ARGotschild

Concept
My co-creator Tara Burns and I, aimed to create an Augmented Reality application used as an educational supplement to Laura Dixon Gottschild’s Digging the Africanist Presence in American Performance: Dance and Other Contexts.

Methodology
We chose ten pages that we would augment in the book. Each being accountable for five, we discussed ways that would most effectively visualize the textual content. We also were looking at different ways to activate our selected pages resulting in a blueprint containing a motion capture example of poly-rhythm, several reliefs of video examples of the pieces discussed in the book with sound and including the capability to stop and restart the video with a button, one relief picture of a definition with sound to clarify the pronunciation of the word ephebism and one relief of a black and white picture that changed to color. (burnsnation.wordpress.com)

ARGOTTSCHILD project demonstrates the various capacities in which augmented reality can be used to enhance the learning experience through text and connects our digital advances instantly in the classroom. 

ARGOTTSCHILD makes possible the ability to connect with live video, 3D models, and word descriptions making learning more connected and efficient. The goal of this project is to have a prototype to share with departments, authors, and future scholars the possibilities of integrated technology.

ARGOTTSCHILD streamlines the learning experience for students and opens doors for future author’s inclusion of media components.

©LROD
©BURNS

Field Review

©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

            https://vimeo.com/145859179

Rivera, Alex. 2008. Sleep Dealer. DVD. 90 minutes. Maya Entertainment.

SHORTLIST (email LROD for LONGLIST)

©LROD

Key Thoughts: Love + Ethics Manifesto

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

Intermedia || Merging Reflection

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