Terms: social choreography, dispersed collectivity, psychodata, corridor anomalies, path stop, practice of small movements, extensions, places of transparency, protocols of self-organisation, self-destructing structures, rhythm, repetition
How many friends on facebook do you have? How many followers on instagram? How many members are in your family? How many colleagues do you have? With whom of those do you keep in touch? Who stays in your sight? With whom do you form some kind of group? What does a group of people in the city space mean and how does it differ from the crowd? What is the binder material and where it gets thinner, falls out, slips and tears, and where it is possible to maintain a sense of inclusion, connection and contact.
In this series of three exercises in urban choreography, I proposed to test what it means to be in a group in the urban space.
exercise one: a silent walk A group of people moves around the city in silence. They walk on the streets, go into the store, buy coffee, go to the square, get on the trolleybus. It is important not to talk throughout the exercise. At the end, the group disperses, never having had a verbal contact.
exercise two: in sight A group of people meets. Then each member of the group tries to be as far from each other as possible, but at the same time keeping all other members in sight. The exercise is complete when the group is extremely “stretched”, but everyone remains in the view. This exercise is repeated three times in a row. 1. inside the shopping mall 2. in the food court of the mall 3. on the street / square in front of the shopping mall.
exercise three: simultaneous walk A group of people moves at a distance along the same trajectory, following each other’s instructions, which are sent to a group in real time via whatsapp.
