Erasmus IP 2012/13 Practicing Composition: Making Practice
Mila Pavičević, Academy of dramatic Arts, University of Zagreb
DOCUMENTATION: WORKSHOP A (Choreographic uncionscious, Goran Sergej Pristaš, Academy of dramatic Arts, University of Zagreb)
We used the concept of Choreographic unconscious, derived from Frederic Jameson concept of political unconscious and optical unconscious of Walter Benjamin, and trying to illustrate how can it be related to performance, dance and politics. But the main focus was on our creative methodologies, so we were trying to conceptualize, in pairs or in groups, our own workshops regarding the issue of social choreography. Some of the ideas were: Collision, Cruising (in the homosexual community), Performativity in the public space, etc. I was dealing with the notion of “procedural rhetoric”, a type of rhetoric tied to the core affordances of computers: running processes and executing rule-based symbolic manipulation. This kind of actionable movement contradicts the logics of capitalist's mode of production and therefore is political. The main question was: „How can we translate actionable movement in dance?“ My proposition was a three week workshop.
OUTLINE
PROCEDURAL RHETORICS: ACTIONABLE MOVEMENT (3 week workshop) Participants: dramaturges, choreographer, social activists, hackers and philosophers, dancers, actors, performers. The whole process will be filmed and available on the internet. Preparation material: Harun Farocki: Ernste Spiele, Steven Shaviro: Postcinematic Body, Ian Bogost: Procedural rhetoric, action movies, video games (military, martial arts) Basic description: The main object is to explore the movement through the invisible camera of videoimage and to translate it’s parameters (composition, structure, space, time..) to dance and performance in connection with the wider sociopolitical context.
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Erasmus IP 2012/13 Practicing Composition: Making Practice
1. WEEK: ASKING QUESTIONS Going through some examples of videoimage’s. Asking questions. Whose gaze is it? Which capacities are used? What kind of action it is? Talking about the political connotations of actionable movement.
2. WEEK: MAKING THE MAP 3. First phase: Making a score using different maps of space (walkthroughs) we can find in videogames as a kind of fictional stage. A stage where everything is allowed; a huge time gaps, a sudden change of scenery or use of special abilities. 4. WEEK: MAPPING THE SPACE Working in pairs. Trying to put two different maps together. The two different concepts must co-exist in space. Introducing some props from the gaming world, (fictional and nonfictional), and try to work with them. Example: Joystick (From which parts it consists? Keys, parts... etc. How does it work? How can we translate it to choreography?) Moving in space. Makin a score. Introducing the questions from the begging. Why is this kind of movement political?
CONCLUSION: Although in videogame the player participates in a full consumer regimen: he pays off debt, buys and sells goods, in real life, when we pay our mortgage bill we don’t see where that money ends up. In videogame, the player experiences the way his debt makes bankers wealthy. This kind of negative perspective is necessary in contemporary, in order to make the first steps towards critique of capitalist mode of productions, to make relations visible.
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Erasmus IP 2012/13 Practicing Composition: Making Practice
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