Questions that were highlighted last week:
1. What is it like to have me tweaking equipment and explaining things to people during the performance?
2. How will I use isadora live? I like the layers (more on this below)
3. What it might look like to have two projections: 1 which is showing "source" material and one which is showing "composite" like this:
4. This clip has some interesting moments where the line between recorded and "live" image gets pretty blurred. Can this effect be achieved when you are actually live in the space, or is it working because of the cropping I chose for this shot? What strategies might achieve this live?
Some responses to above based on what I've done so far:
1. The tweaking looks like anyone else tweaking things onstage. I think it's probably inevitable, but I'm sure I can work on fluid strategies to minimize it or make it an integral "beat" within the performance. Maybe pre-recorded elements that don't require so much attention.
2. I didn't remember that Isadora allows you to layer multiple channels of video on the fly. This is, of course, one of my favorite techniques that has been in my work since I picked up a video camera 8 years ago. But what is it other than a neat technique? Why am I interested in it?
A passage of poetry that has been with me for 15 years from "The Layers" by Stanley Kunitz:
"Live in the layers,
not on the litter."
Though I lack the art
to decipher it,
no doubt the next chapter
in my book of transformations
is already written.
I am not done with my changes.
After last Thursday, I see the direct link between the transparent video layers, plus the layering of live and recorded presence, and skin. Amelia Jones brings it up over and over again in her writing, but I hadn't really felt how it connected to my work. I've noticed that as I review these sketches and think about Jones' idea of the skin stretching across technology (and in my case: other people, recorded and live presence, and the space we're in, sound, image, light, bodies) - it feels like each layer that I build is actually peeling back a skin as a boundary or border. I think this is what I'm looking for for this performance: the point at which all the layers have built up so much that they start to break down and merge so that we become less aware of the individual components that make up the performance and focus on the experience as a whole.
3. I realized that having the "source" and "composite" material projected simultaneously is similar to what it's like to be in the video editing quite. There's this other strand that I want people to come along through my whole process, warts and all, so having elements in the performance space that echo the behind the scenes structures of the filmmaking process is appealing. It's not all pretty, but another thing I would like to explore is: if I bring people along on my journey through the process, will they be more able to immerse themselves in the final piece?
4. Reviewing this footage has made me think that maybe it's not a bad thing to have some pre-recorded foundation elements. These would be recorded in the space and I could trigger when they get played, but they'd be guaranteed "good" takes that can serve as a foundation for a spontaneous improv. I think this is particularly clear with #4 where it is easy in editing to make yourself look "good" and confident, but there's not a whole lot you can do live if you start to lose your confidence or slip up. That's the beauty of the juxtaposition right there, I think. What if you highlight and loop the "bad" stuff? Does it become beautiful at some point? Does it make the live presence look better? Am I more HUMAN? (ugh, I didn't want to write it, but I thought it, so here it is.)
Other things:
I miss the singing, but still like the incidental noise (paper rustling in this case, the door shutting) I want to reincorporate the "footstep" ambient noise of people moving in the space as a foundation room tone for my pieces.
As is often the case, my brain has started spinning more after writing this. I'll leave it here for now. Looking forward to this week's practice.
