I have tried several ways of making the lines I need for Experiment 2009/004: a line made by walking. What I am trying to do is to make a labyrinth that reveals itself through the tracks people leave, see  my first research proposal. An earlier blog talked about a line I did in the outdoors lab,  in other blogs (  lab work today and It’s mine)   about lines I did in the indoors lab. Pictures of these lines I posted below.

I took the tape off the floor earlier, because it had no poetry, and yesterday I took off the  circular line made of felt as I wasn’t satisfied with it either.

 What worked:

–  I got a feeling for how much space I need. Will not make this thing inside as this will be too small. Fortunately there is a lot of space outdoors.
–  pictures of the experiments inside looked better than the real thing;
–  feeling the lines with your feet works & do give another ‘feel’ .
– the lines do make people curious;

 What didn’t work:
– glue-ing things to the floor: it come unstuck when people walk on it, it grows dirty and yukky too easily;
– the ‘can be felt not be seen’ idea is not realised – only if you come into the room blindfolded?
– the lines didn’t   trace people’s activity but directed people’s activity. This  need not be so bad if the lines have more poetry, if there is more exitement to be had.

Anyway, rolling up the felt strips gave me a new idea: maybe a huge ball of wool named ‘labyrinth’ can conjure up a labyrinth in the mind of the spectator. My own mind immediately went into overdrive. I pictured Ariadne, at night, spinning her yarn and worrying about how next day the guy she has fallen head-over-heels in love with (Theseus) will enter the labyrinth at Krete and try to kill her half-brother (the Minotaur). What I would worry about in such a situation is  ‘will my yarn be long enough’. So I pictured  Ariadne running out of wool and cutting strips out of  everything that came to hand (blankets, pillow cases, sheets, curtains, clothes) . Or maybe a later-day Ariadne gone mad.  After all, she is to be severely disappointed in Theseus, who will desert her on some island. Or Ariadne  grown old and demented.

Will let this simmer for a while.