Part 1: Alec, a werewolf-hunting vampire, gives in to his natural
instincts and drinks werewolf blood. He
becomes the first werewolf/vampire hybrid.
Part 2 Cameron: Alec met George for lunch. He sat at the table but forgot to wipe off the blood from his mouth.
Part 3 Jared: The blood tips off the waiter to Alec's true identity and he poisons Alec's food to keep is holy responsibility.
Part 4 Julia: Alec took a bite of the fateful food and slowly chewed it, not knowing it was poisoned.
Part 5 Christopher: The taste - something wrong with the taste. He spit it out, but his senses were already blurring. He tumbled, trying to cry out, then landed on his cold, linoleum grave.
Artist Statement
We’ve all
played the game “telephone.” A simple saying gets passed from person to person,
and by the end, it’s become something entirely different. This week’s project
was similar to the telephone game. We started with a twenty-word story, and
sent it to one person at a time. Their job was to create the second part of the
story and send just their section of the story to the next person. What
resulted was a collaborative effort of creation that involved the evolution of
an idea. While things didn’t always flow or connect directly – as would be
expected with this process – it was fascinating to experience how different
ideas flowed out of others. (Julia)
The
article by DJ Spooky focuses on this age of great collaboration. Some
collaboration is subconscious. We process so much information day to day
from people all over the world – I myself have Facebook friends from Hong Kong,
Burma, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Chili, Brazil, and quite a
few Polynesian Islands. This isn’t uncommon either. After only five
minutes or so on Facebook, I’ve seen hundreds of ads, articles, pictures,
quotes, conversations, and more, and that’s just from one source. Then,
of course, DJ Spooky talks about the conscious collaborations. I think of
Paul Simon’s “Graceland.” This song, from the album with the same name,
is a perfect example of the ideas of collaboration, particularly with world
music. Paul started with what he thought was a good Sun Records groove. He
played it for his South African collaborators. They came up with riffs
that they felt mimicked Paul’s style, and Paul did the same with their sounds.
The product then was a song that wasn’t Sun Records, wasn’t Paul Simon,
and wasn’t South African; it was a new view and a new sound in the spirit of
imitation and replication but in each one’s own natural style.
What I learned from the product of this
project, which supports my already ample love for collaboration, is that each
mind is its own little Plinko machine. Did you ever watch The Price is
Right? In Plinko, contestants dropped little tablets down a scattering of
pegs. The tablets bounced and danced down, hitting all the pegs, never
ending in a predictable place. I’ve got my own Plinko machine in my head,
full of potential subconscious collaborations, and so does everyone else, but
each person’s information is arranged in its own way with its own connections.
One little spark of a story, 30 words or less, is enough to set
everyone’s Plinko mind into a race of associations. I never would have
suspected that a story about an old man getting on a bus would turn to a
murderous father mistakenly ransoming and torturing his own daughter.
Though I prefer the direction in which I intended my story to go, it’s
infinitely fascinating to me that these associations were made. Wild and
deliberate choices were constructed with prompts of only 30 words. It’s
great to think of the value of each mind. We, perhaps, only unlock our
strongest potentials when we swap chips (ideas) and drop them through each
other’s Plinko minds. Amazing. (Christopher)
This
project was similar to what was described in the reading written by DJ Spooky Totems
Without Taboos: The Exquisite Corpse. In the text, DJ Spooky says
“Cut and paste the results, and it could easily be Pac Man, Quake, or Halo 2”
(xi). While sending our different stories around, they evolved or changed
into something different. For all we had known, our stories could have
become the opposite of what they began as. The text also stated that the
most important part of the exercise was to have fun. The project was
definitely interesting and it was exciting to see the next part of the story.
However, it became a little confusing as we tried to get the right story
out to the right person, which admittedly took a toll on the fun aspect of the
project. (Josh)
The
collaboration that took place with this project reflects what many other
artists accomplish with other artists on projects in the real world. Recently,
a collaborative mural project has begun near downtown St. Louis off of
Washington Ave. The funding has been raised by donations. Painters, muralists,
and other artists will join together in creating a large mural on the side of a
building in downtown St. Louis. The people believe that it will be a catalyst
for more people to collaborate and create new works of art. As we read each
other’s stories, we had the opportunity to collaborate and build on to that
story. We could choose if we wanted the same character or same setting. In
creating this mural downtown, the artists will have the same opportunity to see
what they want to keep in their addition of their painting on the wall. The
mural project is called Lab 1500 Mural. (Cameron)
The Round Robin process
created a few distinct experiences within the group. First, the process forced
each member of the group to forget where they intended the story to go or how
it might end. The stories were granted freedom to develop as they please. The
process gave the stories their own lives. Second, the power to develop someone
else’s story engendered interest in how the stories advanced. We felt invested
in each other’s stories. Did the college students win the game show money to
pay off their student loans? What would happen to the poisoned steak and
meatballs? What would the kidnapper do when he finds out the girl he’s holding
hostage is his daughter? In the end, the singular creator is gone, community
is the parent of each unique story. (Jared)
Group members:
Jared Bell
Julia Berensen
Cameron Babcock
Christopher Bowles
Josh Allen
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