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Themes |
15th February
Sita:
Some people have already sent me suggestions for themes for Project
2:
community
desire
transformation (literal not metaphoric)
rhetorical questions
urban legends/ myths
things beyond our(most people's) comprehension
Does anyone have any preferences/comments on these, or any other suggestions?
Kareen:
I look forward to hearing more about your theme. Some suggestions that
I have are:
rhetorical questions
urban legends/ myths
things beyond our(most people's) comprehension
Just some thoughts.
16th February
Colleen:
On the themes, what are you looking for??
If you're interested, I'm working on a piece at the moment and the
stimulus is Image, mirrors and reflection- I've found those rich in terms
of movement material maybe others would too!!
Of the themes listed, I quite like the idea of rhetorical questions-
it would be a challenge possibly to create movement from that but
a good challenge...
17th February
Clare:
Would it make sense to combine the themes of mirrors and reflections
with transformations? After all distorted mirrors can produce some weird
transformations of the forms reflected in them.
18th February
Rodlee:
I like the sound of that. There is also the aspect about mirrors
were you look at yourself and you see your self in a certain way that other
people dont. You have a self image in your own mind which may not
be what other people see in you. There is certainly distortion there.
There are also times where there are transformations in what you see in
yourself when looking at the mirror. For example one day you could
look at yourself and think 'God I look horrible' then there are other days
when this thought transforms into perhaps 'Wow I look great' for example.
But I do like the idea about urban legends and myths too. Im not sure at this point but surely this could be included somehow. It would certainly provide a wider range of ideas to work with. We dont necessarily need to go into all the myths etc we know. We could just decide on one and relate this to the idea of mirrors and transformation. I know its not an urban legend but the I quite like the Dr Jeckyl and Hyde idea. Alter egos which completely contrast each other. It a bit of a sketchy idea but I hope it gives us some kind of starting point.
Perhaps we could look at our personalities. And how we change them. A psychologiest called Cooley I think it was suggested that our personalities are shaped by the way in which other people behave and respond to us. This theory is called 'The Looking Glass Self'. So Cooley was basically saying that we use other people as mirrors to tell us about ourselves. We develop a knowledge of ourselves through how other people react to us, through using other people as mirrors. I suppose then that this would continue throughout our lives our view of ourselves transforming alongside the changes in peoples behaviour towards you.
19th February
Kareen:
Regarding theme, I am pleased to hear a more direct tactic being taken
on the reflections and transformations idea. I would be more interested
in working with a more concrete and directed focus, such as the Cooley
/ Looking Glass/ Jeckyle and Hyde scenario than working under a huge umbrella
concept where I feel that it can become too easy to sort of hide behind
the idea of the idea. I realize that we are merely forming the concept
at this time and a more focused theme begins with a general one.
I merely wanted to comment that I appreciate Rodlee's thoughts.
21st February
Kareen: I've been playing around with some graphics. Here
something inspired by our current running theme. (Click
here)
Steven:
I have sent some music to set a mood. (It is actually a humpback whale
singing). (Click here)
I think this is a great project and the theme seems to be settling in to something we can all have a whack at. I am very interested in the medecine wheel and shamanism as practiced by indigineous cultures. For many of them transformation is a necessary part of tribal unity and healing. To enter an altered consciousness and discover an alter ego, a spirit guide usually in the form of an animal, is a critical part of the process. It seems there is a fertile tension between such ancient concepts and the more recent myths that spring from our urbanized culture such as Cooley/Looking Glass/Jeckyle and Hyde in which our animal undercurrents are a source of fear and dread.
22nd February
Sita:
Kareen's image and Steven's whale song are on the same
page, and I find that the feelings inspired by Kareen's image change
quite remarkably when I listen to the whale song at the same time.
Kareen:
I like it. How interesting to see the image and the whale sound clip
together. I get the impression of a happily lobotomized person -
entranced. Actually, I couldn't stop laughing. Any "art" that
make me laugh is okay by me.
Rodlee:
It's quite surreal watching Kareen and Steven's inspirations fit together.
It's amost like she's looking at herself thinking about herself in the
future, will there be any change in her lifestyle be it good or bad, or
will it stay as it is with her being content with what she has in her simple
life? Each separate image of her looking at her back kind of represents
to me an idea of her looking into the future where she will be thinking
the same things e.g. 'will there be any change in my lifestyle be it good
or bad? Or will...' The picture says even if we are content
and relaxed as the whale song suggests the lady is, we still wonder about
our future and whether our lifestyles as we know them will change and transform
in time or stay the same.
23rd February
Steven:
I like the girls duets very much...I think the outside eye helps to
give coherence to the phrasing. Now what to bring these duets together?
Instead of a spatial strategy or timing strategy, why not think about an
external setpiece element...Mirror, door, threshold(can even just be imagined)
through which duets change into other duets...Each individual duet could
also play through and around such an external prop. If you are going to
use projections, that lends another duplication. But all this mirroring
should have a central element.
Fear of change and/or desire for change as represented by an abstract setpiece....something simple like a frame that can be moved easy through and around...just one idea...
3rd March
Steven:
You have some really strong material here! Depending on what kind of
thing you want to do with it now there are a number of considerations.
Do you want to make a "finished" piece based on the theme and using the
studies. If you do, you have to find a very ingenius way of moving from
the intimate sections that almost seem best for video to the more dynamic
material. Music could provide such a glue, and/or a rough storyline...I
personally feel that type of approach will yield more powerful results
than just stringing the material together based on a spatial strategy(which
might be all that emerges from our input on structure since this type of
feedback loop is very time consuming and misses the spontaneous moment
with the dancers and yourself). However, you of course can do both.
4th March
Sita:
It would be wonderful if we could construct a story for the material
- an urban myth of our own perhaps - I will make up a Web page for that
to happen...
Sita:
OK, the urban myth page is up - you can create
a new story or tell one that you know, with the theme of reflections and
transformations in mind. It will become the link that builds all
our movement material into the dance.
8th March
Kareen:
Hi all,
Regarding wrapping it all up into a cohesive proverbial burrito of
sorts:
As our theme has been reflections and transformation and we've dabbled
a bit with urban myths, I think what is most underlying and inherent in
this kind of work (dance and technology) is the communication - the
presentation of ones ideas in this forum-like setting that Sita has described
for us. I feel that through this project I am a part of a new generation
of artistic collaboration. How exciting that time and distance have
no constraint whatsoever in this process! As the idea is placed before
the group, we see how it is understood by the other participants and possibly
reflected in their own voice, then subsequently transformed into something
new and of an entirely different medium. It's really quite amazing;
don't' you agree?
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