Today Simon, Craig and I spent a day at The Barbican planning out Robot Steps. It has been commissioned for the venue’s forthcoming Weekender. As the piece is only up for a weekend the budget is low. We are therefore trying to plan a mini-version of the idea. One day planning, one day’s graphic design, half a day cutting and a day installation. It is difficult keeping the ideas under reign, nevertheless we think we have a good plan.

The process is a back and forth method that varies only a small amount depending on the circumstances. Here the theme came first, given by the venue: our relationship with technology. We figured out a way of addressing this them and considered the possibilities it presented for incident and action. We reflected on the the most recent version of the show (Dragon Steps) and what we may learn from this. We discussed how we see the piece in terms of scale and balance of text to action to scenery. We explored the venue to see if it inspired any incident or detail (not really). We we considered an over-arching narrative that may hold the themes together. We explore the venue again, looking at routes and how these may relate to narrative incidents. We agreed colours for characters. We worked up rough versions of text and rough sketches of action. We worked up precise versions of text and then toured the venue again to get precise details of action and the vinyl required to deliver this – in so doing we also tweaked text again. Finally we all left with our lists, to mull it all over and Simon to his laptop and graphic design software.

Unfortunately we got home too late to see Reckless Sleepers @ A E Harris – hopefully tomorrow.