avoision |
Sometimes... I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion.
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posted by avoision on May 11th, 2011 3:03 PM
If it's preferable to post more here (as opposed to links), I can definitely do that. Originally, as I was filling out my description... I thought I had to upload every image first, before including it. That seemed really time-intensive, since I thread a lot of photos into my writing.
But, on closer look, I can just paste in everything. Overall, I'm just not sure which is considered worse form: not writing enough or copying/pasting verbatim from another source.
I hear you about the paranoia, but it was mostly contained within the night of the event. I got tagged pretty early, but that first hour or so, we were really far off the path. I think I barely saw any chasers at all, and the guy who tagged me out was maybe the second or third I saw up until then. Had I been a runner longer, I could see my paranoia growing more than it did.
What did stick with me though was the overall feel of the city. I find myself not looking at streets and alleys in the same way, and feel a lot more open about going from place to place. I'm the type of guy who usually likes to know where and how to get to a destination, beforehand. After playing, I felt a part of me loosen up a bit after being in more of a "I'll figure it out when I get there" mentality.
In high school, my friends and I would sometimes go out to a park or school playground - sometimes to drink, sometimes to just hang out. During those moments, it felt like were at home... that the place we were at actually belonged to us.
I had a similar sensation participating in the event. Seeing all the other players around me, both at checkpoints and on buses... it felt like we all were the primary focus, and everyone else (other travelers, cars, pedestrians) were supporting characters to our show. It reminded me a lot of those times hanging out with my friends in high school - only instead of a small patch of land, it was the entire city.
In terms of awareness, I think I definitely got that after playing - though it had less to do with paranoia, and more to do with simply interacting with the city in a new manner, seeing it in a different context. It was surprising to see this other facet of Chicago - so young, so much more playful.
And the realization that it wasn't a different Chicago after all... that it was simply me, learning to look at the city in a different way.