playing in a stream--scot
Monday, July 23, 2007, 03:40 AM
after successful implementation of the live audio stream, I find the 8 second delay between the making of a sound and actually hearing it quite beautiful. The guitar is such a gestural instrument and as a player you are used to an instantaneous audio response from it. Listening only to the stream while playing leads to a curious displacement between yourself and the audio; considering the labyrinth as a kind of non-space or a between state this seems to fit..you are literally in between the instrument and its output rather than being at the top of the 'signal chain', you are a link within it.
This is like being lost, or 'unlearning' the instrument as you are no longer in control in the same fashion. The set of logic you normally apply to playing is altered. For interaktions labor I feel as though playing through this stream, if i can make my gestures apparent enough to the audience, will also cause a displacement in them. They would see me playing and experience the same kind of delay.
from the .net congestion conference: "Is there such a thing as 'narrow-band aesthetics'? Video artists from the early 1960s exploited the technical limitations of video technology in creative ways, leading to the development of aesthetic trends within video art. Can a critical investigation of the formal and aesthetic qualities of streaming media reveal similar idiosyncracies?"
question from nancy:
now stream is implemented 'making gestures apparent enough' with the sound, comes through deepening ones craft via movement rehearsal and practice in the space. If this is not constant practice, how does one trancend the gap between thought and actual performative action?
_________________________________________________________________
converse/quest
Monday, July 23, 2007, 03:30 AM
scot & walter talking 22 July:
questions arising in conversation:
after interaktionslabor; during which time scot is actually in the same location as nancy and walter, how does the translocal element relate to the daedalus performance in the future?; what is the relevance not just of the streaming media and the choice to integrate it (these possibilities are an inherent quality of the tools we use which then also establishes the reality of the current state of the technology used for the project) . but also why from australia :does this extend beyond the personal histories/connections of the participants.
What does it mean to have the sound being altered by the virtual space and how does this relate to nancy and the different levels of representation of the performer and the space: depending on the final implementation of the live video feeds, it is possible for scot to be a visual performer in the space translocally..i.e not just transmission of audio: does this offer anything different?.
Obviously the translocal dynamic contributes to 'elucidating the fragmentation' we discuss an an impetus for the work, beyond this the works slippage between locations, real, virtual, far, near becomes heightened (does it, how is the audience made 'aware' of this, does the audience need to be aware of it?, is there mere fact that people are using telecommunications technology at an everyday level remove the need for explanation')
The notion of mirrors seems to return, this relates to the construction of labyrinths through the 'hall of mirrors', reflection (both actual and internal), video being a mirror of reality, gamespace being a representational mirror of a real site, the avatar existing in multiple levels (real performer, computer representation).
In the interaktions Labor phase Scot can operate as a composer of sound states that relate to the concepts in daedalus (fragments, timescale shifting, subterranean or labyrinthine qualities) or as an improvisor responding in realtime to the game space/ nancy's character that add to the atmospheric qualities of the performance.
4th wall:/ ? : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_wall
corpsing: the theatrical term has links also to virtual environments: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpsing
_________________________________________________________________
everyday omens
Friday, July 20, 2007, 05:49 AM
upon arriving in Saarbrucken we find an omen of our presence in a shop front sign. Tues 17th July
photo by Nancy Mauro-Flude
_________________________________________________________________
cheats in the theatre / miscere utile dulci
Wednesday, July 18, 2007, 08:08 AM
In his discussions upon 'Machine as spectacle' Jan Lazardzig (2007) confirms for us this curious and potent ability of theatrical machines. He recounts a comment by Leibniz from the the 1600s,
Leibniz wonders if cheats should be allowed into theaters or not. Finally he comes to the conclusion that gambling must remain the nucleus of the entire project, because in play even deception entails a healing effect. “Games would provide the best excuse in the world to begin such a useful thing for the public, since one needs to fool people, to profit from their weakness and to deceive in order to heal. There is nothing better than using machines for introducing wisdom. This truly means miscere utile dulci and to make medicine from poison” (2007:172).
As is often the case, where there is poison there also appears what cures or anoints, this elemental law that has its paradoxical roots in the understanding our habitat and is well worth considering as computers begin to take the centre stage of many of our daily lives ...
HOW DOES THIS RELATE TO LOCATION of being in time and space?
Emergent technologies and gadgets used in performance, and their specific relation to location is an issue that needs to be addressed.
If we can agree a live performance is the processural sharing of place, time and space between performer and audience. The complex relationship of people to places has come under increasing scrutiny in recent years as global conditions of exile, displacement, and inflamed borders, to say nothing of struggles by indigenous peoples and cultural minorities for ancestral homeland rights, and retention of sacred places and ritual sites. A certain neglect of what it means to be intimate brought about by easy access to internet and commodification of performing arts brings these political questions of place into sharper focus.
_________________________________________________________________
Deus_ex_machina/conductor behind the scenes
Tuesday, May 15, 2007, 02:50 AM
Deus_ex_machina
walter and i were talking about the transparency of the person operating the software ie. this is usually in "the wings" where the ropes on the side of the stage and above the stage are pulled with weights to lift curtains and backdrops. Or the conductor and the orchestrapit at the front lower part of the stage. suggestion is to try out both the options of the operator sitting above the screen on the catwalk at interkunstlabor, or the front of the screen almost in the audience with back facing them to see how and if this adds to the dramatic action and if it differs.
further more the ancient past was the Deus_ex_machina a theatrical machine or 'angel' that would magically solve the plot and tie together the dramatic action to a conclusion perhaps the live coder is the contemporary version of this? :)
_________________________________________________________________
Realtime 3D and Alberti's window?
Tuesday, April 17, 2007, 08:05 AM
Where does Alberti's window fit in realtime 3D worlds? Alberti's window was a conceptual method for renaissance artists to understand perspective ("fenestra aperta", the "window to the outside"), which has since become internalised within visual (and consequently social) culture.
Image courtesy "The Arrow In The Eye" by Michael Kubovy, Christopher Tyler and WebExhibits.
3D rendering uses more or less the same idea to create its perspective model. In realtime 3D, it gets weird because although the supposed agency of the avatar puts the user "in" the scene, the 3D itself is still being rendered onto a 2D plane at which the user is gazing. Gazing at a scene, always framed, that includes a representation of the user that actually occludes some of the scene from the vision of the user. How can it be possible that a representation of myself is blocking my self's vision?
originally from realtime_art_engines
Nancy's comment: Indeed the principles of order and proportion, the expression of splendour, the geometrical forms, were all fundamental principles of also Renaissance dance at the time. The patterns in both these art-forms were meant to be viewed from above. I wonder how we can transend this desire to be looked out from above and/or outside?
our good old mate Lev Manovich also writes some food for thought:
Screens archeology
Scot's comment:
. On a purely experiential level; i thought about the way i see myself when imagining myself and it seems to mimick the 'camera behind the head' view or 'first person' view of a game space more often than a cinematic view with changing perspectives and scenes, i wonder if this is to do with the specific age i'm alive in i.e before vr/games did people imagine themselves in a more cinematic way? If so how does this time-specific, technological ozmosis into consciousness affect us and our view of ourselves.
The connection between the perspectival grid/screen of alberti's window and the notion of self as occupying one space in one time is fascinating, are we starting to fracture the edges of this construct through our connections already i.e over this network, in this blog place, in our imaginings of future events and relationships; the screen through which i am communicating with you beomes a site representative of real action and sensory possibilities beyond the merely visual, that will occur over as yet unknown time-frames. This relates to the Grzinic quote.
I find the section in Manovich's text regarding the imprisonment of the viewers body in order to engage in this perspectival view quite rich. esp. given that we started with 'daedalus escaped prison by his art'.
below is a link to another possibly relevant text i found.
nancy's comment: i posted L.Manovich's article as *food for thought*. Can you unpack what you mean in the term 'quite rich' in regard to the kathy acker quote i am inspired by as an initall spur for this project?
_________________________________________________________________
porthole
Wednesday, April 11, 2007, 03:00 PM
confrontation in a porthole
Jean Cocteau’s film Orphée, 1950
_________________________________________________________________
A quote, which I find very much relating to the essence of the project - nancy
Wednesday, April 11, 2007, 08:29 AM
'Everything, everywhere, everybody' is the nineties slogan that results in a confusion of bodies, concepts and strategies, a type of out of joint situation for the subject. We find ourselves within all medias, in all bodies, in all possible spaces at once. This puts into question some fundamental arguments concerning art and culture. Operating in a new mode, the positions of identity are also showing us other internal media and social processes. We are faced with leaving a historically defined position, which imitates the natural world of our senses. With new media and technology we have the possibility of an artificial interface, which is dominated by non-identity or difference (Peter Weibel).
Instead of producing a new identity, something more radical is
produced: the total loss of identity. The subject is forced to assume that he or she is not what he thought himself to be, but
somebody-something else.
>From 'The representation of the body under Communism' by marina Grzinic > (Toyko/Ljubijana) in the publication 'Deep Europe', the 1996/7 > Edition.
_________________________________________________________________
Daedalus escaped prison by his art...
Wednesday, April 11, 2007, 07:08 AM
I do know that writing or making is magic. I'm not referring to "magic realism."... Here was a model of change: ugliness changed through worse ugiliness, even destruction, into love. I placed the second text on top of the first text, crudely. You do what you have to do however you have to do it...Daedalus escaped prison by his art. He made wings for himself and his son. His son got too high, flew too high, soared into the sun, and drowned. - Kathy Acker, 1997
_________________________________________________________________
Monday, July 23, 2007, 03:40 AM
after successful implementation of the live audio stream, I find the 8 second delay between the making of a sound and actually hearing it quite beautiful. The guitar is such a gestural instrument and as a player you are used to an instantaneous audio response from it. Listening only to the stream while playing leads to a curious displacement between yourself and the audio; considering the labyrinth as a kind of non-space or a between state this seems to fit..you are literally in between the instrument and its output rather than being at the top of the 'signal chain', you are a link within it.
This is like being lost, or 'unlearning' the instrument as you are no longer in control in the same fashion. The set of logic you normally apply to playing is altered. For interaktions labor I feel as though playing through this stream, if i can make my gestures apparent enough to the audience, will also cause a displacement in them. They would see me playing and experience the same kind of delay.
from the .net congestion conference: "Is there such a thing as 'narrow-band aesthetics'? Video artists from the early 1960s exploited the technical limitations of video technology in creative ways, leading to the development of aesthetic trends within video art. Can a critical investigation of the formal and aesthetic qualities of streaming media reveal similar idiosyncracies?"
question from nancy:
now stream is implemented 'making gestures apparent enough' with the sound, comes through deepening ones craft via movement rehearsal and practice in the space. If this is not constant practice, how does one trancend the gap between thought and actual performative action?
_________________________________________________________________
converse/quest
Monday, July 23, 2007, 03:30 AM
scot & walter talking 22 July:
questions arising in conversation:
after interaktionslabor; during which time scot is actually in the same location as nancy and walter, how does the translocal element relate to the daedalus performance in the future?; what is the relevance not just of the streaming media and the choice to integrate it (these possibilities are an inherent quality of the tools we use which then also establishes the reality of the current state of the technology used for the project) . but also why from australia :does this extend beyond the personal histories/connections of the participants.
What does it mean to have the sound being altered by the virtual space and how does this relate to nancy and the different levels of representation of the performer and the space: depending on the final implementation of the live video feeds, it is possible for scot to be a visual performer in the space translocally..i.e not just transmission of audio: does this offer anything different?.
Obviously the translocal dynamic contributes to 'elucidating the fragmentation' we discuss an an impetus for the work, beyond this the works slippage between locations, real, virtual, far, near becomes heightened (does it, how is the audience made 'aware' of this, does the audience need to be aware of it?, is there mere fact that people are using telecommunications technology at an everyday level remove the need for explanation')
The notion of mirrors seems to return, this relates to the construction of labyrinths through the 'hall of mirrors', reflection (both actual and internal), video being a mirror of reality, gamespace being a representational mirror of a real site, the avatar existing in multiple levels (real performer, computer representation).
In the interaktions Labor phase Scot can operate as a composer of sound states that relate to the concepts in daedalus (fragments, timescale shifting, subterranean or labyrinthine qualities) or as an improvisor responding in realtime to the game space/ nancy's character that add to the atmospheric qualities of the performance.
4th wall:/ ? : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_wall
corpsing: the theatrical term has links also to virtual environments: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpsing
_________________________________________________________________
everyday omens
Friday, July 20, 2007, 05:49 AM
upon arriving in Saarbrucken we find an omen of our presence in a shop front sign. Tues 17th July
photo by Nancy Mauro-Flude
_________________________________________________________________
cheats in the theatre / miscere utile dulci
Wednesday, July 18, 2007, 08:08 AM
In his discussions upon 'Machine as spectacle' Jan Lazardzig (2007) confirms for us this curious and potent ability of theatrical machines. He recounts a comment by Leibniz from the the 1600s,
Leibniz wonders if cheats should be allowed into theaters or not. Finally he comes to the conclusion that gambling must remain the nucleus of the entire project, because in play even deception entails a healing effect. “Games would provide the best excuse in the world to begin such a useful thing for the public, since one needs to fool people, to profit from their weakness and to deceive in order to heal. There is nothing better than using machines for introducing wisdom. This truly means miscere utile dulci and to make medicine from poison” (2007:172).
As is often the case, where there is poison there also appears what cures or anoints, this elemental law that has its paradoxical roots in the understanding our habitat and is well worth considering as computers begin to take the centre stage of many of our daily lives ...
HOW DOES THIS RELATE TO LOCATION of being in time and space?
Emergent technologies and gadgets used in performance, and their specific relation to location is an issue that needs to be addressed.
If we can agree a live performance is the processural sharing of place, time and space between performer and audience. The complex relationship of people to places has come under increasing scrutiny in recent years as global conditions of exile, displacement, and inflamed borders, to say nothing of struggles by indigenous peoples and cultural minorities for ancestral homeland rights, and retention of sacred places and ritual sites. A certain neglect of what it means to be intimate brought about by easy access to internet and commodification of performing arts brings these political questions of place into sharper focus.
_________________________________________________________________
Deus_ex_machina/conductor behind the scenes
Tuesday, May 15, 2007, 02:50 AM
Deus_ex_machina
walter and i were talking about the transparency of the person operating the software ie. this is usually in "the wings" where the ropes on the side of the stage and above the stage are pulled with weights to lift curtains and backdrops. Or the conductor and the orchestrapit at the front lower part of the stage. suggestion is to try out both the options of the operator sitting above the screen on the catwalk at interkunstlabor, or the front of the screen almost in the audience with back facing them to see how and if this adds to the dramatic action and if it differs.
further more the ancient past was the Deus_ex_machina a theatrical machine or 'angel' that would magically solve the plot and tie together the dramatic action to a conclusion perhaps the live coder is the contemporary version of this? :)
_________________________________________________________________
Realtime 3D and Alberti's window?
Tuesday, April 17, 2007, 08:05 AM
Where does Alberti's window fit in realtime 3D worlds? Alberti's window was a conceptual method for renaissance artists to understand perspective ("fenestra aperta", the "window to the outside"), which has since become internalised within visual (and consequently social) culture.
Image courtesy "The Arrow In The Eye" by Michael Kubovy, Christopher Tyler and WebExhibits.
3D rendering uses more or less the same idea to create its perspective model. In realtime 3D, it gets weird because although the supposed agency of the avatar puts the user "in" the scene, the 3D itself is still being rendered onto a 2D plane at which the user is gazing. Gazing at a scene, always framed, that includes a representation of the user that actually occludes some of the scene from the vision of the user. How can it be possible that a representation of myself is blocking my self's vision?
originally from realtime_art_engines
Nancy's comment: Indeed the principles of order and proportion, the expression of splendour, the geometrical forms, were all fundamental principles of also Renaissance dance at the time. The patterns in both these art-forms were meant to be viewed from above. I wonder how we can transend this desire to be looked out from above and/or outside?
our good old mate Lev Manovich also writes some food for thought:
Screens archeology
Scot's comment:
. On a purely experiential level; i thought about the way i see myself when imagining myself and it seems to mimick the 'camera behind the head' view or 'first person' view of a game space more often than a cinematic view with changing perspectives and scenes, i wonder if this is to do with the specific age i'm alive in i.e before vr/games did people imagine themselves in a more cinematic way? If so how does this time-specific, technological ozmosis into consciousness affect us and our view of ourselves.
The connection between the perspectival grid/screen of alberti's window and the notion of self as occupying one space in one time is fascinating, are we starting to fracture the edges of this construct through our connections already i.e over this network, in this blog place, in our imaginings of future events and relationships; the screen through which i am communicating with you beomes a site representative of real action and sensory possibilities beyond the merely visual, that will occur over as yet unknown time-frames. This relates to the Grzinic quote.
I find the section in Manovich's text regarding the imprisonment of the viewers body in order to engage in this perspectival view quite rich. esp. given that we started with 'daedalus escaped prison by his art'.
below is a link to another possibly relevant text i found.
nancy's comment: i posted L.Manovich's article as *food for thought*. Can you unpack what you mean in the term 'quite rich' in regard to the kathy acker quote i am inspired by as an initall spur for this project?
_________________________________________________________________
porthole
Wednesday, April 11, 2007, 03:00 PM
confrontation in a porthole
Jean Cocteau’s film Orphée, 1950
_________________________________________________________________
A quote, which I find very much relating to the essence of the project - nancy
Wednesday, April 11, 2007, 08:29 AM
'Everything, everywhere, everybody' is the nineties slogan that results in a confusion of bodies, concepts and strategies, a type of out of joint situation for the subject. We find ourselves within all medias, in all bodies, in all possible spaces at once. This puts into question some fundamental arguments concerning art and culture. Operating in a new mode, the positions of identity are also showing us other internal media and social processes. We are faced with leaving a historically defined position, which imitates the natural world of our senses. With new media and technology we have the possibility of an artificial interface, which is dominated by non-identity or difference (Peter Weibel).
Instead of producing a new identity, something more radical is
produced: the total loss of identity. The subject is forced to assume that he or she is not what he thought himself to be, but
somebody-something else.
>From 'The representation of the body under Communism' by marina Grzinic > (Toyko/Ljubijana) in the publication 'Deep Europe', the 1996/7 > Edition.
_________________________________________________________________
Daedalus escaped prison by his art...
Wednesday, April 11, 2007, 07:08 AM
I do know that writing or making is magic. I'm not referring to "magic realism."... Here was a model of change: ugliness changed through worse ugiliness, even destruction, into love. I placed the second text on top of the first text, crudely. You do what you have to do however you have to do it...Daedalus escaped prison by his art. He made wings for himself and his son. His son got too high, flew too high, soared into the sun, and drowned. - Kathy Acker, 1997
_________________________________________________________________