Care to dance?
I’ve been dancing here as a seasoned dancer for months now. But this is your debut. I have lists, and lists, notes and tests (many many tests and more notes and tests, back to testing and noting and noting and testing, and repeat the rhythm for days). The moves are engrained into my muscle memory, the rhythm absorbed into my daily routine and my wrist hurts from repetition. My head is still in the code, my body may be ready to retire, and this may be my grande jete, but you have the freedom of control. I may have danced as I wrote the code, became enslaved to the rhythms, but it is you who are the real dancers.
Command the performance.
You may be the free flowing body of performers && Perform comes from old french meaning ‘par’ through, to completion + ‘fournir’ to furnish and provide && But I have made the design of this dance floor. And together we dance. My design provides you with a way to the end, a choreography. Click this button only, scroll this way, hover, and oh, you can click. If you don’t click the ‘x’ I have designed instead of the back button, you may have to repeat /*a real tip from a seasoned dancer*/. You may get annoyed, you may get confused. This is not your ordinary dance floor after all — and that’s the basic step /*the character and the point*/. But you must follow through. And I must provide. My design forces you to dance with me. The font used is ‘Actor’, and I construct your actions. But again, this is your time in the spotlight and only you are in control of your own body.
Time out.
It may be your time, but you can’t escape the time signature of this choreography. And to dance this dance, it takes time. Not your average internet, scroll,scroll,click,got it,time. Real time. You must adhere to the rhythm to really perform. And when it’s over, it’s over. There are no urls, no links, everything is fixed within the time of the dance floor and the beating echo of your memory /*watch for the break time and escape to another space and check the spinning database menu for the data, links and access the dance pieces outside of time*/. Some dance pieces appear with a delay, a rhythm is created between clicking, scrolling, viewing, closing, scrolling, clicking—moving. Dance slower or faster and you can dance contra-tempo. But there’s not only you and me dancing here, there’s also the stage, the physical, the big bad browser backdrop. And not even I can provide for you there.
Set the stage.
The browser always has the last dance. And like your body, each browser is different. They have a rhythm of their own, they dance to their own tune — Chrome is the smoothest and fastest, Firefox the most playful, Safari the most strict and ruthless (Internet Explorer, let’s not even go there). Safari likes to get stubborn or bouncy with the scrolls. Firefox likes to send you back to repeat. Chrome likes to freeze and rebel against the zoom. They want to have it their way. And each way has slightly different contours, requirements and codes that we both must abide to. Or not. I’ve left it up to the grooves in each browser’s floor to absorb my choreography, and your own body to trace along the uneven surface /*Again cue basic step here*/. And then there’s the server. Just as your body gets tired as you exert the performance, perhaps the server does too? But we must be patient and keep dancing, keep exploring, keep moving. The error is just another type of dance.
Dancing with others.
And we aren’t alone. In fact, there are 22 other cuers here dancing along. They are divided into 5 acts: 1. warm-up, 2. body and code, 3. darkness, 4. culture-out, 5. cool-down. Some are clearly related to dance, in others, it's in their processes. My cues are there, but I’ll leave it up to you to find their connections. And the different dances anyway stand on their own two feet. Each dance piece has its own rhythm, cues and dance style. I must follow them, so must you, and they must follow the floor set by the stage. And somehow, together, it must all work. It’s a dance of wills, and you are left to explore the pieces.
Piece of the action.
But it always comes back to you. Like any dance, this takes practice to get it right. But remember, you have control. You can rebel against my design. You can find a new to move through it. You can try a different order. You can always improvise. And this is only one small dance in a body of dance floors. By practicing here, what other moves can you make? l haven’t set out to create an all new dance step (or any new technologies or fancy javascript libraries), but rather an attempt to dance within the system. And that is something you can use. Use the steps you know, think about the ones you use every day, change your routine, remember your body. Dance to the beat of your own drum.
Curtain goes up.
So take the floor. Take what you have learned. Take the control of your body. And dance. Dance here, dance everywhere, dance on the next dance floor. The (next) moves are yours to make.
Download the notations (aka a cheat sheet of the cues in order) of the choreography.