Research Critique: Dance Performance

Eiko & Koma: My Parents

Eiko Otake and Takashi Koma Otake, generally known as Eiko & Koma, are a Japanese performance duo. Since 1972, Eiko & Koma have worked as co-artistic directors, choreographers, and performers, creating a unique theater of movement out of stillness, shape, light, sound, and time.

Eiko & Koma’s iconoclastic work combines slow and nuanced movement vocabulary with bold theatrical design. Whether performing in a theater or in natural sites outdoors, Eiko & Koma often move as if they are not human.
Eiko & Koma’s iconoclastic work combines slow and nuanced movement vocabulary with bold theatrical design. Whether performing in a theater or in natural sites outdoors, Eiko & Koma often move as if they are not human.

In post-war Japan, nature was part of the life and life was simpler without much technology. Baby boomers including Eiko and Koma protested on the streets for the damages done to the earth during the industrialization. That was where their aspirations came in.

In their dance, they often move as if they are not human. The movements are in their most pristine forms. While they are dancing on the floor, they reminds me of those earth creatures with a long, narrow body and a lot of legs. Many of their works contain nudity, which emphasizes the vulnerability of humans and transforms their appearance so they do not have everyday human bodies.

“A fish is naked and stone is naked. Why not us?”

 

Motion Control

Motion Control was produced with an Arts Council England / BBC Dance for Camera Award and examines the synergy between camera and performer. The film is notable for hyper-sound Foley score overlaid with text and electro-opera.

Devised and choreographed by Liz Aggiss and Billy Cowie and directed by David Anderson, Motion Control examines the synergy of camera and performer.
Devised and choreographed by Liz Aggiss and Billy Cowie and directed by David Anderson, Motion Control examines the synergy of camera and performer.

Take one glamorous and ageing dancer. Trap her in the real world, then smash into her private reality. Control her movement, contain her emotion. Well you can try but she has already beaten you to it. With hypersound and super smart awareness submit to this bizarre journey of entrapment.

This screen dance challenges traditional notions of choreography through depicting movements both viscerally and conceptually. And of course it is very hard to get it out of your head after watching it. The performer’s face, her hair, the soundtrack, the camera angel, the special effect, her dance in the small box trying to fight against gravity made it one of the most strangely fascinating things I have seen in a while. As I was reading through the comments on Youtube, I found one really interesting: “oh my..this is very dark, makes me feel very uncomfortable.a horrible piece of work but one that raises strong and powerful emotions. fantastic!” 

Yes, the film looked really dark and horrible at the beginning, especially when the camera came out of the ground and entered this red room with a witch-like woman lying in the green bed. But the choreography/cinematography really fascinated me.

lizaggisshead

Research Critique: Sensing Garments and Smart Textiles

Wearable Kinesthetic Systems, Alessandro Tognetti, Federico Lorussi, Mario Tesconi, Raphael Bartalesi, Giuseppe Zupone, Danilo De Rossi (2005)

 

“This paper deals with the design, the development and the realization of sensing garments, from the characterization of innovative comfortable and spreadable sensors to the methodologies employed to gather information on posture and movement.”
The report was about developing a wearable kinesthetic system for capturing and classifying body posture and gesture.
It started with the relevance of body kinematics monitoring technology in several biological disciplines and applications like rehabilitation monitoring. Some drawbacks of the conventional technologies were then mentioned. For example, the clumsy mechanical plug and wires of traditional sensors may bound human movements.
ULKG prototype
ULKG prototype
Two types of sensorized garments based on conductive elastomer (CE) sensors were created: an Upper Limb Kinesthetic Garment (ULKG) and a Sensing Glove. The piezoresistive properties of CE sensors made it possible to obtain a sensing fabric which could then be used to manufacture garments capable of monitoring human movements.
The process to obtain the fabric was rather technical. Refer to the link for more details. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1079930/
The report then further described the prototypes of ULKG and sensing glove and their electrical models and data acquisition techniques. At the end of the report, it evaluated the performances of both garments. The results turned out to be quite accurate.
In this work, the garment’s wearability was placed with priority, which led to its advantage over the traditional monitoring wearables.

 Wearable Electronics and Smart Textiles: A Critical Review, Matteo Stoppa and Alessandro Chiolerio (2014)
“This review focuses on recent advances in the field of Smart Textiles and pays particular attention to the materials and their manufacturing process. Each technique shows advantages and disadvantages and our aim is to highlight a possible trade off between flexibility, ergonomics, low power consumption, integration and eventually autonomy.”
The review started with an introduction of smart textiles. It described the convergence of electronics and textiles into fabrics which were able to sense, compute, communicate and actuate. More attention was devoted to the materials and methodologies to develop smart textiles. Each scientific approach was followed by a review of the related work carried out by companies, universities or research institutes.
Smart Textiles are defined as textile products such as fibers and filaments, yarns together with woven, knitted or non-woven structures, which can interact with the environment/user.
Smart Textiles are defined as textile products such as fibers and filaments, yarns together with woven, knitted or non-woven structures, which can interact with the environment/user.

 

It discussed fabrication techniques like conductive fibers and conductive inks. These conductive materials could be used as sensors due to their electrical properties. Other types of sensors like stretch sensors and pressure sensors were mentioned, too.

 

Each method presented has a very specific feature such as conductivity, flexibility, biocompatibility, mechanical resistance and washability. With only a few approaches able to satisfy all these requirements at the same time, trade off often exists.
The review concluded with a vision of future wearables. The final key factor for user acceptance of wearable systems is the fit comfort.

Micro-Project: Glitched Aberrations

Choose the image that I am gonna glitch. I hate to glitch it because I like the original picture very much.

EGON SCHIELE, Self-Portrait with Chinese Lantern Plant, 1912, oil and gouache on wood, 11 3/4 x 15 3/4 inches (32.2 x 39.8 cm), Leopold Museum, Vienna
EGON SCHIELE, Self-Portrait with Chinese Lantern Plant, 1912, oil and gouache on wood, 11 3/4 x 15 3/4 inches (32.2 x 39.8 cm), Leopold Museum, Vienna

Making copies.

Self-portrait with the Chinese lantern plantSelf-portrait with the Chinese lantern plantSelf-portrait with the Chinese lantern plantSelf-portrait with the Chinese lantern plantSelf-portrait with the Chinese lantern plantSelf-portrait with the Chinese lantern plantSelf-portrait with the Chinese lantern plantSelf-portrait with the Chinese lantern plant

Open the image in text file and manipulate it by adding to, deleting and substituting its code.

Glitch 1

Self-portrait with the Chinese lantern plant 6

Glitch 2

Self-portrait with the Chinese lantern plant 3

Glitch 3

Self-portrait with the Chinese lantern plant 5

Glitch 4

Self-portrait with the Chinese lantern plant 4

 

Micro-Project: Dream Journal

Task#1

Thinking Herself Back: The body is a living archive according to Angeline Young, the artist who created and performed the piece. It told an evocative and striking story of displacement, struggle and migration. There were many Chinese elements in the performance to create the context of Chinese Civil War, for example, the Taoist rituals and her traditional Chinese costumes. But most importantly, the story was spoken out of her mouth while she was dancing. As an audience, it was like living through the real history, a part of history that was inscribed in the performer’s body and unleashed through a combination of “oral history, kinesthetic transmission, and ritual practice”, rather than listening to a story. With the audience being largely involved, this form of performance reminded me of the Sleep No More show that I watched in New York City. It forged a deep connection between the performer and the audience as they suddenly became witnesses of her family’s past. In my opinion, the piece meant to express her indignation for the displacement of her family and her sympathy for the huge amount of refugees who were still suffering today.

Reaching for my father beyond the bamboo curtainThis piece struck me as an auditory tour de force. I really enjoyed the soft tinkling of the bamboo chimes and the rustling of bamboo leaves being rolled over by a piece of bamboo bark. The crystallised sounds created a virtual space where she began with the narrative of her father’s absence in her life. The digital soundtrack seemed to be out of place but effective in delivering the message. “The number you are dialling is not available.” As an audience, I was intrigued throughout the six minute excerpt. Through “movement, film imagery and sound”, I could feel the space and time that the performer was trying to depict, where “memory, longing, distance, and absence may or may not reside. “

Question for the artist: What is the role of the audience in these two films?

Task#2

Dream Diary

Dream Jounal

Task#3

In the first dance video, I explored the robotic concept. I tried to express a feeling of constraint and suppression. (The small room feeling in my first dream)

In the second video, I used more flowish, big and continuous movements like waving to express the big room feeling.