many thanks, Johannes, for the rich report!
Re:
>> The question of distance learning in dance
was mentioned briefly, but not examined. >>
- to other members of this list, if you are involved in :
>> constructing courses and distance
learning projects via the internet >>
and
>> interdisciplinary techniques such as choreography and writing, or the
tracing of dance diasporas with Geographic Information Systems
>>
..could you please add info or referance ?
and talking about dance diasporas,
is anyone aware of dance/art-tech activities in Bangkok / Thailand?
thanks,
best greetings
(... from, temporarily, a kibbutz in Israel, no cable TV, and quite a
different perspective on the virtual and the realities ...
and computer technology meaning, updates on news...)
Iris Tenge
iristenge@freenet.de
----- Original Message -----
From: Johannes Birringer <birringer.1@osu.edu>
To: <dance-tech@lists.acs.ohio-state.edu>
Sent: Sunday, October 22, 2000 4:54 AM
Subject: Re: Dancing with the Mouse: A Report
a r e p o r t :
DANCING WITH THE MOUSE -
CONFERENCE OCTOBER 12 - 15, 2000
_______________________________________
At the end of the three day conference held at TCU in Fort Worth, Texas
(USA), the dance professionals and dance educators expressed a strong
sense of shared commitment to further integrating new media and
technologies into the practice and teaching of dance. The group also
expressed a strong interest in continuing the "Dancing with the Mouse"
conference format, preferably circling the United States (from south to
west, then back midwest to east coast) and thus reaching as many
regional constituencies as possible.
This was the second "Dancing with the Mouse" conference (last year it
took place in South Carolina), again carefully and expertly co-organized
by Keitha Manning and Joanne Lunt (assisted by Lisa Naugle, Univ. of
California-Irvine) with a keen eye on making the program not too
extensive so that attendants could participate in as many sessions as
possible. The number of attendants (65) was roughly the same as last
year. Sponsored by the National Dance Association (of the American
Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance), the
meeting was primarily addressing the needs and interests of dance
educators eager to exchange experiences and learn more about the
possibilities of new technologies and their impact on dance practices.
The emphasis, thus, was more on workshopping the tools rather than
offering new artistic works.
It was apparent, however, that we are experiencing a small,
exponentially growing revolution in practices that link teaching,
preservation/documentation, and choreography/production.
Video cameras/projectors and computers have made it into the "classroom"
for sure. Classrooms and rehearsal studios around the country (as in
other parts of the world) are being wired for internet access and the
whole system of distributed information now common in most libraries.
This development has reached primary education, and the attendance of
school teachers (pre-k, middle and high) is therefore most significant,
since they will meet and train the young generations of dancers,
musicians and artists of the future.
The distribution of media technologies into all sectors of education is
a matter of enormous political and cultural significance, and questions
of equal access, continuing education (for students, teachers,
independent artists), and diversity will always remain critical in the
area that we have come to call "dance and technology." We often look at
it as a field of artistic practice, research/development, and creative
experimentation, but I left the conference feeling convinced, more than
ever, that we also need to network about issues of education, training,
technique, and cross-disciplinary thinking, and of course we are also
responsible for programs in community outreach.
Thus it was significant that representatives of presenters/venues and
directors of education (of dance companies) were also present, since
they could point out how important it is to make new, technologically
driven work accessible to the general audience. Similarly, as dance
scholars are now producing databases and multimedia documentations of
dance in CD-ROM/DVD format, or are constructing courses and distance
learning projects via the internet, the challenge of how to integrate
and disseminate new software applications, webbased/videoconferencing
technologies, and products into education and documentation is
considerable and, I'd say, enormously exciting. If recorded music,
movies, and television have swept through all corners of our world, as
oral and print literatures, religious, cultural, food and military
practices had done before, then information and communications
technologies in dance may signal a new stage in which movement as a
visual artform and as somatic and kinesthetic experience will produce
new adaptations of knowledge, different conceptions of the moving body,
real and virtual space, and design. I mention design because I believe
that dance and music technologists who work in interactive design
creation pursue interests that are linked (within a history of
craftsmanship and invention) to computer engineering, software and
industrial design, robotics, ergonomics, motion synthesis (animation),
and medical and biotechnological research. Movement capacity may be an
artform, but as Anne Green Gilbert (Seattle) pointed out in her "Brain
Dance" workshop, it is also a vital concern in current brain research
and learning therapy. The whole discussion about movement (and the
'design" of new techniques and body-image perceptions) in the digital
age has only just begun.
The conference offered hands- on practical workshops (teaching dance
with multimedia, Midi, and interactive computer tools), software
workshops (Lifeforms, Labanwriter, iMOVIE, Poser, SoundEdit 16,
Premiere, educational CD's, web, etc), lectures on
documentation/preservation/notation, history-teaching, and virtual dance
(motion capture), composition (with music, interactive technology),
environments, and other research (in dance forms and dance cultures,
interdisciplinary techniques such as choreography and writing, or the
tracing of dance diasporas with Geographic Information Systems).
Many of the sessions were participatory, but I should mention that
(predictably?) software was taught in computer labs, while workshops
took place on the dance floor, and lectures were held in lecture halls.
We were criss-crossing the campus from dawn to dusk. In one instance,
Elizabeth Gillaspy (TCU) showed Forsythe's CD-ROM "Improvisation
Technologies" in the dance studio and then had two of her dance students
apply Forsythe's ideas right there on the floor. Valarie Mockabee's
presentation of her OSU-based CD-ROM project "PREY" (on choreographer
Bebe Miller) was outstanding, delineating the path of future multimedia
documentations of danceworks linking digital video/photography,
notation, music score, text, and extensive notes on process and context.
A vibrant discussion followed, in which issues of
preservation/recreation, the value and focus on choreographic process
versus critical interpretation, choices of video-documentation
techniques and possible future links to motion capture software, but
also of copyright concerns and distribution were articulated. Candace
Feck (OSU) led a panel discussion on "Bodies in Cyberspace" which
featured very thought-provoking talks by Ann Dils (Greensboro) on motion
capture and "absence" (Kaiser/Cunningham/ Bill T. Jones) and Kent
deSpain (Athens) on the convoluted, psychologically anxious and
politically controversial relationship to the "diva" technology. He
urged us to reflect carefully on the sensitive issue of who decides
which technologies are implemented (in education), who invests and who
gets access to them, which technology serves whom, and how do we manage
the constantly necessary upgrades and degenerations of materials and
equipments.
The concluding roundtables picked up the thread, addressing issues of
copyright, advocacy, outreach, and policy making in the future
development of dance-technology education and production. Honorary
awards were handed out to folks who helped to build the dance-tech
momentum, such as the OSU-team (Vera Maletic, Will Smith, Robbie Shaw,
Candace Feck) who developed the OSU-MDP (Shaw also announcing the
completion of the new danceCODES shell, a dynamic database which has
design and programming already complete for the user), and Tom Calvert
(Technical University of British Columbia and Founder of Credo
Interactive, Inc.) who developed Life Forms and gave the keynote address
on "Beyond the Desktop: Towards the Virtual Dance Space" - in which he
predicted a future of connected technologies/spaces in which live
dancers interact with computer-generated figures in composition,
rehearsal and performance.
In the roundtable on "Technology in Choreography and Performance," I
tried to summarize briefly some proposals I had brought to the
"Environments" workshop I taught and others that emerged during the
weekend. I will only list them here: 1) a new space for new dance
(integrated studios that combine training and performance with media and
technology instruments/softwares for experimentation), 2) a complete
restructuring of the existing model of dominant ballet/modern education,
opening out to dance fusions and new techniques/new processes that are
team based and no longer hierarchical 3) destructuring of existing
curricula and the exploration of dynamic/interactive learning and
composition environments that integrate all the arts, 4) consequently,
a stronger emphasis on interdisciplinary and cross-cultural research and
development in performance technologies and designs, 5) along with new
techniques (in multimedia composition or documentation) develop new art
and dance educational outreaches and advocacy to bridge the gaps (for
example between our schools, club cultures, mainstream and alternative
art circles, museum education, festivals, workshops, and the sometimes
rarefied fringe underground or virtual playground of dance
technology/digital art).
Finally, the Mouse conference had a nice paradoxical evening concert,
in which Robert Wechsler (Palindrome Intermedia Performance Group,
Nurnberg/Germany) could only speak about, and show videos of, his
expansive professional experience in interactive performance design (his
computer software and engineer-collaborator did not arrive on time). But
he gave a lively talk, and performed briefly with young dancers in an
ad-hoc piece. Lisa Naugle, honorary guest professor at TCU, had worked
extensively with 6 dance students and presented a spirited, highly
liquid piece ("Split") which featured her choreography and upstage
screen projections of digital film animations created by John Crawford
(Vancouver). Astonishingly, although the screen projections at times
appeared to overwhelm the dancers onstage, they were abstracted movement
passages from the same dance that were truly beautiful and haunting; the
figures on screen seemed nearly transparent and appeared as if they were
motion-capture based. [see videostill, (c)2000 L.Naugle/J.Crawford]
Barbara Hernandez (director, NDA) and Keitha Manning urged some of us to
offer courses and summer schools introducing dance software, since more
and more teachers in the field need to gain hands on training, and
people are most happy if they walk away with a software they've just
learnt to use (free demo software was passed out). The question of
distance learning in dance was mentioned briefly, but not examined.
Lisa Naugle and myself discussed the possibility of hosting a future
Mouse conference, but I also stated that OSU would more likely be
interested in hosting an international performance-and creation-oriented
IDAT conference in future years (2004?). We on the US side wait to hear
from Richard Povall and our friends in the Europe and elsewhere about
their plans.
Jenny Mendez, a young Latina dancer from TCU who videotaped the
sessions, mentioned that she attended the summer camp of the American
College Dance Festival Association, and in 6 weeks of training no one
mentioned technology. Interesting. That may very well have been the last
time.
respectfully,
Johannes Birringer
AlienNation Co.
http://www.aliennationcompany.com
OSU_Dance
http://www.wexarts.org/thefold/practice/practiceframes.html
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