Making things visible

A screendance artist response to the essay "Falling into the surface (toward a materiality of affect)" 1999 by Pia Ednie-Brown curated by Simon Ellis.

Multiverse

This performance showing demonstrated the integration of 3D stereographic scenography and game engine technology within a dance work by major Australian choreographer (Garry Stewart) and company (Australian Dance Theatre). The audience included major Australian arts festival and venue presenters. The work is an outcome of ARC Discovery DP120101695 Building innovative capacity in Australian dance through new visualization technologies, Vincs sole CI, and the collaboration with Garry Stewart, one of Australia's most successful and well known contemporary dance choreographers, and Australian Dance Theatre, one of Australia's major contemporary dance companies, demonstrates the industry impact and engagement of the research.

Parallax

Parallax is a live contemporary dance work that incorporates 3D animation, stereoscopic illusions and dance. This work was performed within the Melbourne Fringe Festival at the Substation, Newport. Within this work the stereoscopic illusion creates a new choreographic palette that can be used to manipulate human physicality via animated bodies that appear within the performance space. The stereoscopic image is released from the wall and placed within the dancing environment the image becomes another body within the dance space that can be manipulated in ways that would be impossible for a real physical body. In turn, the dancing body is positioned within the digital environment. The performer’s abilities have not changed, but the space around the dancer can be manipulated with imagery that transforms the place of the dancer within time and space. The stereoscopic illusion and live dance are melded creating a new experience of choreography one that takes the infinite possibilities of 3D animation and places them directly within choreography. Thematically this performance draws on the historical events revolving around the development of the stereoscope in the 1830s and the seminal ideas of the virtual that surfaced at this time. In the early 1830s Charles Wheatstone drew on the ideas and writings of Euclid and Leonardo da Vinci and discovered binocular vision through the use of his stereoscope box. It was this box that became the entertainment sensation of this time becoming a standard parlour entertainment. Unlike now where imagery of people are everywhere in the 1830s these types of imagery were novel. The stereoscopic pictures often showed content of people doing ordinary tasks such as chopping wood, doing the washing or simply standing in front of their house. In Parallax a Victorian woman is transported from her hallway to virtual worlds where she encounters, Euclid’s ancient Greek column, a di Vinci sphere and one of the first stereoscopic images drawn by Charles Wheatstone’s a stick figure cube.

WORK

Steph Hutchison's solo WORK is fuelled by an interest in pushing the body to its physical limit. A hybrid performance, interweaving dance, circus arts, improvisation, sports and theatre, WORK is inspired by the physical journey of Julie Moss. In 1982, Julie Moss competed in her first Ironman without ever completing the total distance before. What began as a lark became a struggle for survival and a test of human will. Each time she felt like quitting, she thought it was her 'ego trying to self-sabotage,' but her real self was 'that voice that said; "just keep moving forward. There is no limit." Hutchison explores the notion of dance as extreme sport and emphatically engages her body in rigorous physical practices. Her attention is to muscularity and the performance of effort, work and labour, to the point of physical exhaustion. Using circus apparatus such as tissu, rope and acrobatic mats, Steph pushes to and beyond the limits of her physical ability during the performance. In preparation for the show, she puts herself through intense bootcamp style training, classical and contemporary dance training and teaches herself new acrobatic tricks. Her aim is to push herself past exhaustion to another level.

Flickering

Three dancers moved between and into Lake Bolac’s historic and community buildings dancing in each building. A series of transient micro-dances intimately inhabited the spaces themselves, stirred by the qualities and impact of the architecture. Evoking ghosts of the past but also inviting fresh eyes for these spaces, the mingling of past and present was embodied in the presence of the performers as they traversed the township of Lake Bolac.

Chime

A multi-disciplinary, site-specific performance which moved between several spaces in the Courthouse Arts building. The work combined improvised dance, choreographic practice, video projection and sound which utilized and computer-manipulated the Federation Handbells.

Clock it

Taken from the festival program : Clock It is a series of 20 short dance solos presented by 20 performers. The entire event runs like clockwork with selected soloists showcasing their choreographic ingenuity in 2 minutes and 30 seconds. Dancers are accompanied by musician/sound artist Michael Havir. Curated by David Wells

Publishing choreographic ideas

A growing collection of self-determined reflections on dance practice are being published by choreographers in a variety of formats. Often working in collaboration with researchers, editors and designers, these heterogeneous publication projects make use of text, moving image and more open-ended digital tools and platforms. Many of these projects are either newly available or are in the process of development. In addition to offering practice led contributions to the discourse on dance, they point towards the artist's role in developing alternative forms of documenting, analyzing, notating and archiving contemporary dance.

Inside Movement Knowledge

Inside Movement Knowledge was a two-year (2008-2010) collaborative, interdisciplinary research project into new methods for the documentation, transmission and preservation of contemporary choreographic and dance knowledge. The project has evolved out of research initiated in 2004 by Amsterdam-based dance company Emio Greco | PC (Pieter C. Scholten) into systems for recording and transmitting the essential elements of their creative work. Inside Movement Knowledge took the outcomes of this earlier research (book, interactive DVD and installation) as a ‘case-study’ to continue exploring the questions of Emio Greco | PC in collaboration with a new consortium made up of the Netherlands Media Art Institute (through their preservation department); the University of Utrecht (through the newly established Theatre Studies program); and the Dance Department/ Theaterschool, Amsterdam School of the Arts. This expanded research project was supported by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.

The documentation website will remain on-line indefinitely as a resource for researchers interested in the documentation, transmission and preservation of contemporary dance and in how this project was set up to explore these topics.

What is a transmitter?

This article discusses the approach that Yvonne Rainer has taken to conserving her Trio A, a work made originally in 1966 and which has been performed many times since, including now by custodians or ‘transmitters’ of the dance. The discussion is contextualized within the broader frame of the question of whether and how the legacy of modern and postmodern dance might be maintained for the benefit of future dancers and their capacity to develop contemporary dance art – particularly at a time when a generation of seminal artists who also voice their desire regarding these matters is passing away. I use the question ‘What is a transmitter?’ and an alternative notion of ‘translator’, drawing on philosopher Paul Ricoeur, to highlight the complex role of dancer-performers, not only in the creation and performance of work(s) but also in maintaining a repertoire.

The crack up

This work explored the potential for virtual, CG characters, 3D stereoscopic imagery and providing contextual imagery and text via smart device during a live performance to re-frame contemporary dance practices within a digital visual environment. The work explored the aesthetic and creative affordances of this approach. Live dancers and virtual performers were set against 3D projected landscapes demonstrating the potential of hybrid live/virtual performance. A ground-breaking interactive app enhanced the performance experience with real-time virtual landscapes. The work formed a major outcome of Discovery Project DP120101695 Building innovative capacity in Australian dance through new visualisation technologies.

The Pinoke Project Performance

The Pinoke Project is a 6 week creative development to create a full-length transmedia dance performance at the cutting edge of artificially intelligent technology, elite contemporary dance practice, and publication. This process will be a collaboration between creative coders, 3D graphics and motion artists, a dance/choreographer, and an embedded dance critic who will work with an artificially intelligent robot, Pinoke, on the creative development of a new stage production as well as the documentation and dissemination of the process. This project is supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria.