Ladipo Famodu, an artist, designer, chemist, and capoeirista, brought a kinetic and playful inquiry to BADS_Lab 2024. His practice, rooted in improvisation and physical interaction, centers on “wire characters”—dynamic sculptures that challenge static systems of representation. By engaging participants in game-like interactions, Ladipo opened a space for rethinking constraints and exploring the liberatory potential of collaboration and improvisation.
Ladipo’s wire characters grew from a critique of representation’s rigid frameworks, particularly in chemistry and language. Reflecting on his scientific training, he questioned the presumptive power of molecular models—tools that claim to describe and control the invisible foundations of life. “Once you can represent something, you can control it,” he observed, emphasizing how such models flatten complexity into systems of prediction and hierarchy. This critique extended beyond science to the societal structures that enforce fixed categories, limiting the fluidity of identity and connection. For Ladipo, the arrogance of representation lies in its attempt to solidify the ephemeral, erasing the multiplicity and unpredictability of life. His wire characters emerged as an antidote to this rigidity: malleable forms that resist being pinned down, embodying instead the potential for continuous transformation.
In response to this critique, Ladipo turned to play as a method of reclaiming agency and imagination. His wire characters—vividly colored, flexible, and abstract—invite participants to engage with them as game pieces, storytellers, or companions in creative exploration. Each character defies singular definition, embodying multiple possibilities: a figure, a symbol, or a representation of movement itself. (Tactile/sensuous reference to feelings & sounds of taking your turn - roll dice by dropping it into an opening, collect from underneath by feeling around. Your fingers search for a cool rounded form in contrast to the grooved, hand-chiseled, palm-sized divot of the oak landing tray…unapparent what number you rolled, until you bring the dice into a closer view, situating yourself (pointer finger) in proximity to the closest number (1 - 4 represented by dots carved into crystal quartz spherical die) Spending your allotted moves: 1 - 4 changes to be made to the ever-morphing sculpture on the playing surface (feeling of bending the wire, surprising forms can be made, seemingly off-balance, characters intertwining, simultaneously falling and ascending. Dramatic gestures, architectural to molecular, distorting scale.)
The base of his game, reminiscent of a board game’s layout, offered cues for interaction without dictating rules. Ladipo described this as a process of “teaching people how to play,” creating a space where collaboration replaced competition and imagination subverted prescribed norms. Play became a practice of experimentation—participants explored the constraints of their world through the wire characters, then reimagined those constraints with new forms and narratives.
In the (en)counter phase, Ladipo foregrounded the active, relational nature of his work. Participants were invited to manipulate the wire characters, discovering emergent forms and connections in real time. Their twisting limbs and intersecting shapes echoed the dynamic interactions of molecules, suggesting that meaning and connection are not preordained but arise through encounter and improvisation. Ladipo also introduced hand-made dice, crafted from uneven natural materials, to subvert the expectation of fairness in games. “What happens when the dice aren’t fair?” he asked, challenging participants to navigate the biases embedded in even playful systems. The uneven dice mirrored real-world inequalities, emphasizing that games, like society, are shaped by asymmetries and imbalances that demand negotiation. Improvisation became the core of this phase. Ladipo’s work encouraged participants to “think through physical objects,” uncovering connections and tensions that would remain hidden in structured or static systems. The unpredictability of the characters and the open-endedness of the game created space for participants to explore collective dynamics, creativity, and resistance.
The transformative potential of Ladipo’s work lay in the new possibilities it revealed to participants. The wire characters’ vibrant colors and dynamic forms evoked alchemical elements, symbols of transformation and renewal. Their malleability encouraged participants to break away from rigid expectations, fostering a space where constraints could be bent, if not entirely overcome. Participants were prompted to reflect on the origins and limitations of the characters themselves. What stories or mythologies shaped them? How did their forms influence the narratives participants created? These questions positioned the wire characters as tools for collective storytelling, sparking insights into the relational and symbolic nature of improvisation. Ladipo’s work illuminated how even small acts of play—reshaping a wire, rolling a n unconventional diebiased die—could open pathways for reimagining the systems that shape our lives. The game became a microcosm for exploring transformation, showing that even within constraints, new forms and possibilities can emerge.
The crisis phase of Ladipo’s practice explored the inherent tensions between openness and constraint. While his game encouraged improvisation and fluidity, it also highlighted the limits imposed by its materials and design. The uneven dice, for example, underscored the impossibility of true fairness, forcing participants to confront the biases embedded in systems they might otherwise take for granted. Ladipo grappled with how much structure to provide in guiding participants through his game. Should rules be codified to facilitate engagement, or should they remain open to interpretation, preserving the spirit of improvisation? This question reflected a broader tension in his work: how to balance freedom with the realities of constraint, and how to foster collaboration without prescribing it. These tensions underscored the provisional nature of Ladipo’s practice. His work does not offer definitive answers but instead invites participants to inhabit the spaces where structure meets improvisation, where constraints become opportunities for creative navigation.
each move a hypothesis
molecular and philosophical
gesture becomes ritual
senses recalibrated
bend, link, stack, twist, tilt, balance, flip, form
collapse
& start again.
© Center for Concrete and Abstract Machines