User:Karina/draft project proposal

21 NOV

what do you want to make?
I'd like to create a large-scale digital interactive installation which attempts to answer my thesis question: to what extent can we archive dance?

Social dance is an intangible experience that is hard to capture. The thesis is a reflexion of methods capturing notation, memory, flow, spacial awareness, and unspoken-communication (culture?) in social dancing and Swing. Each element is supported by interviews from dancers, personal experiments and psychological theory. The interviews highlight the difference in perspective, as they display a range personal methods to capture, learn and memorise dance. The exhibition aims to presents all gathered content that try to answer which aspects of social dancing can and cannot be archived.

The mediums / methods to archive dance:

graphical notations (previous systems, of rhythm, of space / geometric shapes, of footwork, comparisons of dance styles)
video (body cam, from audience perspective, of footwork, of socials)
audio (of footsteps, of rhythm, of songs, of scatting)
people's notes (of class, of rhythm, of steps, of space)
interviews (of dance teachers, of professionals, of beginners, of Norma Miller?, of those who used to dance)
academic papers (theory of dance)
psychological theory (time perception, memory, flow)

It playfully points out the tension between documentation and experience, showing that we are still unable to completely capture an experience. When viewing captured content of an experience, in any media format, we only see a snippet of the full experience. When looking at dance, video may seem to capture movement well, yet it is only a good medium from an audience perspective, not the dancers'. Some graphical dance notation manages to present direction, body part movement and intention, yet lacks rhythm and communication between the dance partners. The aim is not to find one medium that captures the whole dance experience, but rather use this collection of media to highlight which aspects of notation, memory, flow, spacial awareness, and unspoken-communication (culture?) in social dancing and Swing can be archived.

The installation itself will compose of (touch) screens, beamers, speakers, (considering: kinect, IR sensor, motion sensors, binaural recordings) to create a sense of mixed reality. Each medium is a snippet of data, which the audience can immerse themselves in. This dive into singular perceptions creates different realities, focusing on one element at a time - rhythm for example. The collection allows the viewer to dip in and out of different realities to understand the variations of perspectives, but also to fuse them together to see the bigger picture.

Example of own graphical notation system for rhythm

how do you plan to make it?

The different mediums / methods to archive dance will be gathered and displayed in an installation. Special attention will be paid to interaction within the installation, to emphasise the interaction of sharing an experience, like between dancers in social dancing.

I already have a recorded Skype interview with Earanee Niedzwiecki, and am in the middle of scheduling one with Adam Brozowski for last week of November. Earanee would like to introduce me - through Skype - to three of her dance friends in the first week of December, during a swing dance event. I have a few more people on my list that I would like to interview, but I haven't reached out yet. I would like to learn from the first few, to see which questions need mending, which aspects do I not get a clear answer from and/or which topics I may have forgotten about. Once I gain enough insight from them, I plan to contact Norma Miller with very specific questions.

Screenshots from interview with Earanee Niedzwiecki

The psychological theory research and academic papers regarding dance will be used from last year's Reading, Writing and Research Methodology assignments as well as from Special Issue 02. As the second thematic project was based on sound scores, it includes three of my dance experiments with rhythm, spacial awareness and flow. The graphical outcome of those experiments will also be presented. This autumn I continued developing one of those experiments into a graphical notation system to capture rhythm. I would like to continue progressing it into an interactive digital form.

In order to broaden the spectrum of notation systems, I started collecting people's personal dance notes. At the moment I have two dancers that shared their work with me, of whom one is an advanced teacher and the other a beginner student. I would like to continue gathering notes from more dancers, of any skill level, to see which aspects are commonly addressed and whether they present them in similar, or very different, ways. Some aspects may include notes from classes, notation of rhythm, dissecting steps or routines or visualising space.

Beginner student dance notes

Personal dance notation will also be backed with already existing trials of notation systems. None of these became universally used scores, as they are difficult to learn, some are personal interpretations and none manage to communicate all aspects of dance. Some choreologies include: 17th–18th century Feuillet system, Labanotation, footstep mats, works of Merce Cunningham and of Rudolf Benesh. I would like to collaborate with dancers to see whether we could collectively create a system to show the use of space - using geometric shapes - and how we could present footwork in a different method than the very simplified system of footstep mats.

Labanotation

I would still like to experiment with audio visual media. I plan to work with the Image & Sound Station and the Interaction Station and at WdKA. At the Sound Station I hope to record audio of footsteps shuffling rhythms as well as scat singing. At the Interaction Station I hope to get technical advice on shooting video of dance from dancers perspective using a body cam, video of footwork and video taken from birds eye view.

what is your timetable?
26 JANUARY - collect content (interviews, graphics, sound files, videos)
18 FEBRUARY - editorial stage (what gets used, what content supports another)
16 MARCH - design (how to present chosen content, branding)
20 APRIL - digital production (convert material into digital form)
1 JUNE - physical production (building installation itself)

why do you want to make it?
Dance is a non-verbal language passed down from person to person. If it isn’t recorded, it will be lost. Swing almost died out, until it was reintroduced by Frankie Manning and Norma Miller in the 1990s. Choreology, graphical or written dance notation, is a method for conservation, yet there are many versions. They range from overly simplistic footstep maps which only communicate footwork, to Lebanotation which represents many aspects such as direction, body part movement, duration and dynamics of the movement, yet is difficult to read and requires time to learn do decode the language. Conserving dance with the use of video is fine if it’s for watching purposes only, yet once it is used for teaching or recreation, it becomes too fast and/or time consuming to constantly rewind small sections. My aim is to find which (intangible) aspects of dance - whether rhythm, culture, memory or flow - can be captured well, and using which medium.

Since my MS diagnosis a few years ago, I've been having problems with memory. This made me interested in the brain, retrieving memory and the graphics of scans. I have a fear of losing my ability to dance, of losing my memory and of forgetting the memories I am forming now with my new ‘dance family’. During the summer I was planning a project to capture the relationship between my ballroom dancing partner and I. The urgency was in capturing us before it was too late, before we split ways and before my memory fades. Sadly our splitting came faster than expected. Since I have started Swing classes in February 2017, I've been hooked and practise 5-13 hours a week. I wonder whether its survival was inevitable. It's again a popular dance with a large community, even though it almost died out. What made this trend reappear? Which archived material helped? What needs to be archived to preserve it in the future? As a designer, I see dance in a geometric way. It helps to visualise shapes and lines to improve spacial awareness. Can sharing dancers' perceptions on what and how they memorise dance help with archiving?

who can help you and how?

who	how
Becky Tomas, Luciën de Bruin & Zoë Robaey	teachers from Swing in Rhythm (Lindy Hop) dance school could share some insight into their methods of teaching and opinions about communicating ‘dance language’
Leila Bergen	teacher from van der Meuelen Wesselling (Ballroom & Latin) dance school could share some insight into her methods of teaching and opinions about communicating ‘dance language’
Martin Wedby & Anita Kankimäki	have been taught swing by Frankie Manning and Norma Miller, could possibly tell me what their experience was, what Frankie and Norma told them was important
Filip Kostanecki	dancer at Swing in Rhythm dance school that annotates and analyses the structure of dance classes
Karsten Steehouwer	psychologist and dancer at Swing in Rhythm dance school that may have an insight in dance from a psychological perspective
students / participants at Swing in Rhythm dance school	listen to their experience with dance, learning how to dance, memory techniques and what tools they may be missing to make it easier
students / participants at van der Meuelen Wesselling dance school	what are they happy with? what are they missing? what techniques or tools do they use to memorise and practise? what would make learning easier?
Varinia Canto Vila	Dancer and artist - look up bio here. Did workshop with her on 30th May 2017 which looked at movement, how the body is a medium that could reinforce the law
Adam Brozowski	Swing dancer, had the honor to learn directly from legends like Frankie Manning, Norma Miller, Jean Veloz, and Dawn Hampton. Signed up for workshop class with him on 11th November 2017
Het Danspaleis	organisation which organises swing dance events at elderly homes and hospitals for the elderly / patients to feel young again may share insight in their aim, why they do it, how do they know its successful
dr Mol & dr Donselaar	neurologists at Maasstad Hospital
Esther van der Heiden	assistant / nurse at Maasstad Hospital who, among other things, organises events for patients, has a wide network that might help me. She organised Dance for Health workshop in 2016 for patients with MS, which will help with research regarding dance with muscle and memory difficulties (http://danceforhealth.nl)
therapists	find out about dance as a therapeutical technique - for trauma?
Bavo Europoort	psychiatry specialists who conduct memory tests
Margit from Interaction Station at WdKA	Could help me with body cams, interaction design and other relevant software and hardware
Rob from Image & Sound Station	Could help me with clear sound recordings of footsteps shuffling specific dance rhythms

relation to previous practice
For our first Reading, Writing and Research Methodology assignment, I looked into time perception. The topic of our second thematic project (Special Issue 02) was sound scores.

This merged with the next RW&RM assignment about time perception in dance, where I examined dr. Brenda Milner’s procedural memory, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s take on flow, This psychological research was backed with personal dance experiments.

Since then I've been looking into muscle memory, flow

Special Issue 02: Pushing the Score

look into graphical notation and scores
John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Rudolf Laban and Rudolf Benesh
Levine's Time Perception - clock time v.s. event time (how that relates to Wiener's Newtonian v.s. Bergsonian Time)
structure v.s. fluidity: how does that translate to dance?

notes from Karina/self-directed/Capturing Memories In Time

how to capture memories?
dr. Brenda Milner’s procedural memory, structure of memory / neuroscience and muscle memory
Psychology of dance

previous written piece: Time Perception in Dance

Levine's Time Perception - clock time v.s. event time (how that relates to Wiener's Newtonian v.s. Bergsonian Time)
3 experiments backed with psychological theory

experiment 1: basic choreology analysis
- which analysed rhythm, spacial orientation and notation systems
- with the psychological base of dr. Brenda Milner’s procedural memory
- and artistic base of: Merce Cunningham; Rudolf Laban; and Rudolf Benesh

experiment 2: Jive mix up
- aimed to see how much the fluidity of a dance was disturbed when the order of the choreography was changed
- with the psychological base of dr. Brenda Milner’s procedural memory
- with the theoretical base of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s take on flow

experiment 3: Learning a new dance style
- noting the experience / challange of learning Swing basics during a private class without any prep
- with the theoretical base of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s take on flow

The performance piece was based on experiment 2, yet I allowed the audience to be in control. My dancing partner and I danced whatever the audience instructed us to by pressing buttons on a website available on their phone. Once a button with a graphical interpretation of a move was pressed, a command would be spoken from the speakers.

relation to a larger context (taken from 'Why I'm interested as a designer')

- - Tension between documenting and experiencing
  - Drive of society to capture everything
  - Unable to completely capture an experience yet
  - Own opinion about that chase - will capturing an experience help us be more empathetic / change of perspective?
  - Future of experience sharing / publishing

references
Beauchamp, P. (2006). Chorégraphie; ou, l’art de décrire la danse. [image] Available at: https://www.britannica.com/topic/dance-notation [Accessed 17 Feb. 2017].

Griesbeck, C. (1996). Introduction to Labanotation. [online] User.uni-frankfurt.de. Available at: http://user.uni-frankfurt.de/~griesbec/LABANE.HTML [Accessed 27 Feb. 2017].

Benesh, R. (2006). Dance notation system devised in the 1950s by Rudolf and Joan Benesh. [image] Available at: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Rudolf-Benesh [Accessed 20 Feb. 2017].

Cunningham, M. (2005). Suite For Five (1956). [image] Available at: https://prelectur.stanford.edu/lecturers/cunningham [Accessed 2 Mar. 2017].

Dancing 4 Beginners, (2008). Basic Salsa Steps. [image] Available at: http://www.dancing4beginners.com/salsa-steps.htm [Accessed 15 Feb. 2017].

Goodman, N. (1976). Languages of Art: An Approach to a Theory of Symbols. 2nd ed. Hackett Publishing Comp.

Gross, R. (2012). Tempo Recommendations for Dance Music. [online] Hollywood Ballroom Dance Center. Available at: http://www.hollywoodballroomdc.com/recommended-tempos-for-dance-music/ [Accessed 24 Feb. 2017].

Laban, R. (1998). Schrifttanz (1928). [image] Available at: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Rudolf-Laban [Accessed 20 Feb. 2017].

Leblanc, S. (2011). Learning the Different Beats of Ballroom Dances. [Blog] Sheri Leblanc Musings. Available at: http://sheris-musings.tumblr.com/post/9776289357/beats [Accessed 23 Feb. 2017].

Levine, R. (1998). A geography of time. 1st ed. New York: Basic Books.

Slater, L. (2005). Opening Skinner's Box. 1st ed. London: Bloomsbury, pp.205 - 223.

Ted Talk, (2009). Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: Flow, the secret to happiness. [video] Available at: http://www.ted.com/talks/mihaly_csikszentmihalyi_on_flow?language=en [Accessed 3 Mar. 2017].

Wiener, N. (1965). Cybernetics: or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine. 2nd ed. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Pr.

preparation for SESSION THREE: 19 OCT

Cannot scan hackpacks in at the moment, but ideas from the internet can be found in Graduation Project

what do you want to make?

I'd like to create a large-scale digital interactive installation which playfully points out the tension between documentation and experience, to show that we are unable to completely capture an experience. The focus will be on dance, yet this does not necessarily mean that the audience are the ones dancing. They could either have experience of dancing, without the action itself, or they could be in control of the performance (think Sims). The activities will communicate the experiments and outcomes conducted for my thesis in a visual manner. These experiments are based on psychological theory regarding topics such as: memory; flow; spacial awareness; notation; and unspoken-communication in dance. The experiments are conducted with both participants who dance, and those who do not - whether because they enjoy it or not. Although the focus is on social dance experience, most experiments do not aim for the participants to dance. (The experiments are the methodology / correlation between thesis and graduation project. There is no strict rule whether I take a theory and create an experiment out of it, or create an experiment and find appropriate theory to back it up. One experiment leads to another as topics are related).
The content of this participatory installation will fall into either one of the two categories:

showing all (aiming for 6) conducted experiments
showing one of the conducted experiment in depth

The installation itself will compose of (touch) screens, beamers, speakers, (kinect, IR sensor, motion sensors, VR, binaural recordings) to create a sense of mixed reality.
Interaction within the piece is crucial to emphasise the interaction of sharing an experience. The interaction can be in either one of the following:

between computer and audience
audience and performer
audience members themselves

When trying to communicate an experience, the more information is given to the audience / viewer / listener, we think we are able to translate this intangible moment in bigger depth. The more we show, the better it will be understood. Yet can we really communicate an experience? If we look at it using Shannon-Weaver's communication model, the sender is pushing an experience using some medium (the channel) to the receiver. (look deeper into the noise and how it relates)

When uploading a picture of our holidays on Instagram, we only share a static visual snippet. We could add more pictures, or videos to fully capture the moment, yet it this will still only represent, not present, that reality. Chefs in cooking shows need to use words to describe the smell and flavour in order to communicate what cannot be captured. In order to fully understand that moment, the receiver needs to experience it themselves. Problem is, even if they do recreate this experience, it will not be the same as of the sender. Their previous experiences create a bias.

How can dance be communicated?
A filmed version is great for archival, yet very difficult to learn from. The viewer needs to watch few-second fragments, pause it, rewind it, and watch again, till it is understood. This method represents the movement perfectly for documentation, yet not for recreation.
Dance notation is also a great way to document a movement, yet there isn't a standard notation system that is both easy to learn or communicates all factors such as: speed; rhythm; direction; motivation.

dance mats with footprints - too simple, just show footwork
Labanotation - shows all factors, but very difficult to learn how to read
many dancers have their own method of notation

People learn and memorise how to dance in various ways. Some keep track of the count, and some scat-sing to keep track of the rhythm. Some focus more on spacial awareness - to understand which direction they are going. Even spacial awareness itself is seen from different perceptions: birds-eye-view; as seen from the perception of the dancer; as a third-party. I'd like to interview a few dancers and teachers from the two dance schools - van der Meulen-Wesseling and Swing in Rhythm) to gather some of their insights and learning techniques / tools.

If you focus on all factors (speed, rhythm, direction, motivation), the movement becomes very stiff / controlled as our nervous system is incapable of processing more than about 110 bits of information per second (Ted Talk, 2009). The paradox is, the more you let go, the better of a dancer you become because you learn how to fall into flow. (Insert explanation of Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi here). If you focus on one factor at a time, you immerse yourself into that reality.

When focusing solely on rhythm, you shut out all other distractions
Dipping in and on out different realities

keywords for graduation project

participatory
playful
thought provoking
eye-opening (not serious, political..)
experience
research / experiments shown in experience
transpose / translate
mixed reality (mixable realities)
dipping in / out of different realities
projection on screens

how do you plan to make it?

make experiments
choose whether to show all / few / only one in depth
transpose experiment into interactive installation
test interactive installation on test group
fix any misinterpretations / mistakes
finalise piece

what is your timetable?

22-10-17 // Plan out experiments
05-11-17 // Conduct experiments on participants
24-11-17 // Graduation Proposal Deadline
Make corrections to any mistakes found in experiment explanations
Test experiments again if needed
21-12-17 // Finish conducting all experiments

Plan how to visualise outcome of experiments (graphics)
Decide whether will choose all, some or just one experiment to exhibit in installation
Make concrete sketches of prototype of installation
Make concrete list of materials needed for installation
Start looking for materials for installation
Test visual (graphics) outcome of experiments on participants
Fix anything that may have not been clear from visuals
Finish visualising outcome of experiments

08-03-18 // Make prototype of installation
09-04-18 // Start building installation
25-06-18 // Finish building installation

why do you want to make it?
Reasoning as a designer / publisher:

importance of mix reality (viewing experience from different perspectives / using different media (film + notation + sound), resemblance vs. representation - Nelson Goodman)
future of experience sharing / publishing
are we getting closer to capturing experiences? what tools will help us do that? will we ever manage? what may happen once we achieve that? will that be a simulation?
simulations - can we push it too far?
experiencing someone's experience? will it ever really work? will it bring social / political awareness or respect? what's the danger behind it? (again, possibly too far. maybe final thought for thesis?)

Reasoning as a dancer:

I'd like to find to what extent is it possible to capture the moment / the experience while social dancing
how can I best communicate an experience?
to what extent should I communicate my experience, and let the viewer / student have their own? (structure v.s. fluidity, not so B&W, 'Doing with Images' by Alan Kay)

Dance is a non-verbal language passed down from person to person. If it isn’t recorded, it will be lost. Swing almost died out, until it was reintroduced by Frankie Manning and Norma Miller in the 1990s. Choreology, graphical or written dance notation, is a method for conservation, yet there are many versions. They range from overly simplistic footstep maps which only communicate footwork, to Lebanotation which represents many aspects such as direction, body part movement, duration and dynamics of the movement, yet is difficult to read and requires time to learn do decode the language. Conserving dance with the use of video is fine if it’s for watching purposes only, yet once it is used for teaching or recreation, it becomes too fast and/or time consuming to constantly rewind small sections. (repeating myself here - not sure whether explanation relevant for earlier or later in the proposal)

who can help you and how?

who	how
Becky Tomas, Luciën de Bruin & Zoë Robaey	teachers from Swing in Rhythm (Lindy Hop) dance school could share some insight into their methods of teaching and opinions about communicating ‘dance language’
Leila Bergen	teacher from van der Meuelen Wesselling (Ballroom & Latin) dance school could share some insight into her methods of teaching and opinions about communicating ‘dance language’
Martin Wedby & Anita Kankimäki	have been taught swing by Frankie Manning and Norma Miller, could possibly tell me what their experience was, what Frankie and Norma told them was important
Filip Kostanecki	dancer at Swing in Rhythm dance school that annotates and analyses the structure of dance classes
Karsten Steehouwer	psychologist and dancer at Swing in Rhythm dance school that may have an insight in dance from a psychological perspective
students / participants at Swing in Rhythm dance school	listen to their experience with dance, learning how to dance, memory techniques and what tools they may be missing to make it easier
students / participants at van der Meuelen Wesselling dance school	what are they happy with? what are they missing? what techniques or tools do they use to memorise and practise? what would make learning easier?
Varinia Canto Vila	Dancer and artist - look up bio here. Did workshop with her on 30th May 2017 which looked at movement, how the body is a medium that could reinforce the law
Adam Brozowski	Swing dancer, had the honor to learn directly from legends like Frankie Manning, Norma Miller, Jean Veloz, and Dawn Hampton. Signed up for workshop class with him on 11th November 2017
Het Danspaleis	organisation which organises swing dance events at elderly homes and hospitals for the elderly / patients to feel young again may share insight in their aim, why they do it, how do they know its successful
dr Mol & dr Donselaar	neurologists at Maasstad Hospital
Esther van der Heiden	assistant / nurse at Maasstad Hospital who, among other things, organises events for patients, has a wide network that might help me. She organised Dance for Health workshop in 2016 for patients with MS, which will help with research regarding dance with muscle and memory difficulties (http://danceforhealth.nl)
therapists	find out about dance as a therapeutical technique - for trauma?
Bavo Europoort	psychiatry specialists who conduct memory tests

relation to previous practice
Special Issue 02: Pushing the Score

look into graphical notation and scores
John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Rudolf Laban and Rudolf Benesh
Levine's Time Perception - clock time v.s. event time (how that relates to Wiener's Newtonian v.s. Bergsonian Time)
structure v.s. fluidity: how does that translate to dance?

notes from Karina/self-directed/Capturing Memories In Time

how to capture memories?
dr. Brenda Milner’s procedural memory, structure of memory / neuroscience and muscle memory
Psychology of dance

previous written piece: Time Perception in Dance

Levine's Time Perception - clock time v.s. event time (how that relates to Wiener's Newtonian v.s. Bergsonian Time)
3 experiments backed with psychological theory

experiment 1: basic choreology analysis
- which analysed rhythm, spacial orientation and notation systems
- with the psychological base of dr. Brenda Milner’s procedural memory
- and artistic base of: Merce Cunningham; Rudolf Laban; and Rudolf Benesh

experiment 2: Jive mix up
- aimed to see how much the fluidity of a dance was disturbed when the order of the choreography was changed
- with the psychological base of dr. Brenda Milner’s procedural memory
- with the theoretical base of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s take on flow

experiment 3: Learning a new dance style
- noting the experience / challange of learning Swing basics during a private class without any prep
- with the theoretical base of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s take on flow

The performance piece was based on experiment 2, yet I allowed the audience to be in control. My dancing partner and I danced whatever the audience instructed us to by pressing buttons on a website available on their phone. Once a button with a graphical interpretation of a move was pressed, a command would be spoken from the speakers.

relation to a larger context

Robert Wiener’s view on Newtonian and Bergsonian time
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s take on Flow
dr. Brenda Milner’s procedural memory
Nelson Goodman's approach to Theory of Symbols (autographic vs. allographic, Theory of notation, Score, sketch, and script)
Alan Kay's Doing with Images Makes Symbols
Brenda Laurel's Computers as Theatre

references
Beauchamp, P. (2006). Chorégraphie; ou, l’art de décrire la danse. [image] Available at: https://www.britannica.com/topic/dance-notation [Accessed 17 Feb. 2017].

Griesbeck, C. (1996). Introduction to Labanotation. [online] User.uni-frankfurt.de. Available at: http://user.uni-frankfurt.de/~griesbec/LABANE.HTML [Accessed 27 Feb. 2017].

Benesh, R. (2006). Dance notation system devised in the 1950s by Rudolf and Joan Benesh. [image] Available at: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Rudolf-Benesh [Accessed 20 Feb. 2017].

Cunningham, M. (2005). Suite For Five (1956). [image] Available at: https://prelectur.stanford.edu/lecturers/cunningham [Accessed 2 Mar. 2017].

Dancing 4 Beginners, (2008). Basic Salsa Steps. [image] Available at: http://www.dancing4beginners.com/salsa-steps.htm [Accessed 15 Feb. 2017].

Goodman, N. (1976). Languages of Art: An Approach to a Theory of Symbols. 2nd ed. Hackett Publishing Comp.

Gross, R. (2012). Tempo Recommendations for Dance Music. [online] Hollywood Ballroom Dance Center. Available at: http://www.hollywoodballroomdc.com/recommended-tempos-for-dance-music/ [Accessed 24 Feb. 2017].

Laban, R. (1998). Schrifttanz (1928). [image] Available at: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Rudolf-Laban [Accessed 20 Feb. 2017].

Leblanc, S. (2011). Learning the Different Beats of Ballroom Dances. [Blog] Sheri Leblanc Musings. Available at: http://sheris-musings.tumblr.com/post/9776289357/beats [Accessed 23 Feb. 2017].

Levine, R. (1998). A geography of time. 1st ed. New York: Basic Books.

Slater, L. (2005). Opening Skinner's Box. 1st ed. London: Bloomsbury, pp.205 - 223.

Ted Talk, (2009). Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: Flow, the secret to happiness. [video] Available at: http://www.ted.com/talks/mihaly_csikszentmihalyi_on_flow?language=en [Accessed 3 Mar. 2017].

Wiener, N. (1965). Cybernetics: or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine. 2nd ed. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Pr.

SESSION TWO: 5 OCT

what do you want to make?

(what / how?)
I'd like to create a large-scale digital interactive installation which playfully points out the tension between documentation and experience, to show that we are unable to completely capture an experience. The focus will be on dance, yet this does not necessarily mean that the audience are the ones dancing. They can also be in control of the performance (think Sims). The activities will be based on experiments conducted for my thesis. These experiments are based on psychological theory regarding topics such as: memory; flow; spacial awareness; notation; and unspoken-communication in dance. (The experiments are the methodology / correlation between thesis and graduation project. There is no strict rule whether I take a theory and create an experiment out of it, or create an experiment and find appropriate theory to back it up. One experiment leads to another as topics are related).
The content of this participatory installation will fall into either one of the two categories:

showing all (aiming for 6) conducted experiments
showing one of the conducted experiment in depth

The installation itself will compose of (touch) screens, beamers, speakers, (kinect, IR sensor, motion sensors, VR, binaural recordings) to create a sense of mixed reality.
Interaction within the piece is crucial to emphasise the interaction of sharing an experience. The interaction can be in either one of the following:

between computer and audience
audience and performer
audience members themselves

(why?)

keywords for graduation project

participatory
playful
thought provoking
eye-opening (not serious, political..)
experience
research / experiments shown in experience
transpose / translate
mixed reality

how do you plan to make it?

what is your timetable?

22-10-17 // Plan out experiments
05-11-17 // Conduct experiments on participants
24-11-17 // Graduation Proposal Deadline
Make corrections to any mistakes found in experiment explanations
Test experiments again if needed
21-12-17 // Finish conducting all experiments

Plan how to visualise outcome of experiments (graphics)
Decide whether will choose all, some or just one experiment to exhibit in installation
Make concrete sketches of prototype of installation
Make concrete list of materials needed for installation
Start looking for materials for installation
Test visual (graphics) outcome of experiments on participants
Fix anything that may have not been clear from visuals
Finish visualising outcome of experiments

08-03-18 // Make prototype of installation
09-04-18 // Start building installation
25-06-18 // Finish building installation

why do you want to make it?

Looking from a dance perspective, I'd like to find to what extent is it possible to capture the moment / the experience while social dancing
Looking at a broader sense, are we getting closer to capturing experiences? What tools will help us do that? Will we ever manage? What may happen once we achieve that? Will that be a simulation?

Dance is a non-verbal language passed down from person to person. If it isn’t recorded, it will be lost. Swing almost died out, until it was reintroduced by Frankie Manning and Norma Miller in the 1990s. Choreology, graphical or written dance notation, is a method for conservation, yet there are many versions. They range from overly simplistic footstep maps which only communicate footwork, to Lebanotation which represents many aspects such as direction, body part movement, duration and dynamics of the movement, yet is difficult to read and requires time to learn do decode the language. Conserving dance with the use of video is fine if it’s for watching purposes only, yet once it is used for teaching or recreation, it becomes too fast and/or time consuming to constantly rewind small sections.

who can help you and how?

who	how
Becky Tomas, Luciën de Bruin & Zoë Robaey	teachers from Swing in Rhythm (Lindy Hop) dance school could share some insight into their methods of teaching and opinions about communicating ‘dance language’
Leila Bergen	teacher from van der Meuelen Wesselling (Ballroom & Latin) dance school could share some insight into her methods of teaching and opinions about communicating ‘dance language’
Martin Wedby & Anita Kankimäki	have been taught swing by Frankie Manning and Norma Miller, could possibly tell me what their experience was, what Frankie and Norma told them was important
Filip Kostanecki	dancer at Swing in Rhythm dance school that annotates and analyses the structure of dance classes
Karsten Steehouwer	psychologist and dancer at Swing in Rhythm dance school that may have an insight in dance from a psychological perspective
students / participants at Swing in Rhythm dance school	listen to their experience with dance, learning how to dance, memory techniques and what tools they may be missing to make it easier
students / participants at van der Meuelen Wesselling dance school	what are they happy with? what are they missing? what techniques or tools do they use to memorise and practise? what would make learning easier?
Het Danspaleis	organisation which organises swing dance events at elderly homes and hospitals for the elderly / patients to feel young again may share insight in their aim, why they do it, how do they know its successful
dr Mol & dr Donselaar	neurologists at Maasstad Hospital
Esther van der Heiden	assistant / nurse at Maasstad Hospital who, among other things, organises events for patients, has a wide network that might help me. She organised Dance for Health workshop in 2016 for patients with MS, which will help with research regarding dance with muscle and memory difficulties (http://danceforhealth.nl)
therapists	find out about dance as a therapeutical technique - for trauma?
Bavo Europoort	psychiatry specialists who conduct memory tests

relation to previous practice

Previous works, both written and physical, focused on Time Perception in Dance. The written piece looked at the paradox of time perception and its relation to time.

written piece: Time Perception in Dance
research into perception of time

with the theoretical base of: Robert Levine’s clock time and event time; and Robert Wiener’s view on Newtonian and Bergsonian time

experiment 1: basic choreology analysis

which analysed rhythm, spacial orientation and notation systems
with the psychological base of dr. Brenda Milner’s procedural memory
and artistic base of: Merce Cunningham; Rudolf Laban; and Rudolf Benesh

experiment 2: Jive mix up

aimed to see how much the fluidity of a dance was disturbed when the order of the choreography was changed
with the theoretical base of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s take on flow

experiment 3: Learning a new dance style

noting the experience / challange of learning Swing basics during a private class without any prep
with the theoretical base of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s take on flow

The performance piece was based on experiment 2, yet I allowed the audience to be in control. My dancing partner and I danced whatever the audience instructed us to by pressing buttons on a website available on their phone. Once a button with a graphical interpretation of a move was pressed, a command would be spoken from the speakers.

relation to a larger context

Robert Wiener’s view on Newtonian and Bergsonian time
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s take on Flow
dr. Brenda Milner’s procedural memory
Nelson Goodman's approach to Theory of Symbols (autographic vs. allographic, Theory of notation, Score, sketch, and script)
Alan Kay's Doing with Images Makes Symbols
Brenda Laurel's Computers as Theatre

references
Beauchamp, P. (2006). Chorégraphie; ou, l’art de décrire la danse. [image] Available at: https://www.britannica.com/topic/dance-notation [Accessed 17 Feb. 2017].

Griesbeck, C. (1996). Introduction to Labanotation. [online] User.uni-frankfurt.de. Available at: http://user.uni-frankfurt.de/~griesbec/LABANE.HTML [Accessed 27 Feb. 2017].

Benesh, R. (2006). Dance notation system devised in the 1950s by Rudolf and Joan Benesh. [image] Available at: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Rudolf-Benesh [Accessed 20 Feb. 2017].

Cunningham, M. (2005). Suite For Five (1956). [image] Available at: https://prelectur.stanford.edu/lecturers/cunningham [Accessed 2 Mar. 2017].

Dancing 4 Beginners, (2008). Basic Salsa Steps. [image] Available at: http://www.dancing4beginners.com/salsa-steps.htm [Accessed 15 Feb. 2017].

Goodman, N. (1976). Languages of Art: An Approach to a Theory of Symbols. 2nd ed. Hackett Publishing Comp.

Gross, R. (2012). Tempo Recommendations for Dance Music. [online] Hollywood Ballroom Dance Center. Available at: http://www.hollywoodballroomdc.com/recommended-tempos-for-dance-music/ [Accessed 24 Feb. 2017].

Laban, R. (1998). Schrifttanz (1928). [image] Available at: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Rudolf-Laban [Accessed 20 Feb. 2017].

Leblanc, S. (2011). Learning the Different Beats of Ballroom Dances. [Blog] Sheri Leblanc Musings. Available at: http://sheris-musings.tumblr.com/post/9776289357/beats [Accessed 23 Feb. 2017].

Levine, R. (1998). A geography of time. 1st ed. New York: Basic Books.

Slater, L. (2005). Opening Skinner's Box. 1st ed. London: Bloomsbury, pp.205 - 223.

Ted Talk, (2009). Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: Flow, the secret to happiness. [video] Available at: http://www.ted.com/talks/mihaly_csikszentmihalyi_on_flow?language=en [Accessed 3 Mar. 2017].

Wiener, N. (1965). Cybernetics: or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine. 2nd ed. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Pr.

SESSION ONE: 20 SEPT

what do you want to make?

transcribe dance into graphics
decoding dance Irma: How?
visualising dance in a different way (infographics), with a psychological look at time perception
help find a way to understand the language / style / atmosphere / structure
create interactive piece that shows my theoretical findings paired with a series of experiments Irma: describe the kind of interaction? Is it digital?

Irma: Try to describe How/What/Why

how do you plan to make it?
I would like to investigate the struggle of experience v.s. imposed system by looking at the paradox of capturing dance that could only be experienced. This will be done by a series of experiments backed up with psychological theory about time, flow and memory.

Irma: Could you give an example of your first experiment?

what is your timetable?
26th September

look through previous written text: what needs expansion?
(chapter 1 about time perception, clocks / systems / power / paradox)

why do you want to make it?
Dance is a non-verbal language passed down from person to person. If it isn’t recorded, it will be lost. Swing almost died out, until it was reintroduced by Frankie Manning and Norma Miller in the 1990s. Choreology, graphical or written dance notation, is a method for conservation, yet there are many versions. They range from overly simplistic footstep maps which only communicate footwork, to Lebanotation which represents many aspects such as direction, body part movement, duration and dynamics of the movement, yet is difficult to read and requires time to learn do decode the language. Conserving dance with the use of video is fine if it’s for watching purposes only, yet once it is used for teaching or recreation, it becomes too fast and/or time consuming to constantly rewind small sections.

I’d like to understand what tools / methods / techniques could help dancers to help learn and remember.

Irma: How would you discover this? Are you going to interview them?

who can help you and how?

who	how
Becky Tomas, Luciën de Bruin & Zoë Robaey	teachers from Swing in Rhythm (Lindy Hop) dance school could share some insight into their methods of teaching and opinions about communicating ‘dance language’
Leila Bergen	teacher from van der Meuelen Wesselling (Ballroom & Latin) dance school could share some insight into her methods of teaching and opinions about communicating ‘dance language’
Karsten Steehouwer	psychologist and dancer at Swing in Rhythm dance school that may have an insight in dance from a psychological perspective
students / participants at Swing in Rhythm dance school	listen to their experience with dance, learning how to dance, memory techniques and what tools they may be missing to make it easier
students / participants at van der Meuelen Wesselling dance school	what are they happy with? what are they missing? what techniques or tools do they use to memorise and practise? what would make learning easier?
Het Danspaleis	organisation which organises swing dance events at elderly homes and hospitals for the elderly / patients to feel young again may share insight in their aim, why they do it, how do they know its successful
dr Mol & dr Donselaar	neurologists at Maasstad Hospital
Esther van der Heiden	assistant / nurse at Maasstad Hospital who, among other things, organises events for patients, has a wide network that might help me. She organised Dance for Health workshop in 2016 for patients with MS, which will help with research regarding dance with muscle and memory difficulties (http://danceforhealth.nl)
therapists	find out about dance as a therapeutical technique - for trauma?
Bavo Europoort	psychiatry specialists who conduct memory tests

relation to previous practice
Previous works, both written and physical, focused on Time Perception in Dance. The written piece looked at the paradox of time perception and its relation to time.

written piece: Time Perception in Dance
research into perception of time

with the theoretical base of: Robert Levine’s clock time and event time; and Robert Wiener’s view on Newtonian and Bergsonian time

experiment 1: basic choreology analysis

which analysed rhythm, spacial orientation and notation systems
with the psychological base of dr. Brenda Milner’s procedural memory
and artistic base of: Merce Cunningham; Rudolf Laban; and Rudolf Benesh

experiment 2: Jive mix up

aimed to see how much the fluidity of a dance was disturbed when the order of the choreography was changed
with the theoretical base of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s take on flow

experiment 3: Learning a new dance style

noting the experience / challange of learning Swing basics during a private class without any prep
with the theoretical base of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s take on flow

The performance piece was based on experiment 2, yet I allowed the audience to be in control. My dancing partner and I danced whatever the audience instructed us to by pressing buttons on a website available on their phone. Once a button with a graphical interpretation of a move was pressed, a command would be spoken from the speakers.

relation to a larger context

references
Beauchamp, P. (2006). Chorégraphie; ou, l’art de décrire la danse. [image] Available at: https://www.britannica.com/topic/dance-notation [Accessed 17 Feb. 2017].

Griesbeck, C. (1996). Introduction to Labanotation. [online] User.uni-frankfurt.de. Available at: http://user.uni-frankfurt.de/~griesbec/LABANE.HTML [Accessed 27 Feb. 2017].

Benesh, R. (2006). Dance notation system devised in the 1950s by Rudolf and Joan Benesh. [image] Available at: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Rudolf-Benesh [Accessed 20 Feb. 2017].

Cunningham, M. (2005). Suite For Five (1956). [image] Available at: https://prelectur.stanford.edu/lecturers/cunningham [Accessed 2 Mar. 2017].

Dancing 4 Beginners, (2008). Basic Salsa Steps. [image] Available at: http://www.dancing4beginners.com/salsa-steps.htm [Accessed 15 Feb. 2017].

Gross, R. (2012). Tempo Recommendations for Dance Music. [online] Hollywood Ballroom Dance Center. Available at: http://www.hollywoodballroomdc.com/recommended-tempos-for-dance-music/ [Accessed 24 Feb. 2017].

Laban, R. (1998). Schrifttanz (1928). [image] Available at: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Rudolf-Laban [Accessed 20 Feb. 2017].

Leblanc, S. (2011). Learning the Different Beats of Ballroom Dances. [Blog] Sheri Leblanc Musings. Available at: http://sheris-musings.tumblr.com/post/9776289357/beats [Accessed 23 Feb. 2017].

Levine, R. (1998). A geography of time. 1st ed. New York: Basic Books.

Slater, L. (2005). Opening Skinner's Box. 1st ed. London: Bloomsbury, pp.205 - 223.

Ted Talk, (2009). Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: Flow, the secret to happiness. [video] Available at: http://www.ted.com/talks/mihaly_csikszentmihalyi_on_flow?language=en [Accessed 3 Mar. 2017].

Wiener, N. (1965). Cybernetics: or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine. 2nd ed. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Pr.

Irma:Maybe interesting links to look at : www.cinedans.nl and Filmmaker Ruben van Leer https://vimeo.com/30792174