Pre-performace

On the right is the props that we will have set up to create to help Chris in creating an authentic looking performance.

'Rude Awakening' Props

There are lots of  plugs for him to play with and several components that should all appear to be a semi-complex setup. The role of this 'fake performance' is essentially crowd control. We are working with the premise that the crowd will need to be quiet and respectful for our 'rude' sounds to have maximum effect. Chris will introduce our piece and inform the crowd that " it will be very quiet so can he please have a respectful audience"; after this we require him only to look authentic and provide a focal point for the audience that looks like he is doing enough for them to believe he is performing but that perhaps it is too quiet or not going quite right. We want the atmosphere to be as awkward as possible as this will promote annoyance, embarrassment and other negative feelings towards the perpetrators of the inappropriate noise in the crowd. 

We are quite nervous about the upcoming performance as there is no way of knowing how the space will be set up when the whole class is setup there. We also are quite aware that we are relying on many individuals outside the group to make noise for us from all angles in a simultaneously subtle, annoying and natural manor. We earlier on decided that we wanted the sound to be authentic and live as we feel it is a lot more relevant to our concept to have real people producing real sound but in the lead up to the actual performance it is one less thing that we can control.

One  thing that I find comforting about this though is that we are proposing that all sound is relevant, so no matter what our volunteers produce it can't really be wrong, it might only be less effective than hoped in aggravating the crowd.