Re: Site Specific Work: Webbed Feats

Stephan Koplowitz (SKoplowitz@packer.edu)
Sun, 15 Jun 1997 21:53:13 GMT

dance-tech@lists.acs.ohio-state.edu,Internet writes:
>In the interest of collecting histories (references, sources, inspirations,
>etc.) I would like to point out that the webbedfeat project reminds me of
>others..
>. in particular, formally speaking, it is very close to Remy
>Charlip's Air Mail Dances copyright 1979, Troika Ranch's YEARBODY
>(http://art.net/~troika/yearbody.html) and William Forsythe's 'improvisation
>technologies'.
Dear Scott, YES....Webbed Feats IS definitely an extension of Remy Charlip's
Air Mail Dances....there will be RealAudio interviews at each "stage" and on
the Promenade page I make direct reference to Remy's work...however, I refer to
them as Postcard Dances...perhaps that is not the exact title, but the concept
behind them is explained.....I was not inspired directly by Remy's work but his
precent was clear to me as I developed the project and I even made reference to
it in grant applications.....I am sorry to say I am not familiar with Troika
Ranch's YEARBODY and although I am a huge fan of William Forsythe's work, (I
got to see several different programs in France) I have not been able to
experience his improvisation technologies and would love to know how I might do
that....is there a CD ROM available to the public?

> Why not be able to invoke a
>particular approach to dance making as a choice on the website? I would have
>loved a button to push to generate a 'random' relationship between the words
>and images or a new order.
I like this idea and will look into it.....like letting the dice decide....

> Or a button which would have imposed various
>mathematical scores or structures.
I'd be curious what you have in mind...
My budget for this project does come into play in terms of what I could do....I
was not able to find programmers who were willing to work simply for the love
of the art....as it stands, I'm told I was given a very good "break" on the
work that was done but I was given deadlines and x number of hours allocated
for all aspects of the web production.....But lets face it....this is my FIRST
project on the web and I am learning and getting a perspective as we speak
(thanks to considered feedback such as yours) and by the time September 17 is
over, I expect I will have several ideas and plans on how to do a more improved
Webbed Feats next time.....
My hope is that with what I learn from this initial effort, I can then involve
earlier in the process other choreographers and artists to be the host artists
etc.....Webbed Feats becomes a vehicle to produce other live events through web
collaboration....

Thanks for looking in....I hope folks will want to take part....

Steve

-------------------------
Packer Collegiate Institute
Brooklyn, NY USA