Multicordes

Myles invited me to perform for the rigging component of Magnitude 2025 (a Folsom circuit party on Saturday evening). Rigging The venue was SVN West. We had some issues with rigging (the heights were not ideal, and we had some cross-talk between the chains and the hoop that meant the chains hit the hoop spanset a bit when spinning even when the hoop was pulled out of the way, and because we tried to set the hoop as far away from the chains as possible, it was slightly too close to the (already too-close) gogo stage behind us, which meant that we clipped it at full extension). ...

Worked on two spin concepts for multicordes when training in Berlin this summer. Toe climb arabesque Supported with amazon arms, opens and separates the cordes to distribute them during a spin. Can roll through to then lift and toe climb. Penché Worked on a spin concept today where the spin started with a leg tagged to the top in a penché split. Most of the time spin is generated in a top-down position, i.e. arms overhead and legs below. In this concept the body is more lateral. The closest thing would be a split-spin on hoop or trapeze with one leg high and in front. ...

This echoing effect over time is one of the things I’m really drawn to regarding aerial movements (which I’m most drawn to in multicordes, where you can see in the reverberations of the cordes, and other spinning apparatuses), and I wanted to emphasize that digitally. I wanted to use a video capture of my recent multicordes performance at KAC (recorded by Lucy) to generate a trail effect of movement to explore this concept. ...

Performance at Kinetic Arts’ Summer Circus Celebration was good despite my act being quite unpolished (I finished it a week before). This was my first time performing multicordes in about 3 years. Apparatus changes I was excited to develop a spinning concept for the first time (this required that I change the hardware from a straight bar and tune the height of the cordes: ideally the cordes are just above the ground so friction doesn’t degrade spinning over time). ...

Thoughts on reading from ‘Live-Coding: A User’s Manual’. The reading My favorite is the “thinking in public” definition. I like to interpret this as working through problems while the audience has transparency to what you are doing. If there isn’t the observed tackling of an issue, then it’s just the performance of a known process (which itself is also interesting… I love process videos on instagram that document cooking or carpentry – however I think these process videos aren’t live-coding if you aren’t allowing the audience to see the process in real-time). [For this reason I often like to incorporate a constraint or a challenge during my devised live-coding performances, because I want the audience to see me struggle in the process.] ...

Just got back from a 5-week stint in Asia to see family and friends and hitting the ground running to condition and develop my multicordes act for Kinetic Arts’ summer festival. I like this festival because it’s a well-equipped venue where you exhibit mainly to other aerialists, who are better-equipped to appreciate artistry than a naïve audience.

trying out some written documentation for this act with sable from ground, tension lock climb start with russian entry to tension (left foot crosses to right, positions as if russianing, right foot pokes through and replaces, should end in a tension wrap) (my mnemonic: cordes lie across the top of the foot, mirroring line of toes, with the pole in the direction of the big toe) one-arm handstand figure out which wrap to do? currently doing the “boxy” “diy trapeze” one descend to croc ...

i wanted to explore slitscan as it affected multicordes videos. i find the jitter on the visual lines of the cordes to be ideal for showing the action of the slitscan. i developed a “short multicordes” apparatus specifically for this video (gymnastics ring with hitched nautical sash cordes (properly whipped ends this time)) as i had extra material lying around from original development. extremely simple python code in a local notebook below ...

disclaimer: this is not a guide on how to safely construct multicordes for yourself. this is the rationale for how i constructed mine based on my personal risk assessment. goal i’ve been intrigued with the chaotic aesthetic of multicordes since seeing photos of them, probably first via instagram posts from european aerialists. construction-wise i had very little to go on when i decided to start prototyping some for myself. i started with observing the hardware i’d seen on a few different examples: circle, rescue-8, and bar. ...

Tito had contacted me to do an ambient act for the first Hellhole on both days (Sat and Sun, Halloween weekend). I had prepared a series of moves to slowly space out over 15 minutes. The first night was more improvised and experimental (and we had light rain, and it was outside! – I was very worried about my ability to grip in the rain), so it was a bit stressful, but by night two I had developed a full multicordes act that started with me crawling from behind the billboard above SF Oasis and climbing up the cordes, then having the rigger descend me as I thrashed around to Lingua Ignota. I then wrapped myself in the full length of my cordes and crawled up on the wall looking over the crowd to lots of enthusiasm. ...