On October 18, 2009, as part of Nocturne, members of the public were invited to play a collective word game inspired by the parlour game Exquisite Corpse, originally played by Surrealists in the 1900s. In our version, each player added a sentence to an ongoing story without having knowledge of what has already been written. The only rule each player had to follow, was that they use the last word of the previous sentence as the first word of their sentence. The accumulated text was projected live as it was being written onto an outdoor screen. Throughout the night of Nocturne, passing viewers could follow the stream of consciousness story line as it progressed sentence by sentence and joined us inside to add their words. This project was facilitated by Julie Adamson Miller and Bonnie Baker.

FULL TEXT FROM NOCTURNE COLLABORATION

This is an example of how to space your Sentences are ways to communicate your  Ideas multiply in our mind when we relax and let our mind wander into the basis of consciousness with some of your friends are the coals which keep the hearth warm at right away she saw a unicorn and rainbows fill my restless dreams are but a kaleidoscope of our mind over matter, matter over energy, energy over power, power over knowledge is what  each of us should strive to seek out all that is good in life laugh lots hold hands and offer everyone a hug como orange flamingos every morning is my favourite time of day breaks after a long extended series of pointless dreams are wade of constilations of the mind all connected in this time and place as  we are all one night of art many faces many stories of old become new again when retold by the youth are a fine and outstanding vision of epic wonderation, blissful in their new outlook on life and love and vision is a complete emotion is what makes us fill alive in the beauty of my surroundings brings the senses into focus like I have never before experienced during my time in this wonderous place that I cannot  describe what the nocturne means to you and why are you here the designated driver had to do Nocturne on Orange Crush and had to eat something wrapped in grape leaves and here is my last word and music work well together and yet music alone speaks to my heart ache often prevents young men from discerning their true potential as they walk through starry nights as if in a fog can wrap you in a comforting hold that can’t be compared, in the arms of this mist with it’s smells of seashore items are fun to collect I have many things that my friends like to at shells died by the seashore are you waiting for the changes to happen in your life by just sitting there and staring at the wall wondering when life is about to happen she should have asked for more money for the painting now she would tire a string around the straw broom to keep it from falling apart from being fabulous les filles sont merveilleuses and lots of fun is a word that is exciting games are fun can sometimes be boring is just a reason to do something such as running around with your hands in the air is nice don’t you think is a medafor for the undecided was the owl. I cannot begin to imagine all the roly poly fish heads who are never seen drinking cappuccino in Italian restaurants with Oriental women are dancing atop a windy hill while wearing flowy white gowns are often seen as a symbol of femininity however if you weave your gown from inspiration power + threads of kindness they could represent the wild woman + feminism rather than and then again kindness is really the main thing and happiness is also important to embrace the the fall for when the winter comes you will be wishing that you were here right now enjoying the crispness of the cool crisp  fall evening the best chocolate chip cookies contain some oatmeal is the vilest food-stuff known to mankind he opined pompously suitable for nothing but wallpaper paste a smile on your face only when you feel happy so that all will know that your happiness if for real and not just an artificial thing to feign happiness rains on the poor and wealthy as does sorrow oh sorrow seeps more than it rains but then you knew that didn’t you you carrying balloons full of flowers are made of paper hopefully paper that has not been chewed by a dog wearing a purple pullover the worst kind with randomly placed buttons and hairclips glued on with Elmer’s sparkly diamonds are an example of the beauty of the world you celebrate this day of Diwake with love and trust for your divinity rests easily in the space between the ineffable and the concrete we need only cultivate it wasn’t really my fault they said they were free obviously some sort of payment was expected my pickets held a piece of link and two loonies are super duper they make  me smile I love lamp and lamp loves me bananas smell like cheese knights of the country of wrath sing sing-alongs during the march of the eels from monkeys in the sky with purple elephans floating on the blue shroom like clouds drinking wine with candy cane lollipops smoking pretty things that make you see reality in a better way Wikita was a very crazy name of a long haired finger but a better specimen of animal wonder is Kyle Palmer Palmer in the wall donde esta mi Palmer y mi Corazon que late Corazon rojo Corazon Mio low tech aesthetics of lights and dazzle with concave strategies of love and procreation malaise there is never any time to be to love to stand alone in time if all is future and never past then all is nothingness that comes to pass each of us each of us each milenia is its own time can be a friend time can be a foe some might think that not enough time is the worst but sometimes having too much time is horrible  beasts approach from above the trees we run as fast as we can but we can’t get away the beasts are gaining on us we pant while we run legs clothed in shades of whispers laughed at the thunderous planet horizons level and ausgleich the evening light dancing backwards vorwaerts day to night is when I speak and hear parceltongue in my nightmares from the dark side by side we will fight against the Dark Lord aka Voldmrot was fiercely battling Harry waiting for the right moment to pull avbada kadavra the unforgiveable curse the ministery of magic far Fudge will not accept that he who must not be named has returned spirit lives with the ghost and makes everyone scared  one day the spirit awakes from its sleep and goes into the village in the village the spirit seeks revenge and redemption it finds the woman from Scotland are the best of all women not that I would know actually I don’t know anything about women what I do know about I sheep although very common within Scotland are not so well seen within Canada, some folk have not even seen one day I left Scotland for Halifax it is so cold here is where it all begins in dreams last night we were at piazzo in Italy on a lake next we were underwater we found ourselves weightless as if the events taking place on the surface did not exist in the moment that you perceive later you will look back at it differently with all your paranoia so now you need to just be and enjoy it before you ruin it with hindsight if we never reflected we would probably be happier is how I was when I didn’t have to work at 5:00 a.m. now it consumes me I am the one who is at fault for everything is beautiful if you stay outside long enough of this the gorgon sneered, no, wait, smeared across my history of reluctant lovers were more than 3, the cats not included she enjoyed the sound of all the mouths breathing rhythmically sigh on the night I approached Whitehorse on the Greyhound bus I could not see but I knew I was home is where the heart is where smells and sounds are familiar though you’re not quite sure why don’t we all just take a little more time  goes slowly when you don’t know what to say especially when people are waiting for you to say something good, bad, indifferent what are we now , what will we become possibly, if all else is given then make it so once we had tunafish sandwiches for breakfast begins and the day continues with colour and music and laughter that I heard before the sun rose above the wonder of it all the time it rains it rains and rains and it’s always a pain once a while it should be plain just plain and no rain would be nice for a change was in the air because twenty apes slept late, is what I strive to always be… late, ya know many people are engaged and living in Europe, I am thankful for my friends, they help me find my mind in good times only lasted long enough to notice that times before them were not good enough food will make you barf is how I feel when I see how we live in this material world endless ramblings, mindless clatter lets just chant hare krissna hare krissna why can’t we just all leave our soul bodies and mind we need to live in peace and love this is over what do you mean it’s over she sat down then, placed the duck on the stairs why would you want to eat one of these particularily on a day like this on a day that’s suppose to be about giving giving  giving love is a essential part of life regardless of who loves, even between two men, love is giving as he gives me peace and when I’m with him I feel like I am home home sickness is only something I experience when I’m back where I came from east to west there are people who can help you find the person you are destined to be, however you must be open to accept them for who they are we to finish writing, singing this melody, recording these times before too long he’ll tell us to stop, and stare at the fine looking Hispanic with a blue scarf and fancy curls are like pearls captu red by squirrels I love them … why do they always run away this makes me sad… sad is how I feel when I forget to crunch all the crunchy leaves in the streets full of crows looking for the Man, the Man gives and gives me an for a city smotherered in rosebushes smell as if they never had smelled gelled belled quelled knelled pelled dwelled selled barbelled delled pelled celled melled prelled zelled relled felled shelled and green the crabs came from Europe and spread up the coast, if I can only make it back , to that beautiful, fruitful coast through life my dear he said “life is short, enjoy it, coast through like the rising of the tide, coast like you would down a river on a warm spring day light comes after the light of dawn is the beginning and the end night is when the wild things come out to play hockey, that’s what I wish I was doing what I love makes me happy, no , today I feel sappy but tomorrow, I hope to change all the things that I never seem to feel enough when you are not with my body intact to the last of the music stops playing in my mind is a large part of you I know it is you when you laugh along my way there are many trying to get in through the narrow door thy was wrong from the beginning with today I will embrace patience and sleep deeply from me you have the nicest smile I’ve ever seen days are so long, when I think  back to that time is not an object or is it? Is it just moving along as a elive in it? what time does my watch say? When will this night end? Could I be wasting my time? If I had a name would it start with an element? Or would it begin with a letter, a lower case letter or an upper case letter To my uncle so he can get directions to go cruising for horny velociraptors Some time do funny things to these colourful eggs…But I am not really sure as to what but I am sure it is tideer than my bus ride to Digby wearing a derby steaks are 3 for seven dollars at steak and stein I have a friend his name intrigue captivates everyone’s overexposed eyes and disguises their true identities are found in boxes placed firmly above the shoulders are hunched  and I need to stretch because I am acting like a fool, he blatantly blurted out that he loved her creative colour had been masked by the night’s black inky darkness swept over me as the mountains grew, throwing green shadows across my chest as the rough grasses prickled my sunburnt back.  The mountains fell. I was covered, smothered by the darkness, suffocating darkness is the heart of all fantasy or is that phantasy? In the beginning there was a darkness and in the end there will be darkness whole and complete like a jellyfish’s mouth savouring each mouthful of pink bloody spit..spit…spit…the rain spit upon my face, my naked body as I floated naked in the warm turquoise sea.  It looked like hot fat in a frying pan, as it spattered on the surface of this tropical, hot ocean. Little rain drops…little pearls of water dancing on my body I floated in to tired of wishing to start paradise is a place where the sun kisses smiling faces and blissful old people share words while eating freshly baked hams and through the wind and stone emerged a shadow: Crispin the man with much interior sand  feels so good between your toes as you walk with the ones you have loved from your youth to the golden years of life is frequently made into a barge for argument women and altruistic fools who wash their hands too frequently – red frozen hands reach up and grab you from the hole in the ceiling, where the dark blue light is coming from, reminding you of the ocean. Reminding you of drowning, when  you’re down in the ground was once something solid underneath my feet, but now, as the world is shifting and turning I’m not too sure what does it even mean to have a conversation using your hands? With this in mind, I want to see the world in French fries are a salty treat me to a scrumptious breakfast with bacon and eggs and toast with butter and most importantly, your company vans have prepaid gas mileage from a good joke or truck is perhaps the same, or not, who really cares except the owner of the shark are incredible creatures who chose based on instinct and never stop moving so much we could learn is to expand, to have a new perspective and to appreciate learning about ones own learning rushing standing pouring serving greeting lovely lovely goodnight goodnight.

BACKGROUND
Developed in 1925, the Exquisite Corpse was designed for group participation and relied on the chance encounter as a disruption of rationality and a product of the shared, oceanic unconscious in which the Surrealists believed. The technique was invented by Surrealists and is similar to an old parlour game called Consequences in which players write in turn on a sheet of paper, fold it to conceal part of the writing, and then pass it to the next player for a further contribution. One of the basic tenants of Surrealism was the notion that creativity /genius could be a shared experience. Through such execises in collaborative imagination such methods as Exquisite Corpse (cadavres exquis) became tools for exploration.

RULES OF THE GAME

1. Every Player has 2 Minutes to write a sentence on the strip of paper before them. (Leave space between each word ).
   Example:  To stop rope from fraying, the ends are singed.
2. When the timer goes off, the Player tears off the paper strip leaving the last word of the sentence.   The Player puts the paper strip into the container and drops it into the end of the pipe.
3. The container rolls along the pipe to the Typer’s bucket.  Typer takes the sentence from the in bucket and enters it onto the computer. After the sentence is entered, the Typer shreds the original.
4. The next Player writes their sentence in the allotted time, beginning with the last word from the previous sentence.
   Example:  singed bangs are worn by fashionable girls.
5. When the timer goes off, Player tears off the sentence leaving the last word for the next Player, puts the paper in a container and drops it in the pipe.  And the sequence repeats itself…
6. The game continues without end as long as there are players.