ROCKAMORA: TAMING THE BEAST
Deep in the Adelaide Contemporary Experimental Gallery lies a giant bully called Rockamora. Creator Kaspar Schmidt Mumm tells us more...
What is Rockamora?
Rockamora is a thug taking a bath on the floor of the Adelaide Contemporary Experimental Gallery. [Essentially], Rockamora is a process-driven, participatory site-specific installation. We built the sculpture using local materials – especially waste materials – and it was made by 20 to 30 local artists. They jumped in to create the different aspects of it, from paper mâché to programming the video game and hand-stitching the fingerprints on each of the fingers. We installed this giant monster [in six weeks]. Plus, I underwent a year of conceptualisation and design.
Why did you want to create this giant bully?
There are a few levels to that. I’ve been building participatory sculptures with communities for at least seven years. This is the fifth Rockamora – we’ve done a crocodile in Arnhem Land, a shark in Streaky Bay and a cuttlefish in Whyalla. This is the largest we’ve ever gone. The narrative itself has changed, [too]. The fact that Rockamora is a thug or a bad guy and the audiences – or the performers – are asked to heal [it] is a pretty contemporary story. Instead of fighting fire with fire, it’s asking you to show benevolence in the face of adversity.
Rockamora has a video game programmed in it – tell us more about how that works.
We have a group of programmers in our collective that uses Touchdesigner. It’s usually used for projections on a stage or to create lighting cues, but we’ve tested the limits of it, and now we’re controlling animatronics. We use fans to simulate Rockamora’s breath; there’s also a 3D camera that can tell where you are in space and Rockamora’s eyes will follow you around the room.
What we’ve designed is six levels of interaction. First, Rockamora is asleep and you have to wake them up. Then, they need to be cleaned so you brush their teeth, clean their ears and wash their face. Then you feed them by hitting their uvula with a protein ball. Once you’ve given them food, they need to digest, and they’ll eventually do a poo. Then they become embarrassed and enraged – so you either give Rockamora space or, you can enrage them further.
The final scene is between two choices – if you calm them down, they’ll reward you. If you enrage them, they’ll break down.
You’ve enlisted The Bait Fridge and Slowmango (and you’re a part of both) to help bring Rockamora to life on July 15. How will that unfold?
It’s a live recording with Slowmango’s original members and Luke Hancock. [Slowmango] is doing an album launch the week before, but we wanted to do a live recording of the songs on that album because they’ve been re-arranged to make the background tracks of the video game you play when you’re in the gallery [with Rockamora]. There’ll be performers from The Bait Fridge doing physical theatre pieces – like there’ll be a giant poo and two flies will come out and start eating [it]. There’ll be people with hazmat suits, running around cleaning Rockamora’s teeth, flossing, wiping their face, cleaning their ears, and blowing their nose. And then, I’ll be giving some monologues about stories in my life that relate to care and cultural alienation and how we can tackle these agnostic ideas in society with care.
What do you want people to take away from Rockamora?
I hope that people think it’s fun to care. That’s the overall gist. I think caring for other people, for yourself, for the planet and just generally listening and having empathy is something enjoyable and actually kind of cool. Generosity is something that people should adore and think is fashionable; people should think generosity is what it means to be a human.
Find Rockamora at the ACE Gallery until August 12. See Rockamora live with Slowmango and The Bait Fridge July 15. The show is free, but you can reserve tickets here.
Images: Emmaline Zanelli, shot during installation and rehearsal.
