The following message was posted to: dance-tech
Hi Matt,
I am not sure if in replying to each other's postings we get nearer to
evolving understandings in partnership - and it seems that small parts of
responses then get picked up to make completely different statements
elsewhere - but I find your writings very stimulating so...
e-Merge work.
>
> [quote] I feel that the getting used to a performance-tech state of
> being is going to take a while for the dance community [/quote]
>
> I would agree, but I also believe that this has something to do with
> developing technologies specific to dance that act as as extension of
> the dancer and are embodied in the dancing. such technologies would
> result in a variation / adoption of existing techniques / movement
> vocabulary and development of new techniques and vocabulary, possibly
> even a resurgence in virtuosity.
I can't really envisage such sensitive technologies. I think I am echoing
Nick Rothwell a bit here; my acceptance of interface between performers and
tech in performance work is that the tech will never be an equal partner to
the highly sophisticated sensibilities of the dancer (far too complex to
analyse in a scientific/academic way). But completely accepting not
knowing/metaphorical blindness and haphazard discovery it is interesting to
explore.
Did you see Steve Reich/Beryl Korot's work Three Tales, at the Barbican,
2002 which explored human engagements with 'science' in the 20th C...
Concluding with the suggestion that computers are the evolution of our
physical consciousness. Computer scientists work with the creation of
autonomous 'lifeforms' echoes similar choreogpraphic concerns, and the
inclusion of computer and new technologies is just an extension of that
confluent with:
> [quote] I don't think it's the technologies that help us take the
> risks. The technologies may make certain things possible, but the
> artistic risks are ones of conception and realisation. The
> technologies are, however inimical to the work, . [/quote]
> (whose words are these? I have lost track and would like to acknowledge them)
>]
>
> I consider it to be some time since a performance technology was
> integrated in the way I have described above and can only think of a
> few dance specific examples.
>
Do lets have them please.
> [quote] we found it very difficult to involve contact as if you got a
> new command from a headset (telling that dancer to exit or go to
> Phrase orange or...) during a point of weight- and pathway sharing
> you'd kind of dump the dancer you were working with. A bit dangerous.
> [/quote]
>
> I think it is relative to the type of contact work you have
> experience of (as well as the length of 'rehearsal' time as you have
> stated). however in my experience it is possible to diverge from a
> point of weight or pathway at short notice without being dangerous.
> using contact as a impetus from improvisation rather than weight /
> path sharing or shifting 'per se' facilitates divergent intentions.
I take your point and sure we could do contact. Its not a genre that comes
up in my work that much - I prefer things that are less dance for its own
sake, like tango (the essence of which I work a lot with). I rather like
conflict between things that's how I experience the world being an urbanite.
> [quote] When one is dancing in this kind of emergent or structured
> improvisational or generational or other dance surely you always
> perceive your part in the whole as an aesthetic experience? That's
> quite a bit of the joy of dancing and why people might do it [/quote]
>
> yes, it's often why I dance, but I think that in some types of work
> the cognitive aspects 'could' (i.e. dependant on the dancers /
> choreographers concerns / concepts) be given more importance than the
> aesthetic. sometimes to achieve a particular aesthetic it is
> necessary to over rule our individual aesthetic desires.
In emergent performance situations I think you have to override your own
aesthetic desires for the WHOLE most of the time, as you are so actively
being sensitive to changes in the moment - the unpredictability doesn't
allow for a pre-set mind-set.> [quote] {COMPOSITION & CHOREOGRAPHY: as can
be partially seen from
> the images the movement vocabulary and composition were similar to
> other contemporary dance works. a reading of tuners paper 'is dance
> science' [15] is important here and should be examined alongside
> Pitman's 'Chaos and Complexity' [16]. use of the term 'improvisation'
> should also be taken into account as it is not chaotic but complex -
> adaptive with emergent properties [17] as dance improvisation is
> always bound by bio-mechanics and physics.} Don't quite understand
> what you're saying here. I'd be very interested if you could expand.
> [/qoute]
>
> yes, it's quite a complex one. rather than writing it here I will
> begin and post separately so I can be as clear as possible.
>
> [quote] To make music and dance (or other components) part of an
> interactive organism that involves feedback, simple direct systems to
> communicate to individual performers as part of the central hub and
> wherever they are in space (and here the tech works) are so helpful.
> Rule systems can be subject to lots of interference if mediated
> through lots of different centres, i.e. Performers. However, I am
> continuing to experiment with both to try to understand the actual
> differences (and as part of my PhD at UCC). You may be right! [/quote]
>
> if you can recall the rules then you only need to respond to what you
> you sense. the central hub becomes the knowledge of the rule system.
> messages can be passed from one agent (performer) to another when
> resulting greater clarity of communication. the activity of ants is a
> good example of such complex (adaptive) systems in action.
>
> [quote] {rules could have been called out and selected by the throw
> of dice etc etc} Surely that's chance, something else [/quote]
>
> firstly chance can be a part of complex systems (and may require
> adaption), secondly, chance or pseudo random procedures can be used
> to 'seed' the system rather than instruct it (lay down the genetic
> code that starts the growth).
Yup... But that's only the starting point. The thing has to then just run.
>
> [quote] We chose not to give movement commands per se (e.g. Walk,
> Run, gesture phrase A etc.) for this particular event (although
> started that at initial testing stages) because they don't use the
> advanced abilities of dancers... Hence deciding on numbers and
> colours as symbols which we could change meaning of. The system is
> completely adaptive - you type in whatever commands you like - these
> can describe human movement. [quote]
>
> rather than 'Walk, Run, gesture phrase A etc' I was thinking of a
> higher level movement notation / scripting. it is tied to my thoughts
> on letting the system deal with the 'composition' as well as the
> 'choreography'.
Interesting do expand.
>
> [quote] What is a bluetooth pda? We tried bluetooth mice but they
> broke easily when dropped or similar so we had to jettison them sadly
> [quote]
>
> bluetooth enabled Personal Digital Assistant
> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_digital_assistant] I have seen
> some ruggidised versions and have dropped my own enough times yet it
> still works. i'm not suggesting you drop the headsets but that they
> are cheaper than laptops and you can use the touch screens for
> communication - visual, touch, audio.
>
Thanks - I'd love to see it used in action. Any chances?
The reading below is much appreciated. thanks
Jane
> matt
>
> see also:
>
> - Axelrod, R. M. (1997) "The Complexity of Cooperation". Princeton
> University Press.
> - Bonabeau, E. Dorigo, M. and Theraulaz, G. (1999) "Swarm
> Intelligence: From Natural to Artificial Systems". Oxford University
> Press.
> - Holland, J. H. (1996) "Hidden Order: How Adaptation Builds
> Complexity". Addison Wesley Publishing.
> - Johnson, S. (2002) "Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains,
> Cities, and Software". Scribner Book Company.
> - Kennedy, J. and Eberhart, R. C. (2001) "Swarm Intelligence". Morgan
> Kaufmann.
> - Mitchell, M. () "An Introduction to Genetic Algorithms (Complex
> Adaptive Systems)". Bradford Book.
> - Sleigh, C. (2004) "Ant". Reaktion Books.
> - Weiss, G. (200) "Multiagent Systems: A Modern Approach to
> Distributed Artificial Intelligence". MIT Press.
>
> {i'm including bib's to my comments for my own sake as much as
> others, it helps me to oragnise my work and thoughts and may be of
> use to those interested)
>
> ----------------------------------------
> The Dance-Tech mailing list has recently moved to a new address. To post a
> message, send email to dance-tech@dancetechnology.org. To unsubscribe, send
> email to lists@dancetechnology.org, with the words "unsubscribe
>dance-tech" in
> the message body.
> ----------------------------------------
>
>
----------------------------------------
The Dance-Tech mailing list has recently moved to a new address. To post a
message, send email to dance-tech@dancetechnology.org. To unsubscribe, send
email to lists@dancetechnology.org, with the words "unsubscribe dance-tech" in
the message body.
----------------------------------------
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : 07/02/04