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?
Showing posts with label context. Show all posts
Showing posts with label context. Show all posts
6.15.2013
1.08.2013
CI is like Champagne
Only bubbly white wine
that comes from the region of
Champagne, France
is given the name
champagne.
Contact Improvisation, some people maintain, is more than just a physical practice. It is a political movement, a way of life, a way to interact with our fellow humans and the world. Some might even go as far as to say CI is a social modality that can change the world.
Contact Improvisation was not created in a vacuum. It arose in the United States during a time of great flux and change. It was a time of great social and political upheaval. Therefore, the environment in which CI arose is inherent in the form.
If CI is a political/social/gender/economic etc. movement then to truly understand CI one has to come from the same soil that birthed CI.
Therefore, I postulate, only Americans who were born in the '70s or later are fully capable of understanding CI.
Therefore, I postulate, only we, denizens of the United States of America, are able to fully understand what true self determination in the moment is and how to manifest it corporeally.
(it could also be that all the concomitant -isms that people attribute to the physical form of CI have nothing to with it, that it is purely the physical practice and form. Yes, CI can be a tool for creating those -isms, but it is not those -isms. A hammer can be used to build a house, but it is not a house.)
12.05.2012
Theater vs. Gallery or What vs. Where
If a dance piece is different in a theater than in a gallery, white box vs. black box, how would it change in a movie theater?
in an elementary school theater?
a high school theater?
a college theater?
the art gallery next to the black box theater at the college?
at a theater at a university, a university without a dance major?
in the theater of a university?
in the theater of a PAC 10 university?
in the foyer of that theater?
in the bathroom off the foyer of the theater of the PAC 10 university that doesn't have a dance major?
in a bus stop near that university?
the bathroom at that bus stop?
the bus that just left the bus stop?
the bathroom on that bus?
the Wendy's that bus stops at 3 hours later?
in the parking lot of the gas station?
next to pump number 3?
next to pump number 7 that Henry in a red and green plaid shirt is using to fill his Toyota Tundra's tank?
OK, forget all that. Let's go back to a traditional performance space.
A sprung bamboo floor on a 15x10 meter rectangle of concrete with radiant heating. The concrete is 20 cm thick. Surrounding the dance floor is gravel. This floor is in a room that has 5 other such floors and each one is surrounded similarly by gravel. This room has windows on the north and south sides and has an arched roof. The walls are white; the gravel grey; the ceiling silver. The east and west sides have brown sliding door 4 meters long and 2 meters tall. Each door has a cement landing and benches.
Maybe this isn't a traditional performance space, but my dream studio.
OK, back to this piece...hmm...how about this - We, in the performance world, shall never make a new piece ever again, but agree upon 1 piece that we will all repeat in different contexts. Never again will we have to worry about what we will do. The only question is where we will do it.
P.S.
There are an infinite number of contexts (as there are pieces).
I rather make the pieces than the contexts.
in an elementary school theater?
a high school theater?
a college theater?
the art gallery next to the black box theater at the college?
at a theater at a university, a university without a dance major?
in the theater of a university?
in the theater of a PAC 10 university?
in the foyer of that theater?
in the bathroom off the foyer of the theater of the PAC 10 university that doesn't have a dance major?
in a bus stop near that university?
the bathroom at that bus stop?
the bus that just left the bus stop?
the bathroom on that bus?
the Wendy's that bus stops at 3 hours later?
in the parking lot of the gas station?
next to pump number 3?
next to pump number 7 that Henry in a red and green plaid shirt is using to fill his Toyota Tundra's tank?
OK, forget all that. Let's go back to a traditional performance space.
A sprung bamboo floor on a 15x10 meter rectangle of concrete with radiant heating. The concrete is 20 cm thick. Surrounding the dance floor is gravel. This floor is in a room that has 5 other such floors and each one is surrounded similarly by gravel. This room has windows on the north and south sides and has an arched roof. The walls are white; the gravel grey; the ceiling silver. The east and west sides have brown sliding door 4 meters long and 2 meters tall. Each door has a cement landing and benches.
Maybe this isn't a traditional performance space, but my dream studio.
OK, back to this piece...hmm...how about this - We, in the performance world, shall never make a new piece ever again, but agree upon 1 piece that we will all repeat in different contexts. Never again will we have to worry about what we will do. The only question is where we will do it.
P.S.
There are an infinite number of contexts (as there are pieces).
I rather make the pieces than the contexts.
12.03.2012
9.29.2012
European English
Due to whatever reasons (that I do not wish to go into), English is the dominant language of communication within the arts in Europe. Maybe this is only true for dance and performance. I have more exposure to that world than the worlds of painting, sculpture, etc. (I do not want to say visual art as dance, too, is a visual art).
The English used in the dance art world is slowly evolving to become another dialect. It is neither the bastard English of the United States or the proper Queen's English of the United Kingdom. It is becoming its own thing developed by the collective use of non-native speakers and ex-pats.
I became aware, or perhaps more aware, of European English after seeing a performance at HAU 3 in Berlin this past May. The piece was Pulling Strings by Eva Meyer-Keller. It is quite an intricate piece, a feat of organization. Quotidian objects are raised, lowered, and activated, sometimes to comical effects. My favorite moment was the spinning push-broom. But I digress.
What caught my mind(eye) was the title - Pulling Strings. Yes, that is literally what she and her collaborator did. They pulled strings to activate the objects. But the phrase pulling strings has a nefarious, manipulative aspect to it. The phrase conjures up back room political machinations. I did not see how the piece connected to such an idea. The description on her website gave no indication that the piece was related to the manipulative meaning of the phrase. As far as I could tell, Keller was not dealing with that meaning of the phrase, just the literal one.
The use of the phrase pulling strings, in a way, has become pure meaning, a literal phrase. Does this mean, then, that people who do know that meaning or use of the phrase are saddled with extra context, context or meaning that has nothing to do with the piece?
Another student, who is French, in the SODA program did a piece in which she used several phrases with the word white and several kinds of animals - white rabbit, white horse. I can't think of other ones at the moment. She was unaware of the white rabbit of Alice in Wonderland or in the Jefferson Airplane song(also the same rabbit), White Rabbit. Whenever I hear the phrase white horse I think of that great song by Laid Back, White Horse. They're Danish, by the way.
My larger question is when a language is used by a non-native speaker how aware of the idioms and cultural context of that language should s/he be? Can the artist ignore all that and use the language as a context-free tool for expression? I would think that in a scene that is obsessed with context and dramaturgy, artists would have a greater concern for the use of language.
Or has all context been removed from English in continental Europe?
The English used in the dance art world is slowly evolving to become another dialect. It is neither the bastard English of the United States or the proper Queen's English of the United Kingdom. It is becoming its own thing developed by the collective use of non-native speakers and ex-pats.
I became aware, or perhaps more aware, of European English after seeing a performance at HAU 3 in Berlin this past May. The piece was Pulling Strings by Eva Meyer-Keller. It is quite an intricate piece, a feat of organization. Quotidian objects are raised, lowered, and activated, sometimes to comical effects. My favorite moment was the spinning push-broom. But I digress.
What caught my mind(eye) was the title - Pulling Strings. Yes, that is literally what she and her collaborator did. They pulled strings to activate the objects. But the phrase pulling strings has a nefarious, manipulative aspect to it. The phrase conjures up back room political machinations. I did not see how the piece connected to such an idea. The description on her website gave no indication that the piece was related to the manipulative meaning of the phrase. As far as I could tell, Keller was not dealing with that meaning of the phrase, just the literal one.
The use of the phrase pulling strings, in a way, has become pure meaning, a literal phrase. Does this mean, then, that people who do know that meaning or use of the phrase are saddled with extra context, context or meaning that has nothing to do with the piece?
Another student, who is French, in the SODA program did a piece in which she used several phrases with the word white and several kinds of animals - white rabbit, white horse. I can't think of other ones at the moment. She was unaware of the white rabbit of Alice in Wonderland or in the Jefferson Airplane song(also the same rabbit), White Rabbit. Whenever I hear the phrase white horse I think of that great song by Laid Back, White Horse. They're Danish, by the way.
My larger question is when a language is used by a non-native speaker how aware of the idioms and cultural context of that language should s/he be? Can the artist ignore all that and use the language as a context-free tool for expression? I would think that in a scene that is obsessed with context and dramaturgy, artists would have a greater concern for the use of language.
Or has all context been removed from English in continental Europe?
5.16.2012
I.E.P.
Something I wrote on the subway today about improvised performance, especially in relation to my project as part of my third semester studies at SODA -
Improvised Ensemble Performance intentionally has such a limited palette in relation to props, music, set etc. as each of those elements and the unnamed ones are all ways that we can distract ourselves from our existence. Think of cell phones, portable music and video sources on planes, trains and automobiles. We use those forms to pull us away from ourselves, intentionally or not. But consciously using the limited (yet infinite!) palette of shape, space and time, we are drawing our own attention to the barest form of our existence. We will not distract you, the audience, from your experience with sound, set, drama, overt story, magic, the space of appearance etc. We invite you, maybe challenge you, to experience what is happening before you.
Improvised Ensemble Performance intentionally has such a limited palette in relation to props, music, set etc. as each of those elements and the unnamed ones are all ways that we can distract ourselves from our existence. Think of cell phones, portable music and video sources on planes, trains and automobiles. We use those forms to pull us away from ourselves, intentionally or not. But consciously using the limited (yet infinite!) palette of shape, space and time, we are drawing our own attention to the barest form of our existence. We will not distract you, the audience, from your experience with sound, set, drama, overt story, magic, the space of appearance etc. We invite you, maybe challenge you, to experience what is happening before you.
1.18.2012
A bunch of blind spiders creeping around
Having a diverse cohort has its advantages and disadvantages. An advantage is that people from different backgrounds can see my work in a new light from a different perspective and offer me feedback from that perspective. A disadvantage is that they do not know as much as I do about my tools/genre, as I know little about theirs.
By having such surface knowledge about their media, I am not able to push them more in their direction. Yes, I can offer "lay" opinions in their work and shift their progress(maybe) but if we all are continually helping shift each other, will we be able to get anywhere or will be just cover the same ground erratically?
A bunch of blind spiders creeping around the same dusty shoe box? Milling about getting nowhere...
Does this continual redirection prevent us from progressing forward in relation to ourselves not just in relation to the opinion of an outsider?
By having such surface knowledge about their media, I am not able to push them more in their direction. Yes, I can offer "lay" opinions in their work and shift their progress(maybe) but if we all are continually helping shift each other, will we be able to get anywhere or will be just cover the same ground erratically?
A bunch of blind spiders creeping around the same dusty shoe box? Milling about getting nowhere...
Does this continual redirection prevent us from progressing forward in relation to ourselves not just in relation to the opinion of an outsider?
10.21.2011
Assume Perfection
I would guess that every famous painter, dancer, author, i.e., artist was derided as terrible by some authority or the authorities of his or her time when s/he first came on the scene. "Howl" by Ginsberg was thought to be horrible and people tried to have it banned. Van Gogh never sold a painting in his lifetime. Elvis was hated by parents for his pelvis. The Rite of Spring caused a riot.
But now all of those artists are famous, lauded, canonized. The works haven't changed. The context changed.
Therefore, all work is worthy of praise and deserves to be canonized.
All that needs to be changed is the context.
Therefore, do whatever the %#!?+ you want and wait for everyone else to catch up.
And assume it's perfect!
Tweet
But now all of those artists are famous, lauded, canonized. The works haven't changed. The context changed.
Therefore, all work is worthy of praise and deserves to be canonized.
All that needs to be changed is the context.
Therefore, do whatever the %#!?+ you want and wait for everyone else to catch up.
And assume it's perfect!
Tweet
10.05.2011
Experimentationalistic Dance
Experimentation is the sending before the presenting. Pre...before, or occurring before in time...experimenting is the sending before the before sending...do a little algebra and sending equals sending. There proven, put a fork in it. We're done here. Where is that avocado with the beer in it?!?
Experimentation is also the setting up, the creation of known conditions, knowing what elements you have in play and setting them free. Improvisation is experimentation, the only real form of experimental work. If someone has set/created/ossified something, they are not experimenting in their work. Unless of course they are forcing the experiment into/upon the viewer. Create something known, a choreography, for lack of a better word send it before an audience or present it to an audience, a somewhat known entity (No, you say...really...don't you keep seeing the same people at shows and everyone is pretty much dressed alike...). The experiment is then what happens between those two entities. The problem with many choreographers who call their work experimental is that they don't realize that their work isn't, it's just trendy and using the adjective du jour. It would actually be experimental if they were thinking of their relationship to the audience.
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Experimentation is also the setting up, the creation of known conditions, knowing what elements you have in play and setting them free. Improvisation is experimentation, the only real form of experimental work. If someone has set/created/ossified something, they are not experimenting in their work. Unless of course they are forcing the experiment into/upon the viewer. Create something known, a choreography, for lack of a better word send it before an audience or present it to an audience, a somewhat known entity (No, you say...really...don't you keep seeing the same people at shows and everyone is pretty much dressed alike...). The experiment is then what happens between those two entities. The problem with many choreographers who call their work experimental is that they don't realize that their work isn't, it's just trendy and using the adjective du jour. It would actually be experimental if they were thinking of their relationship to the audience.
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5.22.2011
The Need for Context
The need for contextualization exists because humans can not free themselves from the good-bad binary. That being said, contextualization is also needed because we are now in a post-disciplinary moment. How long that moment will last is another question.
Because we are in a post-disciplinary time and still are saddled with the evaluative binary, we need contextualization to help us determine where a given work of art/documentation/performance/representation lies on that spectrum. For better or worse, we are no longer saddled (not really but roll with it) with the evaluative binaries of disciplines, which are themselves shorthands for contextualization.
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Because we are in a post-disciplinary time and still are saddled with the evaluative binary, we need contextualization to help us determine where a given work of art/documentation/performance/representation lies on that spectrum. For better or worse, we are no longer saddled (not really but roll with it) with the evaluative binaries of disciplines, which are themselves shorthands for contextualization.
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