Movement Research AIR artist statement:
In my work, I create performances in which I explore loss of control, uncertainty of outcome, and failure. By losing control, I pose existential questions about the experience of embodiment subject to limitations, injury, and eventual death. What happens when there is a discrepancy between intention and capability to carry out an action? How might this cause a person to view her own body as foreign and external to herself? To explore the self/body relationship, especially under stressful and difficult situations, I design musical interfaces that are awkward to use, that gradually accumulate errors until the performer is out of control, or create uncertainly of outcome. I have also used the concept of balance by designing situations in which a performer is struggling to maintain her stance and composure.
In the past, my work on embodiment has centered on solo performances, but one of my main goals for this residency would be to open up my work to multiple points of view. In this context, I would also be interested in how the breakdown of the body could engender a breakdown of communication, as well. There are forms of dance that depend on one partner understanding what the other is trying to say with her body, such as Argentine tango and contact improvisation. By exploiting these forms of dance, situations would be created that cause a breakdown of this process. Additionally, I would like to continue my work on the breakdown of musical interface by creating interactive performance systems for multiple dancers which subject the performers to unpredictability and create situations that challenge their relation of self to body.
I am currently working on the Harvestworks application, which is due tomorrow. The project statement came somewhat easily. At least, compared to the movement residency one. I think partly is that I was really clear on what my project would be, and I was fresh off of writing the previous one. Trying to pick out my work samples for it now, and then explain how they are related. I'm exhausted and depressed honestly, I'd really rather watch some movie or tv or my new Victorian steampunk vampire werewolf book (yes, all those genres. at once.) But, I have a manila envelope next to me with 5 blank dvds. I'm drinking leftover sparkling wine from when UVA told me that they wanted me but are still looking for funding for me. Sometimes I think hope is the hardest emotion to deal with.
Harvestworks New Works Residency Project Proposal:
Project Proposal for N is for Neville who died of Ennui
The project I am proposing arises from a nightmare of an insecure musician: what if the musical instrument you were playing got bored with you? I imagine that the instrument, if it had a will of its own, would react to becoming bored by changing how it responded to the physical actions of your playing. Then, you would have to re-learn how your instrument worked on-stage through trial and error, during a performance. This situation raises some interesting questions: how does your relationship to your body change when your actions do not have the intended effect? Does it seem foreign and externalized? Does this sensation go away as you learn how to play the instrument in its new form? Would you be tempted to ‘fake’ playing the unruly instrument correctly? What are the implications for the authenticity of your performance?
I intend to create such a scenario by designing an interactive performance system that simulates this process of getting bored and then changing the game on its player. I will explore different mechanisms for both the implementation of boredom and how the musical interface changes in response. A starting point would be to simply use the passage of time as an indication of boredom. After a certain amount of time, the instrument would simply change the interface. I am also interested in developing a neural network that ‘learns’ how the performer plays a particular piece in real-time. When the neural network is able to predict a performer’s motions, that is when the interface changes. In this system, the performer could keep the instrument entertained but only if she is novel.
The musical instrument for this piece will be a wireless accelerometer that is attached to the performer’s wrist. This device will then send data to custom software that I have written in C++. This software will handle all aspects of the simulation of boredom and change in musical interface. This software will then send the resulting control signals to the Supercollider audio engine via OSC messaging, and thus, sound will be produced. I have written previous works using a similar set-up, and will only need to program the parts of the software specific to the this work, such as a particular neural network. The Harvestworks residency will be immensely helpful in terms of the sound design of the actual instruments and giving me a place to work.
