Special Projects Idea Generator

This is way too cool.

http://www.tdbspecialprojects.com/

Drug piece

Investigate the different effects of various narcotics on your movement qualities through controlled experiments. Maybe you can set some movement (maybe a lot of movement) and ingest (or feed the movers) the drugs over a series of controlled, repeatable experiments. (Enlist the aid of a scientist to help you design the setup.) When working with such volatile, unpredictable elements as narcotics, the greater the control has to be: the amount and type of food ingested before and after the experiments, the movement pattern, the feedback process. Create very clear guidelines on what is and isn't permissible in order to protect the movers.

Investigate sensations: how do tendons, ligaments, bony structures, organs, fluids, muscle feel under different narcotic agents? What sort of new sequencing possibilities do they produce?

Be careful of reinforcing an unhealthy kind of master-slave dynamic if you are using other dancers. This is an experiment that everyone has to agree too. If necessary, consult practitioners on BDSM for advice on how to create healthy dominant and submissive roles.

~

Get accepted for a curated dance evening. Then as your piece is about to be performed announce (to the surprise of everyone, including the curator/programmer) that the dancers are going to go on stage supremely stoned/high/drunk.... which may or may not be true.

Omnia Mutantur

Once there was a way to get back homeward
Once there was a way to get back home

- Lennon and McCartney

I lived for 10 years in British Columbia. Four of those years were spent training in dance and doing some performance. When I left Vancouver and moved back to the Philippines (and spent a month at ImPulsTanz along the way), I knew that I wasn't going to be able to do the same kind of dance work as I used to do. I knew that one day I might--just might--return to dance, but until that day I had other things on my plate that I would need to do.

So I devised Omnia Mutantur, a project that was simultaneously a way to keep in touch (however superficially) with human movement and a way I could traverse back into my history as a physical mover. It is also my private exploration of ritual, repetition... and change, because despite the Sisyphus-esque nature of this project, things do change. Through this little ritual of mine, I make daily, humble discoveries about human movement and the human condition.

Omnia mutantur, nihil interit: everything changes but nothing ever perishes.

Yeah.

Anyway, if you like the idea of this project and decide to use it as the basis some of your own work, please do. I would love to hear about it.

~
Omnia Mutantur
(suggested guidelines)

Create a movement sequence. Doesn't matter how long it is, doesn't matter what style it is, how big or how small. Make sure it is repeatable... whatever that means to you.

When you think you're ready, film yourself performing it.

Then, everyday, you must rehearse this sequence once, and only once.

One day, when you think you have an excellent reason why cannot rehearse this sequence anymore, perform this piece in public. Have this performance filmed.

Notes: It doesn't matter how long it takes before you perform this in public. What matters is that you must reach the point where you decide that it would be impossible for you to rehearse this sequence any longer, and that you need to perform this publicly.

Option 1: Everytime you rehearse the sequence, film yourself.
Option 2: Source the movement sequence from any of the other processes described on this page.

Variation 1: The day you fail to rehearse your sequence, the very next day you have to perform it in public.

Variation 2: Get other people to do the same thing. Decide what exactly this instruction means.

Variation 3: By public performance, I mean at least 5,000 people need to see it. Figure out along the way how you can do this.

Variation 4: Instead of rehearsing until you have no choice but to perform the sequence, set yourself a timeline, a minimum of 9 months. I suggest around 11 years.

Labels: fordeanna

Movement Sequences Need New Homes

Once in a while, I improvise some movement. Whether they're any good or not, I won't have any use for these sequences for a long long time. Does anyone want to find them a home? Please take them off my hands and take care of them, because I can't.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=iEtRU5lgz8M


http://youtube.com/watch?v=d7B3YX5AWt4


Here's a growing list:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=7HucnnAJjeo
http://youtube.com/watch?v=P1RQiaIeIDA
http://youtube.com/watch?v=pTE831aQ4ks
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ayh21A5p1xg
http://youtube.com/watch?v=7UvKqRxcRzw

Collaborating with science

Several months ago, I came up with this hypothesis about the sacro-lumbar spine and tension.

Now, I haven't been training all that long in dance, compared to many other dancers out there, which leads to believe that the body awareness of some dancers out there must be absolutely incredible.

That said, can a dancer collaborate an evolutionary biologist to discover new theories about the evolution of the vertebrate animals? Can a dancer's kinesthetic, sensory experiences be correlated against empirical observations to come up with new theories about our ancestors?

More importantly, is this possibly a new source of funding for a talented, starving dancer somewhere out there?

Here's another thought: Laurie Anderson became NASA's first (and last) artist in residence. Can we create similar research collaborations out there? Can we have a dancer in residence at, say, the Osteopathic Medical Education Research Institute, where the dancer explores the movement possibilities sourced from properties of the skeleton? Or what about at a physics research institute? What about investigating new qualities of human movement by studying findings particle physics, or quantum mechanics, or nanotechnology?

All of these suggestions center on a practice of dance that is predicated on a love for knowledge of the physical, natural world.

What I wouldn't give to become an artist-in-residence for NASA, or the European Space Agency...

PS: Here's an interesting book about Art & Science.

Finite State Machines

A finite state machine (FSM) is "a model of behavior composed of a finite number of states, transitions between those states, and actions." (Thanks, wikipedia.)

What happens when a FSM is used to model the architecture of a movement piece?

Here is an example of an FSM (which I've created for Deanna Peters). (Click the image for a larger view):

Each rectangular node is a state. This FSM represents a system which can be in any one of 15 states at any given time. So if this system were a performer on stage, a state may represent an activity they perform on stage (for example, 1=jumping, 2=lying down, 3=running, etc.).

The arrows are transitions. Usually, each transition each labelled with a condition that indicates when a transition is allowed to take place. For instance, if the transition from state 1 to state 3 were labeled "someone in the audience coughs", then a performer who is jumping can run but only if someone in the audience coughs.

In this FSM, I've not specified the conditions for the transitions. I will leave it to the choreographers/performers to decide on how they want to use it.

This FSM can be used in a variety of ways. For instance, imagine that each node is a unit of movement (whether a single gesture or an entire movement phrase). Since the this FSM has no conditions given for any of the transitions, the choreographers may decide when to move from one state into another. In this case, the FSM acts can be used as a tool for creating long movement sequences based on shorter movement fragments.

If transitions become conditional (such as by labeling each transition with a requirement like "someone in the audience coughs"), then timing and rhythm in the transitions will be produced. Depending on how frequently the conditions are fulfilled, transitions between states may occur frequently or infrequently.

Other examples of conditions:

"Transition from state x to state y only if your partner is in state z."
"Transition from state x to state y only if your partner is on the floor."
"Transition from state x to state y only if you are about to drop dead from exhaustion."

Note the first example, which is an illustration of how this FSM can be used in a group setting.

Note that some of the transition arrows loop back. This means that a state can be repeated many times. For example, if a push-up was represented by state 7, the performer can perform any number of push-ups in a row, if they wanted to. However, if a push-up was represented by state 4, this would not be possible.

Here are some possible state values:

1 = lots of effort/very inefficient
2 = stillness
3 = little effort/somewhat efficient
4 = no effort/very efficient
etc.

1 = a movement fragment borrowed from a choreographer you like
2 = a movement fragment borrowed from yet another choreographer you like
3 = a movement fragment borrowed from a choreographer you detest
etc.

The states need not be radically different from each other. In fact, you may want to experiment with states that are almost identical to each other except for very subtle differences.

The states have been color-coded to suggest different sections in the piece. You are welcome to disregard the colors completely.

Remember that each state need not be simple. A state can last for an hour, if you want.

Notice that this structure is nothing more than that: pure structure, pure form.

Labels: fordeanna

Karaoke/Videoke

Someone should do a dance piece about karaoke. Seriously.

The Magic Mic is a portable karaoke ("videoke", as we say in the Philippines, since the song lyrics are accompanied by video and images--often completely unrelated to the song--in the background) machine. I am a proud owner of one of them, although it is currently buried in a box in a basement in Vancouver.

I recently spent a week in Palawan with an old friend of mine. We stayed at SeaDive resort, a scuba diving-oriented backpacker's hostel run by an American. Rumor has it that the owner tried to rent out several of the nearby karaoke bars in order to shut down the karaoke industry in the vicinity of the resort. I thought, "Loser." See, if you're going to do business in the Philippines, then you had better accept all the nuances of local cultures instead of trying to bend them around your Anglo vision of a good vacation. Admittedly, "nuance" isn't a term one associates with karaoke, whose practitioners range from the remarkably talented to the stupendously tone-deaf. One thing that is constant, however, is that everyone sings with full confidence.

Anyway. So a dance work incorporating karaoke. It should be done, and there shouldn't even be any apologies to it. Just pick up the mike and start singing. My personal favorites are "Moon River" and "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang".

At ImPulsTanz 2006, they had "dance karaoke", which is an entirely different thing. It consisted of 16 choreographers dancing looped movement sequences on video while wearing pink slippers and black gloves. Members of the audience were encouraged to pick up a number of pink slippers and black gloves and follow the choreographers in a sort of dance-along. Needless to say, this was done at a bar at the height of the evening, when everyone had reached that optimal state of tipsiness where they feel confident enough to make a fool of themselves by attempting to copy Emio Greco, but where their dancing hadn't completely degenerated into violently confused sequences of flailing limbs.

Labels: fordeanna

superimpose images of philippine nationalism with american nationalism

one way to bridge outside world with inside world (e.g., audience with stage space, setting with internal life, working out in pilates): think that there's no separation at all. that your shoulder blade is part of what you consider as the observable world.

wrinkle experiment

fictions
parodies
proposedexperiments

I propose that we can extrapolate

1) Detect face wrinkles of living person when forced to convey certain emotions.

2) Create a wrinkle profile for each facial expression:

smiling
[insert table here. table uses delta wrinkle depth change]

sadly smiling
[insert table here. table uses delta wrinkle depth change]

pleasantly surprised

bemused
[insert table here]

pleased but genuinely confused

jealous

2) Measure wrinkle depths of person. Create a correlation on

In studies conducted at [some university]

little jamie grows up

little jamie grows up
obsession
fictions

little jamie thinks a lot, and always self-improvement.

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as an artist, i have to wonder what..

KEEP MAKING YOUR NOTES PRETTY.

reserach interests: art as a valid knowledge-production agent. not only is it valid, but it actually can inform scientific progress... i.e., where scientists look at next.

science as the most pressing general concern. where science going? who is funding it? what is it saying about reproductive liberties?

dance as a knowledge production scheme. how? the training of the physical artist requires knowledge of physiology, etc. first hand knowledge. if we're looking to examine, say, evolutionary biology, maybe some facts about the tree of life would make more sense if looked from an experiential point of view. make an example.

a dancer who is an artist-in-residence at a evolutionary biology laboratory. they learn as much as they can about the evolution of the skeletal system. everyday, she dances, and she tries to incorporate the knowledge she has learned. one day, she comes across a discovery: bone A and bone B appear to do a similar tasks... is there an evolutionary link?

video of different exercises for airline video, one tailored for economy class fliers

chef for death row last meals

SCIENTISTS HAVE DISCOVERED...

... that the elderly, wrinkle-ridden human face contains the imprints of every emotion ever expressed, and lined like origami. forensic scientists at dallas u say, 'we merely need to compute the ratio of the wrinkle depths, and from then we can discover which combination of wrinkles appeared most frequently. from then, we can deduce which emotions were felt most often, and we can even rank it.

do the portfolio. like a lab book.

do a series of these. and it's all about the body. and it's art! and it's science! and it's about mind-body connection! and then it could be a website!

So this morning I woke up and I thought: what am I doing here? It had been a heavy night of smoking up and boozing. At 2 in the morning, I found myself convulsing. Pinpoints of light shot from my things like omens of imminent danger spat out by miniature lighthouses stranded in a sea ofmuscle fibers.

And more to the point: why am I thinking in English? why does my inner voice speak with a North American accent?

And why are my shoulders tight, my jaw clenched shut?

[etc]

theme and variations: without or without you
capture dance in variable film rate

person moves big. big group of people sweep in; person gets carried away. when they leave her/his movements are noticeably smaller.

a dance created primarily for a constantly revolving stage. a SOLO. and the reason why it's a solo? because it's not. it's a duet, between the performer and the revolve.

interrupted lines. hiccups in the flow. but show the overall form.

p-rant

Start with a standard corporeal-based exercise, add details in gestures zlong the pathways: pauses, skips, appogiaturas, passing notes, neighboring notes.

And when you give the instructions, don't give the images at first. give them the body first. they'll work it out. when the need becomes really apparent, it'll come, and they'll demand an image. when they start demanding an image and a life behind their characters, you know that you're on the right track. you've invested them with everything you possibly could give in terms of the steps. You've cleaned it up. Now all of you, collectively, will become part of figuring out the beauty and truth--emotional truth--behind it.

I think I'm realizing something. My ego is still in the way. I'm still trying to learn the same thing the same way. I've settled on joy and love as my primarily means of learning. I've chosen not to learn from other modes of expression and emotions. I was planning on not allowing myself to learn from different learning environments. like the way i coped with barbara's class was i coped through joy and love. but maybe. maybe. yes, maybe my life's work is spreading joy and love. i don't know. i do feel like i haven't taken any risks lately. i haven't taken any big risks lately. hmmm. i'm not pushing hard enough. or i'm not really going to the places i fear. like in jumps, i'm still obssessed about the placement of the joints. i'm not taking off the ground. i'm not going low enough. i'm not going high enough. i'm still playing it safe. risk everything. risk everything. everything you've ever known and loved, risk it in the moment. invest your entire life in your body for that one moment.

i want to overwhelm people with the complexity of the capitalist machine, of insurance premiums conjoined with banking networks cavorting with credit ratings tied to consumer behaviour analysis. and then as c.f. remarked, offer an answer, which out to lead to more questions.

m.d. said this: good art fulfills people's expectations but not in the way they expect it.

a solo isn't just about an individual. a solo is about an individual in isolation, in the absence of other people. in the end, everything is about relationship, including the soloist's relationship to those who aren't there. a solo shouldn't be taken as de facto. a soloist should always ask, "why am i alone on this stage?"

a thought. moving into film because it can then more accurately portray the deep convoluted truths through dance. think: if "the cube" were a dance film, what would you do to send the content of dance skyrocketing as in "the cube"?

an urge: no realism. everything blanketed in unreality. the stage has never been neutral. reality can never be portrayed as reality on stage. the reality of reality is different onstage.

the entire piece is quotations from famous dance pieces, bound by rhythmic and movement-quality choices

1234 -gloria estefan
sesame street song
Catch-22 - 12341234
dancer 5, 6, 7, 8

SHit, that's it. that's the name of my company. i found it! premise: all of our knowledge is learned. even something as rudimentary as counting is an acquired behaviour. (i guess soemthing all moms must know.) yeah, right. i just love numbers. this might be a painful rehearsal process. limited vocab. spend working on pefecting each onem, though, because they're very difficult. kinds of difficulty:

1) personal signature: copying the exact use of weight, speed, dynamics, timing,
initiation, control, tension;
2) coordination tricks. like the head tap and belly rub thing. for example one arm
moving in one way and the other moving in another way.
3)many many quick changes in dynamic. as in many. many. lots of isolations.

actually, these are appearing to be two different pieces: one with a super limited vocabulary that keeps building up, and a showcase piece. well, they could be combined. and it's something to do with fractured society. x began to understand this, but incompletely. she was trying to glean her sources of modernity from media, which are not actually popular culture. some things, yes, maybe, but the currency of the present is in the language of the masses; in the syntax of their clothing, the prose of the plastiques and meter of their corporals, which are all hybrids from what they pick up from the media and how they assimilate it and change it among themselves as a peer group and (most importantly) as shared behaviour group. so anyway. each dancer will learn their parts as music. i would rehearse individually with the dancers and then put them together. just like an orchestra, pretty much.

using iconic sounds and movemnts: microsoft and mac OS startup sounds

works that take years to make: "everything changes", handshake gesture. constantly producing. like christmas tree farm.

show only the aftermath of events:
happy latin music playing while a man (it has to be a man) is in a corner obviously disturbed: crying, gagging, hyperventilating
etc.

hand/finger dances
completely tap-like

bunch of people standing on stage, looking at people, smiling. at the end of the piece, they say in unison: "one day."

stop motion film of miniature dancers :)