THE PROJECT IDEA
The idea of the project is based on systemic theory, cybernetics(the observing of other systems) and cognitive science and it is oriented to this quote:
“The meaning that is “working”, is the meaning of the body, developed through various senses( sight, hearing, smell, taste), and dependent on the precise rhythm of the images ,sounds ,pauses ,and intensifications that define what is inadequately known as the “flow”
( The meaning of the body, Aesthetic of human understanding, Mark Johnson)
The dancers of the piece go through emotional and psychical landscapes and visit their yesterday, their presence and their future.
The problem raised by the project
It is suggested by recent studies that meaningful images-which are mental patterns of the sensory modalities e.g. a sound image ,a tactile image- are not representations in the classical sense, for they are not “about” some extra mental content that would constitute their meaning. Instead they are patterns by which the contours of our understanding take shape and undergo transformation. They do not picture or represent objects and events as they simply are the patterns of our experience of those objects and events. This project investigates and reflects on these patterns and is trying to find strategies for “the choreography of meaning”
The Method and the process
The research lasted three months of preparation thought which documentation, research and presentation were parts of the daily practice.
The process of the creation of the piece was about exploring different tasks by improvisation and keeping the more sustainable parts by choreographing the relationships of the three dancers participating in the piece.
The two dancers are actively interacting with each other mentally were the third is only observing the other and is “documenting” the effects of their relationship in a bodily way.
The two dancers are called to practice a certain methodology every day were the third has to comment and dance upon the mental constructs produced by the other dancers.
This is suggested for two reasons:
-the isolated dancer is an agent of second-order cybernetics-an individual “third” eye which allows reflection to what is created. The dancer doesn’t know the essence of the interaction of the two dancers( what they say to each other e.t.c.) or the specific details of their reactions but decides what has a “flow”-the third dancer is the print of what is happening in “today”-in real time
-the interacting dancers are actively deconstructing history to create their future. They are two systems that exchange information and go to unknown places in order to create a co-operative “tomorrow”
The methodology is Inspired by Michael Clien and helps the investigation of the emerging questions about connections, relations and of how we make meaning of the world. The methodology for the two dancers is in three parts:
The first part is about making the dancers think and realize their autopoietic features-the things that characterize them most and bringing these elements into consciousness by naming them. Also the first part aims to connect the two dancers emotionally and make them interact in a more direct way.
The second part addresses issues of choice making and memories. As mentioned in relevant bibliography, we choose the things we want to remember and every time we revive them we deconstruct them-we "build" them again in a different way...but by this deconstruction many things emerge. Additionally in order for the experiment to evolve "uncontrolled" situation it had to engage in an active way a second system. So when the dancer comments and interacts with the other dancer the past experience is deconstructed within the scope of another person and the memories change identity and they becomes something new. These mental constructs are their private property and they are a basis in which they start building their story.
The third part is about exploring the issue of how this shared construct can be developed by two systems...can they share it?? Can they communicate it and live in presence together in order to create new “meaningful” memories together?
The writing tasks have to do with self-reflecting practices, evaluating and naming what happened.
The Methodology is as follows:
METHODOLOGY
ME
Note: before the dancers start dancing they reflect on their self’s and the other by the following writing task:
Write 5 things that characterize you
Write 5 things that you like about you
Write 5 things that you dislike about you
Write 5 things that characterize the other dancer
Write 5 things that you like about the other dancer
Write 5 things that you like about the other dancer
Notice: you only have 5 seconds for each question
INFLUENCE FROM THE PAST
Note: The dancers move in two stages-in the first only one of them moves and the other observes and in the second they both move but not together. They follow the below tasks:
Stage 1: to the dancer No1: Remember the best day of your life and revive it
to the dancer No2-: Observe her, remember all the important details and pay attention to everything that the other dancer is suggesting
Stage 2:
to dancer No1 : Listen and respond in a bodily way to the comments of the other dancer upon the best day of your life. Pay close attention.
to the dancer No2: Comment verbally or in a bodily way to what you saw from the other dancers best day-say what you imagine the best day was, dance about what you liked or disliked, suggest a correction to something you didn't like
Notice: when one moves the other doesn't
ELECTRICAL SHARING
Note: in this part the two dancers work together and the construction of “meaningful” memories is taking part
Try to live the best day of your life together with the other person
-Support and help your friend dancer to live his best moment and share and communicate yours with him
Stop dancing
Write or draw about what you believe you did in the last part and about what you believe sharing, supporting and communicating is.
Notice: you only have 10 seconds to write
This methodology was followed every day by the two dancers .The third was observing and creating a solo piece from the prints of the other dancers.
Video and verbal documentation was held after each day and all the writings were achieved and analysed.
Quotes during the months of the research
“it is like a third eye has been opened and it stared observing, realising, researching and collecting small pieces of information about me, about dance, about choreography...it was at the same time a raise of awareness but also a beginning of a journey...a journey with no end (until the last moment)...i can't wait till I "meet" my task again....”
''somehow relevant to what existence is...the electricity flows around the space ...it is this stream...this stream going around each part of your body...this hope that something will emerge, something will go higher than you...i can feel the moments i am open...open to the possibility of total loss, loss of myself, loss of control...these are the moments i feel electricity passing through my whole body...the moments i feel suspended, the moments i feel detached, shacked but sure, sure for just listening and participating to the stream...something that i cannot stop, control, question because in these moments I am BEING THERE...is like these moments because only then I feel like i am living in normal speed"
Check samples of the methodology in the vimeo-video:
Electrical Sharing project-Eleni,Zoi from nefeli on Vimeo.
Rehearshals
Check samples of the methodology in the vimeo-video:
Electrical Sharing project-Eleni,Zoi from nefeli on Vimeo.
Rehearshals
Michael Klein Session 1, 1 November 2011
Lab Time 2, 20th October 2011
By entering the studio I was thinking about the strikes and the mad situation we are living…the crazy dancers trying to experiment in the middle of the chaos…but then I think what best way could we possibly find to fight this terrible degradation of our daily lives rather than creating and experimenting? Every time I enter the studio even if I am pissed at Athen’s situation I smile cause I know I can breathe a different air ..the air of creativity…we begin by discussing…we talk about what we did, what we gained, where are we heading…and also about the difference of instruction and task…I keep on thinking that I should get reed off the things that lead to a fixed outcome…and then Ana asks us to work on our task…I feel shocked cause I feel the influence of Zoi strong in my mind and I feel incapable of touching again my Zoi-evolved task…I remember Zoi telling me it was hard to explore all the extend of volumes and qualities of electricity…I start my research…I feel my hands taking fire…my legs shaking from desire to discover…and then electricity heats me again…All the things I researched for my thesis about neurocognition come up…we experience our word thought our neurological system…we don’t know what “heavy” means till we grab something heavy…and the neurons work by transmitting the information to the brain like electricity…so that electricity I was thinking might be a stream of information related to memories and past activities(back to the conversation of me before and now)….is this electricity “contagious”? what does the pass of electricity leaves behind? What does the loss of electricity cost? what is that empty space? How does the electricity in one part of the body affect the other parts? Unison-holism-entity-isolation? The body is a consists of parts and the RELATIONSHIPS between them (the hole is more than the sum of the parts) …but what happens when electricity comes in? and if you cut the electricity in one part?...our time is up and the next step is to pass our meta-evolved task to a different person…omg…this is not happening I think…how will I possibly explain this mad thinking and this thought explosion?? I try to stay calm and I ask Ana for five minutes to organize my thinking and try to find the right whole(words) that can bring part of my thoughts to the other person…I start discussing with Eleni after a while and I try to explain as simply as I can my task…in my tasks I have added now the sudden cuts of electricity( unexpectedly the wires are cut) and the electricity explosion…..i start observing Eleni shaping the task in a different way as a sculpture....see plays with an amazing variety of new qualities and volumes and at the same time she stays really devoted to the task….a can see the circuitry of some movement, I can see her trying to find ways to exist within the limitations of my task…and of course the repetition is the base of knowledge and memories…she is trying to reach information by her neurons about a task that is about electricity that goes thought neurons to help them bring information to the brain…complexity squared…practice and theory start to play hind and seek…I can remember her taking energy from the floor and her body shaking and moving in all directions…I feel so grateful about the way she treated my task and very excited to get in touch with her idea...her task is being sensitive…we discuss that being sensitive sometimes means being isolated(linkage with my work)…I go and sit at the bench that Thalia put in the dance space with no idea what I was going to do...i think that being sensitive means that you know some things that other people probably don’t know…and if you know them you cannot ignore them…as i sit in the bench I can hear from the wood the steps of the dancers very loudly…I remember Eirini asking me to concentrate in the sensitivity in my senses…and there I go…I start reaching the wall trying to hear when I suddenly touch the stripes on the studio’s wall that became my obsession thought my research at the task….i touch them, I climb at the wall, I hang from them, I am really trying to find all the lines when suddenly another line comes out of nowhere…Afroditi is passing a thread right next to my hand as she is into Thalia’s task…I suddenly look around and I see the whole room full of threads….WOW….it couldn’t have been a better timing…I start playing with the thread in front of me…legs hanging, hands reaching, torso twisting…I don’t care about nothing else rather than these beautiful stripes and lines that are emerging in front of my eyes…I am completely immersed in the sensitivity task but at the same time I feel I am in my task too and in Thalia’s task too…By the end of the Lab Time i feel extremely happy and exhausted…my task was so wonderfully extended by Eleni and i’ve given my best to contribute to Eleni’s task…
I walk out of the studio to face the chaos of Athens
Lab time I, 18 October 2011
http://vimeo.com/30776317
and here I am reading Anna’s mail about suggesting a task…a task is different from an instruction we discuss but how can I get there? how can I put my thoughts in order and create a task that it has to be of lower complexity than the one that a stream of thoughts and images has? after all is something that I should be able to work with…big thoughts come in but I try to kick them out and find some core of interest…as I thing of the work we have done till know, moments come up….i recall the thought I had growing in my mind from John-Paul’s sessions (see previous entry): how isolated can we be or how united can we be? What is it that we lose by isolation and what is it that we gain?...so the meaning of isolation was around and then…BOOM…the task came in unexpectedly: ELECTRICITY…Each part of the body is connected with wires that can conduct electricity to one part of the body in different volumes. Low volumes mean enough electricity just to move, high volume means enough electricity to sake you. When you want to get to the floor or get off the floor using all your parts it has to be movement of the lowest volume…another possibility of moving all the parts in the same time is if they move in the highest volume…after a lot of hesitation I decide that this is something I really want to get into…and then the surprise comes…Anna asks us to pass our task to another person…wow and now what?? the new-born task has to be delivered but how?? I try to concentrate to what I will say to Zoi…as we discussed with Anna the words we will use are very important…I sit down and I write so I can find the least but more appropriate words to describe the task…if I use too much probably she will not get the point of the task and if I say too little she will not understand…i try to organize my thinking and realize which things Zoi doesn’t know about the task and she has to know and which things should not be said cause then it will become an instruction...i observe my self thinking…in my mind only images of the task as I envisioned it can come in and I really try to leave this images out so I can share my task with Zoi…and there we go…the dance floor is ready, the time is running and so we start…I share my idea and I start observing…and then a magic moment comes…I can see my task getting flesh and bones, personality and the most important evolving in the hands of Zoi (I feel so silly like a proud mother...hahahaha)….i am totally excited with the nice details that Zoi added-the lying hands, the pauses, the small shakings…in some moments her postures seem to me like paintings…all this brought me to another dimension…as I rest from my excitement I hear Anna asking us to bring the task back to us…but now I feel more ready…I am done with all this silly images that were haunting me and relieved by Zoi’s contribution…and I start to get in touch with the task…I start to feel the electricity…the video below is from this research…trying to understand, trying to evolve…trying to isolate, feel the electricity and discover which rules I can break….
http://vimeo.com/30776317
and here I am reading Anna’s mail about suggesting a task…a task is different from an instruction we discuss but how can I get there? how can I put my thoughts in order and create a task that it has to be of lower complexity than the one that a stream of thoughts and images has? after all is something that I should be able to work with…big thoughts come in but I try to kick them out and find some core of interest…as I thing of the work we have done till know, moments come up….i recall the thought I had growing in my mind from John-Paul’s sessions (see previous entry): how isolated can we be or how united can we be? What is it that we lose by isolation and what is it that we gain?...so the meaning of isolation was around and then…BOOM…the task came in unexpectedly: ELECTRICITY…Each part of the body is connected with wires that can conduct electricity to one part of the body in different volumes. Low volumes mean enough electricity just to move, high volume means enough electricity to sake you. When you want to get to the floor or get off the floor using all your parts it has to be movement of the lowest volume…another possibility of moving all the parts in the same time is if they move in the highest volume…after a lot of hesitation I decide that this is something I really want to get into…and then the surprise comes…Anna asks us to pass our task to another person…wow and now what?? the new-born task has to be delivered but how?? I try to concentrate to what I will say to Zoi…as we discussed with Anna the words we will use are very important…I sit down and I write so I can find the least but more appropriate words to describe the task…if I use too much probably she will not get the point of the task and if I say too little she will not understand…i try to organize my thinking and realize which things Zoi doesn’t know about the task and she has to know and which things should not be said cause then it will become an instruction...i observe my self thinking…in my mind only images of the task as I envisioned it can come in and I really try to leave this images out so I can share my task with Zoi…and there we go…the dance floor is ready, the time is running and so we start…I share my idea and I start observing…and then a magic moment comes…I can see my task getting flesh and bones, personality and the most important evolving in the hands of Zoi (I feel so silly like a proud mother...hahahaha)….i am totally excited with the nice details that Zoi added-the lying hands, the pauses, the small shakings…in some moments her postures seem to me like paintings…all this brought me to another dimension…as I rest from my excitement I hear Anna asking us to bring the task back to us…but now I feel more ready…I am done with all this silly images that were haunting me and relieved by Zoi’s contribution…and I start to get in touch with the task…I start to feel the electricity…the video below is from this research…trying to understand, trying to evolve…trying to isolate, feel the electricity and discover which rules I can break….
Ending the Lab time I feel so amazed and full of thoughts…feeling my head shakingggg….all the process makes me think of systemic theory and second order cybernetics…the system observes another system observe…and we…..a dancer observes another dancer observe/dialogue with the task….and in all this the reflection can lead to mylti-layered evolving…
Entering the workshop we start warming up with some really mind-triggering exercises…and all the process seems to be extending from serious to funny, from imaginary to actual, from limitation to freedom requiring this way our full participation and awareness…Thought this breath-taking process really big issues come up…first of all i clearly remember the push –pull exercise ( exercise or process ??never know right?) …two bodies finding ways to coexist within the rules and conditions given by the exercise…the one wants to stand up, the other wants the other person to stay down…two bodies trying to find the balance in the equation (?) of their relationship…who much freedom do they allow each other, what limits do they put…and all this reminding me of the social reality…how do I confront other people? How do I set my limits and how much space do I give to other?...I strongly recall John-Paul saying that we have to develop different strategies to confront the other person if something doesn’t work…actually I discover that I can manage to escape from the other body not by force but by pushing my mind to thing ways of surprising the other and going to a way that the other didn’t predict…so we start to communicate with the other, to see his clever ways, to discover the “open holes” of freedom that are there in every restriction… a pure source of creativity…and within this frame what do I take? what do I give? and in human relationships people always have specific goals from the others?...and of course an other big question emerges: what about the rules? How, when do I break them?...and after all a life in small box is really restrictive but also the life in the infinite complexity of the reality without limitations is quite difficult to handle…it is hard ,thought, to know the right limit and extension of rule-breaking…and I see it in front of my eyes…when I get really task-oriented and I don’t allow nothing to happen the exercise becomes boring to do and see…and when I don’t keep the rules at all the exercise finishes immediately…continuing the work I remember a really nice moment…we are doing the push-pull exercise with Afroditi and suddenly John-Paul tells us to do the same thing but alone…and it was really exciting and revealing experience …suddenly there is nobody underneath me, the support I had seems lost and my power seems to press the nowhere and nothing….and BOOOM the idea comes, a magic seed is planted in my brain that developed in my subconscious for a week till Anna asked as the task…but I will continue this in entry for the 18 October work…going back I pick some other thoughts from John-Paul’s session…I recall the work in failure we did…it felt so difficult to fail and we discussed that we are not used to fail and to expose to failure…it was so difficult just to quit, just to fall down, to leave everything fall apart…and especially while a majority of dance training is based in teaching you to be perfect, to cover your mistakes really quickly and protecting your self immediately before a “big fall” happens…and further one to a society that is so fast that gives no space for mistakes, that measures everything and is goal-achieving….i am completely socked but my incapability to honestly FAIL…unpredictable collapse, unplanned situation…and when I do so what then??...how do I continue??...what do I make with my fail….and after giving my self some really big brushes in my knee and in my hands I suddenly realize…it cannot matter the others if there is nothing real there…when I honestly fail I can hear the others laugh…the core, and the feeling has to be honest otherwise I cannot believe it and the others cannot believe it too…I must first feel how it is to fail so I can pass this feeling…and there I see my self completely believing that I will do many tour-fouetes (which I can’t), and honestly not managing to do so I can see the other participants smile…and a smile is something that the audience will never give you for free…
Wow…so many things are continuing to came up from these to days…I felt like I got closer to the other participants because I saw different aspects of them, and aspects that are hard to reach
