Spirograph Dance Party Where Nobody Gets Up
Everyone who knows the Spirograph drawing toy, with its gears and pens and resulting rosetted drawings; also knows it’s limitations. After the drawing is made, so what?
In 2020, Spirograph updated its application of concept and expanded into several, more completely satisfying approaches to the same idea. In particular, the Spirograph animator toy delivers the most progressive impact: the rotating table and strobing lights work with the angles of the layered drawings to achieve fantastic optical illusions. Once involved into the drawings’ capture, the animation only becomes more personal – and at this point, a song can be layered into the experience to for an audio illusion – and then into a seeming interaction between the table’s “group mind” and the drawing itself. What is at work, exactly? The Fibonacci.
Battery powers only the lights. The drawing gears themselves show the obvious, tell-tale, spiral shape of the Fibonacci sequence; and the table spinning activates the strobe lights kinetically: every 137.5 turns, the strobing shifts into a different pattern. Then, as the table rotation decays, the animation of the drawing shows an evolution of its facets performing as a reaching, dancing, multidimensional body-shape. Because living people make the drawings, a margin of error is inserted as a part of the effect – if even a part of one layer can be set “a little messed up,” the satisfaction levels up.
When a team creates the layered drawing – each person with a different gear and color – watching the results can be thrilling, proving relativity on an intimate scale. When a poem or music with lyrics is introduced into the experience, audio illusion within the song can be visually exposed by the dancing drawing. The song choice of the team can be specific or random, genre and the meaning are irrelevant because the illusion is owned by the spirit of cosmic objectivity at human scale. Under the right circumstances, the five-minute experience might totally transform the trajectory of the day by driving home twin points: 1.) we all own the moment; and 2.) perceived imperfection is actually a path to discovery.
The Spirograph Dance Party Where Nobody Gets Up is an all-ages activity with an arrangement of tables and four chairs at each, and a station for the Spirograph Avatar is set in an area visible to everyone in the room. The station has a tall table and the “theater,’ within which is set an animator, whose performance in the box is captured and shared as a larger, projected version. Importantly, the lighting in the room must be dimmed as low as possible, small lamps at each table can shine focused light when necessary.
The event has three phases: first, the mechanics of the exercise are mastered and each table submits a drawing to share with the group on the projector, escalating the learning curve. Second, the tables try out drawing several different kinds of animations added to the gear-drawings. Third, each table chooses music for their work, then shares it in a round-robin MC’d by the Avatar Host. The Avatar supplies a variety of rhythms, poetry and music that specifically amplify and discover more energy within the drawings. This progression shows how to find depth, enforces learning vicariously with a soft touch, and proves that layering contributions makes some kind of “body” unique to each group.
The less invested, drop-in experience can also be made “pop-up style,” with only one animator and the assistance of the Avatar. For this, the rolling podium is set up as an attractor and the Avatar guides the participant(s) through creating the drawing, then moves into a dimmed area for more precision to the experience. The projector is unnecessary; the rolling podium makes moving areas easy.
Layout of Event
A dimly lit room is set up with four chairs at each of four tables; a podium and tall table are set up at the front of the room for the Avatar. A curtain suspended from the ceiling might be necessary to eclipse light from the entrances. A disco ball is a nice touch. On each table is set a small lamp and a Spirograph Animator, which includes drawing gears, pens and Post-it notes to use in the Animator. A pre-printed scoresheet keeps track of which drawings achieved what, and a small tray keeps completed drawings after they have been tested.
The first phase of the event has the Avatar move among the teams in direct contact to show how the devices are put together and used for the activity. Then the “tables” and “crowns” of the devices are taken off to be used to create the drawings, and the groups are asked to draw as a team, with everyone taking a turn at layering a gear-drawn design in a different color. The animators are put back together and the designs are tested: the first level of illusion is introduced. The Avatar proposes that a “perfect” spirograph design is not the point and is only the cradle for the team’s unique spirit, then explains how to use the scoresheet to keep track of what is discovered. Then, each table chooses a drawing to share and the Avatar works the theater/projector to show a larger projection of the selections to the room. Ideas are shared and the Avatar is an expert in accolades towards everyone’s work.
The second phase introduces dots and shapes, showing how they punch and dance out of the designs. As the teams proceed with the exercise, the Avatar dj’s songs that work well with the illusion, occasionally singing along with the songs. This is the second phase, following the format of the first for each person to layer a contribution. The teams volunteer to share findings and successes and the Avatar projects them. For this, the designs dance to the Avatar’s music choices.
Beginning the third phase, the Avatar talks about the moons of Jupiter, decaying time, and tributing, iambic pentameter layered into discordant 4/4 musical meter, pointing out a list of suggested songs or film-clip dialogue on the scoresheets that demonstrate the audio illusion. The teams choose songs to try with drawings and then submit their drawings with music requests, which the Avatar plays in tandem to the projection. At this point, the dance party has fully unfolded: the Avatar asks the teams to consider and express what matters in the moment and what does not matter at all.
Trifold pamphlets for each participant commemorate the night, wherein drawings from the exercise are stored for posterity. Taking these home keeps the memory organized, contextualizes the drawing, and enables the participant to talk intelligently about what happened.