Finding the Intersections

The symbiosis of improvisational

choreography andinteractive scenography

in two creative developments

Image: Tessa Rixon

Image: Tessa Rixon

Why interactivity?

What is interactivity?“Something is interactive if and only if it (1) is responsive, (2) does not completely control, (3) is not completely controlled and (4) does not respond in a completely random fashion…

…Interacting with something is much like trying to control it, testing to see how it will respond. It is crucial to note that we must not be able to infallibly predict the response of that with which we are interacting" (Smuts 2009, 65)

Interactive systems (Birringer 2008) – unstable, open …“refers to multi-stranded interactive systems which use performers/participants to activate them and the imagery to which they give rise” (Rubidge 2009, 376)

Vincent, Vincent, Vincs & McCormick - “Without the capacity for improvisatory and interactive responses, video media/ projected media continues to be perceived as fundamentally unequal to, and incompatible with, live performance, particularly within the context of transmedia dance” (2016, 52)

Mark Conigilio, co-founder of Troika Ranch and creator of creative server software program Isadora

Real-time interactions

Reverting canon notation. Source: Hutchinson Guest and van Haarst 2011, 61

Source: Anna HalprinPapers

“Make ten single sounds on the paper. Crumple the paper for sixty counts, then tear continuously, listening to your sounds. When you have had enough, collect as large a bundle of

paper as you can, and exit.” Score for Paper dance - Halprin 1995, 102

“Relax your eyes” “Lie down on your back; cup the palms of your hands over your eyeballs; fingertips

separated and touching crown of head; heel of hand resting under cheekbone until

your eyes are quiet; and visualise a void.”

Halprin 1995, 50

Brain neuron image and videoThenDots solo.mp4 video

Image: Tessa Rixon

Brain neuron image and videoThenDots solo.mp4 video

Video: Tessa Rixon

Open <> Closed scores

The open system.

Open <> Closed systems

Video: Tessa Rixon

“To program interfaces between performers and the computer implies the creation of an

unstable, open system where control parameters can be continually negotiated if

collaborative interaction is the desired effect” (Birringer 2008, xxv)

Real time composition and technology title slide

Lines dancing video

Video: Tessa Rixon

Real-time technology

Image: Tessa Rixon

“…free improvisation in dance is a form of

real-time composition, in which informed

choices take place in the ‘moment’ of dance

which are no less valuable than choices

made by the choreographers in

their studios and then mediated to audiences

by performers.” (Lycouris 2009, 349)

Real-time composition

Image : Tessa Rixon

…As co-performer

Image : Credo Interactive

“I use the computer as a tool… It’s not

simply to do a trick. These are not tricks

to me, but real things that are in life.” Cunningham in

Morgenroth 2004, 17

…As the origin of performance

William ForesytheNowhere and Everywhere at the Same Time No. 2

Brighton Festival

…As performance itself

Image: Tessa Rixon

A Willingness to Play

Video of Courtney time, me time?

Adapted working practices

Video: Tessa Rixon

Limiting the Machine

Image: Tessa Rixon

Image: Tessa Rixon

Dots - Solo and Partnered (2013)Left Brain/Right Brain (2013)

The feet (2013)Brain neuron pattern (2013)

Ghost dancing (2013)Brain footage floor movement (2013)

Colour, light, motion and plastic (2013)Dual Brain Scan play on plastic (2013)

Responsive dots (2013)Combining digital dancer and brain scans (2013)

Brain lines dancing to Brain Seizure Recording.wav (2013)Drawing in response to dance (2013-14)

The feet (2014)Dancing story/memory (2014)

Writing memories (2014)Speaking memories (2014)

Partner improvisation (2014)Internal plastic dance (2014)

Feet (2013-14) – with dots, partnered w/ live feed output stage + time delay(2013); Group (2014)

References:Aronson, Arnold. 2013. “Time and Space on the Stage” Performance Research 18(3): 84-94

Auslander, Philip. 1999. Liveness: Performance in a Mediatized Culture. London; New York: Routledge.

Birringer, Johannes. 2003. “Dance and Interactivity” Dance Research Journal 35 (2)/36(1): 88-112

Birringer, Johannes. 2008. Performance, Technology, and Science. New York: PAJ Publications.

Coniglio, Mark. 2004. “The Importance of being interactive” in New visions in performance: the impact of digital technologies by Gavin Carver and Colin Beardon, 5-12. Swets & Zeitlinger Publishers: Lisse

Cunningham, Merce, David Vaughan, Thecla Schiphorst, Carolyn Brown, Joseph V. Melillo, and Laura Kuhn. 2004. “Four Key Discoveries: Merce Cunningham Dance Company at Fifty” Theater 34(2):105-111

de Spain, Kent. 2000. “Dance and Technology: A Pas de Deux for Post-Humans” Dance Research Journal, 32(1): 2-17

Dixon, Steve. 2007. Digital Performance: A History of New Media in Theater, Dance, Performance Art, and Installation. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Franko, Mark. 2011. “Writing for the Body: Notation, Reconstruction, and Reinvention in Dance” Common Knowledge 17(2): 321-334

Halprin, Anna. 1995. Moving Toward Life: Five Decades of Transformational Dance. University Press of New England: Hanover and London

Hutchinson-Guest, Ann. 2005. Labanotation: The system of analysing and recording movement. 4th ed. Routledge: New York and London.

Karreman, Laura. 2013. “The Dance without the Dancer” Performance Research 18:5:120-128 doi: 10.1080/13528165.2013.828934

Lycouris, Sophie. 2009. “Choreographic environments: New technologies and movement-related artistic work” in Contemporary Choreography: A critical reader edited by Jo Butterworth and Liesbeth Wildschut, 346-361. Routledge: New York.

Morgenroth, Joyce. 2004. Speaking of Dance. Routledge: New York and London.

Palmer, Scott. 2007. “A Place to Play: Experimentation and Interactions between Technology and Performance.” In The Potentials of Space: The Theory and Practice of Scenography & Performance, edited by Alison Oddey and Christine A. White, 105–18. Bristol: Intellect Books.

Palmer, Scott and Sita Popat. 2005. “Creating common ground: dialogues between performance and digital technologies” International Journal of Performance Art and Digital Media 1(1):47-65

Rubidge, Sarah. 2009. “Performing Installation: Towards an understanding of choreography and performativity in interactive installations” in Contemporary Choreography: A critical reader edited by Jo Butterworth and Liesbeth Wildschut, 362-378. Routledge: New York.

Schiphorst, Thecla. 1993. “A Case study of Merce Cunningham’s use of the Lifeforms computer choreographic system in the making of Trackers.” MA diss., Simon Fraser University. http://www.sfu.ca/~tschipho/publications/Schiphorst_M.A.Thesis.pdf

Smallhorn, Tessa. 2013. “The influence of digital technology on the performance space” Studio Research 1: 60-77

Smuts, Aaron. 2009. “What Is Interactivity?” The Journal of Aesthetic Education 43 (4): 53–73.

Vincent, Jordan Beth, Caitlin Vincent, Kim Vincs and John McCormick. 2016. “Navigating control and illusion: functional interactivity versus ‘faux-interactivity’ in transmedia dance performance”, International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media 12(1): 44-60

Watts, Victoria. 2010. Dancing the Score: “Dance Notation and Différence” Dance Research: The Journal of the Society for Dance Research 28 (1): 7-18

Images/Videos:

Anna Halprin Digital Archive. n.d. “Performers in "Paper Dance" from Halprin's "Parades and Changes" [includes partial nudity]”. Image. Accessed May 31, 2017 http://annahalprindigitalarchive.omeka.net/items/show/62

Credo Interactive Inc.. 2017. “DanceForms interface with Stage window”. Image. Accessed June 1, 2017 . http://charactermotion.com/products/danceforms/

Hutchinson Guest, Ann and Rob van Haarst. 2011. “Reverting canon notation” Image. In Advanced Labanonation: Canon Forms. Vol1, Pt 1. Dance Books Ltd.: Alton, Hamshire, UK

Laurence, Chloe. 2014. “Nowhere and Everywhere at the Same Time No. 2”. Youtube Video posted 1 June. Accessed 20 June 2017 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrgT0vuGj2Q

All other images, videos and graphics remain the property of Tessa Rixon.

Archival recordings featured footage and audio from the following sources - Brain Seizure music (Stanford link here), Vocalised Schizophrenia internal monologue (here), Diffuse Tensor Imaging video graphic (Examples and link to academic paper here),

Acknowledgements

Thanks to the following dancers for collaborating in the 2013 and 2014 DevelopmentsEmma BarnettLara HedgcockAmelia StokesChiu-Ju WangAshleigh White

Finally, a special thank you and acknowledgement of the contribution of my co-collaborator, Courtney Scheu.