wk5: what needs to be done // fyp

Topic

Find a more unique approach to tackle the endangered animals subject or loss of biodiversity

Current problem statement: endangerment by urbanization

  • Dig a little deeper into how urbanization in Singapore has impacted these animals
  • Other than just the removal of habitat, what other ways of urbanization (e.g. plastic consumption) contribute to these problems
  • could try to link back to the original problem statement about coexistence
Interaction

Current interaction: motion sensors that track human presence that will trigger animations of human impact to the animals/habitat

  • Explore other mediums other than interactive projections
  • Think of interactions using objects where their actions create a reaction to the artwork
  • Try to see if participants can contribute something to the artwork
  • Find more artworks that are related to this topic.
WHATS WRONG, FIZAH?

Currently, I am terrified of choosing the wrong topic. I want to make sure that I have my topic right and be confident about it.

That’s probably why I’m taking a bit more time in the conceptual phase.

Other than that, I slightly regret choosing the topic of animals for several reasons:

  1. obviously this topic is very overdone, so I have a huge burden to think outside of the box and make something different and unique.
  2. difficult to incorporate self-expression. When I reviewed other student’s works, I could see how the artwork represents who they are, and I feel like I’m starting to lose my own identity in my project, by focusing on “solving the problem”. Now, I need to find the right balance of “self-expression” and “problem-solving”.

But there is no going back now. I’m going to stick to this animal topic and find a solution.

By the next meeting, I hope that I can have a solid problem statement and have a rough idea of what interactions/narrative I would like with some possible small prototypes.

the rope choreographer // micro-performance

An empty stage.

 

 

 

 

Performers are usually given a blank canvas to perform in. In that empty canvas, they bring in their own performance that occupies the space.

What if we designed the space and instead of them performing IN the space, we make them perform TO the space?

In my project, I wanted to explore the idea of letting a space choreograph a dancer’s movement. Essentially, the dancers come into a space with no choreography in mind and move according to what the space tells you to.

For this micro-performance, I decided to scale it down by using objects instead of space.

Dancers/ often used props that have been choreographed into dance.

Similarly, what happens when we let the prop choreograph your dance?

Subject:

The rope choreographer  – rope and dancers

Context:

Two participants will control the rope, while the performer has to dance to the movement of the rope.

The performers experimented with two different instructions on how to react to the rope.

  1. Avoid the rope.
  2. Always touch the rope.

I enlisted the help of two of my dancer friends of varying dance backgrounds, Mus (contemporary dancer) and Shah (Lindy dancer). I (an old and retired modern dancer) also took part in this performance.

Part 1 – Avoid the Rope

Part 2 – Always touch the Rope

Thoughts

I believe the rope started becoming the fourth dancer in this performance. While perfoming, I was entranced by the rope, and it instinctively becomes my “dance partner”.

It’ll be interesting to see a variation of this where it becomes a human and machine dance collaboration, where the dancer has to move according to the movements of the machine. I would very much love to venture into this for my semester project.