User:Karina/graduation project

notes from CAPTURING MEMORIES IN TIME
previous written piece: Time Perception in Dance

27 SEPT

Feedback from Michael

methodology of experiments backed up by theory (or vice versa) is good
"Perspective is worth 80 IQ points" - Alan Kay
"The best way to predict the future is to invent it" - Alan Kay (quoted that at the beginning of Special Issue 02 research!)

John Cage

• Doing with Images by Alan Kay (pt.2 11:45 learning how to play tennis)
• Computers as Theatre by Brenda Laurel
• mathematics v.s. human (duality) not so black and white
• not separate things, that's too simplified
• reinforcing a cliche that's not true
• should be connecting structure with fluidity
• third leg connecting the two sides: structure - third leg (whatever it may be) - fluidity

aim?: does this connection help us see / learn things?

Alan Kay related to Seymour Papert
YouTube: Talking Turtle by Papert
is notation written from a perspective of the floor (step mats) or the body (visualising steps)?

Joanna wiki!
her struggle: friction between web design and dance
challenging to show it in fresh perspective

not describing dance and time, but using it (a tool) to show something else
'mark up language using dance and music to teach someone to dance' instead of 'making new dance notation'
have implications to something else: flex box? grids? how could that be informed from Cage or choreographically sense? cross dimension

humour in Special Issue 02
communication & interaction
want to use that essence in graduation project

look up and play around with temporality / sketches with time

Classic FM: Art and music collide in these 20 stunning graphic scores
More musical scores that aren't John Cage!


Crumb - Twelve Fantasy-Pieces after the Zodiac for Amplified Piano





Antosca - One Becomes Two

25 SEPT

Psychology of dance
wiki: Psychology of dance to find references

Dancehub: 5 Interesting Psychological Studies Involving Dancing
(not great source, but has many links to studies related to topic)

1. Dancing Improves Your Brain
2. Mental Practice Can Lead To Improved Dancing
3. The Evolution Of Human Dance May Have Been A Mistake
4. Dancers Can Learn Routines In Different Ways
5. Girls Under Age 16 Have The Most Dancing Confidence

1. Dancing Improves Your Brain Psychology Today: Why Is Dancing So Good for Your Brain?
more references / cited studies about how dancing can improve the brain

2. Mental Practice Can Lead To Improved Dancing
University of California Santa Clara Cruz: UCSC dance research published in prestigious Psychology Science journal

3. The Evolution Of Human Dance May Have Been A Mistake
American Psychological Association: Dance, dance evolution
not many animals have close connections between auditory and motor skills
"Psychologists’ research on the power of movement is giving us insight into why we first danced and how cultures built on that ancient impulse."

4. Dancers Can Learn Routines In Different Ways
Duke Chronicle: Research investigates the science behind dance

5. Girls Under Age 16 Have The Most Dancing Confidence (not related?)
The Guardian: Why do people dance?

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Springer: Thinking in action: thought made visible in contemporary dance by Catherine Stevens and Shirley McKechnie

Buy entire journal for EUR 42.29
or find through HR mediatheek
download links here
link to downloaded file

Abstract
Contemporary dance—movement deliberately and systematically cultivated for its own sake—is examined in the light of the procedural and declarative view of long-term knowledge. We begin with a description of two settings in which new works of contemporary dance are created and performed. Although non-verbal, contemporary dance can be a language declared through movement and stillness of the body. Ideas for new movement material come from objects, events or imaginings that are spoken, seen, heard, imagined, or felt. Declared through movement, the idea becomes visible. Communication in dance involves general psychological processes such as direct visual perception of motion and force, motor simulation via mirror neurons, and implicit learning of movement vocabularies and grammars. Creating and performing dance appear to involve both procedural and declarative knowledge. The latter includes the role of episodic memory in performance and occasional labelling of movement phrases and sections in rehearsal. Procedural knowledge in dance is augmented by expressive nuance, feeling and communicative intent that is not characteristic of other movement-based procedural tasks. Having delineated lexical and grammatical components in dance, neural mechanisms are identified based on Ullman’s (Ullman in Cognition 92:231–270, 2004) alignment of lexical knowledge with declarative memory and mental grammar with procedural memory. We conclude with suggestions for experiments to test these assumptions that concern thought in action in composition, performance and appreciation of contemporary dance.
check out their 60+ references

reference if want to add to own bibliography
Stevens, Catherine; McKechnie, Shirley (2005). "Thinking in action: Thought made visible in contemporary dance". Cognitive Processing. 6 (4): 243–252. doi:10.1007/s10339-005-0014-x.

Jstor: A Nonverbal Language for Imagining and Learning: Dance Education in K-12 Curriculum by Judith Lynne Hanna

Feedback from Andre

• Tino Sehgal
• aaaaan.net (interview)
• human to human interface
• archiving visuals is only a part of it
• what is communicate during dance? movement? feeling?
• Tino - to make time appear

So far topics covered:
dance & time
dance & language
dance & notation

time & language ✓
language & notation ✓
notation & time ✓
time & language & notation - might be too much?

• side note:
  • music as blueprint
  • musicality & dynamics
  • interaction / dialogue

silence: lectures & writing
John Cage - Lecture on Nothing
What is he trying to transmit using a score? Remember he is a musician

23 SEPT

possible structure of chapters for thesis:

Perception Of Time

• clocks
• Levine's clock v.s. event time
• differences in culture / langage?
• experiment / anecdote / own perception / interview with Italian friends (who lived abroad for the past few years) about their time perception compared to their familys' back at home
• Bergsonian v.s. Newtonian time
• describing time

Graphical Notation

• scores
• dance mats v.s. Labanotation
• spatial orientation (with time)
• experiment: spatial + rhythm
• the need for notation (publishing and archiving)

Memory and Flow

• Kandel's sea slugs & Milner's memory types
• muscle memory
• experiment: Jive mix up (challenging flow and muscle memory)
• Csiksgentmihalyi's flow
• experiment: experiencing flow in new dance style
• interviewa: tools for flow and memory
• comparisons of dance school methods / communication

Archiving as a Means of Communication

• video archives, difficult to learn from
• swing near death: Frankie & Norma
• word of mouth, social dancing as a language

language has a structure, but is fluid
relate back to paradox of perception of time in dance & paradox of capturing (archiving) something you can only experience

20 SEPT

"How to build intimacy?" - Giulia about Anna's work, but relevant question for me too

larger context:

• swing almost died out. Frankie Manning and Norma Miller brought it back in the 90s
• dance passed down from person to person, if not archived, the dance language is at risk of disappearing
• urgency (of old project with Sean)
• archive interaction / capturing a moment in time
• transcribe (filmed and physical) dance into graphics

what do you want to achieve with the audience? make them curious, guilty, excite them?

Feedback from Malroes

• parkinsons (MS?) dance class
• "kick the ball" command and the patients use muscle memory to perform actions / moves
• Anna: get text on paralysed woman
• how to make experiments include other people? aimed at other people?

• experience v.s. imposed system
• paradox: capture something you can only experience

• songlines

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"kick the ball" experiment
film individuals 'dance' instructions based on muscle memory
compare how similar they are (comparing sheep illustrations)

• brush teeth
• kick ball
• jumping jacks (you need to know what it means, but most people know)
• kick-bull-chase (you need to know dance lingo)

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Small feedback from Steve

• cognitive science
• cognition in the wild (book)
• situated turn in cognitive science

chapter (experiment #1: clock v.s. event time
expand on clocks / systems / power / paradox

19 SEPT

dance, like music, has a structure
music is a language
dance is another, that uses the language of music as a blueprint

help find a way to understand that language / style / atmosphere / structure

different dance styles = different culture / language
swing can be compared to 'family' languages (Slavic) that is broken down to other languages (Lindy Hop, Charleston, East Coast Swing, Balboa)
borrowed vocabulary due to history and politics (plenty examples in Swing: Frankie 6s, American Spin (Jive), The sailor step, Barrel roll)
List of Lindy Hop moves

if dance is a language, is it publishing something?
decoding dance
visualising dance in a different way (infographics)

18 SEPT

who / why would anyone care?
dance is a language
I want to teach it, make it easier for people to learn / understand

"creating a culture"

• swing society
• look historically
• swing kids? (not language, not big aim)

"articulation"

Feedback from Aymeric

• define / articulate the field, topic and approach
• stalinist / orwelian memory
• Deneet - cultures explained

• compare schools together (Wesselling v.s. Swing in Rhythm)
• method + culture (atmosphere)
• talk about the dancers themselves
• cultural codes
• mention backgrounds and values?
• Giulia: some countries girls / women are meant to know how to dance (Italy)

• Emily: bird's eye view / marking space before dancing
• code that forms harmony
• spacial awareness
• non-verbal communication
• culture of school, culture of dancers

cultural interaction while I was on stage for Special Issue 02 - dancers & audience laughing
aim isn't to become a better dance teacher, but the research will help me either way

13 SEPT

Feedback from Steve

Before starting PZI I was planning to look into digital publishing, interactive PDFs, change in technology and publishing, print vs digital. My thesis would have probably been an analysis of a section of publishing.
At the moment I feel that would be too simple. I'm more interested in creating something I might not get a chance to in the future: a large-scale installation / experience. This would not use a traditional publishing method as a means of communicating my research.
Do I stick to a topic that interests me and use publishing as a means, rather than analyse publishing itself?

• dance notation is a form of communication / publishing
• experiments as research method
• look at Victor's (fine art) thesis - diagrams
• editorial: how will yo present experiments (event? publication?)
• discrete things & how they come together?
• my practise addresses this, this and that
• these things create chapters, which allow for development

• literacy / non-verbal communication
• Sean v.s. new dance partners
• being a good lead or follow. listening communicating signs / signals. communicating by touch
• notation as a means of instruction

• aim: what am I doing? what do I want to make out of it?

Next steps:

• look through previous experiments
• where will they take me? what experiment will flow next? don't stress, it'll flow
  • experiment 1: time perception
  • experiment 2: rhythm and notation
  • experiment 3: flow
  • experiment 4: memory and senses?
  • experiment 5: archive?