Where to start?
Since I am interested in participatory and interactive art it makes sense to create a Manifesto that somehow is interactive.
Several ideas have crossed my mind:
- a game
- a flow chart
- a survey
- a Google Form
I played around with trying to build a flow chart, but it did not feel interactive enough. It does not require the person on the other end to click or enter content at all.
A survey feels a little one directional. It does require someone to enter content, but that still felt too limiting.
Google Forms allows for enough freedom to play with the idea of creating interaction. I also like the thinking that goes into creating the form. It is like creating a process, with different outcomes and follow up questions and texts depending on the answers people who fill out the form provide.
On the one hand it is quite an open form and at the same time I get to play with being quite directive. For instance, you get to choose the best colour form a bunch of colours that are all different shades of pink and glitter. Then if people did not choose glitter they get a next question with the only choice being glitter. Hopefully this brings in lightheartedness and plays into the idea of a bit of it being a 'game'. What is autonomy? How much do we need it? When do we find it important? When do we take it seriously?
What I also like about the form is that it collects data. The data that I am particularly interested in is that of the ideal artictic experience. When filling out the form people get to tick boxes with elements that could make up the ideal artistic experience for them as an individual and for the collective of everyone in the space.
These elements are predefined by me:
joy, laughter, wonder, time, beauty, love, make belief, technique, exchange, alternative realities, creativity, theatricality, community, relatability, comfort, boldness, confrontation, flirtation, admiration, excitement, kindness, energy, stillness, power, connection, support, entertainment, drama, exegeration, glam, dynamics, sharing the stage, sharing the space.
In a way these elements are at the core of my Manifesto. They are important to me.
The manifesto in this form can also be a research method in finding out what people are interested in within these elements. The data could inform (future) performances.