Sunday, November 14, 2010

Sferic round 2

Some thoughts on restaging Sferic:

-performing absence
-layers of performance
-staging awareness
-proximity
-distance
-state of mind--meditative, focus
-the upward space, backbends, looking upward
-the floor, falling
-simplicity of scoring allows for interactions and heightened awareness

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Sferic Sounds from NASA!

so cool!: http://spaceweather.com/glossary/inspire.html
"Earth Song," a NASA article about where the sounds come from: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2001/ast19jan_1/

Text

raw material: http://www.forte.lanl.gov/science/publications/2001/Heavner_2001_1_Leader.pdf

Saturday, September 11, 2010

costuming ideas

K: fugitive, browns, dark greens, torn, maybe even army surplus

N: white/off-white, would love to have writing on the sleeves, maybe combination of symbols

just sketchings...

More stalker images




image for beginning/end figure on the ground

Monday, August 30, 2010

8/26/2010 Rehearsal Notes

We began to set interaction points in the score where proximity and/or energy cue one of the performers to move to the next section. The moments we identified so for:
1) K exhale/drop to ground signals Nat's arms off the chest
2) K walk stage R signals Nat turn downstage
3) K approach Nat on upstage horizontal signals shifts between gestural material, fitting two fingers together to pointing out
4) Nat's tracing gesture draws K along the upstage horizontal
5) Nat's shaking releases K from upstage horizontal/stage right vertical pathway into circular paths in space
6) K falls, Nat transitions to standing point with slow descent to floor over foot
7) Nat drop to floor is triggered by K in proximity, back bend

We also discussed the two roles, whether one is a scientist and the other an ex-scientist, etc. If this distinction is useful for generating material, then we can work in it, but I'd like to steer away from anything allegorical. We also talked about how the gestural material can create more tension and muscular activity in the body, and the dramatic consequences of this were quite stunning.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

observer and observed, measurement and mapping

The Observer in Modern Physics
http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/k-12/Numbers/Math/Mathematical_Thinking/observer.htm

This is a source I found when I was choreographing Fell. The second half is unnecessarily mathematized (i.e. mathematics used to explain concepts better conveyed in words), which is an interesting though in and of itself. One of the most interesting points in the article is the "interaction boundary" and the description of information flow from observed to observed.


I'm interested in the act of taking a measurement and the behaviors that result. Beyond the realization that science is not as impartial or precise as our popular conception of it, measurement is a deeply problematic act. When we probe a system, how do we know what the information we take means? How do we know our data corresponds to?

Which brings me to the models and mappings. Our scientific understanding is based on models, on theoretical constructions that are then mapped to data obtained in the physical world. Thus, mapping, the connection between the scientific model and the physical data, is also problematic.

Friday, August 13, 2010

Mod and Angela

We need to come up with better names for our characters: Mod and Angela
For the purposes of this post Mod will refer to the observer; Angela is the observed

Thoughts:

Problematizing science as "hard" fact
how to measure and record something that one cannot know
the inner workings of a brain, the size of an atom
how to map something you cannot see

-how an observer inherently changes the observed "fact"
-extrapolate to the performance context: presence of the spectator, presence of the performer

mapping on the body
knowing due to internal sensation versus external input

-Feedback loops
how to make the exchange between Mod and Angela related, causal even?

-What is it like to lose control of the measurement process?
How does that differ from losing control of one's own limbs?

-Gaze; seeing is believing? Seeing as a form of measurement. Not believing one's eyes. Vision as fundamentally flawed.

Friday, August 6, 2010

first rehearsal

First Rehearsal/Playtime
8.4.10

Kate shows Nat existing score with existing soundscape

Rules for improvisational score #1

1. Linear or curvilinear paths in space; K must always use the same type of path in space as N
2. Two figures should always be at different levels; N controls personal level, K responds
3. When N makes eye contact with K, K must freeze but has the ability to release freeze at self-determined time

Revised for #2

1. N's space is always on the outside periphery of K; K always central
2. Negative space between two figures should always be charged and reactionary

Revised for #3

1. "Radios" placed in a runway-like alley stage left: Locus of N's movement
2. Up SR corner determined as locus of K's movement; confining and breaking from this corner
3. Introduce levels of control and the role the audience and unseen manipulator plays
4. Downstage (closer to audience) N gains more agency; Upstage loses agency
5. N moves in muscled rigid movements

Revised for #4
N and K switch roles/spaces

Gestures/images/themes/motifs/ideas developed:

  • theme of being pulled
- running with axis pulled towards center of floor
- arm being pulled from behind
  • paranoia/panopticon/spectatorship
  • levels of control
  • gestural work-- pedestrian and charged imagery
  • listening to radios vs. speaking through movement and gesture
  • specificity
  • tension in a relaxed position (i.e. lying on the floor with engaged muscles)
  • use of text?

Sunday, August 1, 2010

beginnings

Here are my initial thoughts on the project:

Parameters:
4 min
duet
use of existing score

Sources:
Stalker, dir. Andrei Tarkovsky 1979
a good example of the tension and suspense I'm interested in:

radio jamming http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_jamming
electronic warfare http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_warfare
sferics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sferic
also a Pynchon reference:
http://books.google.com/books?id=jqS2pmUIfOAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=sferic+pynchon&source=bl&ots=PQt7sj39mN&sig=0aZz3i7AraR5DCSsRMsIkkhQeFA&hl=en&ei=LUtWTPrMOomksQPS9JzaAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=sferics&f=false

Concepts:
the creation of space
the condition of being watched
oscillating between different physical states
systems of control and how they are constructed physically
signs and signals
interference
static

Technology:
7 (or however many) FM radios, battery operated, vintage/ugly is good, all tuned to same frequency receiving static
1 wearable (velcro?) short range FM radio transmitter with microphone--maybe contact mic on chest so hear heart beat--this essentially operates like a baby monitor...