Body (19)

Thanks to Dancing Opportunities I'm happy we have been selected to FIDCDMX (Mexico City)

with my last work The Rebellious Body (Connecting Fingers Company)interpreted by Nicola Campanelli12249590665?profile=original.

You can read the entire article here:

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LUCHA PROJECT AT DY3CORPIA EXHIBITION-CANADA

12249587456?profile=originalLUCHA is a AI research and creation project by Brisa MP human artist. Lucha is a machine for the performing arts. The project explores the notion of body-data and the collaboration between machines and humans, displacing  of the  choreographer category to the machine and activating a peaceful audience as representation of our controlled society.

LUCHA suggest the role of matters  are not, in the present day, and will ever be in future, only means of human expression and human creation, but they may one day enter into a de-hierarchical or even superior dialogue with the human race. LUCHA 1.0 is my first exploration into artificial intelligence that was created upon the performing art s and technology piece titled HERE.

LUCHA 1.0 with the support:

Creation Grant  Generalitat of Catalonia Culture Department .

Residence at MediaLab L´Estruch Creation Factory. HANGAR. Barcelona. 2020.

+ more 

https://caidalibre.cl

https://caidalibre.cl/lucha/

LUCHA PROJECT EXHIBITION

OPENING July 17th 2021 

DY3COPIA BODY AND TECHNOLOGY

VIRTUAL GALLERY

SECOND FLOOR GALLERIES - ROOM F: Mary Neubauer, Brisa MP

Dy3corpia

12249587495?profile=original

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Introducción: Arte, Cuerpo, Tecnología Aproximación a un Panorama Actual Latinoamericano" from Caída Libre on Vimeo.

ABTRACT 

Art, Body and Technology: an overview of current approaches from Latin America

By: Brisa MP (Chile)

The presentation aims to make a brief tour of the current state of the art of the production that articulates the human body and the technology in the fields of dance and performance. This tour offers a mapping of various levels of production, such as artists, work of art , theoretical production, collaboration networks, research in Latin American festivals and an analysis of the general situation in the region.

No doubt that the art-technology development in Latin America has been largely led by artists from the visual arts. In this scope we can see that the performative arts are not far behind, while its approach to science and technology has been happening slowly, it is now possible to recognize several projects developed in our region. These projects constitute a network of performances, educational and outreach that have shaped a recognizable set between dance-performance and technological mediation.

Moreover, the state of the art makes evident conceptual, aesthetic and economic problems, it proposes new ways of collaborative creation, instances of intercultural exchange and training that have allowed local development of projects pushing the boundaries of traditional Dance and Performance Art territories.

Meanwhile It is recognized that in Latin America a first approach to the relationship between dance and technology, comes from the videodance production, in which the initial scenic event moved to digital imaging and the screen. This is evident in several countries, making it visible a second state of the dance-performance and technology exploring more complex technical and aesthetic structures therefore presenting unequal levels of development in the countries of the region.

http://www.caidalibre.cl/

http://abierta.cl/isea2013/brisamp.html

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Great documentation  about the meeting  that gathered

The conscious body: an interdisciplinary dialogue. Paris 8 5-7 October 2012

See documentation here:

http://theconsciousbodymeeting.wordpress.com/media/

This workshop proposed a meeting place for two communities who have been investigating the nature of consciousness in, possibly radically, different perspectives. Over the past half a century (and especially over the last 15 years) cognitive scientists and neuroscientists have been studying the nature and neural basis of our phenomenological ‘subjective’ experience of the world, our own body and action and ultimately our selves.  This research has employed traditional paradigms and scientific protocols of experimental (neuro)psychology as well as the emerging technology  of human functional brain imaging  (fMRI, EEG, MEG, TMS, intracranial recordings). Though most of the research on the topic has taken the traditional   “third person perspective”, the intimately subjective nature of this topic has led scientists to integrate subjective reports into their experimental paradigms.

The study of consciousness and awareness using subjective (first person) phenomenological tools has been a central occupation within post-modern dance and related somatic techniques  since  at least the 1960′s. Despite the shared topic of interest, there has been little cross-talk between neuroscientist and dance makers .We believe that such dialogue is possible and that it has the potential to cross-fertilize the research in both domains. For this purpose we have organized this weekend long workshop. The workshop will be organized in 3 blocks, each highlighting a specific dimension of inquiry (shared by both domains). Each block will consist of a presentation of cutting edge research in the field of cognitive neuroscience, followed by a movement practice led by a dance/somatic practitioner addressing the same general issues. Finally, each block will end with an open, informal discussion.  The workshop will start with a live dance performance and will end with a poster session which will allow for non-presenting workshop members to share their ongoing dance/scientific
research.

http://theconsciousbodymeeting.wordpress.com/media/

Friday 5 October 2012 – Studio Keller
1. Arrival and introduction
2. Myriam Gourfink – “The Breathing Monster”

Saturday 6 October 2012 – Paris-8 University
Body awareness and the self (1)
3. Erik Myin
4. Lisa Nelson
Body awareness and the self (2)
5. Steve Paxton

Sunday 7 October 2012 – Paris-8 University
Consciousness of movement, movement of consciousness
6. Aaron Schurger
7. Eva Karczag

Sunday afternoon presentations
8. Konstantina Georgelou
9. Florence Daupias d’Alcochete
10. Christophe Lopez
11. Emilie Gallier
12. Frédéric Bevilacqua
13. Joachim Forget
14. Luciana Cheregati & Ibon Salvador – “coletivo qualquer”
15. Malcolm Manning
16. Iris Trinkler
17. Suzanne Cotto
18. Natalie Heller

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PISO proyecto

12249538886?profile=originalPISO como plataforma de la improvisacion

 

en plancha HOY martes 24, 1:30 Inter Metro, Puerto Rico

 

en plancha este  jueves 26 en el lote, Cinema Paradiso en la calle Loiza, Puerto Rico

junto a los estudiantes y profesoras del Departamento de Arquitectura de la Politecnica.

 

como plataforma para la improvisacion:en la Trienal. 28 abril hasta agosto 2012.

Arsenal de la Puntilla, VSJ, Puerto Rico

 

en plancha, en un espacio performativo: DanceSpace Project, NYC, mayo 19, 2012

 

en plancha fuera del area metro este verano 2012, Puerto Rico.

 12249539101?profile=original

 

aun esperamos por nuestra primera respuesta afirmativa a varias propuestas que hemos solicitado

 

 

esta es una manera de apoyar este proyecto AHORA.

 

http://igg.me/p/36447?a=208955

 

gracias

 

 

 

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Body and Technology research / P_B / P.A 1

12249538055?profile=original

 

P_B / P.A 1

P_B / P.A   is an performance exercise… I try to think about the concept of “control-no control” from electronic devices attached to the body. This from the concepts of generativity and autonomous entities, as a way to reflect on the process of creation and production of art work, comprising work with dancer and technology as a global system where this concepts involved

The reactive system is a electronic sequencer with light sensor and speaker sound with the idea of clothing or accessory type bracelet, scarf, bracelet, etc.

Interactive System: + microcontroller pressure sensor. This is a reading on the Processing platform that by sending the signal is set to a range of sensor accuracy from XBEE protocol, data are extrapolated in a geometric graph.

INFO RESEARCH (ONLY SPANISH)

copy@left If only referring to project name or the author

 

 

The condition is based on the parameter “more light at higher pressure and smaller, less” going from 255 to 0 or vice versa. The graph comes from a structure ellipse, a rect, and line ranging achurando the screen as a digital pen set in “if” (If) and millis timer that is changing as visually the same hardware generating a graph where converge in the body itself, the physical and digital space as geometric and mathematical entities.
The body and the digital system under an instruction dialogue, improvisation moving body always generate a aletoria visuality.

Brisa MP . Buenos Aires, Argentina . july 2012

 

 

 

 

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Orbe

Some clips from the rehearsal and the show day.

Orbe is a Multimedia platform play in which most of the media content is interactive .
Duration 45 mins.

It,s a history about the inner and outer being and the way both influence and evolute togueter.

Orbe was part of the Bad-Bilbao festival and was shown on the 30th of november.
bad-bilbao.com/​2011/​orbe-plataforma-multimedia/​


Director: Zigor Gorostiola Sauce
Interpretation: Ena Fernández
Interactive Designer,Programmer: Abraham Manzanares
Musical Production: DJ Amnsia
Therapeutic dance: Izaskun Zelaia
Assitant helper : Itzi Recalde Fragua
Video: Pablo Fernández, Iñigo López
Video resourses : Pausa digital

Thanks to all + :
Zigor for his effortless will of making things.
Irene Pereira for caring.
Izaskun Fernandez in place and show help .
,Itzi,Ena,Izaskun;Iñi,Pablo
Jesu y Piti for sharing their place .

Music of the video :
David nod - Noised - miga-label.org/​eng/​miga41.htm

 

 

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ABSTRACT

 

Politically engaged art practices have been important inputs for feminist theory throughout history. In the contemporary art landscape, the work of Spanish multimedia artist Jaime del Val proves to be as innovative as it is provocative in how it reflects complex phenomena – from the undoing of traditional understandings of bodies and identities, to the capitalism of affects and the influence of surveillance technologies. Del Val's expressive strategies such as combining urban interventions with microcameras, and dance movements electronically coded and turned into visual images, create engaged artistic projects such as his ‘Antibodies of Surveillance’ and ‘European TelePlateaus’, respectively. The interview format allows for the exchange of first-hand information from a creative and multidisciplinary posthuman standpoint that questions dichotomous thinking in terms of sex/gender, human/non-human, activism/academy, ability/disability, among others. The result is a mapping of the work of this transnational artist that might inspire fruitful debates on ways to develop alternatives for social, cultural and political change.

 

assuminggender.com

In Volume 1, Issue 2

Autumn 2010

http://www.assuminggender.com/2010/11/cecilia-gordano-pangendered-cyborg-of.html

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INTERFACE 2.0 / SECOND LIFE


INTERFACE 2.0


INTERFACES FÍSICO VIRTUALES DEL CUERPO-JUEGO
País: Nueva Zelanda –Portugal
Dicta: Todd Cochrane (presencial) Isabel Valverde (Videoconferencia)
Total horas cronológicas: 2 cursos de 3 horas c/ u
Horario: Miércoles 24 y Jueves 25 11:30 a 14: 30 hrs. hora de CHILE

PHYSICAL INTERFACES VIRTUAL BODY
Country: New Zealand-Portugal
Dicta: Todd Cochrane (face) Isabel Valverde (Videoconference)
Total chronological hours: 2 courses of 3 hours each
Hours: Wednesday 24 and Thursday 25 11:30 14: 30 hrs. CHILE time

In SecondLife:



Location 1
LX Factory
Location 2
WI Three


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Back in October I spoke with Thomas Dumke about CYNETart Festival and performative arts in the context of new media art. Our conversation was possible thanks to Sonja Lebos from UIII.org, Association for Interdisciplinary and Intercultural Research, based in Zagreb. Sonja's organization is deeply rooted in architecture, urbanism and new media art.

12249459859?profile=original
Thomas Dumke with the background by Monolake Live Surround Taken from ds-x.org

Thomas then gave a lecture in the net club Mama about the history of Festspiel Haus Hellerau, Trans-Media-Akademie Dresden and the festival.Thomad Dumke studied history and sociology from 1997–2002 at TU Dresden, postgraduate in culture & management. Since 1999 Thomas Dumke is part of the international festival for computer based arts CYNETart in Dresden, in 2000 he initiated together with DS-X.org the »microscope session«, an event for audio-visual concerts, founding member of TMA Hellerau in 2001, from 2006 he has been the director of the CYNETart festival. He is a member of the artist collaborative DS-X.org.

Let’s start with the concept of your festival CYNETart… I find it very interesting and slightly different in comparison with other media art festivals, because you didn’t give up from the body…TD: The Trans-Media-Akademie organizes annually the CYNETart Festival and we understand media art more as a research approach and within this we are focused more on the changes of our perception and self image of our movement or our body feeling in relation to ongoing mediation and mediazation processes.We are interested even in our relation with the human environment. This is somehow our, lets say, scheme or issue. If we have this scheme for body and space relation or our body environment relation, the question is how we can use media technology to make us aware of this relation? There are also somehow rational aspects, because we are using objects with technology. It’s not esoteric, para-psychological or whatever.


Jacob Korn and his Harmony Universe (c) Taken from ds-x.org

It’s cybernetics! It means that everything is provable. But we think that we can use technology to make things experienceable or sensible, what in normal case is not experienceable. We are trying to establish with our CYNETart Festival a platform to present a different kind of performative installation works or even stage performances. We have also workshops and club events for the younger audience.So, it’s also a community oriented festival, because it seems that you want a reaction by the audience?TD: Yes! This is also very important. We don’t want to be hermetically closed for the audience. That’s what we are really trying to achieve within Tele-Plateus project where we would like to establish virtual environments, interactive environments in the public space.Tele-Plateus should function in that way with a public stage, or even something like a star gate for other cities. Virtual environments should be connected to each other, to give the citizens of these cities the possibility to interact with audio, sound and visual elements. Somehow, this is an abstract way, nothing like Skype connection or so. Today, you can make face to face connections like on TV.


Photo: mb21 backup taken from t-m-a

We are really trying to stay at some abstract level, because we know from previous experiences that when you hear and focus on one point, then you are able to activate your potential imagination. I mean, literally I don’t know you, but I have got the feeling of you…If I have a contact with your shape or with your sound, maybe I don’t know you, but your are on remote and I have a contact with your generated sound. And you are interacting with my sound, too. This is this point, we meet each other on the sound level and the task for the audience or the composer is to give a set up of one environment, which should be easy going or just easy approachable to have this kind of experience.Experience in which I am with somebody, but for instance three people with me projected in one space, of course this is hyperspace and it’s only in mind. It’s not for real, because all scales and environments are on different places and in that particular time, if you are active with each other, we are sharing one space, and this is sound space and the space in your head.


Mortal Engine by Chunky Move (c)

I’m glad that you mentioned just now this important aspect of hyperspace in the context of perception or mental space, lets say colloquially ‘in the head’…TD: Yeah, yeah. Even the whole process that is going on at the moment, if we really observe the internet natives, these new generations that are going up… My experience was like this, if you met somebody offline. Let's say it in terms of online and offline reality. There are totally different intentions in real life, a totally different way of perceiving things. That’s sometimes funny for me, but it does not have to be funny for other person.


Ballettikka Internettikka (c)

Even if you are in the relationship with somebody who is not online, she or he can’t understand what you are doing all the time. This is a thing in our cognition process, what Marshal McLuhan have postulated in the 60’s. This global village metaphor which is now happening… From the mental point of view, the fact that we are all coming together is based on television, online life and social media thing. This got somehow real, this webness and activities…Of course, and this urge to be connected… and the feeling when you are offline that something important is happening online, and you are not there to see it or try it… sometimes it’s haunting… How do people react to you concepts?TD: We have got mostly positive responses to what we do. I think, it’s always a decision of their own, if they got it right, if they understood this abstract level of sound and visual aspect. Somehow, we are all conditioned by Hollywood and totally illusionary media worlds that have to be colourful and more real then real in details. What we are doing is totally opposite. We use the senses with sound with an aim to make an impact, but a real one. Also, it gives you a chance to put there your own stuff according to things you actually perceive and receive.


Jacob Korn Live AV with hypecycle (c), taken from ds-x.org

For instance The 'Schlamp' installation by Frieder Weiss and Emily Fernandez has opened pretty interesting discussion on computer games, does it make a difference if I’m shooting on a real person or 'real character' that looks more like a real body? Or maybe I’m only shooting on black square or an abstract thing. I think that in a psychological way or mentally it makes no difference. Our neurons and brain have the same neuro-electric processes whether we are shooting digitally or for real.We had interesting experiences while presenting installations where people were projected on the street or on the floor. After some time passers would start to jump or trying to hit digitally projected people. They just kicked them out and showed that they don’t have respect for the virtual re-presentation because it’s not real. I think, this case shows the current issues even if you look to finance market. It’s raising up on the virtualization of the world.


Chunky Move (c)

Why the market has collapsed? Because there is no relationship to the real world. Like in the past we had the relation to the material world, like gold used to be in the past. It was like a never ending game. How we are dealing with this virtual reality thing? Is it a quite similar world? For instance, we are jumping faster but in the music industry, actually everything is the same, there are terms like sharing, copy right and so… The question is what is this virtual world? Why we are sharing so simple, because we can digitally re-produce things quite simple. We do not care about copyright anymore.


Photo: tma (c) taken from bodynavigation

I’m still buying vinyl, because I are really like music, but I can’t share or copy this vinyl. So, it’s something that has this aura thing which I think is increasingly present lately, to experience things in our real environment. A good aspect of virtual environment is that you can’t reproduce a video, a record or a CD, but you have to experience it by yourself.In the same category we can discuss on watching interactive dance, because dancer can experience this interaction but the audience not. Dancer is inside and the audience is not. This is one quality aspect and it has some kind of aura. This self experience can be in local virtual environment or in networked virtual environment. This is new, it could be development and comprehend.


Photo: Zeitgeist by Hjørdis Kurås

But the whole story is pretty much based on performative aspects, dance...TD: It’s based on performance. Actually, we don’t like to work with dancers, we have a local school in Dresden and there are lots of dancers. The thing with dancers is that they are educated somehow in the direction of the quality of movements, release techniques, different dancing techniques and so. You know, it looks like Forsythe or it looks like something else. Of course, there are different types of new students coming to the new repertoire and they would like to test generated sound and visuals.Usually, they are coming with all the movements they have learned in school and they don’t listen to the sound or just react to this base, which is a mistake. But, what is happening during this processes? If you have a feedback effect or closed circles you are inside this instrument, and inside this environment you have to react to each other.


Do androgyns dream of electric sheep by An Kaler, dancer: Gregory Holt

Sure, it's not important what dance technique you're using, but the way you comprehend movement as it is...TD: It doesn’t make sense if you make a ‘William Forsythe movement’ because the instrument and your environment don't know that. Hence, it doesn’t recognize that. The instrument recognizes your movements, intensity or something like jumping. But, it doesn’t recognize the special quality of typical dance forms. I don’t like to work with professional dancers because you have to push away this conditioned way of how to move through space.There is no sense to do some technique in such environment. This is our approach. You have to experience by yourself and you have to use it like an instrument. Even piano players use different interpretations, especially in comparison with Jimmy Hendrix and the way how he used electric guitar.


Photo by: Matthias Härtig/TMA Hellerau taken from flickr

It’s different and at the other hand it’s the same in performing arts and in fields where you have to think on how to move. Even sometimes children or common people are much better for that, because they are free minded to do it. They don't think something like Oh, I'm not doing this right or I don’t act like this! But, because they do spontaneous things and even then, slowly and by listening, step by step they can get the felling on how to move or to figure out the environment. It’s very important to get the feeling how it is inside. What is happening when I move and what's the feedback I got. ‘When I’m shouting in the wood it always come back to me’ principle is similar to electronic interactivity.You mentioned before William Forsyth… He is very connected with the city of Dresden…TD: Since 2006 he has his residency in Dresden. Something like a special cultural policy contract among the cities of Frankfurt and Dresden with the states of Hessen and Saxony. These four partners finance the Forsythe Company. Three or four times per year he comes to Hellerau in order to work with dancers.


Synchronous Objects by William Forsyth

What do you think about his data visualization project Synchronous Objects? I was really surprised when I saw it...TD: Oh, you mean his improvisation project… His method is more about archiving. His technology DVD is more about how the Forsyth method is working. He chose one of his performances One Flat Thing to show it on the internet. It’s totally complex documentation, notation and interpretation of his choreography and performance. It’s amazing, but it’s archiving.The other aspect that I haven't experienced yet is the use of technology in his stage work. I mean, I saw what he was doing with the sound manipulations. He was influenced by neuro-science and he took the idea of what is going on in neuro science to re-adapt it into his dance pieces.


Cynetart 2009, Automatic Clubbing taken from flickr

Where do you see CYNETart festival in comparison with the similar European festivals and what kind of opportunities artists can have within your framework?TD: I would say that we are really unique because we are really focused on this concept of performing arts combined with new technologies. We are not doing only exhibitions and public events like workshops, screenings and so. We are interested in the working processes not only in single, produced and ready for the market art piece.We want our guests to demonstrate their working processes and stuff like that, but at the same time to get in contact with the audience.This is really important. We like when these sides, artists and the audience exchange their position. That means, that we really like this participatory approach in installations, as well as the younger audience within our clubbing programme. OK, we have this unique location, die Festspiel Haus Hellerau where we can use these big halls for dance pieces or bigger installations. There are also small stages and smaller halls where we usually organize meetings, smaller exhibitions and so...


Johannes Birringer (c)

Our Call for Proposals is internationally recognized, it usually starts in December right after the festival is over, and what is also unique is our scholarship for new media art with an amount of 6.000 Euros. We also have a big grant project supported by the Ministry of Art and Science with an amount of 10.000 Euros. Of course, for our contests and awards we have a grant of 5.000 Euros. So, that means that we have a lot of money to spend, and we want to spend it on a quality programme. I mean, in comparison with the mayor media art festivals in Germany and Europe, like Transmediale, these sums are not so big...


Cynetart 2009, Automatic Clubbing taken from flickr

What do you think about low budget technologies, DIY technologies in the context of media art?TD: When you compare different motion sensing systems, you can find among them many really low budget projects, especially compared to motion capturing system which is really expensive and needs very sophisticated equipment. You can work with an average computer, the only thing that you need of those special equipments is a TV card or an observation cam, but if you spend maybe 5000 Euros, you can have it by your own.This is somehow the middle level, this DIY level and it will be used more and more, because technology is getting smarter and cheaper. We will have a generation that will be capable to do everything by their own. I think this will be the future!


Language Game by Kobakant (c)

Even in the context of Internet, the so-called digital culture or internet natives... I think there would be more and more projects specially designed for this kind of audience, also taking place only on the internet which would know to differ real present activity in the future. Then E-tribal art, and of course this RFID thing...I know that Johannes Birringer from Tirier University is doing infrared sensitive clothes. This is quite interesting from sevelar aspects, one thing is this possibility of connecting everything, but then the author must ask himself, what can we do with this multiple connectivity?Thanks a lot, Thomas!This interview was previously published on Personal Cyber Botanica blog
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WORK IN PROGRESSEukinetik Tech es un proyecto de Caída Libre / Brisa MP, que tiene como sentido estudiar el cuerpo en movimiento a partir de la informática. Más allá de la situación misma de interactividad que permita controlar video y sonido en tiempo real, entendiendo que un movimiento podría tener un sonido o una imagen, no como representación sino más bien como interpretación; los que preocupa en esta primera etapa, es estudiar el cuerpo desde lo que Laban nombra como “Eukinética”.Eukinetik-tech es un proyecto de creación de un software para danza y performance diseñado bajo un sistema interactivo en tiempo real que involucra imagen, sonido y cuerpo en movimiento. El proyecto experimenta en "physicalcomputing" teniendo como base el estudio realizado por el coreógrafo Rudolf Laban en 1928, quien determinó que los movimientos corporales se realizaban en base a tres cualidades: tiempo, espacio y energía l (“Eukinética”).

Creación de dispositivos inalámbricos para mapeo del cuerpo. Como primer problema " el espacio" , creando un sistema de motion capture (Mocap), en base a un sistema electrónico, un sistema de captura y programación que envíe datos sobre la posición de la zona mapeada en un espacio kinesférico. Tenemos que tener en claro que tenengo que alimentar un dispositivo inalámbrico, como lo hago seguro y liviano, que el cuerpo sea mapeable con luz o sin ella, que permita moverse sin demasiado peso en el cuerpo para que no nos limite tanto el movimiento.. desde acciones cotidianas hasta complejos movimientos de danza.Brisa MPFONDART Nacional 2009Santiago_ Chile
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During this year's edition of Eurokaz - The International Festival of New Theatre I had an opportunity to interview artistic director of CIE 111 Company, Aurelien Bory...

Aurélien Bory in Zagreb, photo taken from SEEbiz (c)

CIE 111 performed the 'Seven Boards of Skill' which was really great chance to talk with Bory on his aesthetics, directing methods, usage of new technologies in art and the trilogy itself...Aurélien Bory studied film, then acoustic architecture before turning to theatre. He has been heavily inspired by circus and juggling since he was a teenager.The Company says about the trilogy: 'Since its creation, CIE 111 has been aiming to the development of a poetic writing, using juggling, acrobatics and music and exploring scenic language as a whole.

With this point of view, the matter of space appeared obvious, on one hand because juggling and acrobatics are tightly linked to it and obey perfectly to its regulating laws and on the other hand because theatre is considered here like the art of space as defined by Oskar Schlemmer himself.Therefore, the concept of a trilogy about space is imagined declining its dimensions. Three-dimensional space (the volume), two-dimension space (the plane), one-dimension space (the line) become the themes of the three respective episodes IJK, Plan B and More or less infinity.That way, the fact is to question the relationship between man and space, from its more daily form until its conquest. Imagined as a poem in which the addition of simple forms produces, by layers, a complex structure, the trilogy suggests to the spectator’s imagination to proceed with ideas associations, recognition or projections of their own references and experience of today’s world. This flow of sensations becomes movement of thought. The elsewhere is in the core of our relation to space whose quest is endless, in loop, vain. Trilogy seems to be this: three dimensions, three elsewhere and three impossibilities.’

Photo by Mihail Novakov taken from flickr (c)

Your stage work is always designed as a sort of puzzle, there is always some kind of construction we have to build in our imagination… you’ve studied cinema and physics and there are so many elements included in your performances… we have to solve something at the end of the performance…AB: Yeah, you’re right (laughs). I like very much this idea. I didn’t put it that way before, but I like it now, doing this puzzle. Like in this show. It’s right what you just said. I’ve always done puzzles (laughs).You were also inspired by Bauhaus, Oscar Schlemmer and all these geometrical constructions. … but it’s not only about the geometry…AB: Yeah. You know, I wanted to make theatre with everything. I think everything could be theatre. Everything that fits on the stage could be theatre. In the past, I worked a lot with different elements: slides to scenery, new technologies like video for example, which is not really NEW, but for theatre it’s new, you know (laughs). For example, I have done more then four performances with video. And for the show ‘Seven Boards of Skill’ I wanted to do a show without video, because it’s not a necessary tool. I wanted to come back to something more basic as blocs or architecture. Not to go in all directions, but to focus on one direction. But, it’s still, of course, a mix of things.I’m trying to find for each projects specificity. Not to be very specific, not to be too general or to do as I already did. I’m trying to do something new. As for my last performance, I’ve tried to do something with the architecture and the geometry. I wanted the show to be dead and it’s a change, because people on the stage are only doing architecture. They are trying to explore where could be their body in that architecture. So, the performance is questioning the place that we can build for ourselves in the world.

But in my last two performances, which are part of the trilogy inspired by Oskar Schlemmer, it’s difficult after that to say what is it exactly. If it is dance or circus… even in this show you can say that it is circus. There are very scary balances with architecture, it’s like these blocs are doing acrobatics by themselves, you know.So, it’s mixed and people usually ask, what is this? I answer them: It’s theatre! Of course, we can do theatre with dance. For example, the biggest choreographers like Pina Bausch, before everything she was an excellent director. For me, being a theatre director stands before being a choreographer. They are doing their work for stage. First of all, they are excellent stage directors. I follow these ideas – the idea of theatre, the idea that we can do everything with theatre, circus, architecture, music, images, shadows… like shadow puppetry, you know. When you really want it, you can do theatre with these things and the only important thing is to respect the rules of the stage. They are complex and each performance is an opportunity for me to get something new about those rules.It’s interesting that you have found inspiration in street art… basically, circus and jugglery are ancient forms of street art…AB: I wouldn’t say street art. Because I’m not very connected with street art, but I’m very interested in acrobatics, juggling and these kind of things. They interest me because they’re very connected with physical rules and gravity. Falling ball, the body… to do acrobatics is to define the gravity, to dance also means to define gravity. And at the same time to listen the gravity, to let it be in our body or in the object.So, because of all these I’m interested to be connected with the physical world. Theatre is the only place where gravity is for real. You know, it’s the only art, not the place, but the only art where gravity is the part of the game. If you write a book, or make a movie there isn’t gravity. You can lie with gravity… Gravity is a part of the space, part of what you are doing. That’s why all things that I have chosen are connected with this direction – the art of the space.This trilogy is about the space and this piece is simply an extension of it. In this performance I’ve applied all what I did in trilogy to make something different. It is a little bit more philosophical then the whole trilogy. There was also philosophy in the trilogy, but in a very specific way: form, subjects, volume, playing, laying. In the Chinese show there is more about the WORLD. I’m talking about the world in a sense of humanity.

Seven Boards of Skills, Cie 111 (c)

It’s very obvious that you tend to create a small microcosm, this time you have picked up a huge civilization. Chinese philosophy, art, theatre are massive and complex systems…AB: Yeah, I found very interesting the fact that China is the world itself. Basically, they had put the whole during years and years, being separated from the rest of the world. So, I didn’t want to say that in my performance, but I used this fact that it’s a world by itself. I wanted to put this on the stage: A WORLD. And the place of human beings in that world. Of course, I was very inspired by Chinese philosophy because it was very important to make some connection with that. It’s very important to respect the context of the performance. Chinese audience makes its connections, while Western audience makes other connections. It is not about China, I think it’s universal. It’s not about THE World, but A World. A construction of that, with some absurdity, with serious things, with humour, with poetry. Of course, poetry is something what I’m doing.It’s a stage poetry…AB: Yes, it’s stage poetry. As for poetry and myself, you know, I don’t have a message. Let the audience enters into this poetry and make its own message.Your are relaying on the audience… it’s a very opened structure… it’s about that what they see and how they perceive shapes and spaces…AB: Yeah, it’s an opened structure and if it works, the imagination is very active. If it works! If it doesn’t work, well, then you can get bored (laughs). In this kind of connection, I call it art. Art is not the object itself; art is relationship between you and whatever you are watching. That’s art. If it’s working that’s something incredible. You think that this painting, or film or performance have been made for you only. If it’s working really… It’s for me, it’s talking to me! (laughs). If it doesn’t work you don’t feel connection with that what you’re watching and it’s just boring.Can we go back to the human body, and the thing you’ve said previously that you are interested in these balances on the stage… Do you allow the actors to reveal themselves within your guidelines or you are directing them in which was they should be going? I don’t think in a sense of choreographing…AB: I’m trying to find all strategies to discover something that will surprise me. All strategies are good. Sometimes you don’t know what the exact strategy to find something is. I’m very interested to discover what I didn’t know before and it’s very difficult, because you don’t know how to get that. For example, I wanted to experiment with some kind of movement on these blocks. What I’m doing is that I’m trying all combinations. I’m interested to explore everything of this triangle, everything. OK, could you walk on it?! Could you climb on it?! Could you slide, jump or run?! What could you do?! What is the connection between you and this object? What is the connection between the bodies? What can you do with your body?It’s always a dialogue between the body and the space. This dialogue is infinite. I’m always trying to find little discoveries, you know. For this performance I needed that. Not discoveries that I already made in my paper book, while I was working prior going to rehearsals. I’m not looking for discoveries in that moment. I just make repetitions with the actors on the stage, then I’m searching to discover some new things. Something that I haven’t had thought about before. Sometimes nothing happen… Some days can happen something incredible by chance or something else…

Seven Boards of Skills, Cie 111 (c)

Let’s switch now a little bit to this element of sound, and the perception of sound in your work… after all these elements we had mentioned before, sound could be the last layer in your work…AB: Yeah, yeah… you know, light and sound… I’m trying to make them acting to provoke things. So, the sound goes parallel in real time with actions. I’ve asked a friend of mine who lives in Paris to make some sound with Chinese elements like gongs. I said to him: I need the sound of the Earth and the sound of the Sky! GO! (laughs). After that, I’m cutting it with the sound engineer and technicians in order to make it adaptable for the stage. Exactly the same is with the light… I really want the light to follow the action and to be part of the action. So, at the beginning I only thing about the action, what’s the action and what is part of the action? Is light a part of the action?! Yes / No?! Do we need sound?! Yes / No?! I like silence, too.Silence is also a sound…AB: Yeah, exactly. I don’t like when music is an obligation. I don’t like when people are using music in theatre to be decorative or to make it beautiful. I like the action on the stage, so if the music could be also a part of this dialogue on the stage, that’s good. We don’t need necessarily music. Sometimes silence is more powerful. When I’m saying that everything could be theatre that means action. Everything could be part of the action, not decorative. Not to make it beautiful. I’m not interesting in making things beautiful. What is action and what could be part of the action?Could you describe me a bit your working processes…AB: I’m trying to make the concept of the product. It takes about one year of work. During this year I’m trying to answer questions: What is it about and what for? On first question you have to answer very clearly, if you can’t that means that you don’t know. If you don’t know, it means that there is no project. What for means why? What’s interesting in that you want to do? Why do you want to do it now? Why do you want to try that now? You have to answer to these two questions. So, my concept is to have an idea, to have those two answers. For example, I decided to make a trilogy about the space, because theatre is space. Theatre is the art of space. You have three, two and one dimension in theatre. Zero dimension is not a space, not space that we now in our physical world.So, I wanted to work with the space because theatre is space and what is space actually? It is volume – plain, line. You know, theatre is not only about space, but also about life. Space is maybe the most important thing is our life. We follow space, we live in space. We are very sensitive to space. If we feel good in the room or not we know that immediately. Human beings are very space animal. And we are always looking for new spaces. Now, we have to go to the moon. So, this was very interesting subject and I wanted to make three performances about that. So, then when I realized and had answers to my questions, I decided to put space, plain and line on the stage.

From Erection, photo by Pierre Grosbois (c)

Taken from Sofia Dance Week

Then I’m trying to find the good scenery. I always work with the moving scenery. Now, it’s a part of my aesthetic. Scenery that you can move, not fixed scenery. Scenery that could be transformed. For example, if you remember Plab B performance, there were scenery and worlds designed completely vertical, not horizontal. But, it’s the same object. I work with object. Scenery is not a scenery that you are looking at, because scenery is part of the action and object. At the same time, the scenery itself is an object of the show. If it is a plain, I’m putting there a plain. Basically, if it is an tangram, I’m putting at the stage an tangram. It means, my work is very very basic. You know, the word tangram has been given to the game by Westerners, but the original translation from Chinese qi qiao ban would be the ‘Seven Boards of Skill’. I like working with that, which means that I believe in simplicity. But, I hope that after the whole process I would find not expected things. I want to create real surprises.Have there been other contemporary artists in particular that have had a strong influence on you, or whose work you admire?AB: I really believe in contemporary art today. Some artists are very inspiring. Of course, you have mentioned constructivism and Bauhaus… but I also like Op Art from the sixties, cinematic arts, then minimalism… But now, I’m also very interesting what is going on with photography, artists that cross the barriers of art. For example, I’m interested in contemporary artists which are doing now street art. I like artists which are combining architecture, street art and old monuments, statues, churches. Objects that have now different functions and meanings, and you feel like watching with new eyes. My question is: what is it about the art? Well, I think you have to give the eyes to the audience. For instance, there are a lots of photographers now, which are interested in bodies and dance…

Seven Boards of Skills, Cie 111 (c)

Oh, sure… you mean Denis Darzaq…AB: Yeah! Darzaq is doing something I would like to do. This is definitely my style. (laughter) Darzaq and other photographers are now crossing the fields of dance, acrobatics and photography. It’s now a mix. Today, you can see a kind of mix of things. The artists of today are like that, mixing different things. I think I belong to them, too. I want to try new things that provoke something and refreshing a little bit. But, at the other hand, it’s not necessarily inspiring, because I don’t want to make all these arts. I want to enjoy in it as being a part of the audience. In cinematography my favourite film maker is James Gray. It has nothing in common with my work. For me, James Gray is like Dostoevsky, you know. He is an incredible film maker.There are lots of ideas in the moment that I really like in contemporary art. Very good ideas…What do you thing about technology usage in theatre? Affordable technology is developing faster and faster… lots of people are trying to play with it, some good… some less good…AB: You know, I think technology is not a subject, it’s a tool. If you get to make technology as art, that’s OK. But, if you make only technology that’s bullshit. There are also many rubbish things by many people who are ‘amazed by technology’. There are also people who are doing real art with technology. I like the work by Daito Manabe. He is making the sound with impulses from his face. I saw his work at Youtube.He does a kind of dance of the faces. He is using four different faces, and the result is the same dance because he uses electronic impulse. So, this is a little piece of art for me and it’s interesting because you see very passive dance. No will, just moving about our body. It’s talking about the fact that we are passive in a way. We just let technology enter our body. This is very interesting to me. But there are also many artists that are doing interactive arts with very sophisticated technology. When somebody is amazed because he moved his arm and made some sound from a machine I don’t find it an art.Do you think that this could be described as tech mannerism or baroque?AB: Yes. It’s only technological. Yeah, you moved your arm, and there is a sound behind. So, it’s a technological curiosity. It is only a gadget. It could be the first step, but of course it is not enough at all. For me, interactivity need this answers: what is it about and what for?

Photo: Compaignie 111 – Sans Objet

Taken from Contemporary Performance Blog (c)

Do you desire to do something more with technology in theatre?AB: I’m in repetition now. I will have a new performance in October… It’s soon, yeah. It will be something with robots, old industrial robots. You know, robots that we use in car industry. I will stage this robot who has nothing to do and actors with their bodies. So, it’s a dialogue between them. It’s also based on sculptures. The subject is what is alive and what not? These barriers between alive and not alive. The relation between technology and body became so blur.Before, we knew robots were not alive, now it’s becoming a little bit blur. I’m talking about that. Also, it’s very inspired by Kleist’s philosophy. It’s inspired by Kleist’s thought’s on theatre and puppetry. So, it’s a kind of Kleist’s theatre of forms, because the robot is capable to take big objects, so I want him to take floor and build monoliths. This is a poem about inutility and useless activity, which is art and also a lot of things in human beings experience. Why do we need useless activities? And at the same time old robots are now useless. He built cars before, but now he’s is unusable. So, being useless is a little bit closer to human beings (laughs). So, I’m going to do that!Aurelien, Thank you very much!(This interview was originally published on Personal Cyber Botanica)
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23 - 24 November 2009Taking place over two days, the Super Human symposium will present an invigorating and inspiring mix of keynote speakers and collaborative research projects engaging with one or more of the symposium themes: Augmentation, Cognition and Nanoscale Interventions.Questions that the symposium will address include, but are not limited to:How do scientific and artistic bodies of knowledge intersect with human, social bodies?Does art serve simply as a representational tool for the sciences or is there more to the picture than that?Does research into bodies and their systems offer an insight into aesthetics, or is it confined to the purely functional?More: ANAT - Australian Network for Art & Technology
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EMBODIED TECHNE SERIES Eposide 1 An interview with dance improvisation artist, lecturer and researcher on improvisation and perception (Tunning Scores) as one of the "Embodied Techne Series". She takes us across her experiences with dance, movement studies, psychology of perception (J.J. Gibson) and her experience with video. Conducted in New York by Marlon Barrios Solano (February 15/2008) and video editing courtesy of Ashley A. Friend. LISA NELSON is a dance-maker, improvisational performer, videographer, and collaborative artist who has been exploring the role of the senses in the performance and observation of movement since the early '70s. Stemming from her work with video and dance in the '70s, she developed an approach to spontaneous composition and performance she calls Tuning Scores: a communication format for ensemble performance that she presents as site-specific Observatories. She performs, teaches, and creates dances in diverse spaces on many continents, and maintains long-term collaborations with other artists, including Steve Paxton, Daniel Lepkoff, videoartist Cathy Weis, and Image Lab, a multidisciplinary research/performance ensemble. She received a NY "Bessie" Dance and Performance award in 1987 and an Alpert Award in the Arts in 2002. For 30 years, she was co-editor of Contact Quarterly, an international dance and improvisation journal, and directs Videoda, a project for videotapes of improvisational dance. She lives in the mountains of Vermont in the U.S. Video images from workshop organized by Movement Research http://www.movementresearch.org/ Thank you!
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ID... Sunday at Three, 92nd St Y!

Hello fellow dance-techians...This is an announcement for my latest piece. The piece is a work in progress and the most tech that I have applied are my mean skills of sound editing the Beach Boys... and silence... mixed with a little Aphex Twin... just a sketch. The other view of technology that I hold involves the mechanics of the body and the creation of a movement structure or system that I call the scary body, more below. If you are here in NY please try to attend, thanks a lot.Ashley A. Friend: The Contemporary Dance Core (TCDC) will be performing the latest evening-length version of the newest piece entitled ID at the historic and celebrated 92nd St Y on Sunday, March 9th at 3pm.This is such an exciting opportunity to show the new work. Each month the 92nd St Y features one choreographer or dance company. The environment of the 92nd St Y Sunday Afternoon Series is calm and offers a chance for audience response, plus coffee!Description of ID:ID is inspired by the relationship between decision-making and self-identification. It investigates health, impact, destruction and construction, and the connections concerning the body and brain. The piece is an exploration of the awkward body and includes a movement vocabulary Friend has titled the scary body; this dance expression was informed by the physical response to ergonomic architectural prosthetic impediments that were placed on the dancers bodies and challenged the way the original movement phrases were executed. These impediments augmented and distorted the already inventive movement and also create another layer of personality and personal intention as related to health and living with epilepsy. Friend has used vocabulary from this method within ID.Friend has also explores the new concept of Negotiation, Opposition, and Decision (NOD) as she responds to questions within her choreography and movement improvisation with the definitive “Yes” or “No”. She negotiates what the next movement could be through opposition and then makes a decision on the spot. NOD splinters decision-making and the dancer must consider each movement and hold a political forum within the body; Negotiating and Opposing prior to making the irrevocable Decision to move. With NOD as the second basis and her icon of the scary body as the foundation for movement vocabulary construction Friend has plunged head first to confront her own id.Because of the nature of a solo ID is particularly personal and especially refined with accuracy, precision, and depth to the subject. ID is a voyage of personal identification by means of decision-making both verbal and physical, through dance and storytelling. The piece is riddled with laughter, compulsion, and catharsis.Thank you so much for your interest in dance, choreography, and art! If you are in the New York area please come to this event. Your presence, individuality, and bequeathed artistic interpretive views will be worshiped by me. Contact the 92nd St Y or myself if you have any questions about the performance or just want to start a ciber-logue.*Please note that March 9 is daylight savings (spring forward)All the Best,Ashley A. FriendArtistic Director,The Contemporary Dance Corewebsite for The Contemporary Dance Core (TCDC)http://www.dancecore.org/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYU7wwANYhA...92nd St Y1395 Lexington at 92nd StNew York, NY 10128www.92Y.org/harkness212.415.555292nd St Y Harkness Dance Center receives major support from the Harknesss Foundation for Dance and The Arnhold Foundation.
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