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performative (6)

Dissolving Self: Wearable Technology + Contemporary Dance

Posted by Maziar Ghaderi on May 6, 2013 at 7:48am

Here is the premiere of our wearable tech / contemporary dance piece at the HASTAC conference last week. 

Our clumsy bows aside, we got some good feedback, and I am interested in continuing this line of research where new media technologies can be employed to enrich the affectivity of performative art. 

Would love to get your thoughts on it.

Enjoy. Click!

Watch it at night. If you don't I'll know. :)

MG

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Interview with Thomas Dumke: On CYNETart and new media performance

Posted by body pixel on January 31, 2010 at 10:30pm
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.

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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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Cyberpunker dancing on sharp vibes: Mr. Hiroaki Umeda

Posted by body pixel on May 1, 2009 at 1:22pm
Hiroaki Umeda is a multitasking artist… he enjoys dancing, choreographing, making videos, messin’ up with light & stage design, mixin’ soundz, writing a blog, working on site specific projectz, enjoying the nature… and he is definitely not a ghost in the shell but a real man!

Hiroaki Umeda was a photography student at the Nihon University in Tokyo, then suddenly at the age of 20 he realized that he’s more into moveable thingz… he took ballet and hip hop classes… and begun to work on his own solo pieces… in year 2000 he founded a company entitled S20 with whom he has produced till now 5 dance pieces: Ni (2001), while going to a condition (2002), Looming (2003) and Finore (2003), Accumulated Layout (2007), Duo - new version (2008).

He’s been known as a performer using heavily technology in his artworkz, therefore Hiroaki Umeda was a guest at many cutting-edge festivals related either with dance or contemporary art such as: Japan Dance Festival (Korea), KunstenFESTIVALdesArts (Belgium), Yokohama Dance Collection (Japan), Uovo e Contemporanea (Italy), FIND Festival (Canada) etc.Last year he was an artist-in-residence at the Chaufferie which is Philippe Decouflé’s rehearsal space, and the result was his newest performance ‘Accumulated Layout’.

Hiroaki Umeda attacks all your physical and mental senses with light and soundz. He uses subtle electronica and ambient sound (some soundz are even at the edges of music concrete) simply to pull you into his world… but he never let you go…The stage design is totally zen: pure minimalism… with dancer in the middle, but it’s not set up as a ‘saint’ persona in the middle of a stage altar… he is your guide… but not a dictator…

Having such a clear vision of space means that he has to be completely self-confident in order to maintain body&mind related focus…His movements and choreography are based on strong, fast, energetic, snatched movements which you can label as ‘hiroaki umeda language’, influenced by street art performative forms and highly tensive stillness he borrowed from butoh and ballet… and he is sooo good in it… a perfect mix… he is like a DJ asking himself ‘where is the pain?’, the answer is: everywhere!… but Umeda finds his way to challenge it…It’s interesting how he is managing and combining those different forms of expressiveness…Read the rest of the post on Personal Cyber Botanica: www.lomodeedee.com
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Interview with Matija Ferlin: Breaking the forms of movements, soundz, images… with attitude.

Posted by body pixel on May 1, 2009 at 1:00pm
…and what brought my curiosity to this young and ‘multi-tasking’ dancer?! It was the sound thing, see. This is how I first spotted Matija Ferlin. More precisely, his subtle taste for electronica, then the Montreal’s post-rock gang around Constellation Records and Public Recordings… and I was totally convinced that something pretty cool and creative lies in his mind…Matija Ferlin is an interdisciplinary artist from Pula (Croatia), finding his way at the intersections of dance, theatre, photography and video art… he is a graduate of The School for New Dance Development in Amsterdam… as a relatively young dancer he was accepted at the Sasha Waltz & Guest Company in 2005…

Photo: Paola Winkler (c)That fact gave him an extraordinary possibility to be a part of Waltz’s creative space in which the process of making and creating stands for totally mutual interactions between Creator 1 (choreographer) and Creator 2 (dancer / performer)…One may even ask himself, after working with a choreographer of such a calibre, what should I do now, after landing on the Moon?!Matija obviously doesn’t have such dilemmas because he is switching very often from choreography to photography (he was working with fashion photographer Heinz Peter Knes on the series ‘Lucky is the lion that the human will eat’)… from dancing to attentively listening the urban asphalt purr weaved by the beauty of post-rock (Ame Henderson’s /Dance/Songs/ with Public Recordings)… deconstructing the audience and himself (solo performance art piece SaD SaM)… exploring his obsessions with words and inner paths of every human being (video performance ‘Minor2 : Salut’ by writer, photographer and incredible illustrator Christophe Chemin)… showing us the importance of family roots within projects with his brother Maurizio ‘Unija’… or his own video art the very very Mediterranean stylish ‘Vuk-Vorbild Und Kampf’ (Part 1 and 2)

Video still from the performance SAD SAM, M. Ferlin (c)So, I’ve invited Matija Ferlin at my blog for a small chat about his art… influences… obsessions…Hello Matija, what’s up?! What are you doing at the moment?! Projectz… solo workz…M: Hey Deborah, I am in a hotel room #515 in a hotel Citadel in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The laundry mat is kind of not so close to the hotel and the drop in laundry is rather expensive here (at the hotel ) so I am washing some undies and shirts to have for my trip back to Europe tomorrow. (I think this is the longest sentence I wrote in a while)Public Recordings/Ame Henderson’s work brought me here. We have our little east coast tour. We had shows in St. John’s last week, this week Halifax. Actually tonight is the last show of Dance/Songs at the Bus Stop Theatre in Halifax and tomorrow I will be spending some hours in the air having the ocean under. (Halifax-Toronto-Frankfurt-Ljubljana). In Ljubljana I will be the latecomer to Maja’s Delak new creation process. Serata Artistica Giovanile. We open the show on the 7th of May in Cankarjev Dom, so if you happen to be around – come! At the same time I am busy with opening a concept store “ARTIKL” in my hometown together with my brother Mauricio and in the free time I try to do some writing/research for my new solo work. I believe I like to keep myself busy.(I answered that a month ago. I admit my laziness. I therefore apologize. Now I will keep on answering the rest. I am on my way to Sarajevo with my show, I am fighting a flu. I am dealing with heat in the capital - ZG)

Video still from the performance SAD SAM, M. Ferlin (c)Recently you’ve visited New York, as a part of residential programme, to work at Chez Buswick. How would you describe that experience… 2 videos you posted on MySpace are pretty much intriguing and conceptual…M: I have been invited through Jonah Boaker and John Jaspersee to perform on the opening of Centre for Performance Research in Brooklyn and together with that they offered me a residency at Chez Bushwick. They are incredible hosts, indeed they are. Brooklyn was an inspiring place to be for the first phase of my process. I started to work on my new performance some weeks before that so let’s say that the videos on Youtube are the result of the first phase of work. I am continuing the line of Sad Sam, and a concept of trilogy starts to appear the more I work on it. So the new solo work that I will continue to work on in Vienna during September; October will hopefully come out in January. Still negotiating the producers.

Photo: YouTube still by Matija Ferlin (c)What is the meaning of music and soundz in your art work?! Cause, seems like your essential / personal impulse comes not so from the basic rhythm but from a soundscape structure or the meaning of lyrics which are transformed into images in your mind… Classic or contemporary… Which are closer to your artistic habitué? … Or do you even find it important?!M:I don’t strictly have a need name things. (To declare the taste.) I treat music as space. I have a tendency to change the space. But since I am not a musician myself (yet) I invite other great music artists to help me. I have an emotional relationship to music. Reduced from any concept, therefore you will find lots of urban and classical music references in my work. Music is defiantly a very present body in my work. It’s a collaborator and a performer. I have been testing its role in my last work ‘Drugo za Jedno’. I found new results that triggered me to keep on testing it even more. Music its an amazing force and a good friend.

Photo: Liam Malooney, Dance/songs, Public recordings (c)How did you ‘stuck’ with post-rock in the first place? I mean, this is a perfect music for theatre>> enough abstract and enough narrative…M: To be honest, I do not know. I think these things come with growing up. I guess I grew up. My brother’s music taste was a big influence to me. As a youngest one I liked to copy them. Today I am glad I did. I believe I had a good music education. I was home thought.Post-rock (again whatever fits inside those two words) it’s a great channel to communicate. People threat or have already a relationship to that kind of music in their daily life. Bringing that to theatre, giving that another context only enriches the existing. Both in audience and myself.You do dance classes internationally… Do you find it challenging as a pedagogic experience only, or also as an art inspiration?M: Ame said once about my class “Joyfully exploring the relationship between core strength and a released body, Matija’s approach to dance pedagogy renews participant’s sense that dance training is also about performance, presence and self expression.” It is indeed a pedagogic experience, especially the last one. I have been teaching at the University in Pula, I had 128 students in two groups giving them an introduction to contemporary dance. They study to be teachers and it was great to see how they break up their prejudices about dance and what dance is. Especially today, when Luka Nizetic (Croatian pop star) is a symbol for dance in youth culture. I hedonistically enjoy to see them dropping Luka out of their heads and inhibiting something more complex, more honest and more instinctive for them.You probably know that I’m going to ask you about Sasha Waltz. Tell us… tell us… some little story that says almost everything… about the working process…M: It was a great experience. I met some extraordinary people. The reasons why I wanted to join Sasha Waltz Company had changed while I was there. Read the rest of the interview at Personal Cyber Botanica: www.lomodeedee.com
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Interview with Jasmina Prolic: Dancer on Sound Wires

Posted by body pixel on May 24, 2009 at 11:30am
Jasmina Prolic’s latest project ‘Julie(t)- duet in absentia’ deals with technology versus body interrelations… elusive moments and impulses between sexes…The performance she choreographed and performed was collaboration with multimedia artist Hubert Pichot, known for his project ‘Try Me’ Rolling Chair Jockey - RCJ which he had introduced at the iMAL’s OpenLAB Projects in Belgium three years ago. About what Pichot said back then: ‘RCJ (music and vidéo compatible) is an electric rolling chair with sensors measuring its move and acceleration, and also some of the moves of its user. A computer processes the sensors data and generates images and sounds. The person using the chair becomes a sort of conductor controlling an audiovisual creation through his/her moves in and with the chair.’

Photo: Compagnie Jasmina (c)

Along with this line Hubert Pichot designed an experimental wearable sound device for dancer in order to give her a tool for generating soundz connected with her movements via bending wires and pick ups through accelerometers to computer and mixer at the end.Jasmina Prolic dances 'tuned on' with minimal, transcendental movements at the beginning, which grows up as the dramaturgical structures are growing too, into rhythmically more completed textures…

Photo: Compagnie Jasmina (c)

The piece is fragmented into smaller parts which are developed through wordz / dialogues with a man ‘behind’ the ‘technological wall’ emanating himself through video installation and complex DIY electronic sound device letting different sounds to come out depending on dancer’s moves. It’s a kind of a sound mapping of their virtual communication based on practical physics (more precisely micro-kinetics) - her dancing.

Photo: Compagnie Jasmina (c)

Although, the use of such devices could be constraining for the performer, seems like Hubert did a great job with his real-time sound device, Jasmina Prolic accepted it superbly as part of her body, mainly because it’s a communication tool between human being and entity of electronic nature, if you understand it banally.Prolic deploys a sort of micro-inquiring within her body narration and technique creating an artwork of emotional depth… She is questioning the issues of being emotional and physical attached via technology to another person, and the possibilities of having the same relation as if this person would be made of flash and blood…

Because of choreographer’s intention to go further the whole story is not finishing with a pair of lovers running through the meadow into each others arms… But seems like this whole ‘wired’ love is functioning with some boundaries… which leads you to the point where, as a viewer, you can realize that lots of thingz in our lives turned out in some direction because of our previous expectations… Can we accept relations with ‘entities’ and being emotionally involved with… well, actually we already live this life without even perceiving it, or maybe we all like to live in certain oblivion…

Photo: Compagnie Jasmina (c)

Jasmina Prolic is a Sarajevo ex-ballet girl on her ‘movable’ life journey, heavily ‘spiced’ with contemporary dance, in France… At the beginning of 90’s Jasmina was already an award winning ballet dancer and member of Sarajevo’s National Ballet Ensemble … but due to terrible thingz which started to happen in Bosnia at that time, she first found refuge in Zagreb, and then she entered at The National Superior Conservatoire of Dance and Music of Paris in order to study Contemporary Dance.Her graduation dance piece was her first solo work ‘Sarajevo, 25th of April 10 o’clock in the morning or Why?’. Jasmina Prolic has received Award for French Young Choreographers in 1999; she was a member of the Junior Ballet of the CNSMDP from 1996-97, which followed the residency - danceweber at DanceWeb Project within ImpulsTanz in Vienna in 1998. Artists she had collaborated with are: Jean Claude Gallota, Maguy Marin, Joachim Schlomer, Palle Granhoj, Gildas Zepffel, Gildas Bourdet, Balazs Gera, Maja Pavlovska, Szilard Mezei, Albert Markos, Henrik Jaspersen et Ko de Regt (Duo Resonante), Jérome Poret etc.

Photo: Compagnie Jasmina (c)

Lucid choreographer Joseph Nadj invited her in 2002 to base her very own dance company in Orléans (France), which was initially a new trigger in her carrier, not just for her solo artworkz but for promoting younf dancers and companies from South Eastern Region… Jasmina Prolic is spending a lot of time on givin’ dance workshops and classes in this region…From 2007 she is an art consultant for Nomad Dance Academy regional network presenting the Bosnian organisation for contemporary dance Tanzelarija; and she have an active participating role in the Balkan Dance Network and IETM. She’s the organizer of ‘Choreographic Meetings of the Balkans’ dance event with the National Choreographic Centre of Orléans and National Scene of Orléans in France. Jasmina is artistic director of the First Bosnian Contemporary Dance Festival ZVRK in Sarajevo.

Photo: Compagnie Jasmina (c)

After such a technical complex dance piece ‘Julie(t)- duet in absentia’ with a dancer immersed deeply in the theme, I couldn’t resist not inviting Jasmina for a small talk on her solo work… technology… about her challenges…about ZVRK … and all that stuff…Hi, Jasmina! Could you please tell me something about that how did you first get involved with technology? Something that actually can’t be controlled in a way you can control your own body and expressiveness…J: Hubert Pichot and I met while working together on the theatre production in February 2006. Then he introduced me with his technological stuff and expressed a wish to work with a dancer in order to create a live instrument!!! He said he would like to work on Romeo and Juliet by Prokofjev, but I replied that Romeo and Juliet that I think off are written by Shakespeare. In that sense I was ready to enter the adventure of exploration for a live instrument, not being interested in the love story, but in the conflict and all that destroyed love.

Photo: Compagnie Jasmina (c)

Are you planning to work or develop the same working process within ‘Julie(t)- duet in absentia’ or some other future performance?J: The work with Juliet isn’t finished yet; we’re still developing and rethinking this piece. Maybe, if I will feel the urge, I’ll provoke something similar in some other project.In your opinion, what is the perspective of a human moveable body through dance in the context of technology?J: Well, there are so many things in that context that need to be discovered. It also depends a lot on what you want to express, in what direction you want to develop and what kind of message to send.Do you think that you can expand your possibilities as a dancer by using experimental performing devices, DIY tools, data sensors and so?J: These devices push you in some very different ways to use your body and to develop conscience about some still undiscovered parts and possibilities. But, they influence your style also.

Photo: Compagnie Jasmina (c)

Josef Nadj has inspirited you with invitation to work and base your dance company in Orleans…J: I can only thank him for everything.What do you give to dancers on one side and learn from them on other side in your international classes?J: When I teach, first of all I give respect and get human quality. Sometimes, I learn everything from the beginning…What could you tell me about the development of dance scene at the moment in South Eastern Europe, in the European context?J: Although I am not completely familiar with the whole South-East European scene; dancers and choreographers that I do know can with confidence stand side by side in the European context.

Photo: Compagnie Jasmina (c)

The first Bosnian Festival for Contemporary Dance took place in September in Sarajevo… That’s great news for young people willing to expand their experiences in the field of contemporary dance, but also for society and the city of Sarajevo in general… How do you see the future of the scene that will certainly emerge from it in ten, twenty years from now?J: Who could know how the scene will look like tomorrow, not to say in ten or twenty years! (laughs).I only hope that something has finally been moved. This first edition convinced us of the great need for this kind of events in the contemporary societies; so we can’t give up. Dance makes you free and gives you a chance for interaction. There are no limits and that is what we really need.In any case, it won’t be easy, but it never is in Bosnia and Herzegovina! ‘Nice and easy’ approach. And maybe the standing tomb-stones will revive through our bodies; they’ll become off petrified and therefore even nicer and stronger.Jasmina, thanks!p.s. Bosnia and Herzegovina is well known for archaeological sites of medieval tomb-stones.(This blog post was originally posted on Personal Cyber Botanica at www.lomodeedee.com)
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Data Workshop 5.0 - call for entries

Posted by body pixel on August 7, 2009 at 9:26am

Workshop:Data Workshop 5.0: “Sound Dig”Location:This workshop will be hosted by IMOCA at Plane / Site Galleries on Lad Lane,Dublin 2, just off Baggot Street.Cost:30 EURO (for basic materials, etc..) - 25 EURO for StudentsWhen:30th of August from 10.30 to 17.30Instructors:Lead by Dave Lawrence (UK)Dave Lawrence sound artist/performer, and specialising in digital creativity at Middlesex University (London UK) - someone that ’meddles’ with objects and devices (analogue/electrical/electronic/digital) as part of the practice of exploring sound, its science & nature, composition aesthetics, and the technology & interaction issues involved. Dr Dave, aka Sponde, has created numerous collaborative installations and performances in the UK, and across Europe in Germany, Finland, Portugal, Poland, Greece, and Denmark, and soon to be in The Republic of Ireland.Workshop Description:If you are interested in sound itself and the prospect of prospecting for sound amongst relics of technology and in the physical structures that carry technology, then this workshop might be for you. Its going to be like an archaeological dig – but it’s a delicate search through the architecture and workings of whatever items of technology we can find – almost new, retro, and totally archaic – a search for sound.Bring some things with you to investigate (anything electronic, or something with a motor or some electrical components – any technology really … steam powered would be great.. or mechanical..) – preferably items that hardly ever get used or are gathering dust on the bottom shelf in the kitchen, or in the garage…. and lets explore the possibilities of finding and making interesting sounds. Also, if you have a device to collect and record sounds it might be helpful to bring that along too – but we will have some equipment to share.We will be using custom made contact mics, air mics, picups, an MI5 telephone surveillance device, a VLF receiver, and maybe special vibrating devices here and there too (pending airport security approval…). It will almost certainly involve a degree of surgery (intrusive and non intrusive) to make physical and non-tactile connections to draw out the sounds. Its about caring for the technology, and being respectful of its history, construction and design – being imaginative about sonic potential, and nurturing the new life (sonic and creative) that you can give to that archaic piece of technology.We will use the sounds made and captured to make composition recordings, and also design how our ‘sound dig’ interventions could be used in live performance. As we are working with real objects and technology, there is a sculptural element to what we will be doing too. We hope to make a live public performance on the evening of the workshop, and if you are interested you could take part. The emotional impact of sounds made or captured from physical and real objects/devices can be immense, and that will hopefully be experienced in the workshop. The sounds carry with them the history and nature of that object.To take part in the workshop, you don’t need to be a skilled musician or technician, or experienced in making music in any way (but its fine if you are!) – but you definitely do need to like sound itself, …. and have some time on Sun 30th August 2009,….. and be in Dublin.Registration here
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