i've been away and after frantically trying to catch up on discussions i'm
faced with that recurring theme of entrances and exits... how to leap in
(for the first time) to a fast flowing discussion when there's so much past
material i'd like to comment on.
to quote a friend: start here start now
Scott, when you said,
>I know Terry does his best to pull together the necessary technology to run
>innovative workshops, etc. and Dick in Rotterdam last year sweat blood
>getting a local commercial motion capture facility to open up their studio
>to dancers for 4 days. But this is not enough time -- or better -- what
>situations do we need to create to complement these shorter forms... I'm
>afraid the results of Dick's cyberstudio are lost now... drifted away,
>nothing to pull the experience out into another manifestation somehow.
as one of the participants at Motek Studios in Amsterdam i have to say that
the results of the Future Moves cyberstudio are not totally lost. i have a
video of one element of the 5 minute performance that Thecla Schiphorst,
Kirk Woolford and i devised. i used this for demonstration/discussion
purposes at the London Digidance '96 and use it in teaching/lecturing
contexts as well. the experience of experimenting with two different motion
capture systems (optical and magnetic) was very valuable, as much for
realising the huge impact the limitations of the systems has on movement...
more on this at some other point. unfortunately the hard data from our
motion capture was 'lost' despite Motek having assured us they would keep
it because it was their longest ever capture (15 minutes). in the light of
this two things come to mind:
1. when we beg or barter for technical assistance from commercial ventures
like professional studios how can we ensure that their part of the bargain
will be upheld? perhaps this discussion list can offer tips on negotiating
- not just WHO to contact, but WHAT TERMS to suggest and most importantly
what pitfalls to avoid in advance? for instance, if i had known it would be
so difficult to get our hard data i would have stayed an extra day or so,
brought my own videos to the studio and sat there until the duplication was
complete (making myself very unpopular in the process but it would have
been worth it!)
2. how to best document live interactive work. coming from a
dance/philosophy background rather than film/visual art i have always been
weak at documenting my own work, preferring instead to let it disappear
when over. this stance, i now realise, is quite purist overlooking that
visual documentation is of interest to people, has educational implications
and helps with funding... but it is so hard to simply video or photograph a
live, interactive event. (thinking of my partial video of the Future Moves
experimentation) nor do i feel that CD-roms are necessarily a good way to
document a performance(i see them as a separate artistic venture). websites
are good but still quite iconic. i'm beginning to think a partial
documentation is the best, since it is filled in by the speaker (if it's a
presentation), the text (if it's an article) or the reader (if it is
read)...
apart from that i'd like to echo support for richard's idea of summer school:
>>I would be more than interested in supporting a summer school here in Ohio
>>- two or three weeks of intensive work in a dedicated atmosphere. I think
>>I might even be able to find the funding for a pilot program in 1998. Is
>>there the interest out there to support such a workshop - and is this what
>>we really need???
best,
susan