dance-tech (15)
Live and create this Autumn in the beautiful Lake Studios Berlin.
dance-tech artist in residency in Berlin offers to international interdisciplinary movement and media artists the possibility to live and make art in a peaceful artist run working, living and performance space in Berlin, Germany.
The artists will enjoy the Lake Studios Berlin, a unique living and creative working space with fast connection into the exciting creative center of Berlin and with the advantage of the quiet beauty of Müggelsee lake and a forest at only 5 minute walk for in depth concentration on research and creative process. The resident artist will enjoy a private room or apartment and access to a dance space with sprung wooden floors. Lake Studios Berlin is primarily a working space for 6 diverse movement artists with the need to go deeper into their work and practice. It is an experience of collaborative living and creation, and the resident will have the opportunity of artistic exchange as well as access to inside information about the dance scene in Berlin.
This is a self generated residency and it is is conceived as an independent collaboration between dance-tech and Lake Studios Berlin as a way to facilitate alternative and affordable spaces for independent artists and creative researchers.
The applicants must be a dance-tech.net member The selected artists will pay his/her transportation expenses and will pay 580/660 Euros (depending on the type of accomodation) per month to cover costs.
Residency includes:
The resident artist will have access to 100 hours of studio space per month, divided between the large and small Studios.
The residency includes 2 hours of remote online coaching with Marlon Barrios Solano.
Possibility to teach classes, workshops and / or organize a performance or work-in-progress showing at the end of the residency period.
The artists will be featured and should blog about their process on dance-tech.net for the months of the residency.
The artist also may decide to use dance-tech.tvLIVE video channels to share the process of exchange with the community.
An extra person may be accomodated for additional fee of 140 Euros)
NOTE: There is one large projector, an electric keyboard, a sound recorder, a mixer, as well as sound equipment available in both studios. Further equipment is not provided.
Please write to lakestudiosberlin@gmail.com if you are interested or would like more information.
Website: www.lakestudiosberlin.com
Announcing a 3 Month Residency June - August in Berlin, Germany!
Enjoy the beautiful Studio, private flat, swimming, festival in the city (Tanz im August) during the vibrant summer in Berlin.
3 room apartment (75 sqm) next to the Lake Studios Complex.
Perfect for 2 people/ small family. Completely furnished, Two seperate bedrooms, one living room, one kitchen and bathroom. Waschingmachine available for use. Included with the apartment is the possiblity to use the beautiful Studios.
Up to 100 hours per month for creation, movement research, workshops, etc. Beautiful large garden in the back. 5 minute walk from beautiful lake and forest. Easy access to S-bahn connection quick to the center of Berlin. Shops and all necessities close by.
Cost: 980 Euros/month all inclusive (warm) for two people. 3rd Person - 120 Euros extra.
Preferred is a 3 month rental, but shorter may also be a possibility.
Application Deadline March 30th.Please check www.lakestudiosberlin.com for more information on the space.
All inquiries to : lakestudiosberlin@gmail.com
Find more photos like this on dance-tech
dance-tech Space@ Lake Studios Berlin
www.lakestudiosberlin.com
Since January 2014, dance-tech Space@ Lake Studios Berlin is offering to international interdisciplinary movement and media artists the possibility to live and make art for a month in a peaceful artist run working, living and performance space in Berlin, Germany.
The artists will enjoy the recently opened Lake Studios Berlin, a unique living and creative working space with fast connection into the exciting creative center of Berlin and with the advantage of the quiet beauty of Mueggelsee lake and a forest at only 5 minute walk for depth concentration on research, creative process and swim in summer months.
Lake Studios Berlin is primarily a working space for 8 diverse movement artists with the need to go deeper into their work and practice. It is an experience of collaborative living and creation, and the resident will have the opportunity of artistic exchange as well as access to inside information about the dance scene in Berlin.
The artist will enjoy a private apartment and access to a dance space with sprung wooden floors.
The spaced is allotted per month.
The space is offered selected first-come, first-served (FCFS) and a lottery when more than one.
Interested artists must be dance-tech.net members, and send a brief description of your project or how do you envision to use the space.
Write an email to marlon@dance-tech.net with dance-tech Space@Lake Studios Berlin in the subject line.
Months available will be announced on this page and via email to the network members.
VERY IMPORTANT:
This is a self generated residency and it is is conceived as an independent (not funded) collaboration between dance-tech and Lake Studios Berlin as a way to facilitate alternative and affordable spaces for independent artists and creative researchers.
The selected artist will pay his/her transportation expenses and will pay 600 Euros per month to cover costs.
Residency includes:
- The artist will have access to 100 hours of studio space per month, divided between the large and small Studios.
- Possibility to teach classes, workshops and / or organize a performance or work-in-progress showing during the residency period.
- The artists will be featured and should blog about their process on dance-tech.net for the month of work.
- The applicants must be a dance-tech.net member
NOTE: The residency does not provide any equipment.
There is one projector available in the big space.
Artists to date:
July-August 2014 | Jeannette Ginslov
Note: artists for September, October and November 2014 have been selected.
Stay tuned for new for upcoming months available!
Artists, scholars and practitioners can apply for the residency. Their practice and research should relate to the topical themes (not exclusive):
New media and performance
Movement practices and economy
Improvisation and real time systems
Screen-dance and movement based installation
Choreographic scores and new media tools (generative tools)
Movement, somatics and technology
Mobile devices, locative media and choreography
Social media and trans-local collaborations
Contemplative practices and movement
Decisions will be communicated one week after deadline of each residency.
This residency is planned for a single artist but space can accommodate a couple. There is a fee of 150 Euros extra for additional person.
The artists will live in a small, minimal yet comfortable one bedroom apartment in the Lake Studios Complex.
Questions?
marlon@dance-tech.net
Call for Applications for Residency
dance-techAIR@Lake Studios Berlin
www.lakestudiosberlin.com
January 2014
(1 month period)
1st dance-tech artist in residency in Berlin offers to international interdisciplinary movement and media artists the possibility to live and make art in a peaceful artist run working, living and performance space in Berlin, Germany.
The artists will enjoy the recently opened Lake Studios Berlin, a unique living and creative working space with fast connection into the exciting creative center of Berlin and with the advantage of the quiet and beauty of Mueggelsee lake and a forest at only 5 minute walk for depth concentration on research and creative process.
The resident artist will enjoy a private apartment and access to a dance space with sprung wooden floors. Lake Studios Berlin is primarily a working space for 8 diverse movement artists with the need to go deeper into their work and practice. It is an experience of collaborative living and creation, and the resident will have the opportunity of artistic exchange as well as access to inside information about the dance scene in Berlin.
INCLUDES:
- The resident artist will have access to 100 hours of studio space per month, divided between the large and small Studios.
- The residency includes three hours of remote online coaching with Marlon Barrios Solano.
- There is a possibility to teach classes, workshops and / or organize a performance or work-in-progress showing at the end of the residency period.
- The artists will be featured and should blog about their process on dance-tech.net for the months of the residency.
- The artist also may decide to use dance-tech.tvLIVE channels to share the process of exchange with the community.
NOTE: the selected artist brings his/her own equipment. The residency does not provide any equipment.
There is one projector available in the big space.
The selected artists will pay his/her transportation expenses and will pay 500 Euros per month.
Artists, scholars and practitioners can apply for the residency. Their practice and research should relate to the topical themes (not exclusive):
New media and performance
Movement practices and economy
Improvisation and real time systems
Screen-dance and movement based installation
Choreographic scores and new media tools (generative tools)
Movement, somatics and technology
Mobile devices, locative media and choreography
Social media and trans-local collaborations
Contemplative practices and movement
Application Process:
The applicants must be a dance-tech member where you write you bio and profile.
Please send an email including:
1.-Your research goals
2.-What would you like to work on and if you would like to offer master classes, workshops, etc.
3.-Two samples of you work posted on your dance-tech account (urls)
Send it via email to Marlon Barrios Solano @ <marlon@dance-tech.net>
IMPORTANT:
write in the email subject: dance-tech Berlin
Deadline for application: November 25, 2013. We will let you know by December 3 about the decision.
Note: this residency is conceived as an independent collaboration between dance-tech and Lake Studios Berlin as a way to generate alternative and affordable spaces for independent artists and creative researchers.
Highlights of Berlin (not officially related to the residency):
From January 4 - 14, there is a well known Berlin Dance Festival taking place in Sophiensaele called Tanztage. (www.tanztage.de)
From Wed 29 Jan - Sun 2 Feb 2014 the new media festival and conference Transmediale 2014
From January 24 – February 2, 2014 the fun electronic music festival CTM – Festival for Adventurous Music and Arts
Questions?
marlon@dance-tech.net
Zoi Dimitriou, greek choreographer based in London will be working on her new piece this April. She will be working on The Chapter House, a new interdisciplinary dance piece with intricate choreography by Zoi Dimitriou and video design by Mark Coniglio.
This new work looks at the act of documentation and of performing. It aims to expose the processes and mechanics of making, and uses digital media to document, re-construct and re-enact a live performance.
In The Chapter House, Zoi Dimitriou looks back at the body of her own work and questions how meaning gets revealed and transformed in an attempt to subject the ‘personal’ to another’s viewpoint.
Zoi Dimitriou' Bio
Choreographer and dancer Zoi Dimitriou was born in Athens. She graduated from
the Greek State School of Dance, received the Onassis Foundation Scholarship to
study at Trisha Brown in New York and in 2005 completed with distinction her MA
in European Dance Theatre Practice at Trinity Laban in London. As a dancer she
has collaborated with artists such as Yvonne Rainer, Kirsty Simpson, Felix Ruckert,
Shiobhan Davies among others. Based both in London and Athens she launched
her choreographic career in 2006. Works of her company have been featured in
internationally renowned venues and festivals and have brought the choreographer
major UK choreography awards like the Robin Howard Foundation Award
2008, the Bonnie Bird Choreography Fund Award 2009 and the CfC Award 2010
(Choreography for Children). In Greece she has been commissioned to make works
for the Onassis Cultural Centre, the National Ballet Company of Greece, the Athens
Festival and in the UK for the Laban Theatre, The Place, Sadlers Well’s, Company of
Angels, Shift Company and Focus Company.
Zoi Dimitriou has participated in the European Network Aerowaves and in numerous
other European projects for research and exchange. She teaches at Trinity Laban in
London, Impulstanz Festival in Vienna, Marameo in Berlin, Duncan Research Centre
for Dance in Athens among others. Her work is supported by Arts Council England
and the Hellenic National Centre of Theatre & Dance.
+++
The Chapter House is commissioned by Trinity Laban and supported using public funding by Arts Council England with further in kind support from dancedigital, Duncan Research Center for Dance (GR) and dance-tech Berlin/ Lake Studios.
Kyung Lee is a movement, performance, and video artist. She enjoys nicknames and things like nicknames. She will be in residency at the Lake Studios in Berlin the whole month of June 2014.
She will be focusing on her inquiry on “performance.” She would like to expand her research on performance through interactions with artists in Berlin. She will meet/interview each artist individually and ask her/him to do a minute of performance, whatever “performing” means to the artist in her/his current artistic research and interest. She will accumulate all the performances into a video art on the theme of performance.
Along with the video project, she will engage in daily research (inside and outside the studio) on what performance is to her.
In her proposal she states:
"At the end of this seemingly unattainable inquiry – for I believe that the seductiveness of performance lies in its ever-changing nature – I will present a performance piece. This work will be shaped by my research and physical practice as well as by the interactions/collaborations with other artists. I would like to meet you if you are an artist currently in Berlin. Please email me to: dkenlno@gmail.com "
MoveStream 04 - CINEDANS 2010 & Katrina McPherson Interview Parts 1 & 2
Shot at the 12th International Festival and Competition for Dance Films and Videos
9-12 December 2010
Amsterdam
ScreenMoves from Copenhagen invited me to attend CINEDANS in Amsterdam, December 2010. I was fortunate enough to view dance several documentaries, dance films, dance videos, an interactive installation, panel discussions and meet many screendance makers, curators and producers.
I was only there for two days but managed to see: Sidi LarbiCherkaoui: Dreams of Babel, CINEDANS Camera Rework1, CINEDANS Shorts 3, Dans voor hetleven, Wayne McGregor: Going Somewhere, Maguy Marin: la danse cachee, CINEDANS DESTINO: A Contemporary Dance Story, CINEDANS Shorts 6, CINEDANS Lock/Larbi/Kahn.
In the breaks, I managed to shoot some footage in the Foyer and entrance where the filmmakers and audience gathered as well as the resource centre - TV monitors and dvds for those that missed a video or wanted to catch up on a missed video or do some research. CINEDANS 2010 Intro
I also shot a panel discussion about fundraising with some key screendance producers,screendance makers and curators, namely: Gitta Wigro, Vicky Bloor, Maia FriisKristensen, Helene Jonsdottir and Janine Dijkmeijer.
CINEDANS 2010 Panel Discussion: Fundraising and more
Finally had an interview with Katrina McPherson, Sunday 12 Dec 08.30. We talked about her new video dance work “There is a Place” that she shot and directed in collaboration with editor Simon Fildes and dance performer/choreographer Sang Jijia. The work was screened Sat 11Dec, 20.30 under the Screen Choreography section.
Katrina McPherson at CINEDANS 2010
Part One of the interview, examines the process of making this video dance work in Scotland and Part Two gives an insight into the Dogme style that McPherson chooses in order to deliver her strong signature that stands out from all other screendance works. She talks about the improvisational shoot and choreography that delivers the strong visceral presence of the dancer Sang Jijia. Mostly, she explains, it is about capturing the moments in the frame, guided by an intuitive drive, developed over the years after many years of experience shooting with prepared storyboards and shot lists. She also shoots with the edit in mind, shooting a variety of different shots that she thinks will edit well together.
McPherson prefers to shoot with an improvisational methodology as the frame is able to capture precious and intimate moments of the "performance", revealing them to the viewer with a camera guided by instinct and intuition. The viewer is then given a viewpoint that they may never have seen without this intuitive camera work. The improvisational manner of working the camera, the choreography and performer, that takes years to develop, makes the video dance. The video feels alive and in the moment! It makes the video palpable and visceral. The edit then amplifies this with rhythm, pace and timing. The improvisational synergy of all the media: camera, performance, choreography and timeline, produces the unique Goat Media Ltd signature!
I have been trying for several months to do this one and am pleased to have made a long interview in two parts.
MoveStream 04 Part One Interview with Katrina McPherson
MoveStream 04 Part Two Interview with Katrina McPherson
All Videos shot and edited by Jeannette Ginslov on a small Sony Handycam.
Videos Produced & Copyright to © Walking GustoProductions 2010
These ate the slides for my presentation @ Scanner II last Tuesday 19th of October 2010
http://scanner.institutdelteatre.cat/scanner/index.php?lang=es
Presetacion dance tech2_online
View more presentations from Marlon Solano.
Hello dance-techers;
Watch dance-tech interviews from MUSE 010!
Stay tuned for more:
MUSE 010: Interview with Tamas Moricz, Palucca Schule, Dresden
http://www.dance-tech.net/video/muse-010-interview-with-tamas
MUSE 010: Interview with Anton Lachky, Dresden
http://www.dance-tech.net/video/muse-010-interview-with-anton
MUSE 010:Class with Anton Lachky @ Muse 010, Dresden
http://www.dance-tech.net/video/class-with-anton-lachky-muse-1
MUSE 010: Interview with Jason Beechey, Palucca Schule, Dresden
http://www.dance-tech.net/video/muse-010-interview-with-jason
Read complete article here
Photo: Amelia by LaLaLa Human Steps (c)
Where does your interest in technology come from in your life? You teach contact dance, yoga, zazen, but you are hooked up to computing, too… People usually have wrong perception that those two can not get along…MBS: I have a background in psychology and dance. I came from Venezuela to study psychology. And psychology was really drown to cognitive science. People told me: OK technology, but you should be a dance therapist! bla bla bla… and I said: NO. I kind of liked this interesting study of perceptions, minds, you know. I’m very drown by materialist paradox of understanding humans. And then I was at the same interested in understanding the complexity of cultures. As being a dancer for a long time, I was reflecting myself officially as a dancer, but what I wanted to do was psychology and at the same time dance.So, I met David Zambrano, who’s Venezuelan and he lives now in Amsterdam. He is improviser and he also developed his own techniques, etc. I’ve met him in Venezuela at the Festival de Danza Postmoderna – he founded that festival. He brought there dancers like Nancy Stark Smith, Lisa Nelson, you name it… Incredible people! Suddenly, I was then in my apartment, and these people were dancing in my country. And I had a facility to see some kind of kernel about this very interesting motions of embodiment. It was not just about how to dance; it was really a philosophical shift that was implying the new way of improvising, trying to compose the real meaning of improvising. They had to reformulate the common parallels of understanding their bodies. So, I kind of saw that and I was interested in this kind of informal research, trying to see what is a cognitive model.Cyber Girl by Fausto de Martini (c)
Then you moved to USA to study?MBS: So, for that reason I moved to New York in 1994. Then I started to really study improvisation, and I started to explore it from the same basis as people from virtual reality. I was interested in how people from virtual reality see the embodiment parallels. Then I start perceiving the same common theoretical lineage was practically between Lisa Nelson and people who developed the theoretical practice of contact improvisation; and people who were working with virtual reality.I started writing about this, and I was invited on psychology conference on consciousness in Tulsa. And there I met people from CaiA+STAR – Centre for Advanced Inquiry in the Interactive Arts and Roy Ascott. He was this amazing person to me and he said to me: you know, there is actually a way of putting these things together as a research for people who want to work with dance and technology. It was in 1999, and then from this world of improvisation I started to study notions of real time, composition. And then computers and computation became very important part of the investigation. After that I applied and entered to The Advanced Computing Center for Arts and Design at the Ohio University.Photo: from Moebius Strip by Gilles Jobin (c)
And this is how a dancer and psychologist became tainted with virus called technology…MBS: Technology has always been the umbrella to understanding practically our minds in practices. Then I learned programming – BASIC, Actionscript, etc. After that it was a progression for me when I moved back to New York and started Dance-Tech. I’m normally teaching a lot abroad and I’m doing a lot seminars.You know, when I realized that websites are not static, that was for me the coolest thing in the world (laughs). They were beautiful and animated. I mean, you put something and then it started suddenly to move. That was for me: Wow! What we have been waiting?! It’s almost connected and self organized intelligence that is about an interaction itself, that creates a kind of social improvisation. And then, I practically switched and created this interest in social software. That is a little bit of a technological story, but I’m not an original native of the Internet (laughs)…Oh, I see… (laughs)Keyboard Bag by Joao Sabino (c)
I like the idea that we are all becoming rather multi-functional these days, we all have to be skilled in many disciplines…MBS: …or at least to have a literacy, because the notions of literacy are different now. For instance, if you have an internet native, that’s somebody younger then eighteen. I taught a workshop with teenagers in New York; and I was literally taught by some of the students. This literacy became a part of their set of social life. That is amazing, that move from text to real interaction. They can speak and they can take from these sets of knowledge. When we talk about gaming, that is a totally different involvement, then there are big changes in cognitive apparatus. Different understanding of different realities; faces that have previous faces, you know. It’s very interesting how artist use this Tech world.Then my interest evolved into this topical fields of dance and new media art. Now, I find very powerful researching how these technologies are allowing these generations of knowledge distribution in the world, in a way that is totally different from publishing generation.Photo: Ken Stelarc (c)
Several months ago Ray Baughman presented ‘a new type of muscle that dramatically outperforms biological ones in nearly every way’ as he says. What is your opinion on nanotechnology and its soon use in every day practice?MBS: I would say there would be degrees of experimentation, degrees of assimilation of the technology. You will see a stage of development. Now, you see it more practically: wires, connections, light. You need different people to connect all this. There are technologies that are progressive now in the medical establishment. It’s not a big deal if people are using Prosac, but to understand why Prosac works is literally the same principle to understand why caffeine works. When people are coming to Starbucks, there are these huge mechanism of drug distribution – caffeine. The principle is the same. Caffeine can be monitored as a certain trigger for certain mood changes, you know. Why I’m saying this?! We are evolving a really, really important ‘Know-How’ of who we are; and how we generate technologies and we have agencies in unthinkable areas of our existence, you know. From Botox and plastic surgeries to genetic engineering and laproscopic surgery. Everybody can use it. Even if dancers would injecting grow hormone in their muscles in order to pump them up, we are ready to increase hipper design, because we have increased agencies.I mean, when you see bodies from dancers in 1973 and dancers now. I mean the difference is incredible. Just because they use different knowledge to train their bodies. At the other hand, many different techniques for dancers are now practically regular in every gym.People are using even different chemical substances, and that’s a fact. I’m not moralistic about it. That’s a fact and it actually happens. Today we have even different metabolism, that’s also a medical fact. That’s dance and technology. In the level of research, I hope (laughs).Photo: Chunky Move (c)
This research aspect is a crucial part of your approaches to work…MBS: That is something very important to me, that dance and technology is not going to be just researching about what artist dressed or something. This field is actually about unstable embody humaness. Not only about actions and how we have these really intense performative scope that I hope we can actually research this field sometimes in a very, very ethnographic, anthropological way. That we can actually see important things, for instance in urban dances. Sometimes different from digital, we can see relation to popular culture, too. There are many performances now inspired by Manga comics. It doesn’t have to be obviously a dance with the video, you know. These differences, that’s what I would like to see.Sciam Special Robotics (c)
How the mind is changing in relation to digital? You connected in your work digital spheres with essential human body… All movements and motions are coming from our brain… We can ignore now the fact that digital world is making a sort of a aggression, but also it is the most ‘imaginative thing’ that happened till now in human history…MBS: Yeah! Digitality has allowed to render realities that have a real of plasticity. Our minds are the most plastic, and when we say our minds, we say our body minds. It’s interesting to see how our plasticity increased because we can imagine things. Literally, we need to investigate how humans imagine, how humans create reality. It doesn’t belong only to the realm of the digital. The digital is only one deployment of technological feedback. You know, some people say: Yeah, computers are damaging this and that… .But reading has a very specific embodiment and writing has very specific embodiment, too. You have to develop certain cognitive skills. I think we should observe human embodiment even in the church. Because people are in a very intensive environment that create very immerse experience with sound. At the same time we can go in the cage with all these virtual feedbacks. Those things are possible also because of the design of technology and because we have bodies that we have. Sometimes is good to see this side of digitality and experiences. Because we live in this world of creations facilitated by different kinds of textuality, renderings. It’s a hyper designed world. It’s not about purity of experience.William Forsythe: Synchronous Objects (c)
Now, let’s get back to Dance-Tech! What was the initial trigger for starting Dance-tech?MBS: I was a part of dance and technology community for eight years, and at the same time I was doing these development of interactive platforms for other organizations. I kind of said: Well, this is what we need! The interesting thing is that people, so many network based artists are distributing their art in the world. I thought that it would be great to have an internet based platform that will allow you to do a synchronize collaboration. You know, to post and publish. So, I proposed this to the network of dance and technology related community; and we started a discussion. We talked about that are we ready, and so. And then I thought: OK, let’s just do it!In 2007 we launched a community and social network. It has a quite specific interest, you know, dance and technology. But it is far from this ‘dance&tech’ only community. It’s an independent project, self funded and I have to say that this development was wonderful to look at, increasing members and activities. That was really needed. But then I started to include also visual artists and VJ’s. I have an idea of interviewing people, because I live in the most useful place, in New York. Now it’s a great platform and our members are increasing every day. It’s great to see so many people gathered around dance and technology.Marlon, thanks a lot!(Originally published on Personal Cyber Botanica: www.lomodeedee.com)William Forsythe: Synchronous Objects (c)
Marlon Barrios Solano’s biography is fulfilled with collaborative artists, such as: Susan Marshal, Lynn Shapiro, Bill Young, Merian Soto, Dean Moos, Philip Glass, Eric Friedlander, John Zorn…At the moment he works as an instructor of interactive technology for performance, consultant on cognitive and new media architectures. Marlon holds MA in Dance and Technology (Ohio University), and regularly gives lectures and workshops internationally.He was also the main suspect for an amazing thing that happened recently in dance spheres, and that was promotion of William Forsythe’s data visualization project Synchronous Objects (I will blog about it soon, promise!). Marlon is now at residency programme in Gilles Jobin’s dance nest in Switzerland.The network is a great example what you can do with personal engagement, vibrant ideas and you can see how important is to understand the rules of social networking on the web these days. Since very recent I’ve became an associate blogger for this amazing community of artists and researchers…Photo: Chunky Move (c)
Therefore, he’s here today for a talk on dance… technology… new media art… scientific behavioral approaches to body and movements…Hi Marlon! What do you think how dance scene started to change in the context of technology. What are your thoughts on what was driving these changes?MBS: Well, I will tell you what my approach is. Someone asked me a week ago: Marlon, do you think you should change the name of Dance-tech as such, you know, dance and technology world is disappearing as such, right? I’m aware of a lot of changes that are happening in the field and in itself.I have a very grow understanding of the relationship of the embody practices with social technological environment meaning from science to technology. In that way, a part of the agenda of the project is trying to see, put forward or to figure these sometimes very obvious connections between dance approaches and practices with technologies of the time.And not only the technologies of the time; but also philosophical, epistemological and scientific world use that exist parallel in the spectrum in certain time.Where would you place new media in this relation with bodily aspects?MBS: With all this I said, I’ve tried to set and connect training practices, especially, how we understand the process, creative process. How we understand time and relationship with proposition and design. It has been always related with technological proportions…In that way, I think that dance and technology have always been related to digital technology. I believe that in most of the embody practices that we call dance, there is a substrata, there is normally this relation to technology of the time. I think it’s very important to be aware that dance and new media are, most recent, in interrelation that are trying to understand the relationship of bodies with technologies of the time. In this case we are using new media. But, perhaps the principles are the same; you know what I mean, because our body has been evolved with the practices. So, I think that it’s important to see what is a cognitive connection that we have – us, human creatures. And how it has allowed us to be, kind of, related with the tool making and technique making.So, Techne is for me the most important. Techne is a skill, you know, it translates the skills instead the tool. That is something really interesting for me. You know, I came from the tradition and I place myself in the tradition also: dance, influenced by productive movement, deconstruction on what movement is, what dance is.Photo: AP Photo Japan (c) taken from NG
How would you relate this to the development that is happening in robotics, Artificial Intelligence…MBS: I think that one of the most interesting thing that is happening now is in robotics. There is a certain kind of lineage of robotics science, and mostly certain lineage of the Artificial Intelligence that is not so ’social architecture oriented’, but is investigating intelligence of the biological systems. So, it creates totally different parallels of understanding the intelligence. I think that ‘digital’ is in a recursive loop to influence dance practices.I would say for so many instances, what we call new media or technology, that if we have to think about it – the actual manifestation of behavioural media, which is dance in a way, is there in robotics too. Or, I would say, like I called ‘Dance-Tech – interdisciplinary explorations on the performance in motion’, it would be really interesting to understand the phenomena of motion.In dance we can think, you know, that there is a motion; then a motion picture – there is motion in the media, there is motion in robotic device… At the same time we have to understand a lot ourselves, to understand how we perceive motion. We have agencies for a certain kinds of motion. I think that digital technology is allowing a lot of really interesting simulations, really interesting feedbacks.Dance scene is now using gadgets for playing in order to express themselves…MBS: The one that made practically big WOW in the nineties was the gestural console media. Let’s say, someone or a performer were able to perform a certain kind of movement and immediately were able to map certain consequences or certain repercussions, or reactions of the media. So, that is right now practically given, we have kids playing, there are a lot of video games with video tracking, etc. Yeah, I think that is very interesting what artists are doing itself or as result of interesting collaborations. But at the same time these extremely forces are emerging jobs because technologies are available to practically everybody.…and it’s free!MB: Yeah, that is also very important factor, affordability of technology right now. They are creating autonomies of landscape. Affordability and accessibility of modern tools and then open source.Something that you were able to do with maps in eight years ago now you have more approachable tools and software that can literally get to the community and accessing it, or make a processing simpler. Also development of Macintosh computers, I mean at the beginning they were expensive, they still are. But it created a completely new landscape for experimentators that were reserved only for certain formal institutions.That’s how dance technologies started, from the field of universities. Because universities were getting these big grants and they were the only one able to have these labs. ‘Motion capture’ is something that is still developing within this complex. You know, motion capture still belong to the ground of formalized researchers and organizations that have resources. Video tracking and the use of movement tracking or multi-tracking recognition are much more available and affordable technologies.IMCT Projects, The Dance Technology Project (1999)
But the comprehension of new media art also helped a bit to this situation…MBS: So, there are all these factors, you know, I think that media art is now much more understood, it’s a well understanding form, I think. Now is practically a common place to have a video in many performances, so no one is thinking that it’s such odd thing to have a virtual character or so. You know, even interactivity as such has lost interest for some people. But, there are people who are doing interesting researches in the field.So, it’s a different landscape now, and there is a lot of choreographers not being specific on the dance floor which are doing technological experiments and they are calling themselves in terms of ‘dance and technology’. They are just inspired by these kind of technologies and tools. And that is very interesting thing, because it’s mostly self-reflective. For years technologies were divided, and now they are existing and co-relating parallel. Now, we can say easily: Yeah, we can do that!Read the second part: Interview with Marlon Barrios Solano: On Dance-Tech and dance embodiment, part ll(Originally published on Personal Cyber Botanica: www.lomodeedee.com)