Proposal-draft

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.

What do you mean by “to choreograph”?

For my master thesis and project I aim to investigate the compositional processes found in design and performance, and understand how movement is implied in the moment of production and post-production in both practices. I see the possibility to establish a connection and elaborate more on a multidisciplinary link between – and coexistence of – performativity and graphic design. My intention is to embrace a holistic (mind and body) approach in design practices, and encourage the use of choreographic thought and movement beyond performance practices and towards design.

The project I hearby propose is process oriented, and based on the creation of a series of moments of (critical) reflection concerning our embodiment when defining different time and space circumstances. I believe processes in design can learn from processes in performance, challenging the conventional design thinking. This cross-referencing system opens the possibility to unveil new aesthetic, energetic and social dimensions of design production processes.

By looking at diverse graphic design methods, in both digital and physical realm, as well as by analyzing a selection of choreographic approaches, I aim to research what performative qualities could be implemented and explored while designing? And what powers of invention or transformation does it set free?

Keywords: Performance, Graphic Design, Performativity, Embodiment, Physicality, Phenomenology, Spatial-Movement-Time Qualities, Systems , Processual Creation, Transdisciplinarity

What moves you, Joana? Thesis intention

"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.

Movement. What else? (the illusion of having static elements.)

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, then 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.

1. Personal and experimental (design and performance)

In my design practice I hope to be find new method that communicates between design and performance, a system that allows for cross-breeding. An inter-disciplinary approach, exchange of knowledge.

"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

2. Embodiment / Consciousness (phenomenology)

Performing, or simply moving the body, allows to articulate ideas in action, to set them in motion. There is a higher sense of oneself, and of one's responsibility. 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. Embodiment and the idea of being present leads to a high level of consciousness‘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

3. Contemporary relevancy (speculative realism / accelerationism / anthropocene)

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. We live in times of extensive technological acceleration and revolutionary transformations in media platforms, a data-driven society that is continually sparking new forms of human interaction and social contexts. In different disciplines, motion has been the main character for developing theories around the most intrinsic questions of humanity. The same elements of time and movement matter more prominently in performance than in other traditional forms of art.

In this link I written a text in which the ideas above are expanded and linked to my on going research: https://pzwiki.wdka.nl/mediadesign/Contextualization_-_for_proposal.

Practical steps

Thinking while Moving while Thinking - Method

1. An Inventory. - I have been gathering examples of the methods and tools used for composition matters in graphic designing and performance. This includes choreographic scores, scripts, programming languages, and software. I also believe that focusing on free and open source software will allow me to better grasp the implications of these tools and processes.

Here is the link: http://pzwart1.wdka.hro.nl/~jo/inventory/

Both Design and Performance rely on decisions of how to organize and distribute elements in space, how these elements relate to each other and how they inherently set a specific rhythm and flow, which is then perceived in the moment which is perceiver, or accessed.

In Graphic Design I so far collected examples of grid-system and typographic systems, from around the 1950s, time in which cleanliness, readability and objectivity was highly emphasized up until today, moment when vectors took this principals to algorithms. This way I embrace both print and digital technologies and methodologies.

On the performance side, my research and material collection is now focusing on choreographic systems from post-modernist dancers, which philosophies mostly looks at basic movements of the body, highlighting the essence of movement. In this there is indeed a strong move towards functionality and the body as communication tool for specific ideas. The choreographic scores developed by these different performers to communicate movement, use an extensive use of language as - graphic / numeric / alphabetic complex system.

2. Analysis and Experimentation. - When simultaneously looking at both realities what are then the bridges to establish between physical and digital models of mobilizing language, and consequently the body response in space? Is it possible to to draw a parallel between this different methodologies? If so, what performative strategies could influence design? and how?

I started to list and categorize my questions and variables to explore above:

Composition

Q. Which possibilities of movement dynamics and spatial use can be explored and how this elements set rythm in space?

Q. How to approach mobility/stability, and tension in between? ANTI- performance? negative of performance (stop/pause).

Q. The question of composition (mapping/ placing) its relation to accessibility, and the legibility of the built environment.

Q. The question of Ephemerality: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 becomes key, as well as its transformative effects that persist afterwards.

Participation

Q. The question of individual/collective experience.

Q. And the question of active/passive (modes-of-address-audience / participation-spectatorship-authorship / write-reader)

Improvisation

Q. The question of determinism / chance and randomness (to give room for the unexpected, where anything can potentially happen).

In the theoretical spectrum, I am interested in continuing studying the culture and historicity of dance rituals, how that influenced or not the western post-modernist performative approach. The same for graphic design, I would be interesting to extend this research to earlier typographic tools and graphic design craftsmanship. This way, I would better understanding the fundamental nature of both disciplines, how the paradigm human (physicality) vs structures (abstraction) emerged.

For better contextualizing the role of technology in contemporary culture and how it relates to physicality I would like virtual space/ cyborg theories, to contact experts and practicioners on areas - as such as multimedia performance, human space perception, computational creativity and software studies.

A practical study case : the workshop "Up pen Down" organized by Open Source Publishing- OSP in collaboration with the choreographer Adva Zakai, in Brussels. An experiment on "linking typography and performance", an interplay between forms of action and forms of typeface, and how both develop a dialogue between both.

(a more detailed introduction to workshop can be found here: https://pzwiki.wdka.nl/mediadesign/OSPworkshop)

In brief, starting with investigating different ways of drawing typography, particularly at algorithms based on vector drawings, we then developed a series of experiments on how the same concept could then be applied when using body movements to draw typography in space.

CODE < > DECODE

Its all lines and curves, but because the coordenation of visual elements in the two-dimensional digital realm is different from the one in the third-dimensional physical space, the code systems to be used also had to be re-thought. The principle of defining points in space and a path following them, was apparently very similar in both circumstances. Although the fact that the units differed, now being body measurements, made the rules vary substantially. This experiment was overall extremely successful and most people could communicate their "type design systems" to each others. It was a great opportunity to transverse the experimental terrain between space and form, that allowed to look at graphic technology in unconventional ways.

Breathing as code system - one of my interventions was based on the idea of having an internal unit (heart bits) that define our ability to perform. This way, for every breath I would take, a movement would follow. Here is a video demonstration: https://vimeo.com/145387781

After the workshop it was clear to me that it is not about finding a direct translation from design to performance, or digital to physical as a "mimetic" exercise. Instead, to understand and take advantage of the physical limitations and potentialities of one space, the other or even both.

To access a short summary of previous works and experiments under the same theme, please access here: https://pzwiki.wdka.nl/mediadesign/Previous_Practice_-_summary.

3. Final Outcome. - In the end, I would like to present "a new design logic", maybe in a form of a manual/ a platform (Hybrid publishing / Print & Digital) which best shows the processes and experience held throughout the research. Another option for display would be a hybrid scenery, in which the outcome would be a multimedia set up, displaying a collection of materials from the process and its results.

A performative utterance still remains as a possibility, maybe a showcase or a side event.

A list of references

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://contemporarydance-db.blogspot.nl (historical references/ dance archive)

http://www.disjointedarts.com/home_xo/ressssssearches (postchoreography ?)

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

http://www.choreo-graphic-figures.net

POSTMODERN DANCE

"is only a term that addresses what people are doing now (at that moment)": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHtSUQ-3FnI

The 1960s and '70s saw an analytic exploration of pure dance by the first generation of post-modern choreographers, such as Yvonne Rainer, Steve Paxton, Trisha Brown, David Gordon, and Lucinda Childs. In the 1980s, a new choreographic impulse burst through this formal austerity. Dancers began to wrestle and juggle, dance to pop music and poetry, tell stories, play characters, wear elegant or outrageous costumes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_dance

Does dance makes a difference? Anna Halprin Workshop for Movement Research / NYC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2diNM6EAc0 - impact.

http://tamalpa.org

Dancers/ Choreographers:

Yvonne Rainer: http://www.getty.edu/research/exhibitions_events/exhibitions/rainer/index.html

Trisha Brown: http://www.trishabrowncompany.org/?section=72

Simone Forti:

Merce Cunningham: http://dancecapsules.mercecunningham.org/?8080ed

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)

Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, Rosas danst Rosas - Le vocabulaire du deuxième mouvement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clNjBM3QVbY

Pinna Bausch: http://www.pinabausch.org/en/archive

Tino Sehgal at Tate Modern : https://vimeo.com/54314537

Sasha Waltz: http://www.sashawaltz.de/en/productions/

JUDITH SENG http://www.judithseng.de/projects/acting-things-iv/

_

Performance Art: Life of the Archive and Topicality.

http://www.salazarsutil.net/

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DESIGN (type/graphic)

Action to Surface by Tereza Rullerova.

http://juerglehni.com/ Compression by Abstraction: A Conversation About Vectors: http://rhizome.org/editorial/2013/jul/30/compression-abstraction/ http://luigiamato.net/post/101345820032/volume http://www.werkplaatstypografie.org http://www.typeradio.org

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ART MOVEMENTS

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lettrism (time-based media works < check ) http://www.walkerart.org/collections/publications/performativity/ http://www.e-flux.com/projects/do_it/manuals/0_manual.html

Briony Fer in the book The infinite line (geometry and conceptual artists)

ARTISTS

Sol Lewitt Vito Acconci (http://acconci.com/movable-floor-1979-2004/) La Monte Young - Sobre El Minimalismo - Composicion 1960 #7 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9xyT_b6ngA 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/ http://www.stuartbrisley.com/section/27/Works

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 Maxine Sheets-Johnstone: The Primacy of Movement at https://www.academia.edu/5207361/Maxine_Sheets-Johnstone_The_Primacy_of_Movement

http://www.ubu.com/historical/gb/brecht_chance.pdf

"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

http://sensatejournal.com

SPACE

Pattern: Ornament, Structure and Behavior, by Andrea Gleiniger and Georg Vrachliotis

_______________________________________________________

It was also important for me to visit If I CAN'T DANCE archives, for introducing me to contemporary art initiatives dealing with the concepts of performance and performativity. Some recent and relevant field trips, may include the Tino Sehgal at Stedelijk Museum, Cool Britannia - Het Nationale Ballet | Dutch National Ballet, the performance/exhibition from Anne Theresa at Wiels, the video art exhibition "Dancing Light / Let it move you" at Huis Marseille and a "Art and Language" exhibition at MacBa. Besides assisting a few performances, a workshop with Simone Forti's team was very useful as to better support my recent projects and deepen my knowledge on my exisitng interest towards choreographic methods and its further pratical use under performance. On a weekly basis I attend ballet and modern/improvisation dance classes at Dansateliers in Rotterdam.

workshop: http://ospublish.constantvzw.org/blog/news/inscriptions-for-up-pen-down-huppe-plume-tonne-open-now

https://pzwiki.wdka.nl/mediadesign/OSPworkshop

Keywords - Expanded

Objects (in) Space (in) Time.

- OBJECTS - as human and not human bodies.

- SPACE - physical & digital. virtual too?

- TIME - different rythms.

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.)

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.

?further readings::::

http://occasionalpapersshop.tictail.com/product/the-artist-as-instigator

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://www.booksonthemove.eu/en/shop/books/english-books/?tx_commerce_pi1%5BshowUid%5D=2259&cHash=67d7697a2f http://networkcultures.org/blog/publication/no-05-spatial-aesthetics-art-place-and-the-everyday-nikos-papastergiadis/ http://www.temple.edu/tempress/titles/748_reg.html (The Roots of Thinking - Maxine Sheets-Johnstone) http://www.temple.edu/tempress/titles/2368_reg.html (Phenomenology of Dance - Maxine Sheets-Johnstone) https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/motion-and-representation (Technology and Motion Representation) http://realdancecompany.org/writing.html http://www.lugemik.ee/en/book/assign-arrange-methodologies-of-presentation-in-art-and-dance-2 http://www.lugemik.ee/en/book/space-as-membrane http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Motion-Simone-Forti/dp/0919616038

a list: http://www.independentdance.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Gill-Clarke-Embodied-Library-selection-13-Dec-2014.pdf

https://www.bookdepository.com/Body-Space-Image-Miranda-Tufnell/9781852730413 (a narrative of discovery that sets the mind loose from the rut of everyday perception. From a starting point in movement, improvisation is extended to include groups working together and the physical setting of performance - space, light , sound, objects...)

https://www.bookdepository.com/Human-Movement-Potential-Lulu-Sweigard/9781626549449 (medical approach) http://www.palgrave.com/page/detail/the-body-dance-and-cultural-theory-helen-thomas/?K=9780333724323 (dance as a social and artistic (bodily) practice as a means of generating insights into the politics of identity and difference as they are situated...)