Project Description

Chiara Bersani – DOUBLE ROPED PARTY

Double Roped Party is an experience meant for landscapers wanting to unveil worlds.


Number of Performers: 2

Performer 1 (P1) is you, the one reading this page.

Your first task is to offer someone else the opportunity to become Performer 2 (P2).

It is important that the person you choose doesn’t live near to you and that you do not meet with each other for the entire duration of the experience.

I do not know the nature of your relationship with P2, but they must be someone you would write a letter or send a postcard to. Someone you trust, or by whom you would like to be trusted.

If you cannot think of anyone, ask yourself this:

Who would I want to get lost in the forest with?

Once you have identified your ideal P2 you can make them the offer, and in doing so you must sound convincing.

Try as you might not to have second thoughts about the person you choose.

P2 must never read this page, nor the instructions to follow. You will be the one giving directions, the one to tell-tale and to answer the questions.

You will find the instructions below. Read through them as many times as you want, and take notes if you need.

Then, one day, close this page and never open it again.

Only then can you call P2 to make the offer.

In telling them about the experience make sure to trust your words, don’t search in your memory for mine. Don’t be afraid to give voice to your own secret, intuitive variations on the theme.

For the entire duration of the experience, you and P2 must not communicate outside the environment of the experience.


Equipment needed

  • Both performers must have access to tools granting quick communications (e.g. WhatsApp, Telegram, E-mail, etc.).
  • Both performers must have at their disposal: a mobile phone, an internet connection, an app for audio recordings.


What the experience consists of

The actual performance will consist in the exchange of digital audio files between P1 and P2.

Each file will be saved and logged under the name “Postcard” followed by # and the file number.

Example:

Postcard#1

Postcard#2


Duration of the Performance

There are two ways available. You will select the most suitable in agreement with P2.

1. SET TIME

The duration of the performance is decided before it starts (e.g. one week, ten days, six months, one year, etc.)

Keep in mind that for the whole time of the experience you can communicate with each other exclusively via audio recordings. Each to be sent with no additional comments, explanations, emoticons, etc.

NOTE: Should you wish to extend the duration of the experience, you can do so by selecting a password you can use in the audio recordings to tell the other person about your wish to continue. This way you will not be breaking the rules of communication.

2. OPEN TIME

Choose not to preselect a time duration for the performance. In this case you will need to agree upon a safeword to use when one of the performers will decide to end their experience.

In this instance too, mentioning the safeword in an audio file will suffice to communicate one’s decision to the other person.

The performer choosing to make use of the safeword will be sending their last audio recording.

The performer receiving the safeword will then be allowed one last audio reply.


In Action

Each performer will choose a place in their home granting a view to of the outside (e.g. window, balcony, garden, etc.)

Each audio file will be recorded or listened to in said place disregarding of the weather conditions. Be very careful in choosing your place, but also a little brave.

The performance happens daily. Every day one of the performers is the landscaper and the other the listener. The following day the roles will be switched.

You, the reader, will be the first to record an audio file and send it to P2. P2 will then send a reply the following day with their landscape.


Rules to Landscape Recording

– Reach your place of choice and get comfortable

– Contemplate your surroundings for the time required to slow your heartbeat and regulate your breath

– While contemplating, remember that sight is but one of the senses we possess. We can experience the world also through our skin, our breathing, our taste, our hearing

– When ready start to record

– In the recording, tell of the landscape you are living in that very moment without ever discussing physical things. Therefore, steer clear of descriptions of buildings and plants, and indulge instead in the narratives suggested to you by light, air, abstract geometries, bodily and emotional sensations. Memories are also welcome, provided it is the landscape itself which incites them

– The audio file must be a minimum of 2 minutes long and a maximum of 5. The recording cannot be paused; begin only when certain that you will not be interrupted

– The audio file must not be edited in any way

– In the instance of a loud noise (e.g. a train, an airplane, a car) stop talking. You may resume once the noise has died out but make sure to change the topic and never continue where you left off.

Rules to Landscape Listening

– Reach your place of choice and get comfortable

– Contemplate your surroundings for the time required to slow your heartbeat and regulate your breath

– Wear your headphones and press play

– Listen only once


Progressing

Approach each new recording considering these two elements:

  • Your present surroundings and your body within them
  • The words received from the other person in their previous audio files

As if you two were landscape painters illustrating the same canvas over and over; each painter’s picture laying on top and mixing with that of the other.


Conclusion

Once the performance ends you can resume normal communications with the other person. What to do with the work just created is at your own discretion.

Chiara Bersani
Pontenure (Italy)
18 August 2020
www.chiarabersani.it