Hi Folks,
Slowly making the transition to Wordpress.
It seems slightly more usable and intricate at the same time.
The photos also display better.
Here's the link
http://wasswasswass.wordpress.com/
(notice back to only 3 wasses!)
Inquiry Observation Analysis
9.09.2013
8.26.2013
Social Attitude Test
Political Values
Radicalism
96.75
Socialism
56.25
Tenderness
46.875
These scores indicate that you are a progressive; this is the political profile one might associate with a university professor. It appears that you are skeptical towards religion, and have a pragmatic attitude towards humanity in general.
Your attitudes towards economics appear neither committedly capitalist nor socialist, and combined with your social attitudes this creates the picture of someone who would generally be described as a political centrist.
To round out the picture you appear to be, political preference aside, an idealist with many strong opinions.
This concludes our analysis; we hope you found your results accurate, useful, and interesting.
Unlike many other political tests found on the Internet which base themselves on untested (and usually ideologically motivated) ideas, this inventory is adapted from Hans Eysenck's own political inventory which was developed after extensive empirical investigations in the 20th Century.
8.17.2013
Another definition
The choreography of a piece is that which is repeatable between iterations.
Ugffhhpklj
The improvisation of a piece is that which is not repeatable between iterations.
Ugffhhpklj
The improvisation of a piece is that which is not repeatable between iterations.
8.10.2013
5 new words
infrapresentationologist - one who studies what lies below the surface of presentation
maltempotude - the condition of having the incorrect temporal relationship with another
anteformology - the study of what comes before a shape comes into existence
heterokinespherism - the state of existing in at least two different shapes
quasicorpologist - one who has seemingly studied the human form and its potentialities
8.03.2013
Warhol Quote
“Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.”
― Andy Warhol
― Andy Warhol
7.05.2013
Rehearsal Videos
The above are three videos from rehearsals in the Crowley Theater for the third section of Secondary Surface Rendered. We are investigating the use of repetitive movement drawn from the Re/Wire work to examine and magnify the corporeal kinetic connection between drawing and dancing.
6.28.2013
6.15.2013
Authorizing Brilliance
As you are the author of your own experience, please frame this piece as you see fit. In order to maximize your time/experience/cost ratio I urge you to authorize a frame that makes this experience the most brilliant cutting edge piece that you have ever seen. This piece is so brilliant in fact that every piece you see afterwards will pale in comparison and will be seen as a mere reference to this current piece.
If however, you are not able to create such a frame, then are you really the author of your own experience? What would need to change in this piece to facilitate your authorship of a brilliant piece? Are the elements present inadequate, or is your skill as an author of your experience inadequate? Wherein lies the responsibility? Is it a 50/50 relationship?
If you are not able to create a brilliant piece with the elements I am presenting to you, can we really say that the audience is the author?
If however, you are not able to create such a frame, then are you really the author of your own experience? What would need to change in this piece to facilitate your authorship of a brilliant piece? Are the elements present inadequate, or is your skill as an author of your experience inadequate? Wherein lies the responsibility? Is it a 50/50 relationship?
If you are not able to create a brilliant piece with the elements I am presenting to you, can we really say that the audience is the author?
6.10.2013
6.08.2013
On Orientations | one place after
On Orientations | one place after
An Kaler
24.2.2013
Studio 5 Uferstudios,
Berlin
A little Q & A -
Why were there the evenly space strings attached to the
floor upstage and the ceiling downstage?
To create an upward trajectory from upstage to downstage for the eye,
maybe. The angle of the strings relative
to the front of the stage also creates a sense of movement.
Why to horizontal fluorescent tubes upstage? Maybe to emphasis low upstage horizontality,
a strong theme in the piece. A Flavin
reference, maybe. Or are fluorescent
tubes are just the current electromagnetic trend?
Why wear pants that are the same color and tone as the
floor? An attempt to make the legs blend
in with the floor to negate verticality, perhaps.
***
The idea of this piece and the concept of the series – to
explore “different notions of orientation” is one I enjoy. I have often wondered about dance terminology
(at least in English) in relation to the human form in space. The term floor
work, for example. Floor work tends
to be when the body is not vertical and the pelvis is close to or on the
floor. But unless the dancer is
levitating all dancing is floor work.
Except for jumping. But it’s
impossible to jump and land without the floor.
So maybe everything is floor work except for what happens in the air.
I also appreciate that the performer never came to
standing. What percentage of dances
consist of vertical or mostly vertical dancers?
90%? 95%? Probably more. What I
found disappointing was the lack of interrogation of what the body can do in a
primarily horizontal position. She
didn’t explore the body itself and how it moves through its kinesphere and
through space enough to challenge the idea of verticality. Maybe this is what the phrase in the program
“…conceiving of stillness as motion/emotion.”
was referring to. But then, here
again, the performer wasn’t still enough long enough to generate an emotion in
me. Attempting something that is
normally seen vertically in the horizontal plane would have more strongly
challenge the normative spatial orientation of verticality. This, though, might come across as too
“compare and contrast” and not poetic/artistic enough.
One statement in the program I am curious about - “Linking
spatiality with temporality On Orientations
| one place after…” This piece can’t link two things that are already
linked. Space and time are inexorably
linked. Maybe that statement is meant to
indicate a problematizing of the space-time relationship. This I did not see. The stretches of stillness and the low
verticality might have been Kaler’s attempt to question the space-time
relationship. Since space and time are
linked, questioning one means the other is being questioned. But the stretches of stillness in the Berlin dance
scene are standard. Unlinking space and
time would be something to see!
Granted it has been almost a year since I saw Kaler’s trio
at Uferstudios last summer (LINK) and a while since I saw this solo, but I
think both pieces have a very similar spatial trajectory. Both pieces started downstage left, curved
upstage to stage right, came downstage, back upstage and then moved towards
center stage. Is this an intentional
choreographic decision to create a spatial theme for several pieces? Is this a somatic spatial response to
performing front of an audience? I
prefer the former to the latter. I
didn’t see the third piece in the series so didn’t get that data to help me
understand Kaler’s spatial proclivities.
I wish I had been able to see it.
5.23.2013
Seven Thirty in Tights
Seven Thirty In Tights
April 28th 2013 at Sophiensaele
“Picture the ballroom
dance of the future. Imagine this dance
and its consequences are the result of an intense physical dialogue between
dancers – an interaction of distinct group decisions in which all react to the
impulses of the others and have to find answers in a split second. Now imagine this dance was a political
practice.” - from the program
I saw another piece by Frédéric Gies several years ago and I
had the same problem with this one as I did that one. He adds too many other elements to the stage
space that the physical actions lose value or I can’t tell what he values about
them. The last performance had
explicitly stated BMC exercises paired with music by Madonna and a large rug
like object hanging from the ceiling upstage.
I don’t have or remember the program notes from that piece, so I can’t
say what Gies’ goal was in juxtaposing those elements together.
With this piece, he wants us to picture the ballroom dance
of the future. The dance we see is a
group tuning score about decision making and reacting to others, i.e.
improvising. By asking us to view a type
of event that is very much of the present (group improvisation) as the ballroom
dance of the future, is he saying that in the future scored group improvisation
will be a rigid codified form of dance.
Looking at another form of group decision making and reacting, the
contact improvisation jam, we are well on our way. Contact Improvisation is all but a codified
social dance with defined movements and roles.
But Gies and company were not engaging in contact improvisation, at
least not in the normative sense of contact improvisation. But as they were improvising and coming in
and out of contact, the performers in Seven
Thirty In Tights could be viewed as engaging in contact improvisation. After all who determines the tools used in a
performance – the doers or the viewers?!!?
For me this piece suffered from a flat ontology. All elements had equal value. The physicality didn’t change that much
through out the 60 minute plus. The
dancers came in and out of manual contact, dancing alone or facing each
other. There was some change in tempo,
initiated mostly by the female all dressed in red. Well, maybe the elements didn’t have equal
value, but I felt that there was so much sensorial noise generated by all the
non-dance considerations of the piece, that I couldn’t help but be preoccupied
by wondering about the reasons for those elements, thus lowering for the
valorization of the corporeal elements.
I tried to enjoy the physical actions of the performers (and there were
some well trained people performing whom I have enjoyed watching in other
performances) but I couldn’t get past the neon lights, the costumes, the tape
on the floor, and the program notes.
The physical practice in the piece was not of the future, so
maybe the tights, the lights and the tape indicating the 4th wall
are elements from the future. But
colored fluorescent tubes (a possible Flavin reference?), non-proscenium stage
spaces and tights are also not of the future.
So is it then the combination of group real time spontaneous composition
with the, lighting, costuming, and staging that create the ballroom dance of
the future? Or is it up to us, the
viewers who have read the program to picture the dance of the future, inspired
by the elements presented? (Representation, once again rears its ugly head!)
Another element of the program statement that lowered the
valorization of the corporeal elements of the performance was the directive to
imagine the dance as a political practice.
I felt that in order to do that more fully and in the direction that the
choreographer intended I should have attended the lecture by Sylvie Tissot that
took the day before I attended the performance.
Was this piece a political practice because it was more improvised than
choreographed? Was this piece a
political practice because the individuals were able to make their own
decisions within a larger set of considerations? Political because tax dollars are supporting
the work? Who determines the politics –
the doers or the viewers?
In summation – I did see some dancing I enjoyed[*],
solo body and group, but the staging and sartorial choices were too
aesthetically noisy overwhelming the dancing itself. The program notes were too generic and could
be applied to any dance, performance, or sporting event for than matter. Maybe instead of generic, I should say open. But for me the program notes/framing/contextualization
were way too open. Isn’t part of the
artist’s job to focus our attention?
[*]
When the group rotated through space along the perimeter of the performance
space delineating the boundary between audience and performers.
When the group came to a long
diagonal…Doris Humphrey is right!
When
in a long line the dancers changed location within the line.
4.01.2013
Energetic Charge
"With an acute sense for the inherent potential contained within ordinary objects and natural materials as well as for the placement of objects within a space, both artists manage to give their arrangements an energetic charge."
The above quote is from the description of an exhibit currently at the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin. I hope to see the exhibit. I quite like the art in the picture.
What caught my eye in the text is "inherent potential" and "both artists manage". I do not dispute that ordinary objects have inherent potential. Some more than others. (a fully charged capacitor, for example. Or a tub of water atop a large hill. ha!)
Funnin' aside, I understand that phrase and the drama of space - placement of objects. What I don't understand is pairing that phrase with "both artists manage to give their arrangements an energetic charge".
If the objects have inherent potential, then it should be impossible to not give their arrangements an energetic charge. Just throw them out there, and boom! you're done. The problem lies with the word "managed". To me it signals some kind of skill, or ability that imbued the arrangements with energetic charge. Maybe it's a translation issue. Maybe the artists unleashed the potential energy creating a static, yet kinetic, arrangement.
It would be more impressive if the artists had used objects and space that have no potential and managed to create energetic charge.
But...what spaces have no potential?
What objects have no potential?
Or maybe used objects and spaces of great potential and created arrangements of absolutely no charge.
I'd go see that!
The above quote is from the description of an exhibit currently at the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin. I hope to see the exhibit. I quite like the art in the picture.
What caught my eye in the text is "inherent potential" and "both artists manage". I do not dispute that ordinary objects have inherent potential. Some more than others. (a fully charged capacitor, for example. Or a tub of water atop a large hill. ha!)
Funnin' aside, I understand that phrase and the drama of space - placement of objects. What I don't understand is pairing that phrase with "both artists manage to give their arrangements an energetic charge".
If the objects have inherent potential, then it should be impossible to not give their arrangements an energetic charge. Just throw them out there, and boom! you're done. The problem lies with the word "managed". To me it signals some kind of skill, or ability that imbued the arrangements with energetic charge. Maybe it's a translation issue. Maybe the artists unleashed the potential energy creating a static, yet kinetic, arrangement.
It would be more impressive if the artists had used objects and space that have no potential and managed to create energetic charge.
But...what spaces have no potential?
What objects have no potential?
Or maybe used objects and spaces of great potential and created arrangements of absolutely no charge.
I'd go see that!
3.22.2013
Compare and Contrast
and
granted, it could be said that we are looking at apples and oranges as one performance has audience on three sides, live music, and video. But I would say that these two performances are more alike than they are different. I am most interested in the spacing, placing, and pacing of the kinespheres and how they differ in the two pieces.
3.10.2013
A Few Thoughts on
After Trio A
Andrea Bozic
HAU 2
19:30 7.12.12
Why did the female performer follow the male performer?
Why did she wear short sleeves and he long sleeves? Is that
a reference to the phallus?
Why did she wear Nike and he Adidas?
Why did her shoe laces match her shirt, but this was not the
case for the male performer?
Interpretation…always confusing…how are we supposed to know
which elements to interpret? And how?
And if the piece is intended to be interpreted at all?
All that aside – The energies of the performers were quite
different. She approached the process of
following a video of him following a video of Trio A danced by Rainer with much a much more task-oriented
energy. When I watched him I felt that
he was performing personality more than following the process. His energy was flying out to the audience
instead of being channeled into the attempt to following the choreography.
But it is almost irrelevant, in my opinion, that the
choreography from Trio A was used. Any choreography would suffice. As
someone who is interested in the spectrum of deliberation in relation to
choreography and improvisation and how a dancer responds to visual input, I am
more interested in the process of instantaneous recreation than what the
material is that is being recreated than the fact that Trio A was used. The choreographer was asked to make a new work in relation to an historical piece and she chose Trio A. Not a bad choice, I say, being a fan of the piece. Also using such an iconic piece as a reference gives instant gravitas to this piece.
I am more interested in watching the body/mind of the dancer puzzle out the pathways in the moment, giving it the old college try and not commenting on it during it. For this reason, for me Lito was more engaging, and truer to the spirit of Trio A, than Felix.
I am more interested in watching the body/mind of the dancer puzzle out the pathways in the moment, giving it the old college try and not commenting on it during it. For this reason, for me Lito was more engaging, and truer to the spirit of Trio A, than Felix.
2.25.2013
2.22.2013
2.18.2013
I hope you die soon
Well…how to begin?
During the last performance I saw at HAU 1, Les Petites Morts - i hope you die soon, I was inspired to write glib and non-glib responses to what I was seeing. After writing them up and other thoughts about the work, I re-read it and read it to my wife. She asked my why I wanted to write what I did. I could have spent the time writing a grant.
After going through the personal cathartic reasons, I articulated that I wrote it to practice articulating my responses articulately to other artists' work. Apart from personal articulation practice, I believe that more dance/movement/performance artists should be publicly articulating their responses to each other's work. Maybe many are and I just don't know the URLs.
When I still lived in the Bay Area in California, I was speaking with a friend about a mutual aquaintance and the difficulty she was having writing reviews. My friend thought that because she, the mutual aquaintance, was also a dancer that she shouldn't be writing reviews. Why not? Should opinions about work be reserved only for impartial non dancers? Why shouldn't we all be talking about the work? I think this deference to outside opinions is dangerous. I am not saying that non-makers should not have opinions about dance and performance, but they shouldn't have the last word.
So, back to Les Petites Morts - i hope you die soon. What did I think of it? The performers, Angela Schubot and Jared Gardinger, were very invested and engaged in their piece. I really enjoyed the beginning. It was a nice take on the typical contemporary dance beginning. Instead of standing there and letting us see them and see that they are seeing us, they were laying down. The small subtle movements, seemingly random, that resolved into symetrical and held (pre-determined?) shapes. It allowed for the first step of blurrig the corporeal boundaries - moments of wondering whose limb was whose. Hardly a new device, but enjoyable, nonetheless.
The breathing that kicked in about 20 minutes into the piece at first made me very conscious of my own breath, but quickly became comical. They sustained the breathing for too long and coupled with the exaggerated looks on their face, reminded me of zombies in a B movie. Yes, I understood the representation of blurring boundaries between bodies and dissolving the self with the breathing - what I exhale you inhale and vice versa. But they didn't offer me any other opinion or extend the metaphor in a new way. I can think of other more interesting ways of de-bordering bodies -
My reaction to this piece could also be my aversion to the topic itself. Death and dying are much too grand, ubiquitos, (dare I say old-fashioned or classical?!?), and serious to deal with seriously. I prefer Woody Allen's movie Love and Death for these topics. This might be kind of morbid but I could not get invested in a piece about death and dying knowing that there was no chance of an actual death. This is also related to my issue with theater as opposed to dance.
It's all pretend.
2.17.2013
Met a Four
...by using tools from schools of thought that deal in metaphor, we end up constantly looking for metaphor...
discuss
discuss
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