25th January - 29th January
Group H: Ula Rodakowska, Sanjana Mehta, Kate Chernysheva
Group H: Ula Rodakowska, Sanjana Mehta, Kate Chernysheva
BRIEF: Design a sensory based ritual or experience to be performed through zoom
Unboxing the brief as a group. Screenshot taken by Ula.
WORKSHOP
This week we explored the concept of Live Action Role Play or LARP which was explained to us by our guest lecturer Susan Ploetz. She is a researcher and an artist who specialises in somatics, performance and larping.
The Monday workshop with Susan. Screenshot by Kate.
She introduced us to the main ideas of larp and gave us an opportunity to experience her LARP named Skinship which she adapted to the online space. This was very contrasting to anything I have personally experienced before. For this task we were required to gather together some materials such as squares of toilet paper, rock, leaf, cup of water and a pillow. Furthermore, we all adopted a new alien name and were asked to look at things from a completely new perspective as such of an alien.
Some of the objects from my set. Photo by Kate.
We explored each object individually and were asked to share our first thoughts in a form of a word associated with the object we are holding/smelling/sensing. We then expressed it in a popcorn manner, as Susan called it, by shouting out a word with others repeating it or passing on the information. She also introduced some specific terms to this LARP such as “Downloading Data” while processing the information said about each object.
Representation of the popcorn method to share our thoughts. GIF by Kate.
This experience reminded me of meditation. Sometimes I kept forgetting that I was an alien and not a human with prerequisite knowledge and it was difficult to stay in character as I found the experience of detaching my mind, experience and interpretations from my body very confusing at first. On the other hand, it was very useful to be able to look at each object from a completely different perspective which made me feel inspired.
This was followed by our own quick exploration of the alien world where we created characters, relationships within the group and a scenario. My group consisted of an alien Ooloi (Sanjana), one human (Ana), one alien (Ula) and the alien-human (Kate). We were in a bunker in USSR Russia in a hideout waiting to attack human species as a family.
We also discussed the question such as what we like the most about humans/aliens and what we dislike most about them both too. We then located these feelings on a Dermatome map provided by Susan for this task.
My Dermatome map. The template provided by Susan Ploetz; highlights by Kate.
REFLECTION
This session was both interesting and difficult. It was an amazing opportunity to explore a new strand of design such as LARP especially with an expert such as Susan, who made it very interesting and informative for us through sharing her own LARPs. However, I found it very difficult to concentrate sometimes as the session was very long and the computer screen made it hard for my eyes. Nevertheless, it definitely opened a new perspective to me when it comes to looking at different objects as well as design research and activities.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Cronodon.com. (n.d.). Aliens in Popular Sci-Fi. [online] Available at: https://cronodon.com/SpaceTech/Dalek.html [Accessed 1 Mar. 2021].
Larpwriter Summer School (2016). Mechanics - Fader talk by Bjarke Pedersen. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfqkMnPiubo.
LARPING.ORG. (2014). What’s the big deal about Nordic larp? [online] Available at: https://larping.org/whats-the-big-deal-about-nordic-larp/ [Accessed 1 Mar. 2021].
Nordic Larp. (2018). Group Improvisation of Larp Rituals. [online] Available at: https://nordiclarp.org/2018/02/27/group-improvisation-larp-rituals/.
susanploetz.com. (n.d.). susan ploetz. [online] Available at: https://susanploetz.com/ [Accessed 1 Mar. 2021].
Candy Paull. (n.d.). Simple Sensory Rituals. [online] Available at: http://www.candypaull.com/blog/2014/5/28/simple-sensory-rituals [Accessed 1 Mar. 2021].