Blogs

Our archive is a treasure chest! This week we uploaded a serious of great videos both performances & documentaries of/about  Stelarc's ground breaking works from 90's!

Stelarc is a sensational artist for his exceptional works & performances in which he probes the questions concerning the body and its relation to machine in the face of new technologies.

If you are as intrigued as we are by his works we are confident that you'll enjoy the videos /documentations.

Please check it out:

http://www.v2.nl/archive/people/stelarc

MoveStream 05 - Screendance | Scandinavia

11 February 2011

Interview with Rannvá Káradóttir

This interview is one of the many that I will be uploading as part of MoveStream's focus on dance videos/films made in the Scandinavian countries.  The series investigates the directorial choices that Scandinavian filmmakers make and asks more specifically about the dark emotional tone that is seemingly present in most of the works coming from Northern Europe.  It will explore this and ask why - is it psycho-geographic? or.... 

Margaret Sharrow says about Magma after visiting Liverpool Biennial. "It may be apparent by now that I have longed to go to the Faroes for many years. This film was far more than imaginative transport, however. It seemed not to posit an impossible relationship between the people  and the landscape; instead the black-clad figures became high-speed embodiments of the geological ultraslow dance of the land itself - the  magma..." 

Rannvá Káradóttir  was in Copenhagen last week to show her dance film BOW which won the DFA Dance for Camera Jury Award in NYC in Jan 2011. I asked her about her screendance work Magma, and what makes it so surreal and other. 

Magma is the first film in The Cycle, a series of 8 experimental short films that embrace and discover movement through camera. The films are shot in the extreme and wild landscapes of a remote group of islands far up in the North Atlantic Ocean, The Faroe Islands. Fragmented stories are unraveled in these open and empty spaces, enhanced by the uncontrollable and extreme weather conditions that have an important character in all the films.

 To read more about The Cycle, visit www.rammatik.blogspot.com

Interview

Shot and edited by 

Jeannette Ginslov

http://jeannette.ginslov.com

Location

Dansehallerne Copenhagen Denmark

MoveStream is a co-production with www.dance-tech.net

Laura Taler, maker of the wonderful A VERY DANGEROUS PASTIME and Village Trilogy, said during her talk at Dance on Camera Festival that one of her professors urged her to use proprioceptive writing as a part of her practice.  "Through PW you learn to listen to your thoughts with impassioned curiosity, reflect on them imaginatively, and set them free."

Put on music that can run for 25 minutes, listen to your thoughts and play on them in print daily.

According to Wikipedia

"Proprioception (pronounced /ˌproʊpri.ɵˈsɛpʃən/ PRO-pree-o-SEP-shən), from Latin proprius, meaning "one's own" and perception, is the sense of the relative position of neighbouring parts of the body. 

In 1906, Charles Scott Sherrington published a landmark work that introduced the terms 'proprioception', 'interoception', and 'exteroception'. The 'exteroceptors' are the organs responsible for information from outside the body such as the eyes, ears, mouth, and skin. The interoceptors then give information about the internal organs, while 'proprioception' is awareness of movement derived from muscular, tendon, and articular sources."

Suggestions to get started...

soak in the  natural world

close your eyes and take slow, deep breaths. 

American Premiere

Artists around the world are constantly inspired by the beauty, struggles, culture and history of South Africa. Paul Simon's Graceland introduced its musical roots to the pop culture mainstream. Athol Fugard exposed its dramatic wisdom. Now, another South African auteur is taking the pulse of her country's complex social reality.

Robyn Orlin is known for work that can be subversive, outrageous, provocatively humorous, and visually arresting. From her early days as a choreographer during the Apartheid era, Orlin has made a career of confronting taboo subjects with a heightened, vaudevillian theatricality that aims to test and redefine ideas about South African performance.

MORE INFO AND VIDEO-->

APODIO is a GNU/Linux platform containing audio, text-friendly, 3D, Streaming, graphic, Live Coding and video tools. It can be used as a liveDVD or be installed on a partition of your hard disk (on any PC 32bits to Mac Intel).

APODIO is a GNU/GPL project, a part of the GNU/Linux Ubuntu family:

APODIO uses a well known system operating the GNOME desktop.

APODIO can easily and quickly be installed, as a whole, coherent, pre-set and instantly ready system on your computer, rather than a ramshackle combination of packages, And what you see as you use the LiveDVD is also what you get after the installation.

source : http://www.apodio.org/

project description  from website:

http://www.leslaboratoires.org/en/informations/artistic-project

Les Laboratoires d'Aubervilliers are a tool dedicated to artistic research. They intend to gather the necessary conditions for projects that do not fit pre-existing systems of artistic and cultural production. Their organization and structure, as well as the modalities of residency (such as duration of stay and budget) adapt themselves to the hosted proposals.
These proposals allow to renew and question existing modalities of production, as well as their resulting terms of work and address. They belong to all artistic backgrounds. The objects and forms of research do not necessarily fit the usual practices or disciplines the initiating artists may be distinguished for.

Research projects both address the audience through the forms they produce and through invitations to take part in their processes. These participations lead to question the collective dimension of a research, i.e: the nature of shared knowledge and practices, and the way in which this activity organizes itself. These participants are volunteers, and most of them live in or regularly come to Aubervilliers.
Generally, researches are publicized through the Journal des Laboratoires, which exists under three free complementary forms. The paper edition is distributed among a network of French and European collaborators. Public openings are occasionally organized at 8 pm (5 pm on Sundays) and take different forms: performances, projections, lectures, concerts, meals, etc. The archive includes the website www.leslaboratoires.org, reference books, along with the documentation of previous projects since 2001, available for consultation.
Projects hosted by Les Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers may involve cultural, social or scientific structures and institutions, either locally, nationally or internationally committed, as well as structures of distribution and co-production.

Also, les Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers regularly exchange with several European structures: artists, activists or curators collectives, magazines, festivals, mostly self-organized art spaces, schools, etc. They share an interest for the development of alternative approaches to knowledge and practice sharing on a local level, which lead to an ongoing criticism and renewal of what is at stake in artistic research.

Grégory Castéra, Alice Chauchat, Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez

http://hybridge.wordpress.com

Here are some ideas for selection criteria that were developed by AFDA (South African School of Motion Picture), and used in student film evaluations. I have developed them further for use in Screendance evaluations.  The 60secondsdance.dk selection committee will also be using them to evaluate and select the top 10, the overall winner and the runner up for 60seconds. 

Perhaps some could be adopted and/or amended and used by selection committees.

So far the screendance maker has no means to view any criteria. Can we not publish these online each time there is a call?

60secondsdance.dk

Criteria for judging dance videos/films 2011 

Theme: sted/place

The most important criteria: creativity and originality, amplifying the intention, the choreography of movement, adaptation of movement to the camera, the movement of the camera, the rhythm of the edit, the narrative – linear or poetic, the location, costume, objects, set, overall aesthetic “look and feel”, sounds and music used to amplify the notion of “place” or “sted”. We will look out for how “place” or “sted” is translated with kineasthetic and visceral impact, immediately translated and understood by the viewer. We will also take into consideration if the screendance maker has fulfilled all the competition rules and requirements. 


The above was published online at www.60secondsdance.dk. 

Below are the judges criteria, not published. 

Headings from AFDA™

NARRATIVE: Intention, Idea, Concept, Event Progression, Narrative Progression

PERFORMANCE: Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology, Emotional and Physical

MEDIUM: Lighting, Camera work, Movement/Camera/Affordances, Edit

AESTHETICS: Look and feel, Locations, Set, Costumes, Art, Design

CONTROL: Marketing, Management, Finance and Law

1. NARRATIVE/CONCEPTUAL RELEVANCE/ INTENTION

Does it reveal/express/explore sted / a place, what, where?

Is this place/intention clear?
The Idea / Concept / Place – originality?

Does the idea come through in 60seconds?

Does every frame speak to/about the intention? Or place?

Structure / Event Progression - Beg/Middle/End is this clear?

Does it tell “a story”?

Simplicity/Complexity in narrative?

2. PERFORMANCE/EMOTIONAL/KINAESTHETIC AFFECT

Empathetic impact on viewer  -  emotional and kineasthetic impact?

Is the emotional tone clearly amplified by the performance?

Is there a visceral impact on the viewer?

Do the performers erformance relate to the place & intention?

Are the performers using the environment to shape their character and movement?

How is the environment used by the dance/dancers?

Are the affordances, the choreography within the location amplifying the

intention?

Performers relation to the camera?

3. MEDIUM

Style of delivery

Choreography -  use of affordances, intention & place to shape choreography, use of medium/camera to shape choreography, re-adaptation to the camera

Dance style/genre  - what type is used to support the intention? Dance style – pedestrian, dance for the camera, adapted to the camera…

Camera work or recording of the image

Camera operation and movement

Adaptation of movement/choreography to the medium/camera

Are affordances shaping the choreography & affecting the choice of shots? 

Is it challenging the use of the camera?

Choice of shots and Angles

Handheld / locked off, Dogmatic / Cinematic Experimental / Traditional

Quality of shoot HD / DVPAL

Lighting design

Composition of the shots - adaptation of movement/choreography to the medium/camera

How is the environment used?

Is it shaping the composition of the shots?

Edit / Post production

De-Interlaced/ Compressed

The edit: cuts, rhythm, pace, timing, movement through the shots

Linear or Vertical Montage – fragmented/multi-threading/looping narratives  Repetition in edit: predictable and/or unpredictable

PATTERNS OF PREDICTABILITY & UNPREDICTABILITY THAT

MAY BECOME BOTH PREDICTABLE & UNPREDICTABLE

Special Effects 

Poetic amplification

Text - spoken/sub-titles/text

Sounds – Diegetic or no sound from set? Music  - composed or not?

4. AESTHETICS

General “look and feel”

The world of the narrative and character – clearly defined?

The visual form of the narrative clearly defined?

Design Fabrication?

Structuring and manipulation of the design

Location or set and use of it

Costume

Props

5. CONTROL

All documents signed, scanned and submitted on time. Not doing so means disqualification.  

Here are some ideas for selection criteria that were developed by AFDA (South African School of Motion Picture), and used in student film evaluations. I have developed them further for use in Screendance evaluations.  The 60secondsdance.dk selection committee will also be using them to evaluate and select the top 10, the overall winner and the runner up for 60seconds. 

Perhaps some could be adopted and/or amended and used by selection committees.

So far the screendance maker has no means to view any criteria. Can we not publish these online each time there is a call?

60secondsdance.dk

Criteria for judging dance videos/films 2011 

Theme: sted/place

The most important criteria: creativity and originality, amplifying the intention, the choreography of movement, adaptation of movement to the camera, the movement of the camera, the rhythm of the edit, the narrative – linear or poetic, the location, costume, objects, set, overall aesthetic “look and feel”, sounds and music used to amplify the notion of “place” or “sted”. We will look out for how “place” or “sted” is translated with kineasthetic and visceral impact, immediately translated and understood by the viewer. We will also take into consideration if the screendance maker has fulfilled all the competition rules and requirements. 


The above were published online at www.60secondsdance.dk. 

Below are the judges criteria, not published. 

Headings from AFDA™

NARRATIVE: Intention, Idea, Concept, Event Progression, Narrative Progression

PERFORMANCE: Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology, Emotional and Physical

MEDIUM: Lighting, Camera work, Movement/Camera/Affordances, Edit

AESTHETICS: Look and feel, Locations, Set, Costumes, Art, Design

CONTROL: Marketing, Management, Finance and Law

1. NARRATIVE/CONCEPTUAL RELEVANCE/ INTENTION

Does it reveal/express/explore sted / a place, what, where?

Is this place/intention clear?
The Idea / Concept / Place – originality?

Does the idea come through in 60seconds?

Does every frame speak to/about the intention? Or place?

Structure / Event Progression - Beg/Middle/End is this clear?

Does it tell “a story”?

Simplicity/Complexity in narrative?

2. PERFORMANCE/EMOTIONAL/KINAESTHETIC AFFECT

Empathetic impact on viewer  -  emotional and kineasthetic impact?

Is the emotional tone clearly amplified by the performance?

Is there a visceral impact on the viewer?

Do the performers erformance relate to the place & intention?

Are the performers using the environment to shape their character and movement?

How is the environment used by the dance/dancers?

Are the affordances, the choreography within the location amplifying the

intention?

Performers relation to the camera?

3. MEDIUM

Style of delivery

Choreography -  use of affordances, intention & place to shape choreography, use of medium/camera to shape choreography, re-adaptation to the camera

Dance style/genre  - what type is used to support the intention? Dance style – pedestrian, dance for the camera, adapted to the camera…

Camera work or recording of the image

Camera operation and movement

Adaptation of movement/choreography to the medium/camera

Are affordances shaping the choreography & affecting the choice of shots? 

Is it challenging the use of the camera?

Choice of shots and Angles

Handheld / locked off, Dogmatic / Cinematic Experimental / Traditional

Quality of shoot HD / DVPAL

Lighting design

Composition of the shots - adaptation of movement/choreography to the medium/camera

How is the environment used?

Is it shaping the composition of the shots?

Edit / Post production

De-Interlaced/ Compressed

The edit: cuts, rhythm, pace, timing, movement through the shots

Linear or Vertical Montage – fragmented/multi-threading/looping narratives  Repetition in edit: predictable and/or unpredictable

PATTERNS OF PREDICTABILITY & UNPREDICTABILITY THAT

MAY BECOME BOTH PREDICTABLE & UNPREDICTABLE

Special Effects 

Poetic amplification

Text - spoken/sub-titles/text

Sounds – Diegetic or no sound from set? Music  - composed or not?

4. AESTHETICS

General “look and feel”

The world of the narrative and character – clearly defined?

The visual form of the narrative clearly defined?

Design Fabrication?

Structuring and manipulation of the design

Location or set and use of it

Costume

Props

5. CONTROL

All documents signed, scanned and submitted on time. Not doing so means disqualification.  

With limited resources, how should a dance film service organization best focus their efforts on nurturing the dance filmmaker? Do dance film festivals actually help the dance filmmaker? When DFA's Festival started in 1971, it formed a community, brought the user, producer, and filmmaker together. But now with over 5,000 film festivals and dance film festivals sprouting up everywhere, multiple options to screen your work on-line, what impact does a screening have on a filmmaker's career.  The "rejected" entrant rarely goes to the film festival they applied to.  So dance film screenings are not educating the new filmmaker.

How could time/energy/attention be directed in another way, to further the art of dance on camera?

To my mind, when 6/8s of the entrants are not chosen for any film festival, maybe there is a better way to nurture those 6/8s rather than saying "Thanks..better luck next time."

Could one do the same annual call for entries but instead of competing just for a screening(s) at various venues and a cash prize, maybe additional choices could be added, such as the following:

1) One on one consultations with: 

a. editor

b. cinematographer

c. choreographer

d. producer

e) idea/script advisor

2) Closed screening with feedback from the above

3) Introductions to:

TenduTv producer Marc Kirschner

Dance-tech.net guru Marlon :)

Wizkid of your choice....

4) Workshop with 10 at a time

But all the above would cost money. How much? Maybe the entrant could decide to chosen for tier 1 - screenings & cash - $35, Tier 2 - consultation - $60, or 3 - workshop -$75.

Hmmm...

BOOKS AND DVDs (only on the US so far)

T-shirts ans stuff...

Yes!

Our recently created series CHOREOGRAFY or ELSE: Contemporary Experiments on the Performance of Motion has been included as a relevant reference on research on contemporary choreography a project  supported by The Forsythe Company  and led by Scott delaHunta: MOTION BANK aka MOBA

MOBA is "...ia new four year project (2010-2013) of The Forsythe Company providing a broad context for research into choreographic practice. The main focus is on the creation of on-line digital scores in collaboration with guest choreographers* to be made publicly available via the Motion Bank website. Both these unique score productions and development of related teaching curriculum will be undertaken with and rely on the expertise and experience of key collaborative partners."

read more about MOBA

See in person

Thank you to the artists that are collaborating with their art and openness for crazy ideas! You are the makers or the experiments and futures!

Marlon

Geneva, Switzerland

Prague Call for Participation | Deadline 22|2|2011

ENTER: DATAPOLIS (April 14-17, 2011) is the 5th art | tech biennale held in
Prague, Czech Republic, organized by CIANT.

http://festival-enter.cz

Exhibitions | Performances | Lectures | Debates | Workshops | Screenings

DATAPOLIS is a call for theory and practice based proposals addressing
emerging interactions of media technologies, novel visualization practices
and urban realities.

Let us discover the moods and the rhythms of our cities, bodies and planet
and innovatively mash both visible and invisible data that re-present
individual and collective lives and actions.

Keywords: data, city, communities, mapping, social, geographical,
economical, political, sentient, ambient, mobile, ubiquitous, embedded
intelligence, architecture, furniture, clothes, quantified selves, body &
environment monitoring, robotic systems, trash, transport, pollution, open
innovation & design

Among the artists and researchers pre-negotiated to participate there are
(A-Z): Darina Alster (CZ), Guy van Belle (BE/CZ), Dusan Barok (SK), Prokop
Bartonicek (CZ/DE), Laura Beloff (FI), Mar Canet (ES), Daphne Dragona (GR),
Takumi Endo (JP), Andy Gracie (GB/ES), Varvara Guljajeva (EST), Michal
Kindernay (CZ), Martin Kohout (CZ/DE), Alessandro Ludovico (IT), M2F? (FR),
Macula (CZ), Michael Markert (DE), Akos Maroy (HU), Julian Oliver (NZ/DE),
Radka Peterova (CZ), Marie Polakova (CZ/ES), Jan Rod (CZ/JP), Tomas Rousek
(CZ), Mark Shepard (USA), Petr Sourek (CZ), Franco Torriani (IT), Mahir M.
Yavuz (TU), and many more...

We invite your participation too!

Submission deadline for artworks, papers, posters: 22|2|2011

Submit via: http://festival-enter.cz/participate

Organized by CIANT (http://ciant.org/) in partnership with NTK | National
Technical Library (http://www.techlib.cz/en/) and in media partnership with

__________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

"The man with sad eyes, or Wild Eyes'" solo performance by Michael Helland

Centre for Contemporary and Digital Performance
School of Arts, Brunel University

In collaboration with dance-techTV

Lectures will be streamed LIVE with remote audience  interaction

WATCH STREAM HERE:

http://www.dance-tech.net/profiles/blogs/dancetechtvlive-1
http://www.livestream.com/dancetechttvlive

Wednesday February 16th –  Phill Niblock, in concert and in conversation

4pm Gaskell Building / Artaud Performance Centre 

Phill Niblock is a New York-based minimalist composer and multi-media musician and director of Experimental Intermedia, a foundation born in the flames of 1968's barricade-hopping. He has been a maverick presence on the fringes of the avant garde ever since. In the history books Niblock is the forgotten Minimalist.  His influence has had more impact on younger composers such as Susan Stenger, Lois V Vierk, David First, and Glenn Branca. He's even worked with Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore and Lee Renaldo on "Guitar two, for four" which is actually for five guitarists. This is Minimalism in the classic sense of the word... Niblock constructs big 24-track digitally-processed monolithic microtonal drones. The result is sound without melody or rhythm. Movement is slow, geologically slow. Changes are almost imperceptible, and his music has a tendency of creeping up on you. The vocal pieces are like some of Ligeti's choral works, but a little more phased. And this isn't choral work. "A Y U (as yet untitled)" is sampled from just one voice, the baritone Thomas Buckner. The results are pitch shifted and processed intense drones, one live and one studio edited. Unlike Ligeti, this isn't just for voice or hurdy gurdy. Like Stockhausen's electronic pieces, Musique Concrete, or even Fripp and Eno's No Pussyfooting, the role of the producer/composer in "Hurdy Hurry" and "A Y U" is just as important as the role of the performer. He says: "What I am doing with my music is to produce something without rhythm or melody, by using many microtones that cause movements very, very slowly." Niblock was making films (such a "Movement of People Working" which will be screened here) which are painstaking studies of manual labour, giving a poetic dignity to sheer gruelling slog of fishermen at work, rice-planters, log-splitters, water-hole dredgers and other back-breaking toilers. Since 1968 Niblock has also put on over 1000 concerts in his loft space, including Ryoji Ikeda, Zbigniew Karkowski, Jim O'Rourke.

-- -- -- -- 

[ "Beyond Presence" by Medhit Farajpour, originally schedule to perform his solo performance "Confession" and discuss his work, was unable to enter the UK and his visit unfortunately had to be cancelled. Mehdi Farajpour (1980 - Iran) is a conceptual performing artist; his main activities are divided in two parts: Creation and Teaching. Besides his creations for the stage, he is also firmly focused on teaching his creative way of dancing: “Meditative dance”. His artistic career covers different fields such as Literature, Poetry, Dance, Butoh, Photography, Video, Music and Theatre. In 2002, he launched Oriantheatre Company in Tehran and he promoted the company on international stages. www.mehdifarajpour.com & www.oriantheatre.com ]

Wednesday March 2nd   Aviva Rahmani
“Trigger Point Theory as Aesthetic Activism”
4pm Gaskell Building Drama Studio

Trigger Point Theory as Aesthetic Activism is a methodology conceived by ecological artist Aviva Rahmani, to use body knowledge to see the global in the local. Based in current environmental restoration theory and practical experience, it combines science, performative means and discussion to identify where and how people can intervene in sites of serious environmental degradation. 

Aviva Rahmani, ecological artist and Affiliate, Institute for Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR), University of Colorado at Boulder, received an Arts and Healing Network 2009 award for her work on water. In 2009, she began performing workshops about her theoretical approach to environmental restoration, "Trigger Point Theory as Aesthetic Activism," beginning at the Survival Academy, Copenhagen, Denmark. Her new media project on global warming, Gulf to Gulf (2009- present), fiscally sponsored by the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), tracks the global impact of extractive industries. Previous ecological art projects have resulted in the restoration of a former dump site to a flourishing wetland system (Ghost Nets), linking 35 hectares of migratory bird fly zone habitat and helped catalyze a USDA expenditure of $500,000 to restore an additional 13 hectares of critical wetlands habitat (Blue Rocks) in the Gulf of Maine. Internationally known, exhibited and published for her installations, remediation earthworks and environmental art activism, she has over 40 years collaborative experience with scientists. Rahmani received her Masters from the California Institute of the Arts working with Allan Kaprow and is a PhD candidate at the University of Plymouth, UK.


Wednesday March 16th   Ursula Mawson-Raffalt & Anthony J. Faulder-Mawson
“90’ Silence + Activity “
4pm Artaud Performance Centre 

A performative and exhibitive lecture demonstration that investigates the border territory between the disciplines and experiments with blurring the boundaries between performance, exhibition and lecture. 

Ursula Mawson-Raffalt and Anthony J. Faulder-Mawson  both direct the
International Platform for Innovation in the Arts. Known particularly for the avant-garde nature of their works, their artistic integrity and unique artistic language, Ursula Mawson-Raffalt and Anthony J. Faulder-Mawson invent means to layer their independent works to form a third entity which is somehow greater than the sum of its parts. Their artistic vision is derived from the view that  “ Art is an OPEN SYSTEM that sustains the flow of oxygen and heals and transforms and relates specifically to time, the embodiment of silence and memory and the articulation of contemplative space through movement, text, voice, spatial drawings, light, painting, video, photography, media and sound.

In 1993, when they founded the inter-& cross disciplinary association known under the logo ) + ( = a0,  they began a serious, passionate & challenging lifelong collaboration which is rooted in the dialogue about their integrative methods of construction and presentation. Based on their significant groundbreaking methods, both artists have built up, over twenty years, a highly rigorous, complex and responsive working practice in the fields of performing and visual arts.  Working as the innovators, creators, artistic directors and producers, they have since created & produced a large body of work - over thirty international projects to date, - conceived for the theatre, exhibition space and for site specific locations which have been shown in Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Israel, the UK and Romania.http://mrplusfm.blogspot.com www.mrplusfm.net

Wednesday March 30th  Nick Hunt
“Designer > Performer Repositioning the role of the theatre lighting artist”
4pm Gaskell Drama Studio

The role of the person with creative responsibility for lighting in theatre performance has traditionally been conceptualised as ‘designer’ – someone who makes a prior imaginary act before the moment of performance, which is then replayed in performance through an essentially procedural, non-creative, process. I want to propose a partial reinvention of theatre lighting as an arts practice, emphasising the live operation or ‘performance’ of lighting, rather than its design prior to the performance event, and conflating the existing roles of the lighting designer and the lighting operator into the lighting artist. In this seminar, I trace the historical origins of the professional role of the lighting designer and how it is structured, and suggest some strategies for making the shift from designer to performer. As well as describing changes to rehearsal room practices to include lighting, I demonstrate a custom lighting control interface conceptually structured in terms of lighting affects and temporal dynamics,that provides a playable, expressive instrument for the performance of theatre lighting.

Nick graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering before deciding that theatre was more interesting than thermodynamics. After ten years as a professional lighting technician and designer, he started teaching at Rose Bruford College, where – some thirteen years later – he is currently Head of the School of Design, Management and Technical Arts. Nick’s principal research interest at present is the performative potential of light and the lighting artist as performer. Nick’s other research interests include digital scenography and digital performance, the history of theatre lighting, and the roles and status of the various personnel involved in performance-making.


Coordinated by Gretchen Schiller and Johannes Birringer. How to find us: http://www.brunel.ac.uk/about/campus/directions

+   +  +

The Centre broadcasts selected Performance Research Seminars live from the Brunel Drama Studio - making them available to anyone in the world interested in the subject. Johannes Birringer and Marlon Barrios Solano are co-producing the talks and discussions as live webcasts webcast live on dance tech net TV . The partnership between the Centre and dance-techTV, is an experiment in collaborative video broadcasting (the channel is dedicated to interdisciplinary explorations of the performance of movement. The channel allows worldwide 24/7 linear broadcasting of selected programs, LIVE streaming and Video On-demand).

Wondering how Wim Wenders 3d film on Pina Bausch is being received at Berlin Film Festival, I scanned the website of this famous festival. What can be learned from how they run it?

Asked to do a self-evaluation for DFA's Board, I am exploring a bit beyond the same final report requested by any funding agency, such as NEA. What more could be done?

The Berlin Festival proudly presents 8 categories of films: 1) BIG name fiction features expecting big audiences, 2) art -house expecting small audiences, 3) films for the young, 4) films from Germany, 5) out-there & weird "disturbing" films, 6) Retrospective, 7) Homage to an actor 8) Shorts - only 30!

From that list, dance on camera festival shows the art house, out-there, retrospective and shorts. Occassionally DFA does an homage, such as last year's tribute to Alwin Nikolais. Perhaps next year we will do one for Gene Kelly. This year, DFA had the honor of offering Carlos Saura's FLAMENCO FLAMENCO US Premiere and simultaneous US premiere of Masayuki Suo's DANCING CHAPLIN. 

But what about films for the young or a US dance film program? Should these categories be promoted for Festival 2012? Are the Hollywood hip hop guy meets ballerina films the only dance films created for young eyes? Are they being made but they aren't being submitted to dance film festivals? Should we commission them?

Now back to wondering how the Berlin crowd will receive Pina Bausch....