User:Karina/graduation project

notes from Karina/self-directed/Capturing Memories In Time
previous written piece: Time Perception in Dance

1 OCT

TED: A choreographer's creative process in real time by Wayne McGregor

"I'm going to start really, really simply. Usually, dance has a stimulus or stimuli, and I thought I'd take something simple, TED logo, we can all see it, it's quite easy to work with, and I'm going to do something very simply, where you take one idea from a body, and it happens to be my body, and translate that into somebody else's body, so it's a direct transfer, transformation of energy.

And I'm going to imagine this, you can do this too if you like, that I'm going to just take the letter "T" and I'm going to imagine it in mind, and I'm going to place that outside in the real world. So I absolutely see a letter "T" in front of me. (note: spacial recognition) Yeah? It's absolutely there. I can absolutely walk around it when I see it, yeah? It has a kind of a grammar. I know what I'm going to do with it, and I can start to describe it, so I can describe it very simply. I can describe it in my arms, right? So all I did was take my hand and then I move my hand. I can describe it, whoa, in my head, you know? Whoa. Okay. I can do also my shoulder. Yeah? It gives me something to do, something to work towards. If I were to take that letter "T" and flatten it down on the floor (note: spacial recognition from a different perspective), here, maybe just off the floor, all of a sudden I could do maybe something with my knee, yeah? Whoa. So If I put the knee and the arms together, I've got something physical, yeah? And I can start to build something. So what I'm going to do just for one and a half minutes or so is I'm going to take that concept, I'm going to make something, and the dancers behind me are going to interpret it, they're going to snapshot it (note: capture information quickly, capture memory in time?), they're going to take aspects of it, and it's almost like I'm offloading memory and they're holding onto memory? Yeah? And we'll see what we come up with. So just have a little watch about how they're, how they're accessing this and what they're doing, and I'm just going to take this letter "T," the letter "E," and the letter "D," to make something. Okay. Here goes." (3:54 - 5:26)

brainstorm:

want to create an experience / interactive piece
will it be about learning, in general?
can I create an interactive piece that will help people learn?
virtual reality with binaural recording
how does a brain process dance? as language, with the use of memory, by spacial intelligence?
can coding be compared to dancing? language types, (muscle) memory, practise, logic / spacial awareness, structure & fluidity
- scary to start for some, easier once understand the structure / basics
- dance styles are different languages, python, html, java are too
- spacial awareness, physically or digitally

how to capture the essence of a language?
look into languages that have died out
how did it happen?
how was it passed down? archival methods: script, sound recordings, imagery, books, word of mouth? - look into Florian's history classes
decoding dead languages / alphabets: hieroglyphics or inscribed nordic comb?

Some TED for later
Pilobolus: A Dance of "Symbiosis."
Tim Ferriss: Smash fear, learn anything
Yami Joshi: How dance helps me deal with stress
Derek Sivers: How to start a movement
Mae Jemison: Teach arts and sciences together

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/bilingual-speakers-time-different-people-one-language-study-swedish-spanish-a7715146.html

30 SEPT

Received personal notes from Fil (Filip)
ask whether possible to post on wiki / add to research

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

crumb---twelve-fantasy-pieces-after-the-zodiac-for-amplified-piano-1381310574-view-0.png

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 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

ABC Radio: Songlines: the Indigenous memory code
Japing Aboriginal Art: Why Songlines Are Important In Aboriginal Art
Amazon: Computer Power and Human Reason: From Judgment to Calculation by Joseph Weizenbaum (1976)

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

look into: scatting as a measurement of time in dance

it gives more possibilities (to distinguish the 4-'a'-5 counts)
look into history, how / why / when it originated - Harlem late 1920s?
learn to scat? what is important that may not seem obvious?

Human Memory: Sensory Memory

Sensory memory is the shortest-term element of memory
Unlike other types of memory, the sensory memory cannot be prolonged via rehearsal
decays or degrades very quickly, typically in the region of 200 - 500 milliseconds (1/5 - 1/2 second)
visual stimuli is sometimes known as the iconic memory
aural stimuli is known as the echoic memory
touch as the haptic memory
smell processed in olfactory bulb and olfactory cortex
smell is strongest as olfactory bulb and olfactory cortex are nearest to the hippocampus

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?