Proposal-draft
title: Who is performing Act 1?
Introduction
“For Massumi, affect is precisely a matter of how intensities come together, move each other, and transform and translate under and beyond meaning, semantics and fixed systems/cognitions. Part of the assumption here is that, even in the most reactionary circumstances, nothing happens if affective intensity has not already paid us a visit. This refines our understanding of why territory - spatial and temporal - is always “existential territory“. It has as much a territory that enables movement as something that keeps everything in its place, it is movement itself.” Reading / Feeling - If I Can’t Dance Archives.
in one sentence (s):
What is the role of physicality and movement in the information society?
Objects (in) Space (in) Time.
- OBJECTS - bodies.
- SPACE - physical & digital. virtual too?
- TIME - different rythms.
Movement follow time and happens in space.
In this following year I would like to focus on the processes that bridge both physical and digital models of mobilizing language. This way, by looking at different references, to deeper understanding the potentiality of choreographic methods and consequently the body response in space.
“Performance’s being becomes itself through disappearing” - Peggy Phelan
I would start experimenting and research how different spaces, (digital and physical) produce time. By making use of a choreographic approach (methods for triggering movement), I aim to understand how one can perceive time within various spatial qualities and/or elements that can be placed in both the digital and physical realm.
Highlighting Time - Ephemerality
As for this, and in this early stage of development, I intend to create a series of environments, structured by different time values. Following and challenging my previous experiments which aimed to enhance the performative qualities of being temporally present, spatially present: I now would like to continue to reflect upon the difference between discrete definition and one's actual perception of those same time values. In this way ephemerality of performance becomes key, as well as its transformative effects that persist afterwards.
As an overall approach, I am willing to engage in an empirical method and find a balance between practical experiments and theoretical work. Parallel to this I would also like to contact experts and practicioners on areas - as such as multimedia performance, human space perception, computational creativity and software studies, for further comprehension and better research outcomes.
In the end I envision a hybrid scenery, the outcome as a multimedia set up, a collection of materials from the process that go back to the first question raised.
As the performative character of my work may raise questions of documentation, I will consider to develop a platform next to the project to best support it. (Hybrid publishing / Print & Digital.)
continuation
Performance
“performativity is derived, of course, from ‘perform’, the usual verb with the noun ‘action’: it indicates that the issuing of the utterance is the performance of an action – it is not normally thought of as just saying something.” — Austin, J. L. (1975), How to do things with Words, UK: Harvard University press, 2nd edition, p6-7 *2 Derrida, J. (1977), Signature
-Performance = language /communication.
-Performance = factor for social harmonization and cohesion.
-Performance = hybridization of the body and technologies in a both real and speculative approach.
Choreography
= something, such as a series of planned situations, likened to dance arrangements. (from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition)
= the representation of these movements by a series of symbols.
= the notation used to construct this record. (from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License)
= the art of composing dances for individuals or groups, including the planning of the movements and steps;
= the planning and coordination of activities for an event, especially one to be held in public. (from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.)
Variables important to consider:
individual/collective
author/spectator
active/passive (participation)
digital/ physical
determinism / chance and randomness (to give room for the unexpected, where anything can potentially happen.)
culture and historicity of dance rituals.
Thesis intention
WHY, Joana?
- relevant (speculative realism / accelerationism / anthropocene / extreme capitalism) - ethics
- embodiment / consciousness / awareness - ideology (phenomenology)
- personal (design and performance)
"Deleuzian terms as capacity to transform situation, I think it’s more than appropriate to present the ideas of theatre historian - Erika Fisher‑Lichte. She writes about the Performative turn of the 1960’s and breaks down this phenomenon into its components to explore its transformative and interactive powers. She explains that live performance is shaped by interaction between performer and spectator, where anything can happen."Fisher‑Lichte, E. (2008), The Transformative Power of Performance: A New Aesthetics, UK: Routledge, p136
"Constantly re‑ inventing, bringing ideas and actions together, contributing to the being‑ together web of relations; to Deleuzian assamblage. Deleuze’s interest can be found in bodily capacity to make us think of the unthought. Moreover bodies have active power to affect and also passive power to be affected." Deleuze, G. (1989), Cinema 2: The Time‑Image, USA: University of Minnesota Press
‘By using the term embodied we mean to highlight two points: first that cognition depends upon the kinds of experience that come from having a body with various sensorimotor capacities, and second, that these individual sensorimotor capacities are themselves embedded in a more encompassing biological, psychological and cultural context.’ _ Eleanor Rosch
Movement (of the body) is one of the central concepts in my research, as being something that defines how human beings relate and perceive the world, how they access information, and process it. If communication stands for the transmission of knowledge, indicated as “the transition from one point to the next”, that is as one “directional destination” to the next (at wikipedia), than the concept of movement is intrinsically connected. The question is which role do we play in this constant movement? How oneself is made conscious of the different aspects we are surrounded by.
In regards to movement of the body, one of my main references is Alva Noë, one of the theorists that inspired the EEC programme - Embodied Embedded Cognition. Noë investigates the structures of experience and consciousness (phenomenology); Presenting experience as the "basis of accessibility", allowing humans into "achieving access to the environment".
In an interview with Marlon Barrios Solano, part of the Embodied Techne Series (2012), Noë discusses "Dance As A Way Of Knowing". He explores the idea that human consciousness is something we enact or achieve, in motion, as a way of being part of a larger process. Motion as "sensory motor understanding is what brings the world into focus for consciousness." Noë highlights the fact that motion relies on a "temporally extended involvement", which enhances sensorial perception and consequently produces sensorial change: "transformations that happens in you while you go across the process; what is that transformation? Is understanding, is seeing connections, is knowing your way around." Presenting dance as a way to enact experience, thinking in motion - "dance in a sense of performance is an enactment or modeling of this fundamental fact about the world around us, which we dynamically interact with.".
In dance, along with similar kinesthetic experiences, the human body reaches an intense sensorial perceptual experience, composed of information from many places in the body, finding the need to have an understanding of/control over of sensory consequences of their own movement. It can be seen either as personal, depending on the case- collective, confrontation - creating great awareness.
The question concerning corporeity connects also with Merleau-Ponty's reflections on space (l'espace) and the primacy of the dimension of depth (la profondeur) as implied in the notion of being in the world (être au monde; to echo Heidegger's In-der-Welt-sein) and of one's own body (le corps propre).
Another reference on sense experience and human perception is Brian Massumi's reflection on Feeling, Emotion and Affect on his book Parables of the Virtual, Movement, Affect, Sensation. “For Massumi, affect is precisely a matter of how intensities come together, move each other, and transform and translate under and beyond meaning, semantics and fixed systems/cognitions. Part of the assumption here is that, even in the most reactionay circumstances, nothing happens if affective intensity has not already paid us a visit. This refines our understanding of why territory - spatial and temporal - is always “existential territory“. It has as much a territorry that enables movement as something that keeps everything in its place, it is movement itself.” Reading / Feeling - If I Can’t Dance Archives.
"One night not long ago, I dreamt I was explained the main difference between classical physics and quantum physics. It became perfectly clear to me that where classical physics is deterministic and assumes that the world is constant, ruled by the same laws on all levels, quantum physics looks at statistical, normative movements. In quantum physics there is not one standard way for an object to behave. The state of the phenomenon one wants to observe, take light as an example, can only be determined in the instance it is being observed: Light can be both wave and particle simultaneously. I recognized that in order to explain a single phenomenon, one needs two mutually exclusive theories." http://www.toriljohannessen.no/Nonlocality_page7.html
In different disciplines, motion has been the main caracter for developing theories around the most intrinsic questions of humanity. In physics, motion is a change in position of an object with respect to time. Motion is typically described in terms of displacement, distance (scalar), velocity, acceleration, time and speed. Motion of a body is observed by attaching a frame of reference to an observer and measuring the change in position of the body relative to that frame n If the position of a body is not changing with the time with respect to a given frame of reference the body is said to be at rest, motionless, immobile, stationary, or to have constant (time-invariant) position. An object's motion cannot change unless it is acted upon by a force, as described by Newton's first law. Momentum is a quantity which is used for measuring motion of an object. An object's momentum is directly related to the object's mass and velocity, and the total momentum of all objects in an isolated system (one not affected by external forces) does not change with time, as described by the law of conservation of momentum.
As there is no absolute frame of reference, absolute motion cannot be determined Thus, everything in the universe can be considered to be moving.at wikipedia.
The concept of motion is also inherently connected to the development of communication technologies and by the introduction of cybernetic systems, embracing both human and non human entities into a a network of interactions. Arriving at last to the realm of contemporary philosophy, specifically the speculative realism movement, an object-oriented philosophy which arises from what Graham Harman determines to be a core fallacy in contemporary metaphysics, that the “root duality of the universe is not made up of subject and object [….], but of objects and relations.
/ / / / / // / / / / / \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \\ \ \ \
Relation to previous practice
My interest in motion follows my performance practice, in which movement is presented as basis for the interrelation between brain - body - world, and consequently the gateway to achieve knowledge. From subliminal to more explicit approach, movement is often set under strict guidelines, both inside and outside the realm of performance.
My previous studies on graphic design and overall interest in different communication systems, made me start following a research on on choreographic scores, a particular system which stands for "writing movement". Choreographic language follows diverse structures, that enable composition and trigger action. There are multiple forms for representing it, from graphic,to linguistic, or geometrical; relying on imagery, sound, and so on. Either ways, meaning is created.
I am interested in choreographic scores as existing in themselves as notation systems, and also in its performative state.
TRIM1 - choreography as writing (/communicating) movement
For this project I created a new choreography piece, based on found material from ancient Geranos Dance: a series of drawings part of the François vase (6th century BC), and a written description by Pollux, a Greek lexicographer from the 2nd century AD.
I am interested in the multiple ways of communicating movement , and used different language systems to write the same choreographic piece: written words together with a geometrical and graphical representation; The geometric module served then as basis for a pattern, the ultimate abstraction of the piece, readable and understood by those who share the same code. In this project I only explored choreography as means for writing movement, leaving the actual side of performing it apart.
TRIM 2 - choreography as an object in space
For the Photobook Project, I created a sculptural piece, a continual physical surface for the user to relate with. This way, I had positioned the viewer/spectator as the performer, proposing a tighter relation between communication artifact/interface and perceiver. The piece built for this project also acknkowledged a reflection on accessibility and wayfinding experiences through built environments. This "human-environment interaction" creates a parallel towards how people behave, react to spacial elements and structures, either in regards to analogue or digital medias. In this case, the process of "wayfinding", getting acquainted with the piece by means of following very concrete physical attributes, aims to point to the same patterns in the realm of publishing.
TRIM 3 - choreography as multiple interventions in space
In this seminar I researched different choreographic approaches in the realm of performance and art, and selected three: Chance Operations, by Merce Cunningham; Wall-Floor Positions, a video piece by Bruce Nauman and Sticks, part of a series of interventions on public spaces and later integrated in museum spaces, by Trisha Brown. I chose these for being very diverse techniques of generating choreographic scores and consequently having a very different effect on the way people may be able to interpret it and perform it. The first one by Cunningham was presented similar to a game structure, in which short instructions would be chosen by chance, and would serve as navigational instruments; a sequence of actions which played with re-orientation and trajectory in space. The second inspired by Bruce Nauman video art piece, aimed for a sort of solo improvisation, in which people would lean to the wall and draw an outline of their body with chalk. This way the traces of the moment remain in space. At last, Trisha Brown's re-interpretation was done by using sticks as an external body into the choreography which was simply driven by the act of walking. Contrary to the previous one, this could be seen as a collective improvisation, in which body acts as the main common language.
My interest on spatial procedures and the architecture of movement happens both in physical spaces so well into digital spaces. In between trimesters, I have also been doing small prototypes, towards an experimental use of programming tools, for this, I developed a series of webpages in which a reflection on the time (duration) and space (web interface) is raised.
Relation to a larger context
- Minimalism;
- Conceptual Art;
- Fluxus;
- "Instructions" avant gard movement;
- Happenings;
- Lettrism;
- Video and installation art from the 70's;
Practical steps
Method
1. First Prototyping Experiments, answer this questions:
Q. What elements set rythm in space?
A.
1. Geometry : coordenation of visual elements - Language - graphic / numeric / alphabetic.
1.1 Static visual elements.
1.2. Moving visual elements.
> consider: Composition (mapping/ placing - accessibilitiy) and Chance (randomness).
2. Sound
Q. How actions follow time in space?
A.
> web - experiences that makes more tangible the notion of time. ANTI- performance? negative of performance (stop/pause)
Q. How individuals and/or collectives perform under the same guidelines in both digital and physical spaces. Is there a clear distinction or is the line between both realities an "illusion"?
A.
> individual vs collective experiences.
"Nothing ever exists outside of the power and power is always relation. She wrote about identity which is a process of construction, a consequence of historical and behavioral norms within larger social contexts."Butler, J. (1990), Gender Trouble, UK: Routledge"
2. Theoretical research:
2.1 time history/ different conceptions;
2.2 virtual space (s) / cyborgs;
A list of references
(Remember that dictionaries, encyclopedias and wikipedia are not references to be listed. These are starting points which should lead to more substantial texts and practices.) As with your previous essays, the references need to be formatted according to the Harvard method.) See: http://pzwart3.wdka.hro.nl/wiki/A_Guide_to_Essay_Writing#The_Harvard_System_of_referencing
ON PERFORMANCE // CHOREOGRAPHY
http://www.booksonthemove.eu/en/shop/books/english-books/ (readings < ) http://sarma.be/oralsite/pages/Strata/ (documentation / dance archive) http://apass.be/artistic-reseach-center/archive/ (documentation / dance archive) motionbank.org (documentation / dance archive) http://www.ubu.com/dance/index.html (historical references/ dance archive) http://www.disjointedarts.com/home_xo/ressssssearches (postchoreography ?) http://wellcomecollection.org/whats-on/exhibitions/thinking-with-the-body/?video=4 (Thinking with the body: Mind and Movement by Wayne McGregor / Random Dance) William Forsythe (choreographic objects) http://www.enoughroomforspace.org/?news=performing-objects-brussels-art-days (choreographic objects) http://uva.co.uk/work (visual art and performance) On Scores, Notation and the Trace in Dance, by Myriam Van Imschoot MOVING WITHOUT a BODY by Stamatia Portanova (book) Isabel Maria de Cavadas Valverde in INTERFACES DANCE-TECHNOLOGY: a theoretical framework for performance in the digital domain (dance-technology thesis) Hetty Blades on Creative Computing and the Re-Configuration of Dance Ontology http://www.corpusweb.net/after-dance.html
Tino Sehgal at Tate Modern : https://vimeo.com/54314537
I CAN'T DANCE archives
exhibition from Anne Theresa at Wiels exhibition "Dancing Light / Let it move you" at Huis Marseille
_
Action to Surface by Tereza Rullerova. Performance Art: Life of the Archive and Topicality.
-
?further readings::::
http://www.sternberg-press.com/index.php?pageId=1514&l=en&bookId=408&sort=year (Chantal Pontbriand (Ed.) Per/Form How to Do Things with[out] Words)
http://www.sternberg-press.com/index.php?pageId=1601&l=en&bookId=495&sort=year (Mathilde ter HeijnePerforming Change)
http://www.mottodistribution.com/site/?p=35486 (THE VISUAL EVENT : An Education In Appearance. OLIVER KLIMPEL (ed.). SPECTOR BOOKS.)
http://realdancecompany.org/writing.html
ART MOVEMENTS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lettrism (time-based media works < check ) http://www.walkerart.org/collections/publications/performativity/
Briony Fer in the book The infinite line (geometry and conceptual artists)
ARTISTS
Sol Lewitt Vito Acconci (http://acconci.com/movable-floor-1979-2004/) Henri Chopin; Guy de Cointet and Channa Horwtizt: Signs,Rules, Processes - Indetermination and deconstruction. http://www.marcellealix.com/artistes/oeuvres/1743/marie-cool-fabio-balducci http://www.collectivemagpie.org/work/
THEORISTS (on language/ media)
Method by Dick Raaijmakers Deleuze and Guatari Umberto Eco Guy de Cointet Lev Manovich, Database as a Symbolic Form. Meta-communication, by Gregory Bateson to refer to "communication about communication" "Mind, Nature, and Consciousness: Gregory Bateson and the New Paradigm. Blaeuer, D. M. (2010), An Ecology of Performance: Gregory Bateson’s Cybernetic Performance, USA: University of South Florida (In the book, Ecology of Mind, Gregory Bateson explained actions in terms of being performative within the complex system which they are part of. 13 I understand this system as human interactions, relations and reactions to patterns. Bateson’s patterns are acts of human perception and respond to the world which is in the process of constant change - a flow of life. <) ‘History’ of Search Engines: Mapping Technologies of Memory, Learning, and Discovery ¬ Richard Graham
"Art and Language" exhibition at MacBa.
http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rdis20/15/2 (ask Steve help to access! <)
PHENOMENOLOGY
Brian Massumi's reflection on Feeling, Emotion and Affect on his book Parables of the Virtual, Movement, Affect, Sensation. Brian Massumi's Archive of experience. Interview with Marlon Barrios Solano, part of the Embodied Techne Series (2012), Alva Noë discusses "Dance As A Way Of Knowing" Merleau Ponty, phemenology of Perception Eric Shouse, “Feeling, Emotion, Affect”, MC Journal, Vol. 8, No. 6 (December 2005), http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0512/03-shouse.php
SPACE
Pattern: Ornament, Structure and Behavior, by Andrea Gleiniger and Georg Vrachliotis