5. Aesthetics
Our aesthetic developed from encounters with several influences. Below is a little of each, a flavour of what we loved…
Martin Creed - Everything Is Going To Be Alright
We came across this exhibition serendipitously, as it opened on Morgan’s road. We went as a group trip, not massively considering its effects, but its impact was profound. A church was reimagined as an exhibition space, with hundreds of giant latex balloons turning the church floor into a ball pit. The piece considers space, play and atmosphere, encouraging you to sensorially respond to your environment. We were inspired by the flight of the balloons, excited by the sensation of things falling above us, gently and gracefully. This inspired our final rave to Eurythmics’ Sweet Dreams, which features a balloon drop from a kabuki, where rose petals and a sex doll fall onto the audience, immersing them in a sensory pit.
Seen by Morgan in 2023, the Summerhall production of this piece inspired our lighting design. A scaffolding of par cans creates a smoky, silhouetted effect with the ability to rear attention and audience focus after a period of high energy. Their use of choreo and strobe also inspired us to explore the shapes our bodies make in flashing lights, and the distorted effect strobe gives these shapes.
Ariana is an experienced Elrow-goer, and brought Elrow as an inspiration for party theatrics early in the process. Their work is maximal, multi-sensory, avant-garde and feeds on the audience’s energy and desire. Known for their Ibiza raves, Elrow parties are also incredibly wasteful. Characterised by confetti, balloons, extravagant costumes and constant pyrotechnics, their aesthetics began a conversation of pleasure as a wasteful process. Western culture easily facilitates wasteful pleasure-seeking, and our show definitely produced waste from inflatable products and confetti. This is something were now in the process of developing for the future, seeking alternatives that produce the same effect. Our consciousness in this area, however, also is reflected by our repurposing of waste used in the catwalk, in which bin bags were transformed into couture and plastic supplement bottles created crowns.
Sharon Eyal & Call Super - R.O.S.E.
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R.O.S.E. was a spectacular hybrid of contemporary dance and nightlife spaces. Hosted at Sadlers Wells, the audience entered to total darkness. Call Super’s DJ set persisted throughout the piece, giving the dancers an electronic, arhythmic framework to move to. The world was dystopian, eerie, making high use of verfremdungseffekt. Audiences were invited to roam freely through the space, with dancers sporadically approaching us. The closer they got, the more suspense grew. Never touching the audience, we left wanting to create a world in which audience interaction was part of the space’s logic.
(LA)HORDE & Rambert - Bring Your Own
The work of (LA)HORDE is fast-spreading, and their ceonceptualisation of intimacy inspired our orgy movement section. In particular, the way they simulate sex using minimal touch, rhythm and eye-contact led our explorations of sexuality in the piece.
In 4/4, Chunky Move uses a mathematical logic to choreograph dance. Using a prescription of numbers written on the floor, they count through their routine in the corresponding order. For example, if 2,6,4,4 was written on the floor, dancers would do their first 4 moves of the routine as 2 counts, followed by making a motion last for 6 counts, then 4 counts, and 4 counts. This created an erratic spectacle, making their dynamics appear telepathic but methodical. In PLEASE, we begin and end the show with motions that last for 7, 5, 3, 2, 7, 3. This spells PLEASE on a phone keypad, a way for us to dramaturgically connect our movements to pleasure.
We were also largely inspired by Leigh Bowery, which you can read about here