places to go, places to be. The premise of the game: look for empty spaces in the crowd, in other words on the floor, and fill them in. You want areas with the most empty space, and these are often freed when someone sees a more attractive piece of land to walk on. This is then done at varying speeds, all the way from slow motion to super speed to confusion. Another interesting part of the game was to all progressively slow down at the same time and eventually come to a stop, with no eye contact or physical indication. We just had to 'feel it'. The same was done to start walking again. An added bonus is to like always, explore our levels.This game increases our awareness of the space around us and how we can use it, but it also incorporates the notion of the group: to do things together, to feel when we are doing it right or wrong, like one big brain.
I must say that at first, I did not fully understand the concept of the game, and stood in my little corner on my big patch of land that no one could steal, since I thought it was a competition to see 'who has the most land'. I soon realized we were actually performing a regular, nonstop cycle or exchanging and giving away (land), in such a way that we ended up being one, much like in the game 'machine'. The real 'connection factor' came up when we started speeding up, slowing down, coming to a simultaneous stop and a simultaneous start. In the beginning, when the new speed was announced (lets take '3' [moderately slow] as an example) we would all interpret what speed '3' really meant, and try to match that with our own walking speed. This however lead to everyone having different speeds, so we ended up having to observe at each other, in order to make such 'decisions of interpretation' as one person. The same was true for coming to a simultaneous stop: we would have to observe everyone, and match the group. Coming to a start was however different. One or two people would take a hesitant step coming from our still energy, and everyone would almost immediately start walking.
Madding Crowd: Giving and Taking the 'Energy'
The second distinct part of 'madding crowd' comprised of all of us standing very still, exactly like statues. One of us would then take our 'energy of stillness' (even though we were all perfectly still, we all had the energy of initiative or thought or even just future movement) and start walking. That person would then 'give' the energy to someone else with a movement or 'feel' of their own, freeze, and that chosen person would replace their walking. Soon, taking was incorporated, and we could now 'steal' the energy from the walking person., and we ended up being at least five people walking among the statues, giving and taking 'energy of stillness' all along exploring different levels. The purpose of this aspect of 'madding crowd' leaned more towards an exploration of levels as well as attention to our surroundings including feeling 'movements with purpose', in other words, moving with a reason for moving (or without... get me?).
Since we both didn't have and yet had control on whether or not we got energy, in other words had power yet didn't have power on whether or not we were frozen, we needed to be very aware of what was happening around us. I remember feeling how I wanted the energy so bad, because if I got it, it would give me a purpose, rather than stand there like a statue, so I tried my best to see and hear what was happening around me. That energy that we were holding for so long was then released as an exploration of levels. I remember being stuck in a bent forward position for almost 7 minutes (ack the pain!). When I was finally 'freed', my exploration of levels was intense: I became a graceful ballerina, and finally has a 'purpose' (but it was soon taken away...).
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