With the help of many, many people and some great teamwork, I officially launched Jody Sperling's new website : Time Lapse DanceThe original redesign was put together by Paris Marashi, while the site design and content management system was executed by Sam MarxJody's upcoming work, Ghosts, will feature a wearable costume assembled by folks from ITP (Jenny Chowdhury & Alex Kowal)The site features a full content management system (run on Drupal), a full media player managed through brightcove, and some nice graphic work provided by her colleagues.During the process, we spent great care taking a look at the works page.We wanted to make sure we could feature individual photos, videos, and text - all in one area - so the content management system had to be flexible enough to handle all those elements.During the process, we also setup a facebook page, a blip.tv page, as well as a pro flickr account. The goal of setting up all these sites were simply to allow Jody to extend her reach beyond her site, while still providing a homebase for her work, and image.In addition to visiting the new site, make sure you check out Ghosts, premiering in October!
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Berlin, GermanyOCTOBER 5, 2008Call for Participants to join us in an exciting public site-specific performance as part of the Laban Conference.CONNECTING LANDSCAPES- A BERLIN/NEW YORK MOVEMENT CHOIRCALL FOR PARTICIPANTSWhat: Movement Choir EventWho: professional dancers, movement specialists, dance educators and moversWhen: October 5th, 2008 at 15:30 hours (3:30)Where: grounds of Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, GermanyProduced by: URBANCHOIR Project in cooperation with EUROLAB Laban ConferenceWe invite all dancers and movers to share in creation of a site-specific dance piece in the spirit of the movement choirs created by Rudolf Laban in Berlin during the 1920’s and 1930’s.contact for information:Balinda Craig-Quijada craigquijada@kenyon.eduKristi Spessard KiSpeDance@aol.comChase Angier angierc@alfred.edu
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Posted by karla kracht on August 23, 2008 at 4:00am
Acabamos de volver de Berlin, donde hemos visto un monton de cosas bien impresionantes. El estupendo festival de danza Tanz im August no nos dejaba mucho tiempo para respirar actuaciones fuera de este mundillo..... menos mal!primero nuestros amigos de membros, que imponaban el publico de sophiensaele, (una sala muy guapa) con su danza politica y sus movimientos tan precisos.Luego, "accumulated layout" Hiroaki Umeda nos dejaba flipando. Del momento un pequeño video del performance:Dock11, un centro de crecion escenico con énfasis en danza es un sitio muy bonito y potente. Tienen salas de ensayo, hacen workshops de alta nivel y tienen sala de actuacion con propuestas muy inbteresantes.Vimos una recopilación curiosa de propuestas diversas que interprataban el "baile" de un adolecente americano, cuyo video cursaba extensivamente en el mundo you tube... la realisacion de la pieza era estupenda. con tecnica minima (un videoproyector, unas altavoces y un dvd player hacian todo desde iluminación hasta sonido). iniciado por la no-compania de teatro post-theater, se puede ver - y si estas en berl lo recomendamos- esta performance Napoleon D. todos los lunes el septiembre. aka la info.
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Beijing: Activists detained after lighting up "Free Tibet" LED Throwies banner near Olympics site from Students for a Free Tibet on Vimeo.
Free Tibet 2008 Online TV Station from Students for a Free Tibet on Vimeo.
No word from the American artist 24 hours after being taken into Chinese custody Powderly was in Beijing to unveil a project made with pro-Tibet activist group
New York City, August 19, 2008, 7:30PM EST- Artist and Eyebeam alum James Powderly was detained by Chinese authorities in Beijing early Wednesday, according to a message received by Students for a Free Tibet around 5PM Beijing Standard Time, said an SFT spokesperson. The message, sent through the social networking site Twitter, read "held since 3AM", said friend and SFT board member Nathan Dorjee. Powderly has not been heard from since-more than 24 hours later-and his whereabouts remain unknown, he said.
"Freedom of speech has always been central to James' practice, and we support this commitment. Most importantly, we hope for his quick release," said Eyebeam Executive Director Amanda McDonald Crowley. Powderly was a fellow in Eyebeam's R&D OpenLab in 2005-2006, and a senior fellow in the OpenLab from 2006-2007.
Powderly is also co-founder of the Grafitti Research Lab, a project developed during his fellowship at Eyebeam. He was in Beijing collaborating with the activists to project messages onto the facades of prominent Beijing buildings using a laser beam and stencils. The artist was detained before the planned launch of the project-dubbed the "Green Chinese Lantern"-in which a beam of light would be used to display graphics and text on structures up to two stories high, said Dorjee. It is unclear how Chinese authorities learned of the plan.
Also today, five activists with Students for a Free Tibet were detained after displaying a banner that spelled out "Free Tibet" in LED Throwies, the open source technology pioneered by the Grafitti Research Lab and popularized online and worldwide. This brings the number of SFT protestors detained in Beijing to 42. In the majority of these cases, the individuals were heard from and deported within 6-12 hours of their arrest, said Dorjee.
Upon learning of the detention, fellow artist, collaborator, and current Eyebeam senior fellow Steve Lambert said, "He's an amazing, entertaining, brilliant, and committed person. Not all of us have the courage to travel to China to make such a statement at a key time like this. He's a great friend and obviously, like so many others, I'm concerned about his well-being. I hope he's allowed to return home as soon as possible."
The L.A.S.E.R. Stencil technology is a modification of the GRL's L.A.S.E.R. Tag, which was featured in the 2007 Eyebeam exhibition Open City. This portable, updated version is the size of a flashlight, requires one person to operate, and is intended for use with homemade micro-stencils.
Students for a Free Tibet, a group with more than 700 chapters worldwide, has been staging protests in Beijing over the course of the past two weeks. According to Dorjee, who is also the group's technical advisor, GRL technology was an ideal fit for the spectacle of the Olympics, and called the GRL the "go-to group for open source urban expression".
For the latest information and images, please visit the website of Students for a Free Tibet: http://freetibet2008.org/
Additional images for download:
The Grafitti Research Lab, with images made using the L.A.S.E.R. Stencil (in the US): www.grafittiresearchlab.com
LED Throwies: http://www.flickr.com/photos/urban_data/tags/ledthrowies/
Additional coverage:
Boing Boing: http://www.boingboing.net/2008/08/19/beijing-activists-de.html
The Washington Post: www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/19/AR2008081901287.html
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Edinburgh
Tonight we have another show of ‘Mortal Engine’ at the Edinburgh International Festival. Compared with ‘Glow’, my initial collaboration with Australian dance company ‘Chunky Move’ this piece is quite large scale. A heavy set for our six dancers, with pneumatically moving stage sectors makes it quite challenging to set up in only two days. After a few minor disasters like a broken laser audio interface we got it all fixed for the premiere on Sunday which was very well received. (Preview - Review)
Mortal Engine is performed on a large steep stage. It is mainly lit by video projectors, graphics generated from and closely connected to dancers movements. The visual world is quite abstract, not really video on it’s own, more like a very graphical and dynamic stage lighting. The general lighting pattern is to light the stage and mask out the dancers, putting our marvelous dancers in a distant alienating world.
Illuminating a moving object
This reversed lighting approach actually got a funny new meaning just recently. A german company keeps contacting us (i.e. different collaborator, not Chunky Move), holding high their patent for ‘system and method of illuminating an object’. It is about video-tracking (=detection means) based lighting of dancers (=3D moving objects) with a video projector (=radiation source). I hereby admit to be having done similar in the past. It is a more or less trivial method several media art groups were using in the past to do ‘on body projections’, The company is a ‘spin off’ of an arts project and claims to market the whole concept exclusively. In the arts world there is always a race for being the first one to use a new approach, but not sure whether patents suit the dance tech world too much. Anyway, Mortal Engine will be save cause the ‘moving objects’ are masked out of any illumination.
This weekend
‘Mortal Engine’ will go to the Festival in Groningen, Netherlands, performances on Saturday and Sunday (23, 24. of August)
Tanzmesse Düsseldorf
Together with Emily Fernandez we will be presenting a lecture / demonstration about our approaches into digital dance performance at the Tanzmesse at the end of August (27-30). It will take place at the studio of ‘Theater der Klänge’ , Winkelsfelderstrasse 21 as part of the open studio, interleaved with presentations and dance films by Theater der Klänge and Christian Ziegler.
More fun in a Norwegian parking lot
Our Onskebron Installation is reopening for the winter season. This installation sits in a parking lot of Norwegian city ‘Sandnes’, basically a large Walk-On LED screen with movement showing interactive motion graphics generated from visitors movements. The installation was up for four month earlier this year. It was great fun watching couples starting to dance on the installation in the middle of the night, families going there for their Sunday afternoon walk, or the local kindergarten coming for their regular visit on Monday morning. After those months the installation was pretty much drowned and quite a few of the segments had stopped working due to the harsh weather conditions. Now it will be reinstalled, using slices of the floor screen you have seen at the opening ceremonies of the Olympics in Bejing. (Collaboration with Phase-7)
Additional information is found at http://www.frieder-weiss.de
All the best,
Frieder Weiss
Thank you Frieder!
Merde!
Marlon
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Dance New Amsterdam is looking for a part-time graphic designer, 20 hours/week, who is a fast worker, a quick learner and team worker. Must have basic skills in Photoshop, Quark, InDesign and web media (html and CSS).If interested please send resume and cover letter to Amanda Szeglowski at aszeglowski@dnadance.org with DNA graphic design in the subject line.Marlon
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From the New York Post:
An accomplished dancer, choreographer and artist was struck and critically injured by an unlicensed driver as she crossed a rain-slicked Brooklyn street yesterday.
Jillian D. Peña, 28 - a doctoral candidate in fine arts in London who got her MA at the Art Institute of Chicago - was in critical condition after getting hit at around 11 a.m. at Myrtle and Marcy avenues in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
…
Peña is a National Merit Scholar who is pursuing a Ph.D. in performance studies, according to her online profile. “Mothership,” which she choreographed, was performed at the Dance Theater Workshop last spring.
Writing about her National Hispanic Merit scholarship, she says on a foundation Web site that “although I had always identified myself as Hispanic, this was the first time it had been thrust towards me from the outside as something that set me apart.”
“I am a female Hispanic/Scandinavian performance artist, but simultaneously, and more simply, I am an American artist.”
Jillian’s friend’s have started a blog to keep everyone abreast of progress. Here is the link:
friendsofjillian.blogspot.com
Jillian was one the first artist interviewed by dance-tech.net for her premiere at DTW for the Spring Season 2008.
see interview here:
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I bought my first gas mask today - an Israeli M15 black rubber beauty. I can't wait to get it in the dance studio and put on Psyclon Nine and see how it modifies sensory perception and resulting movement. For too long I've kept two distinct categories of art in my life. The world of the classical dancer and the goth/industrial/fetish/vampyre world. I've excelled in both worlds but I made a point in my life to keep them separate and distinct. Maybe for fear of diluting my resolve to be the best I can be in each. Or maybe for the more basic fear of opposing polarities of subcultures within Mother Art simply rejecting or repelling each other.Well thats just plain stupid. I used to be more of a theatrical renegade. Once upon a time I would cross ballet technique with goth pageantry and come up with something that neither subculture had ever seen. That was 1994 and that formula worked. Why did I stop? I think I needed time to train to develop my identity and resolve within the confines and specific rulesets of the dance tradition. Check. Got that now. Its time to go back to the secret formula.For too long in my life has dance technique served as both the vehicle and the message. Well its not the message, its just one conveyance to speak to the message. This whole other world that I'm a part of is soon going to bleed all over the pristine white tights of the dance technician. And there will be a whole other blood-spattered message to be had.Take for example the gas mask in a dance piece. Image the possibilities of a piece based on breath play. Imagine any one of the sick, freakish things we do in the goth/industrial/fetish/vampyre world combined with barrel turns and tour jetes. There is a difference between a dance piece, and a theater piece. This is now theater (revived). And this is why I'm excited about my first gas mask.....
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I was reading this post in the Great Dance Blog about the new installation By Jill Johnson (whom I interviewed this afternoon at Cedar Lake's space) and I noticed the google adds in the page all confused in Doug's blog...or illustrating the post!
is a copier, is a copier, is a copier...
I have been following online the events and co at EMPAC and hopefully will make it there myself soon in person. I can only agree on that dance film screenings should happen more often. Speaking from my own work and feedback I receive from friends, family and critics is that in public screenings the same piece of work is often well received and understood while most video dances lose their fascination online (think youtube). The problem is not only the lower quality that reduces the effects of sound and speed of movements but also the moment of 'live' performance in front of an audience is taken away from the work. The unique specialty of video dance is that it is closely related to live dance and thus its presentation in which it needs the space, the sound echoing of walls and an audience sharing the experience of movements, camerawork and edit. Personally, I am very audience-focused, some of you might know my work that aims on creating all-senses-incorporating interaction with the viewer through live performance and/or video installations in controlled spaces that enhance the experience and interaction.To return to the initial starting point of this discussion: yes, I hope more video dance events will happen, hopefully more dance places, cinemas and co venues will promote and open their spaces to show this genre of film. Currently, the Edinburgh Festival is happening which offers opportunities for video dance presentations for example.My aim is to increase the possibilities of showing dance work. Together with curator Alexandra Ross, I set up the traveling exhibition The State of Play that mixes live performance, audience involvement and interactive video dance projection:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHmrSe5ZpBwmore info about this can be found on my website www.creationeditor.co.ukI am also involved with the events of Iam-Digital that fuses live performance, video dance and live music. I just put together a 2min docu of the last event in May'08https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKT5IMSfoiAmore on www.iam-digital.comMy latest video dance TRENCH was cut for the big screen were it works really well while it really loses it onlinehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PciUp7-GsuoI would appreciate your feedbackIronically all is on youtube ;-)Best wishes and keep up the good workSabine Klausinfo@creationeditor.co.ukwww.creationeditor.co.uk
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dance-tech.net is pleased to congratulate member Jessica Mumford (http://www.dance-tech.net/profile/JessicaMumford) as the selected recipient of the MidiTron Wireless "Interfacing Motion" contest supported by Eroktronix (http://eroktronix.com/).
The projects were reviewed by Eric Singer (creator of the Miditron), Dawn Stopello, (co-director of Troika Ranch) and me.
Unanimously, we agreed upon Jessica's project as the recipient of the device due to its clarity, knowledge of the potential of the technology for her research, feasibility and sense of humor.
Thank you! all the participants for your proposals and we encourage you to pursue them, continue to investigate and having fun in this exciting field.
I hope that we can have more ways to contribute supporting our members to further their visions. Thank you Eric and Dawn for your time and support.
Congratulations Jessica!
Marlon
New York City August 1st 2008
http://www.dance-tech.net/page/page/show?id=1462368%3APage%3A19466
PS: The selected artist commits to document and share the creative process using rich multimedia (writing, photos and videos) using his or her blog in dance-tech.net at least once a month during 6month after receiving the MidiTron Wireless
The jury agreed to give a short feedback in writing on each proposal.
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Luego, "accumulated layout" Hiroaki Umeda nos dejaba flipando. Del momento un pequeño video del performance:Dock11, un centro de crecion escenico con énfasis en danza es un sitio muy bonito y potente. Tienen salas de ensayo, hacen workshops de alta nivel y tienen sala de actuacion con propuestas muy inbteresantes.Vimos una recopilación curiosa de propuestas diversas que interprataban el "baile" de un adolecente americano, cuyo video cursaba extensivamente en el mundo you tube... la realisacion de la pieza era estupenda. con tecnica minima (un videoproyector, unas altavoces y un dvd player hacian todo desde iluminación hasta sonido). iniciado por la no-compania de teatro post-theater, se puede ver - y si estas en berl lo recomendamos- esta performance Napoleon D. todos los lunes el septiembre. aka la info.
