Creative Process
THE QUARANTINE SALSA
Choreography, Dance, and Lighting all collide in this motion capture edit and render to explore not only the current state of quarantine but exist alongside the movement exploration of Latin forms. Vamos a bailar! Enjoy!
Made by LROD
©LROD
Livable Futures is headed to New York City to kick off our national tour. We will start at Barnard College at Columbia University’s Motion Lab from January 12-17, 2020. Read more about this event here.
Recently, I was awarded a Livable Futures Grant for collaboration. I was asked to respond to three questions on the community page. Visit the Livable Futures website here.
Here are my responses:
What makes more livable futures for you?
For me, a pursuit to re-imagine justice, resiliency, and love against the current oppressive or destructive ways of living would be a start in making the future livable. I believe it is crucial to create a realm of care, ethics, and compassion to work towards balance in our overly consumptive world. These liberal acts help to reconstruct/heal dilapidated structures in our social, economic, and industrial ways of living but prioritize these acts within the environmental sphere. As an artist, I think creating performative/experiential environments in a community of co-creation kickstarts the imagination needed to unlock the potential of our future.
A livable future responds to crisis, injustice, and inequality.
A livable future is continuously adapting.
A livable future makes and holds space for all.
A livable future is a possibility manifested through imagination.
A livable future redefines freedom.
A livable future is not always polite.
A livable future is transparent.
A livable future thrives in equity.
A livable future redefines love and care.
What are you reading, viewing, listening to right now?
Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds (2017), Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good (2019) by adrienne maree brown
Chicano and Chicana Art: A Critical Anthology by Jennifer A. González
Black Brown & Beige: Surrealist Writings from Africa and the Diaspora (2009) edited by Franklin Rosemont and Robin D.G. Kelley
Dawn (2012) by Octavia E. Butler
On Fire: The Burning Case for a Green New Deal by Naomi Klein
The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins by Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing
Borderwall as Architecture: A Manifesto for the U.S.-Mexico Boundary (Ahmanson-Murphy Fine Arts Imprint) by Ronald Rael
What practices are sustaining you?
Sustaining my practice is daydreaming, hyper creativity in co-creative environments, performance as protest, and ritualized self-care.
Sun’s kiss on my skin
The desert
Aesthetics in environmental design
Home
Community
Daily improvisation
Mi Familia
Napping
Sustento
Artmaking in all its capacities
Conversations
Immersing into books/movies/shows
Truth
The moment when I am told something is impossible
-LROD
©LROD
©LRODFor my MFA field review, I read sources and viewed films that canvas the field of studies related to my final project to deepen my inception. One of the most relevant resources I read was Phantom Sightings: Art after the Chicano Movement because it outlines a Chicana art-making structure I can identify choreographically within my project. A choreographic strategy, perhaps. Lineage. This book goes into depth about using identifiers such as Chicana/o and makes visible the precautions one might need towards not essentializing the identity, but moving beyond. The next book, The Surrealism Reader: An Anthology of Ideas connected many ideas because it draws from the minds of surrealist painters, sculptors, and fabricators and compiles their theory, poems, and process notes alongside their artwork. The spider-web of information resonates loudly because the surrealists were not all dreaming about surrealism, investing in surrealism, and consuming surrealism to produce surrealism. No, these artists were living and breathing while putting forth efforts to contribute to areas of phenomenology, perception, haunting, sciences, politics, and social constructs. These areas outside of surrealism better inform their art.
I am aware of the lineage.
I am active in the conversation.
I am prioritizing presence.
I am re-imagining the alternative.
Countering the perspective of The Surrealism Reader is another book called Women Artists and the Surrealist Movement. In this book, the experiences, histories, artworks, and theories of Frida Kahlo, Remedios Varo, Dorothea Tanning, and Leonora Carrington are all captured and interwoven. The relevance here is the detour away from the inner circle of surrealist ideology which tends to be driven by patriarchal standards and erasure. Surrealism itself is the ability to continue to expand and shift ideas so that they do not remain fixed. I can use this as I begin to engage more with the choreography of the final project. However, I tend to be drawn more toward expanded perspectives and transgressed perspectives, so we will see how much of the surrealist inner circle maintains its presence. I do like the way the information is organized and accounted for in this book while directly speaking to the art produced.
On the other side, the viewings most influential were Yanira Castro’s Court/Garden and Alex Rivera’s Sleep Dealers. Castro’s work encompasses the designed choreography, audience participation, and media installation and sections the piece into three parts. This work is relevant to my project because of its attention to the audience’s role in the work. However, by focusing here I am not neglecting my attention to costumes, choreography, and media, but if the audience’s design is not woven into the main components then my outcome will be not so subtle. One would not recognize this device, however, the subtlety of the design makes this experience magical. Out of my research so far, I can weave three different levels of engagement to support my project and involve the audience in different capacities.
Lastly, Sleep Dealers is like watching someone depict the future. While I can only hope Rivera’s future does not come to pass in the era of trump politics. This film is powerful to watch, noting, a sci-fi narrative constructed through the Latina/o perspective. This film at times was hard to sit with because of how real it seems with the current political USA/MX tensions. An important part of the film unites Mexican and Mexican Americans to overcome the USA’s oppression. This is not a common narrative and was refreshing to see.
As someone who has wondered much of this world existing in-between-ness the word—affinity—comes to find its importance. For even in this global trade of information there are migrations of movement, bodies, and materials, speaking to the larger ideas. Beyond the dualism. Even this I believe Donna Haraway wrote about already. So what is performing art doing?
Citations:
Ades, Dawn, Michael Richardson, and Krzysztof Fijałkowski. 2016. The Surrealism Reader: An Anthology of Ideas. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Chadwick, Whitney. 2002. Women Artists and the Surrealist Movement. New York: Thames and Hudson.
González Rita, Noriega Chon, and Howard N. Fox. 2007. Phantom Sightings: Art after the Chicano Movement. Los Angeles, CA: Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Castro Yanira. 2014. Court/Garden. Vimeo
Rivera, Alex. 2008. Sleep Dealer. DVD. 90 minutes. Maya Entertainment.
SHORTLIST (email LROD for LONGLIST)
©LROD
A short dance-film inspired by Frida Kahlo’s The Wounded Table. I am not only thinking about rituals, offrendas y mi Familia but also what is the camera’s (me essentially) relation to the people in the frame. I wanted to produce vibrant color in juxtaposition with darkness or the feeling of darkness. Creating worlds where inter-generational populations are included as well in the dance canon. Adelante!
Made by LROD y Artistas
Music: “Death Bed” by Alex Somers (Liminal Remix)
(I do not own the rights)
©LROD
I usually get asked this question a lot: Why the masks?
Well, I started wearing the masks back in early 2014, I didn’t have the context as to the why but I had the feelings. Reading many great Chicano/a scholarships has enhanced my understanding of the masking culture that is alive and well today in Mexico and the Borderlands. This vein of studies also operates as a creative and productive outlet for my work as an artist. More so many of my abilities are navigating a world not meant for me usually–I feel.
Back in 2014, I was drawn to omitting my identity and obscuring the image of the body onstage. The mask work has added a layer of surrealism that I am researching from a feminist perspective and admire works from Frida Kahlo, Remedios Varo, and Dorthea Tanning. Masks in these studies stem from Luchador culture which came out of the Tejas Borderlands and is now a pop-culture Mexican staple, however, the use of masks is relevant in Dia De Los Muertos and other traditions.
Starting this semester with a Costume Practicum with Lindsay Simon for 6 hours a week was such an outlet for creativity and production, and gave me time to understand the process of making masks.
To get started, I create a storyboard and gather materials. I created an inspiration board (Pinterest) to gather ideas for the Lucha Libre, Animal designs, and LROD masks I was interested in producing. Since I had only made these masks by hand I was ready to produce a pattern so that I could easily make more on a sewing machine rather than hand-stitch. The goal was to experiment with many fabrics and styles to gain experience making the masks and practicing my sewing machine abilities. For the animal heads, what was the next level of design besides making, shaping, and coloring them?
Here are some previous masks I have made for my work:
Innominate Performance – LROD + Artists Dance Artists: Sierra Hendrix, Levi Ryan, Kince De Vera, Scotty Flores, Hannah Cavallaro, Becca Blackwell, Molly Levy Lighting: Meg Fox Photo: Devin Munoz
BORDERLANDS
LOS MUERTOS
RUPTURE
PUEBLA
PUEBLA
PUEBLA
PUEBLA
STAG FOR DAYS
BUNNY IN BLOOM
THE REVOLT
Until next time – LROD
©LROD
Can we pause for a moment and take this in?…………. Ok…..Papaioannou has been living off my radar and I am excited to connect. I am inspired by this artist because of the range of skills he weaves together. He is in the vein of total dance theater. It would be freeing to have the ability (finances) to set my imagination free. I see this in Papaioannou’s work. All in all, the ability to imagine anything you want and see it come to fruition has to be life giving.
A quick backstory on Papaioannou who was born in Athens in 1964, Dimitris Papaioannou gained early recognition as a painter and comics artist, before his focus shifted to the performing arts, as director, choreographer, performer, and designer of sets, costumes, make up, and lighting.
Papaioannou’s work is visually captivating and in a way full of spectacle < but I sense intention and decision in the work which means it is not just for “art’s sake”. However, I enjoy how multi-talented the work is and at times simple. These worlds and movement aesthetics that Papaioannou is working with are aligned to the big dreams that live in my head. You know… The if you could make anything with unlimited resources and dancers – what does the result look like type dream. All in all, I am excited to see his work continue to unfold and continue to shift in the realms of imagination reality.
Also, I am very excited his New Work 1 will be shown and set on Pina Bausch’s dancers at Tanztheater Wuppertal May 2018.
©LROD
For our last study this semester, we were thinking about how the audience can participate while also folding in the first two studies and reshaping the work. We considered taking an easy approach to lighting and technology limiting down to what and why we use tech, light, sound, and movement. We chose to begin with making a dinner table set with place settings digitally. This work was inspired by Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party (1974-79), a monumental feminist work of its time. Then, we decided to interact by having our cell phones engaged in the work. To talk through with the audience, to text other performers, and to capture video of the event. We also set up an interactive movement study to see if the audience would pick it up and – they did!
Feel free to skip through:
In reflection, this work seemed to be the easiest to complete, and we found a balance between interactions, technology, and movement that seemed to create a holistic environment. While it is important to consider what Marshall McLuhan said, “the medium is the message”… well, we are responding to the message (Dixon 2004). A couple of key questions sit on my mind: What are we saying with the technology we are in collaboration with? What are the stakes that surround this interdisciplinary landscape? The work feels open, free, and uncontained to a specific genre. In a sense Intermedia is freedom.
While maintaining a sense of freedom, I turn to Faye Driscoll’s (2014) Thank You For Coming: Attendance has been a huge influence on the work I do in considering interactivity and connection with the audience. I referenced Faye’s work in the earlier blog post. So when we talk about the community making the work and co-creating, co-authoring, and co-generating the outcome – we are interested in separating from technology for a moment to connect. This is a driving part of the work created in the final study. However, we demonstrated the interference technology has in our daily lives. The way we connect through media to interact has certainly come in full force.
Take a moment to enjoy this work and commentary:
As the semester came to a close, Norah Zuniga-Shaw asked us what Intermedia is. I responded:
Intermedia is a radical space that allows for interactive engagement that activates the performers, technology, and audience to explore a liminality of openness. This interdisciplinary space transforms the environment to teleport all parties to a sub-dimension of the unknown. Intermedia creates a visual distortion and appetite fostering the collaboration of technological humanness.
Intermedia moves without a container and allows your imagination to run in any direction possible. I gained more insight into the importance of light/projection, how to formulate collaboration within this setting, and how to build a structure around integrating technology. While also learning the array of equipment and programs in the MOLA lab. I am leaving this course with more questions than I entered, but I feel ready to engage and continue the exploration forward. Digital self-signing off for now.
Sources:
Dixon, Steve. 2004. “The Digital Double.” New Visions in Performance: “The Impact of Digital Technologies. Ed. Gavin Carver. Lisse: Swets & Zeitlinger, 2004. Print.
Driscoll, Faye. 2014. Thank You For Coming: Attendance. (Film) Walker Art Center. Published 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlB3MrBr2_M
©LROD
Archive Date: April 30, 2018
“…everyone who loved sports and adventure wanted a GoPro, and from a niche brand, it moved to being a household name. With GoPro, anyone can be a star. In a context where everyone is self-obsessed and “selfie-obsessed” GoPro’s success was certain. Gopro BE A HERO. Their slogan, and their focus during their entire journey.” – Guilia Berardinetti
What does it mean to be a hero? Hero of what by definition? Why GoPros? What is a love ethic in regards to approach? What makes GoPros and community work important? What is humane about recording people in the community? In capturing care how do I ethically insert the technology and my presence? What is relevant? What is important?
I started this semester in the deep pit of these questions. The questions were in surplus and I was unsure about how the work would unfold moving forward. I knew in the beginning that I wanted to work with a community and Champion Intergenerational Center, and the center was a great match to gain wide perspectives through the community of generations with GoPro Technology. However, I was still missing the scholarly backing for this research for developing my approach and foundation. I felt a little lost and unsure at the beginning of this project.
Taking the new information of Mr. Rogers I began to construct my Creative Knot Session for Research Studies. This knot is specifically for the workshop and gathers information that can help forward the research.
Who gets to be a hero was one of the first things I thought when looking through the GoPro webpage. Browse here. So what defines a hero? Merriam-Webster records the definition of a Hero by 4 main categories:
a: a mythological or legendary figure often of divine descent endowed with great strength or ability
b: an illustrious warrior
c: a person admired for achievements and noble qualities
d: one who shows great courage
(Definitions lifted from here)
I am fascinated by the roles that Hero takes on. We go from the extremes of Superman, Iron Man, and Wonder Woman to the Doctor, Firefighter, and Good Samaritan. However, what about the unnoticed heroes that lurk outside of our traditional thinking? I wanted to explore this in the Creative Knot and with Champion IG Center to recognize those who go unnoticed. Originally thought of the care team, but there may be a shift, so staying open. We may shift to the elders and children who are showing up for each other daily.
So, thinking ahead that I was going to be integrating myself into the Champion Intergenerational Center, I was thinking about how the guests would wear the technology and what perspectives were central to the end video compilation. Some questions that framed my Creative Knot:
What makes people at IG heroes compared to everyday heroes?
What is relevant about filming the interactions of everyday heroes that exist daily vs. the radical interactions of athleticism?
What is it like to be a hero for a day and have your experience captured?
How do peacefulness and tenderness translate on film? What does tenderness look like in action form?
Here is the first archive of footage (Research Studies peers featured) I gathered and framed by perspectives of movement I was cataloging:
Experiencing bell hooks All about Love reading where she says, “For example, revolutionary new technologies have led us all to accept computers. Our willingness to embrace this “unknown” shows that we are all capable of confronting fears of radical change, that we can cope.” Her words came with such power, I created a vivid response called a Love + Ethic Manifesto. I am drawn to the notion of change and the constant restructuring of how we operate as human beings through interactions and causes. I am searching for radical change step by step inside my thinking structure and outside of my internal state.
Next came…
Building on Care + Well-being + Ethics
During this course, I read three books that have forever changed my thinking structure: Matters of Care by Maria Puig De La Bellacasa, All about Love by bell hooks, and Art of Relevance by Nina Simon. What does care mean? How do we care? What are the staples of the caring movement? How are we ethically caring? How do we perform well-being? When using a GoPro what actions of care am I capturing? Also, what kinds of care are accessible?
Where do I begin? Maria Puig De La Bellacasa’s Matters of Care: Speculative Ethics in More Than Human Worlds. Bellacasa says, “Care is a human trouble, but this does not make of care a human only matter” (Bellacasa 2017, 2). Bellacasa uses Toronto’s definition, “care about” vs. “care for” as a means to situate the dimensions of care into effect for aligning with the ethical and political questions that arise per this poignant matter. I realized I was not going to be able to fulfill this project by dropping in and recording with my GoPros. There was much more of myself that I would have to offer to understand this approach and community. I wanted to absorb the community, be present, be still with my observations, and trust the work would develop.
Being fully present
Actively Listening
Touch (assist a child or elderly navigate space)
Eye Contact
Engaging in a complete conversation, before changing focus.
Smiles and laughing.
“I believe relevance unlocks new ways to build deep connections with people who don’t immediately self-identify with our work” (Simon 2016, 23).
“The sooner we start focusing on becoming relevant to the people we most care about “and “Relevance is relative, and people are busy”, not only approaches the word “care” we were just analyzing but reference something other than yourself or desire (Simon 41-42).
“When we see love as a combination of trust, commitment, care, respect, knowledge, and responsibility, we can work on developing these qualities or, if they are already a part of who we are, we can learn to extend them to ourselves” (Hooks 2001, 54).
Here is where I needed to approach with the Love Ethic Hooks suggests, “A love ethic presupposes that everyone has the right to be free, to live fully and well.” (hooks 2001). How was I going to approach the people, room, and environments I entered? I started by visiting and being a part of the Sign Language Intergenerational class. I made myself available for interactions and conversations. I did not introduce technology into space for a couple of visits. I participated and was present. How would sign language become a part of the sessions and recordings? Would the technology distract? Then when I introduced technology I wore the GoPros and did not live film. Making sure I was available for any interactions and questions the community of elders and children might have.
“To live our lives based on the principles of a love ethic (showing care, respect, knowledge, integrity, and the will to cooperate), we have to be courageous” (Hooks 101).
Over my time there the visits, interactions, ways of filming, and containers for footage have shifted drastically. Eventually, many different ages were wearing and capturing footage, Elizabeth Speidel the director was wearing the GoPros and interacting with the community, and I was set up to teach my session with the IG community about GoPro’s, Care, and love rituals. Thinking about the love ethics and love rituals that are primary in this experience, and reflect the care that happens in this community. We will also bring in our superhero movements to give energy to the room and spark creativity.
When I think about this work I am currently reflecting on my traces and the artist mantras that I created along the way to support the daily intake of information. These tiny mantras have supported me when I am too tired or unsure of what is next.
Artist Mantra
Don’t lose hope.
Do the work.
There is much to be done.
With Love…
Radicalize the space.
Listen actively.
Love accepts.
The challenge is to think collectively.
Think more about equality and equity.
Who are the love ethic heroes?
We are not alone.
Being an artist keeps me sane.
There is more to be done.
I am constantly rebelling – it’s ok.
Be free to do the work.
Being an artist defies reality.
I have permission to make what I want to make.
I am constantly changing.
Next & Final Phase:
I still have a session this Wednesday with CI to deepen the footage and love ritual perspectives and will have a compiled video of edited material by the end of the week that culminates my time there. This last video should run at 6-8 minutes in reality but my end target is 10 minutes. Consent has been a consideration and something to hold care around. Also, just letting the community shape the narrative of the footage each session has become relevant.
Editing will be done through my final artistic perspective on the work framed by the community at Champion Intergenerational Center to celebrate their daily heroics and the environment of care they share. Sign Language has also come up as the sessions are around this and we have talked about weaving heros and sign language themes.
Looking forward to sharing this footage with them, and seeing their reactions when they see themselves on the TV. The celebration of their daily, caregiving, experience, and community witnessed.
Many thanks to all of the community involved in this project. This research is made possible by Norah Zuniga-Shaw, Humane Technologies Fellowship, Elizabeth Speidel Champion Intergeneration Center Community, and Research Studies peers.
Citation Station:
Bellacasa, María Puig de la. 2017. Matters of Care: Speculative Ethics in More Than Human Worlds. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
hooks, bell. 2001. All about love: new visions. New York: Harper Perennial.
Simon, Nina. 2016. The art of relevance. Santa Cruz, CA: Museum 2.0
©LROD
Archive Date: February 25, 2018
A response to my Research Studies course from bell hook’s All About Love.
bell hooks says “A love ethic presupposes that everyone has the right to be free, to live fully and well. To bring a love ethic to every dimension of our lives, our society would need to embrace change” (hooks 2000, 87) Freedom, revolution, and wellbeing are the three words that come to mind when I think of the love ethic – an action and – a doing. With the full force of my body, I am made aware of the grave injustice that divides our country and those who live in it. Just an example, coming from Seattle where the cost of living is rising so quickly that they now have the third largest homeless population in the country and where the median income is $80.000. When black and brown bodies are the major populations that make up our mass incarceration numbers. Where poverty, lack of education, starvation, and unemployment appear to be systemically put into motion. In an era of polarizing fear that films police brutality with no action to correct, high school bullies murder their peers in violent acts of hatred all while capturing on Facebook Live. When is enough? Where do we begin? Can I justify my work as an artist to the greater good?
I find myself questioning this love ethic in the middle of the Florida shooting that took 17 lives. If society as a whole cannot put down their daily lives to join together for society’s well-being to have our gun laws changed for the safety of our children’s futures, then we are farther away from functioning as a society or the “collective good” hooks speaks about (Hooks 98). I have three children so anytime a school is on lockdown or I witness another mother on TV crying, mourning, pleading for action, I am ready – ready to go. We have marched, petitioned, and continue to support groups for a cause – but at what point does the love ethic take hold to make radical change happen? When does change happen now for us? Do we have a combined voice to shake the foundation? Can we join together and find a pushback against the power’s neglect? Can we “awaken to love” as hooks suggests? Or are we blindfolded or desensitized by the power and domination our country endures with patriarchy, systemic racism, and capitalism?
In thinking about technology hooks says, “For example, revolutionary new technologies have led us all to accept computers. Our willingness to embrace this “unknown” shows that we are all capable of confronting fears of radical change, that we can cope.” I find this example to be a wonderful catalyst for why Humane Technology is important in transforming our society. Not only can we confront the fears of love in our society, but we can move (action) toward freedom, revolution, and well-being for all. Can we use technology to birth the love ethic movement? What does this look like? How does this collective work?
“To live our lives based on the principles of a love ethic (showing care, respect, knowledge, integrity, and the will to cooperate), we have to be courageous” (hooks 101).
Values Chapter: What are we doing already in our class to “organize around a love ethic” and what more could we do?
Norah does a wonderful job at implementing a love ethic into the class and has provided support platforms at many different levels. Again, it can be hard to understand the “love ethic” within peer-based situations since most of our interactions are graded on some level. However, our interactions, openness, and acceptance challenge the dominant structure and when encountering face-to-face interaction, I witness care and love demonstrated beautifully. I also enjoy the different voices that are brought in through the readings to inform our collective knowledge. Having more time to discuss together would be nice.
Citizen artist platform: I wish to seek out the how or action of our projects to get away from naval-gazing assessments. How does our project impact society? What does our project do? What community is involved? If we could implement “love ethic” from a technological lens as a changed society what does this look like? Where does it begin? Where does it end? How do we work as a small collective to radically change the structure and find a collective voice? These questions would be worked at in a roundtable as opposed to one-by-one delivery.
I am thinking is there a collective charge to our work that we might not recognize yet?
What does living a love ethic mean to you in your daily life as an artist and student? What new commitments might we make together?
I struggle to find the love ethic within the institution, while I am a part of movements to change and bring in the love ethic – there are areas of the space that feel alienating or isolating. There are things I am aware of that are not noticed by the collective and I feel my otherness. How do you move through institutions as a “marked” body? How does the work interact with and inform the communities? “Whose voices are in the room?” – Norah.
The love ethic has been a major part of my life since a young person, maybe this is the culture (action) I was brought up in to do twice the work, as a citizen, artist, and teacher. Maybe this is from the losses I encountered in my upbringing as a young person. May be a combination – not sure. My focus has been on the community of dancers, artists, and collaborators I work with not only to radically change space, ideas, and hearts but to put forth the challenge of doing the work while bringing in the “audience” or “potential collaborators”. The more I can dig into the work with other human beings the more connected energy of goodness surfaces. I felt this the other day during Grad movement practice and Climate Lecture spaces this is an active feeling – drawn to it. I believe there is something very healing about the love ethic that saturates the space and invades our bodies. I enjoyed how hooks closed this chapter so I will bring it back, “Those of us who have already chosen to embrace a love ethic, allowing it to govern and inform how we think and act, know that when we let our light shine, we draw to us and are drawn to other bearers of light. We are not alone” (hooks 101).
Commitments:
Radicalize the space.
Listen actively.
Love accepts.
The challenge to think collectively.
Think more about equality and equity.
Who are the love ethic heroes?
We are not alone.
Citation Station:
hooks, bell. 2000. All about love: new visions. New York: Harper Perennial.
©LROD
Archive Date: February 19, 2018
Facilitator: LROD
For my facilitation, I was initially going to do Lisa Nelson’s “Tuning Score” and then move into Barbara Dilley’s “Red Square” since they complement each other nicely.
My foundation for the day was the focus of love, care, and ethics that surround our daily ritual of a rigorous movement practice together. I was also interested in researching some models that I have been working on for developing community connections that can be deepened with every practice using the material from my ancestor’s lineage. So preserving the past connections here but moving forward.
First: The Gift
This piece of paper was given to me as a gift with no ties to any resource or page number (Cornish: Alia or Wade). However, I cut it into parts and as each person came into the room I offered them to choose a gift. I hope that one day I will find its home, but for now, it sets up some wonderful values for space, time, and movement. We used this in our walking structure for our pre-warmup and dropping into connections. We used voice, movement, memory, and care during our interactions and explorations. These words became one of the containers for our time together.
The Outline:
Care + Senses + Imagination + Attentionography
Lineage Building from Lisa Nelson, Barbara Dilley, and Alia Swersky/Karen Nelson. Some viewpoints work has been integrated.
Welcome + Clearing
Gift exercise (vertical space and 360 perceptions): Walking pre-warmup for connection. Exit Space.
2nd sequence: You are cared for, you are safe (building sensory awareness, listening inner/outer and close and far space): Take a moment to answer your own I am _____________ mantras. Moving practice deepens in space – Group: You are cared for, you are safe mantra incorporating self-mantras and noticings inner and outer. The end was felt and happened collectively.
Reflection: I noticed the warmth, connection, and depth of space gained from these awarenesses. I was able to drop down to many levels with the group and explore movement attention, with my senses inner and outer. I felt at peace to experience what was there, and I was drawn to the other humans in the room. Touch, tenderness, care, warmth, present, here, and open are words I found myself collecting. Everyone shared beautiful reflections and thoughts during this time.
Break for Dept Announcement.
Communal Warm-up: to reinvigorate our body after a break I shared a version of a communal warm-up practice for care. Elevated music is played to motivate the working body to investigate movement. (vertical space, horizontal space, and 360 perceptions deepened)
Lisa Nelson Tuning Score: Laboratory on composition, communication, and the sense of imagination within a community. Dual dialogue of inner and outer organization, space, time, movement, and desire. We chose collectively to change the “insiders” and “outsiders” to “witnesses” and “doers.” Noting the emphasis on Lisa’s choice to specifically implement these words with an intent.
Lisa Nelson’s Tuning Score: We chose these words to start a 25-minute dive.
Begin – signal a shift of attention.
Pause – as long as you like or as long as you can (resume movement when you choose).
End – Dancers choose to exit or remain.
Reverse – movement as far as you can remember without effort, then continue in real-time from a new starting point.
Replace – One dancer replaces another dancer’s activity – all dancers exit and begin again.
The collective was off to an energetic start and was well cared for by our rigorous communal warm-up. The group managed 25 minutes and passed through initial reserves quickly. It would be nice to develop towards an hour and a half dive with the score to experience where the “Go” phase happens or when Barabara Dilley would say the “river stage” appears. The point where we are operating without direction and the sequences have aligned. Or we could increase the words used by Lisa Nelson in the score or decrease it. The score came to a collective end while noting, we all wanted to continue for a longer duration.
LISA NELSON is a dance-maker, improvisational performer, and collaborative artist who has been exploring the role of the senses in the performance and observation of movement since the ’70s. From an investigation of video and dance, she developed an approach to real-time editing and performance she calls “Tuning Scores.” Nelson travels widely to perform, teach, and create dances and maintains long-term collaborations with other artists, including Steve Paxton, Scott Smith, Daniel Lepkoff, and Image Lab. She’s been encouraged by receiving an NY “Bessie” Dance and Performance Award and an Alpert Award in the Arts. She has co-edited Contact Quarterly dance and improvisation journal since 1976. In recent years, she’s been constructing two interactive computer video games with the Brussels publisher Contredanse that provide tools for players within a field of movement, sound, and touch.
http://www.movementresearch.org/publishing/?q=node/305
Contact Quarterly click here.
8. Closing Circle: Share – energy in a close circle with I am Mantras.
There was so much care and charge in the room.
©LROD
Date: October 26, 2017
Two levels in Creative Process v.210
Mapping out a creative process to connect two parts of my research resonating with Inside the Room and Outside the room branches. Inside the room’s design is led by the Experiment thread, while Outside the room reflects the Research thread. I was compiling this information from a word bank created in the Grad Composition class with Professor Susan Van Pelt Petry and peers. We then each took the word bank and made a visual map of our creative process.
For my challenge, I only used each word one time and practiced this assignment utilizing a present-moment embodiment. Meaning, that I only allowed myself one piece of paper with no option to have a do-over. Utilizing this assignment as a challenge I was aware of my devising boundaries. This project created a meditative space for me to sit with my pen to the paper, and process my process. Which usually feels meta, however, this project was calming while being informative. Most of my reflections have happened through a stream-of-consciousness or analytical essay, so it felt good to move towards a tangible medium to flush out information.
Further noting the attention and weight of each word resonating within my body I continue to let these words reconfigure inside my body. A digital roadway on the frontier of interconnectivity pulsing, sparking, and transferring connections that re-wires and retracts information before surging it back out again.
The system is operating.
I recognize these maps are abundant within my body, and mind and are the containers to hold, organize, and connect information used to make co-creative spaces. They are roadways of information. Living knowledge intrigues me as I delve into the internal self of producing art. Maybe the cyborg self is emerging underneath the surface below my skin and responding to the familiarity of the motherboard. While the image below relates to this emerging, I examine the depths and intricacies that are possible in overriding.
In trying to navigate my cyborg self-relationship I am drawn to this quote by Donna Haraway a professor, consciousness, and feminist scholar, “Cyborg writing is about the power to survive, not based on original innocence, but based on seizing the tools to mark the world that marked them as other” (Haraway 2016, 55). My journey over the past five years has sent me plunging into words, writing, and language – preparing me for my conversations, arguments, and discourse today. Sometimes my consciousness rejects my impulse to respond, and my unconsciousness delivers connectors to reconnect broken bridges of thought. Tracing the map above throughout my creative process enables me to redirect how I am thinking, feeling, and exploring the material.
Responding to a recent visit by Vida Midgelow who presented at the DSA inaugural Scholarly Conference and is a Professor in Dance and Choreographic Studies at Middlesex University London says, “Coming into language is a significant process through which experiential, material and emergent forms of knowledge can be foregrounded, processed and shared” (Midgelow 1994). Previously, I rarely spoke my stance or dared to share the perspectives that ran rampant in my mind.
The information comes to me as this digital space allows me to write about these developing curiosities that are awakening. Identifying as an “other,” I do claim the tools to unearth my potential as a choreographic researcher, scholar, and free-thinker to engage in practices that move humanity towards change. Structures, rules, and traditions can be broken and reconfigured to make manifest new ways of operating that enhance artistic ability, connect technology and humanity, and revolutionize the central core of art-making.
The above image is how I imagine the framework for my discourse of choreographic research operating–or what it looks like to strategically choreograph, basically my mind on paper. The motherboard vector art is part – object – abstract – micro-processing – unit – internet integrated – modern – non-binary projects – future technological advances – daydreams.
Works Cited
Haraway, Donna J. and Cary Wolfe. 2016. Manifestly Haraway. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. https://muse.jhu.edu/ (accessed October 25, 2017).
Midgelow, Vida. and Jane Bacon. 2014. “Creative Articulation Practice (CAP).” Forthcoming in Choreographic Practices. 5[2] https://www.academia.edu/9956868/Creative_Articulations_Process_CAP_ (accessed October 25, 2017)
©LROD
Archive Date: December 14, 2017
Texture inspires movement, environment, and sound were the starting point for our next study. Our next task gave us a moment of pause to reflect on how we can enter into a work from a different starting point. We recorded and photographed various videos with movement in them to project throughout the campus. Then, we had a full day of sifting through the material and trying different captures on different placements within MOLA.
After selecting the images our next task was to see where they were going to be installed in the space. So we used the arch of mesh to create a container for the work, as well, as using the scrim and wall to project on. Next, came the movement of invention and exploration. This project was challenging since the majority of our group needed to be behind the scenes working on Isadora, MaxMsp, and the lighting. However, the goal for us was to accomplish a welcoming environment in a fluid space for the audience. To me, this was our most challenging study, but it paid off in understanding how to merge movement when media comes first.
Developing the movement to suit moving images takes awareness, quality, and timing to not overload the audience’s visual capacity. We found it helpful to juxtapose the images with more movement with stillness, and the more static images with more movement. Mimicking movement from the screen was also a good way to be informed by the media.
Overall, a more developed version of the media first study would be projection mapping. I have listed here work by Dandypunk who puts the movement in response to the media to create a narrative. This is a different direction than the space we created, but, the work is a good example of a fully realized form of media first that shows the multiplicity of choice within the Intermedia work.
©LROD
Archive Date: December 14, 2017
In collaboration with my colleagues, we set out to produce a digital double investigation. Our goals included examining the Double as Reflection, suggested by Steve Dixon’s “The Digital Double” (2004) essay which I reflected previously on here. From this project, we realized that we were attracted to textures, and themes, and discovered multiple ways to find a reflection at different levels of technological entanglement. Take a moment to skip through.
One challenge that we encountered was in using the video feedback loop, top-down camera, projection, and lighting to gain different perspectives of the space, it appeared that the movement we created needed to shift per examination. Incorporating The Isadora program, live sound, and lighting to bring these portraits together merged with the movement and use of the material was essential and grounding components to this project.
The digital double in the sense of reflection draws me to the consciousness that the real body maintains throughout the performance. I found it interesting that most of the time the real-life performer needs to witness the digital in reflection. Dixon notes, “This has been exacerbated by paradoxical rhetoric of disembodiment and virtual bodies, which have turned ideas of corporeal reality full circle by the claim that the digital body has equal status and (authenticity) to the biological one” (Dixon 2004, 24). During this study, the concept did cross my mind of the equality of images, and I found myself drawn to both bodies at different times. I begin to speak about this on this page with Agent Ruby and the sense of awareness of consciousness through AI that has developed.
For this project, I appreciated this viewing:
Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s Fase (1982) is so simple from a current technological standpoint but is still so mesmerizing to watch. Here light, shadow, film, and movement create the dance – enhance the dance. One of the parts that most interests me is at 7:18 of this film. Noting that from the first half of the film space transforms and they are now performing on their shadows in a fully saturated blue space.
Glancing into the future I was struck by this digital double. While the concept is simple seems simple what transpires is exhilarating.
This is CO: LATERAL (2016) by Joao Martinho Moura
Moura’s work with the digital double here is literally electrifying itself. I appreciate how in this work the dancer is in the dark while the emphasis is put on the double. The bold lighting against the blackened stage gives a stark contrast platform for the double to stand out. In a sense this double take on a dominant force on stage and provides a strong presence in the work following along with Dixon’s models.
The most important experience I had from this study is the merger of technology and body with intention. Questioning why /how we implement technology into the work was at the forefront of this study to think about as a group. The question: How we collaborate with technology? Continued forward into our next studies.
Sources:
De Keersmaeker, Anne Teresa, and Michele Anne de Mey. 1982. “Fase.” (Film) Director Thierry de Mey. Music Robert Reich.
Dixon. Steve. 2004. “The Digital Double.” New Visions in Performance: The Impact of Digital Technologies. Ed. Gavin Carver. Lisse: Swets & Zeitlinger. Print
©LROD
Date: December 5, 2017
After watching the premiere of In a Rhythm on Thursday night, I went home eager to read Miller’s program suggestion here. The link takes you to David Foster Wallace’s “Incarnations of Burned Children” Please take a moment to read it….. I will wait. Miller’s program says this about Wallace, “He moves you through a devastating experience moment by moment, in time parallel to the most mundane” (Miller 2017). I realized as the piece started to unfold I was witnessing a consciously aware choreographic work. The mundane is interjected with the experience, while the syntax demonstrates seamless transmission to the reader, the clear distillation of the syntax is what makes the work. In a Rhythm was one of the best works I had seen in a long time because of this clarity in content that was supported strongly by the movement structuring.
Miller also uses the interview excerpt of Toni Morrison and Charlie Rose in the work, and you can watch the full interview here. The interview digs into writing about race, dismantling the white gaze, and discovering the stakes in her book Paradise (Morrison 1998). A book I will add to my list and I am looking forward to reading it during my winter break.
In a Rhythm deep dives into the syntax of movement, and looks at language as choreography in space and time. The choreography not only drew me in but kept me active within the work. The layers of the sections are seamless in their delivery unpacking nightmares of racism subtly sinking below the surface. I did question if I was cross-viewing the work since I was picking up on subtle movements that depict the narratives of racism, and the content of the text, and I shifted many times emotionally in this work. It wasn’t until Miller connected her personal story of seeing Emmett Till’s body on the cover of a magazine that I realized the state of deep sadness in my body, I was curious how long these feelings had been and was left in a profound state after the show ended. This state will take me a moment longer to process. Being in this moment allows me to travel down to the foundation of what I with art as an artist. Overall In a Rhythm seamlessly incorporates a movement language whose syntax was produced with the care of its writer – Bebe Miller.
If you get a chance to see this work I highly recommend it. You can find more on the Bebe Miller Company here and here.
I also recommend you read through Bebe Miller’s Ebook How Dancing is Built: The Making of In A Rhythm here. Bebe Miller has collected and described much of how the making of In a Rhythm came to be. This is a fascinating archive which appears to be written for the audience. On a larger scale, artists documenting and archiving their process is a strategy one can use to preserve the work. With the use of media, video, and blogging an artist can be in conversation with all parties that want to be involved in the work.
Miller, Bebe. 2017. In a Rythm. Wexner Center for the Arts. (Program). Columbus OH.
Morrison, Toni. 1998. Paradise . New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
©LROD