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Q: And that got frustrating quick.
M: That's what's happening to me right now.
Q: Well, that's kind of my general attitude toward Monkey Ball. It just got too hard for me.
M: The insanity of the levels.
Q: But sometimes you just luck into something.
[Monkey falls]
M: God!
Q: You might just accidentally roll through and win.
M: But towards the harder levels there is just no way an accident can happen.
Q: Well, they've…
M: Oh, wait! Juuuuump.
[Monkey falls]
Q: They've put way too much thought into structuring it so you can't possibly luck into winning.
M: What does that say about art?
Q: (laughs) That the further you go the harder it is to accidentally be good?
M: Yeah, to be a professional artist you have to be really good. Like...[Monkey falls]…fuck...or that happens to you. You get dropped out of the universe like a monkey in a ball.
Q: You fall out. You figure it out or you fall out.
M: But anyway, should we talk about art or something?
Q: Yeah, I think...
M: Is that the point of the class?
Q: Well, it's kind of up in the air. Some people talk specifically about art in their interview, some people don't talk about art at all. But I think you have to argue that everything in some way relates to art practice or an idea of... [Monkey falls] ...wow...an idea of art. I think we can talk more specifically, I mean we can also talk about Monkey Ball, but I think we can talk more specifically about art.
M: Oooo, oh, oh, oh, oh!
[Monkey falls]
Q: Ahhhh. That was close.
M: That was so close. Anyway, I think last time...we actually rehearsed it.
Q: Yeah, we had a pre-interview/rehearsal that I thought went quite well.
M: Yeah.
Q: We had a nice conversation...
[Monkey reaches goal]
M: Oh-ho-ho! Yesss!
Q: See? Goooooooal! Dance monkey, dance.
M: Amazing.
Q: And the monkey dances
M: It's all in the thumbs really.
Q: It's a thumb-centric game. Yeah, we had a very nice discussion before. We talked a bit about performance and character in the work and about the role of research we both saw in what we were doing. As I said, that went really well and I don't know that we've recaptured the magic of that first conversation.