Last week wrap up.

Finally got a chance to upload 2 more batches of videos from last week. The week ended with final tech setup and trying to work out what to do with two projectors. Having two dramatically changes the dynamic in the room, in a way that I like and want to work with.

Big thing that I noticed yesterday is that I feel there is now an even bigger "Stage" area to the room. I will be breaking that wall with my own movement, but I can't gauge how audiences will respond until I have an audience. The only thing I know from past experience is that most people respond to projectors by ducking out of the way of them or avoiding them altogether. This would cut off about half of the space once both projection areas are revealed and leave everyone squished into one corner. I'll probably end up being more explicit when I invite people to move as they wish around the space and tell them they can walk in front of the projector beams.

I haven't had many visitors to my space, so I'll do my best to anticipate and plan for it and then make adjustments once I have people in the space with me. That all said, time has not been wasted! The time alone(ish) in my space has allowed me to rehearse and rehearse and rehearse.
Which one needs to do as a performer! This week I have begun working up to a full run of the "performance" section of my work, which I have scheduled to be an hour and a half. So far I've made it to 40 minutes. The thing that seems to be ending the run throughs is that I crash the program! This only happens when I try to record something on a track that is already playing. An easy mistake, especially when you're in the throes of performing, but I hope that the continued rehearsals over the next 7 days *gulp* will smooth this out as I become more comfortable with the final structure of the show and the technology setup in its final configuration. And it'll happen during the shows. I have no doubt of that! I'll take it in stride. It's Isadora telling me that she's done with that performance. :)

So finally, the clips I uploaded yesterday are going to be the final video clips as the run throughs are getting too long to easily review, digitize and publish to the internet. I've got a bunch of other things I need to be pulling together for the final assessment outside of rehearsal time which take precedence over video clips. Will still update progress here on the blog though.

Here are some clips that contain my favorite pieces from the recent uploads. In both of them, I noticed that I interacted directly with the TVs that I have dotted around the space. I haven't been prone to do that much, thinking that they're mainly there for the audience to play with. But of course, I can use them too and really should do.



This second one starts off a little rough (with wacky iMovie jump cuts...), but I like how the video inspires the sound and how I was able to connect the recorded and live actions through echoing and complementary sound and movement.



Second half to above video:

Flipping, finalizing tech.

I have 3 new videos to upload to YouTube, but they take so long! Will try and post them soon.

Recap of what they illustrate from the last days work:

I've been fleshing out the 3 core phases of the score I developed. On Wednesday, while waiting for final approval of my tech setup, I started to think about how I might use the second projector. I ended up flipping the image horizontally and worked with reflections of simple movements. I think this works quite nicely. Not convinced that it will always be this way.

I then continued to practice building up sections using the three pieces in the score. I was happy with the progression that came out of it:
- simple movement with arm and feet captured on video
- sound sample of my feet stepping on the floor as base for sound, layered with residual sounds from the previous day's work
- live mirroring if movement on video, in front of the video screen, and then also moving through the space
- capture of a new video of my face in which I open my mouth really wide!
- this new video encouraging vocalization to complement it, live wandering around the space
- I then recorded a variation on the vocalization and looped that
- it didn't line up with the video track at all! This is fine by me.
- Then finally, live movement that related to either sound or visual cues, but couldn't possibly link to both since sound and video were asynchronous.

Videos to follow early next week. This post clearly more notes for me than a clear sharing for others!

Yesterday, we got our final tech allocation. I set up all 3 monitors for the first time and am happy with the way they mark the space in a subtle way. I don't think I've mentioned this before, but I see the TV monitors as my "audience" in a very traditional way. They are all placed on chairs and are watching the events unfold in the passive way that an audience often does, and that a TV has no choice but to do. A friend visiting from the USA came by the studio and I was pleased to see him looking at the performance live, in relation to the video projection, AND through the 3 monitors. It reminded me of a goal I had for my audience: even though they are being filmed from different angles, I want the overall feeling to be one where they are free to move around and experience the performance in a way that is comfortable to them. I don't want to give them a prescription for how they can interact with the work (aside from obviously keeping them from wrecking the equipment.)

Jera also stopped in briefly and helped me make a simple statement. She said that video work is so often about the image, and I said that my performance was about foregrounding the body that created the image.

And today: wrestling with a signal splitter to see if I can get the two projectors running off my computer. and hopefully enough time to do another runthrough.

Settling the score, part 1.

Lots of videos posted to YouTube, only highlighting some here.

Ambient sounds and images when you're the only one in the room turned out to be quite fun. The door to my studio space has a sweet little jingle bell to it when it shuts, so I started walking in and out of the room and recorded the sound. I built up a soundtrack from this, often leaving the previous track running so that it bled into the next track and created quite a nice muddle as the tracks were layered further and further. The video ended up being signature "lena" I think. I am able to get 3 layers (2 recorded, 1 live) of me walking in and out of the door with decent quality when you are actually in the space. The poor quality of web based video means that you probably won't be able to make out the second recorded layer.

Here's a video clip from today which I think shows a good cross section of process and how it might all fit together. It's quite slow, but the camera was right next to one of the speakers, so the sound is fairly decent.



From watching these, I know that I need to spend more time repeating the action and figure out other ways or positions from which to watch the piece of video I have just created. Too much hovering near the laptop!

A Score to Settle

Last week ended with me having a clearer idea of a skeleton score to work from. After my experiments, I came up with a progression that I am fleshing out this week. There are 3 sections to it. Here are the notes from last week. Following entries will go into more detail about how this has been manifesting itself in subsequent rehearsals.

1) ambient sounds and images - capturing natural sounds (people talking, feet shuffling) and observational video (people walking around the room from a wide angle, possibly close ups as well)

2) sounds from a body part (snap, clap, percussive mouth noise) video of the same part then shadow play on the projection with the same body part

3) more distinct singing harmonies, shadow play into projections onto skin, use of palindrome movement in the video, free movement and harmonizing live in the space

yesterday, today, tomorrow

This week is about running performance modes to determine elements for a score that I can work from over the coming weeks and probably into the performance itself.

yesterday was experimenting with types of projections onto my body to see which ones might work easily and effectively in an improvised performance. clips of interesting ones here. This clip is also scattered with another random echoing which I can get to 3 layers (2 video and 1 live) when it's dark and stormy outside! otherwise it's too bright in the studio.



Today I'm going to try and run at least a 1 hour long performance.

Tomorrow I will be adding a second projector and third monitor.

I like to watch.

Short clip from yesterday's rehearsal. Contentwise it doesn't look much different from other stuff I've been doing, but some important revelations or points of clarification came out of yesterday's rehearsal.



At the moment, I am my audience. I'm setting up a space where I can watch people and build a composition out of their sounds and movements. Judging from the feedback I've received so far, this isn't totally alienating my whole audience, but more to this point about me being my own audience: I've created a structure that I'm fascinated with. This is a step that I think all performers must go through at some point and I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing to be your own audience. Why on earth would you be creating something that you weren't interested in? The danger is when there is little or nothing for other people to get from it. I must be doubly vigilant about this because of my past as a camera person. I love observing people and recording what I observe so that other people can see what I see. So it seems only natural to me that I've created a performance space where I can observe and react to what I've observed. I like to watch. I think most people do, and I seem to be trying to create a setup where I can continue to watch; and I hope it is also a space where a good chunk of my audience is also enjoying watching and walks away satisfied with their experience. I know I can't please everyone. Perhaps I also need to be careful of this assumption and try harder to please more people. Interesting challenge....

Getting bogged down into thoughts, need to jot down some other notes and get on with the practical stuff:
- explore projection onto body parts. requires some intentionality. How to do this on the fly? Try some different strategies.
- workshop vs open studio vs performance: what would a workshop with audience members look like? what are people's expectations of coming to an open studio vs a workshop? What would I do with people in an open studio vs. workshop?
- establish the level of "road map" that I'm going to give me audience. What needs to be communicated to an audience to give them enough structure to get something out of the performance but still allow them freedom to approach the performance on their own terms (or at least feel that they have)?

Time alone in the studio is when I work on becoming comfortable with the setup I have and working out technological issues. I can't really figure out the issues related to my audience without them in the space. I hope people come to the Tues-Thurs afternoon sessions.

Videos of scratch performance 1

Posting these here. Interested in any comments you might have. Will post my thoughts afterwards/what next? type stuff over the weekend. Overall, I'm happy with the way this went off, of course realizing that there's alot to play with still. But this clarified alot for me.

Tech notes for the curious:
The technical spine of this performance is Isadora to record my voice on the fly (thanks Doug for figuring out how to do this!) and play back so that I could layer in real time. Video was also being projected from Isadora and I created a couple of scenes to shift between modes. The first transition, I triggered with the space bar, the second one was an automated scene shift using the pulse generator. The televisions had a live feed playing back on them from the camera placed on top of each one. That's the video that you are seeing below here. I recommend watching the two videos in the order they're placed here. It was the way that the audience approached the piece.

backblog - MA Open Studios

After a week of illness and trips to the hospital, I was not as far along as i had hoped for the MA Open Studios on 20 June. However, I decided to once again just go after a very simple, and specific thing: I wanted to test out what it was like to adopt an "open studio" tone to my performance. I again played with reflections, only this time, I set up a monitor in the studio space opposite me and trained it, live, on myself working on my computer. In the end, people did what they do when they see themselves on camera: react to that (fix hair, make faces, etc.) Then most of them noticed me smiling at them "behind them" or on screen and would come over for a chat. I loved this because it meant that people were coming to me on their own terms and interacting with the camera and monitor in completely honest ways without me telling them what to do. I also let them sit down and see what I was seeing from my computer. My idea to adopt an "open studio" "performance" tone for the final show? A KEEPER!

Here's a LAYERIZED excert of some of the footage. I compiled this on the night of the show. And am constantly amazed at how neat simple transparency can be. I really like some of the chance compositions that happened here.

backblog - Group staring contest

Testing: Reflections

What happens when a group of people is confronted with several monitors and a live person staying at them? or the monitors watching them? This was testing out a very tiny idea which had subsequently morphed in more interesting ways. Most interesting thing about this time with the group was watching how the group was influenced in their movement around the space by:

- the technology
- the other people in the group
- me

It's quite startling.

When the mundane turns cinematic

I am struggling through a backlog of entries due to illness. And while I was pulling together slightly more involved entries, I found this piece of footage that I shot a few weeks ago for whatever reason and it interested me to post about it here.

A comment that keeps coming up is an interest in playing with scale between live and projected image. This ties in with the idea of telematic vs cinematic which comes up in just about every conversation I have with Doug.

Another thing that I want to play with over the coming week, and for the scratch (next week!) is my interest in the awkward or really mundane moments.

Therefore, the question that popped into my head is when I saw this was:
What happens when you turn a mundane action into something cinematic?

And the question I pose to all of you is:
What's going on in this clip?
I'm curious what difference it makes having sound on and off?

New sketches.

The weekly rehearsal time in a classroom at WCA have been really useful. I've posted 6 clips on my YouTube channel which I encourage you to go take a look at by clicking here. Too many to post here, but I've included 2 in this post.

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.

Daily weekly semi-regular performance sketches

After the David Gale workshop, we all realized how nice it is to just get some quick performances together and see what's going on.

Since I'm exploring interacting with myself on video and it's just so easy to post video to the web these days, I am going to endeavor to post some sketches to this blog. At the very least, it will be weekly. Hopefully, it will be much more frequent than that.

I constantly think that what I'm doing is pretty abstract, so I hope that involving some nebulous "net public" at this stage will help to open my practice up to folks and maybe take some of the mystery out of it - for me too!

I can't wait for all the really rude juvenile comments on YouTube...

These 3 videos are me interacting with different layers of video. I wanted to alternate between sound and movement, but it's all kinda static. However, I thought some neat stuff was starting to happen by the last one. Especially giving some context and purpose to what I felt was pretty random weird movement in the second one.

I also know you guys love hearing me singing like I've never had a singing lesson in my life! It's very liberating.

Video half of performance workshop w/ David Gale

Digitized and posted the video portion of the performance I did a couple weeks ago as part of the workshop with David Gale. It was a quick purging performance where I got a little goofy on the video, and was overly wooden with the live component. A sort of overstating what I've been feeling about my work.

Anyway, here is the video.

Nunning sketches.

Check out the "related video" links on my YouTube site for these! Ha!

Assessment round 1 site

Uploaded the website I designed for this first round of assessments.

Click HERE to view!

The only thing missing from the site are the workshop outlines I created for the ones I conducted myself. I'm happy to share them with folks on the course if you're curious. Just email me or comment here and I'll send them to you.

Catching up part 1: artist lectures

A bit of a "backblog" here. Want to get this all down before there are EVEN MORE things I want to make note of here.

1) Siobhan Davies & Shobana Jeyasingh @ Southbank Centre 7 OCT 2007
- Davies: interested in layers and the ability of the body to express internal processes like no other medium since it's all part of an integrated whole.
- Jeyasingh: interested in surfaces due to her training in classical indian dance. However, she too, broke with her tradition to find out what more she could do with it

I was struck by the difference in the way they describe their practices, coming from very different directions, but still feeling an undertanding and affinity for each others' work. I also appreciated Davies in particular, for her passion and interest in her particular mode of expression and the fact that she can thrive and be one of the country's most respected choreographers sticking to something as simple as "wanting to describe different circles in the space" (not exact quote) in her most recent work which was stages earlier this month.
I have tremendous respect for people who are committed to one particular practice and are able to succeed doing that one thing. There is increasing pressure to be multi-talented. This is a huge relief for those of us who like working across disciplines since I've felt that the emphasis for many years has been on specialists, but I hope that we don't forget to appreciate the people who have chosen a more narrow path and gone to a profound depth with it.

The other thing I noted was their discussion of the role of the choreographer. While the process of creating a dance might be a collaborative process, they both thought it was important to have that one person who would have a view of the big picture and make choices for what components go where and how the piece is organized in the space.

2) Paul Ryan at the Wellcome Trust, 19 NOV 2007
Ryan's lecture was on the semiotics of the sketchbook and the way that the sketch/sketchbook has been used more frequently in post-modern exhibitions.

I was happy that I went along to this lecture because it reminded me to think about exposing the process of my performance. My favorite exhibits these days are ones where I can see artists' process, or a performance where I can see the technicians working their magic "behind the scenes." In my artists statement, I make the claim that my performative video work helps create a connection between the audience and the performers because I create moments where the audience discovers that what they are seeing on the screen is coming from my camera.

Question: what are different ways that I can continue to integrate the process into the final performance?

Other notes:
- Peirce school of semiotics (do I want to read any?)
- He had a really concise, nice definition of semiotics - "how meaning is conveyed"
- Ryan, whose medium is drawing, said that he thought performance and installation work was less dogmatic than more traditional forms (painting, sculpture). The ephemeral nature of performance/installation meansyou are freer to try out different ideas whereas you've made a real commitment when you cast something in bronze. reminded me of McCluhan's "the media is the message" that Doug brought up in the VLP seminar earlier this week.
- the prevalence of these "private" works in public space has made them much less private. more self consciousness in the sketchbook knowing that you might incorporate it into a show later on. What would happen if you had some really private things that no one ever saw? How would that affect your work on it? Typing this question in a blog is interesting to me....exposing my thoughts that would normally stay stuck in the notebook. And yet there are pages and pages in the notebook that won't go here.