Materialisation of concept for Surging Verticality

Video of Catherine having her movement initiated and supported by the tensioned cloth attached to her heels, after being guided by Maggie through a Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement of lifting her heels and arms.

surging-verticality-catherine-001

Care is a word I’ve been thinking about a lot lately – and its absence in so much of what we experience in the worlds around us (I get so sad when I see people littering in the street or on trains and busses – dont they care about the spaces they live in – are they so numb to their environment that they couldn’t give a f#%ck?).

We could think of the art experience as an extension of this idea of care (not disimilar to concepts of  ‘conviviality’ or hospitality that circulated around discussion on ‘rellational aestheics’) – coupled perhaps with some flirtation (thinking here about the careful touch of two people dancing) – or the uncontainable  of an experienced enthusiast as they share the source of their joy to a new commer or fellow affcionado (look at THIS! and THAT!). Through this contact we bring something otherwise hidden – out from eachother – and that we together bear witness to for a breif moment that we may or may not call an ‘art’ experience, a lesson, a workshop, a meeting of friends etc.

The question then changes from what we as artists are ‘interested’ in – to what specifically we care about, and how we manifest this care through our actions and foci, through the situations and exchanges we create for other people.

So for me – with this project – I’m trying to articulate how I can extend a caring and enlivening touch to other people (and myself!) through experiences that allow us to become sensitive and aroused by subtle and not so subtle qulaities of touch, movement and proprioception. To this end – I have to temper my habitual impulse towards large intense experience – with the knowledge that its not via extreme, cathartic actions that we learn to refine our capacity for sensitivy and discernment

- but on the contrary -

its only by learning to be still, and attentive to small actions/sensations that we can start to gain a deeper awareness of where we are opperating FROM.

This blog has been written fresh after listening to a wonderful concert presented as part of Liquid Architecture, and in particular – an amzing set by Asmus Tietchens that featured a truely sensual use of dynamic volumes, sounds that caressesed and wove in and our of audibility, with lilting forms that had me swaying on the edge of my seat like a snake charmer’s cobra! The delicacy of this sound was supported by the strength of the sound system (occasional use of deep bass – confidently hinting at its full potential), and the improved listening acoustics (huge curtains drawn around the space at the start of his set). This experience left me deeply touched, and determined to acheive a more considered use of sound and volume dynamics in my forthcomming interactive art show at St. Vincent’s Hospital. To create a situation where to use an analogy – the snail feels safe to venture out of it’s shell – and to extend its ommatophores (eye stalks) out of its head – and into its surrounds (in this instance – a biofeedback system that is an environment that is both inside and outside). To extend this metaphor a little further – one doesn’t get the snail to extend its eye stalks by poking them with your fingers!

As I’ve been thinking about what physical structures I’d like to explore in the upcomming workshop – its become clear to me that most of it is all to do with tilt sensing, and to a lesser extent, accelerometers, and that these sensor could be added to any number of physical actions or objects that we could be interacting with: inversion tables, swinging ropes, hoops, high-heeled shoes etc.

Garth has discussed his work on creating an open and flexible sensor-data routing system, that could allow any one connected to access whichever stream of sensor data they want, in a flexible and dynamic way.

Given the collaborative nature of our project and the workshop at Performance Space in particular – I’d like to find some ways to implement this idea, and perhaps extend it in some other ways, so we dont end up just working away in isolation th eentire time. My focus here is on having gestural/movement data  available to the entire ensemble for comment and extension/transformation – for those of us (Garth, Somaya, myself) who work with software that can use OpenSoundControl (OSC) i.e. Max, PD etc.

The idea is to have an infrastructure for us to ‘jam’  with eachother on sonification,  visualisation and analyis work:

• A central router would enable all the senor data to be shared accros the studio;
• I have a Max object that enables you to receive OSC sensor data via simple drop down menu – that’s automatically populated by the incoming data;
• I have fuzzy logic graphic interfaces for max that enable you to build fuzzy rules to track complex movements, or just map activity within specific ranges to specific sounds or whatever; and
• I’d like to build some graphing interfaces that would enable us to observe patterns in the sensor data (i.e. body movement/orientation) – and have this data projected onto the wall so its very big (4 meters high) and easy to observe, and point at, touch, etc.

I’ve been thinking alot about this challenge I have faced all the way through this research project of working as a curator/facilitator without pushing people (or myself) towards “outcomes”.  In Bundanon I made some important discoveries about the relationship between my own curatorial practice and my physical or embodied engagement with artworks/collaborators/exhibition spaces/audiences…  I decided to make a conscious effort at Pspace to “be” (in relation to all these things) rather than to “do” (as I do normally).  Sounds a bit vague  I know – but that’s part of the point.

So i’ve decided to inhabit a little corner of the residency space for the duration of the lab. Picking up on from Maggie and Catherine’s plans I’d like to call it the Living Room.  I’m going to have some comfy chairs, coffee and tea making facilities, lots of books and articles, a heater, lots of documentation of everything we’ve done so far, a bowl of fruit and some other munchies.  I’m going to install myself there and mull over everything we’ve done, do some reading and writing, and be generally availalbe in case anyone needs help or wants to talk about anything.  I hope that you will all come to The Living Room and visit me whenever you want to have a sit down or a think, or look at some photos/books, have a chat, have a cup of teac etc etc…

Ideally that Living Room will be a good friendly place on the last day for visitors to come and find out more about the project too.

Garth – I’d love to borrow your recordings of Bundanon so that people can come and listen to those sounds.

I’m also making a little zine that documents some of the experiences we have had so far working on this project.  There will be enough of these for you all to have some to give away and keep as mementos.

Any suggestions or thoughts on this gratefullly received.

• Contextual activity, tasks, trajectory
• Constraints, strategies
• Attention – internal/external, diffuse/directed
• Action – imagination/physical
• Roles – performer, witness, aide, co-performer

My initial proposal is to develop a work requiring the interaction of 2 people, connected and constrained in different ways. What is it like to move in a fettered fashion? For one participant, their movement is assisted and constrained by a walking frame and extremely high heels. Part of the ritual is having the shoes put on and removed by the witness/aide. Perhaps one person is blindfolded or masked at certain points. The witness/aide gently directs the participant to explore various states of being, through the reading of scripted cues. Cues are for directing attention and generating movement and experiential qualities, perhaps the use of imagery and artefact. Should biofeedback or motion sensors be incorporated? What would their role be? Amplification/extension/distortion?

Production requirements:

• high heeled shoes in a few sizes
• walking frame – OTS or custom
• motion sensors that can be attached to ankles and other body parts, eg. pelvis, head

Research Question:

How do we stay in touch with who we are in essence, at the level of the body, when we are using/interacting with technology?

Context:

Along the continuum of travelling between worlds indifferent, imagined & emergent, we are in transit.

Set-up:

“Travellers” have entered the “Sensorium Gymnasium” (SG) via the “Living Room” space where they learn about our (proposed) “Awareness Through Movement/thinking through the body”/mp3 player/voice guided journey” through the SG.

Travellers, tuned in to their mp3 player, leave their personal belongings safely in the “Living Room” and are free to interact with all or any of the SG’s various installations.

The sound track through the mp3 player is a sequence of mini Feldenkrais “Awareness Through Movement” explorations that will draw attention to the felt experience of the body and to the question of “how we stay in touch with who we are in essence, at the level of the body, when we are using / interacting with technology?”. Long gaps between voice-cued mini explorations allow for ease of participating in all that the SG has to offer. The content and timing of the mp3 soundtrack can be refined during our workshop days together. Catherine and I are currently working together to develop the basis before then.

As we’re imaging the SG, we see the Video-Cued Recall (VCR) installation as the finale, an exit point. Prior to that, we imagine the “Transit Lounge”, which can be as simple as 6 chairs lined up in a row. The mp3 soundtrack provides the instruction for what to do in each chair (See below). The traveller begins in chair #1 & goes through the 6 transit processes, then moves into the VCR booth for #7 (The Telling Wave).

If there can/is to be a sensor data component that can reflect in visual and/or sound scape the variations of movement quality in the 6 lounges, fantastic! For example, can there be a generative screen in front of the 6 chairs that can be experienced by other travellers from the other side?

IN TRANSIT: (experience is the test of reality)

Transit Lounges:

1.       The responsive wave

      I am waving just to get someone’s attention: automatic, external aim, achieves end, attention seeking; time is compressed

2.       The conscious wave

I am waving; I am a body waving in time; change of context; there has been a pre-wave influence (an imagined experience of my body/myself waving); there is reflection through the body’s experience

3.       The attentive wave

I am noticing how I am waving; I am attention; my wave is embodied; time is elongated

4.       The passive wave

I am feeling my arm being moved through the waving pathway; unbound experience through the body (in relation to the body of another). 

5.       The integrated wave

I am feeling the sensation of my arm, my whole body, myself waving; I am waving for the experience of waving 

6.       The double feedback wave

I am joined with another person; we wave; shared experience (in response to one another, waving as one)

7.       The telling wave

Reflective wave; considered experience; video-cued recall

EMERGENT: (aesthetic experience is the judge)

The new dates for the Performance Space workshop (our final!) are now:

Setting up gear and space – July 20th – 26th; then

The workshop – July 27th – August 2nd

At this stage we’ve divided the workshop into 4 sections:

27th to 28th – workshop with Garth and/or Somaya on sound and sonification

29th to 31st – 3 days developing an experience you’d like to offer to our invited guests

1st August – our ‘open day’ invited guests will be able to engage with the experiences we’ve devised

2nd August – Debrief and de-install gear

These dates have been designed to accomodate Lizzie recent appointment as senior lecturer at UTS – and coincides with their teaching break. Lets hope this suits everyone else as well.

Cheers

George Khut

George and Lizzie enjoying the view from the workshop space at the Bundanon Trust Boyd Education Centre, Riversdale.

ATTENTIONAL INFRASTRUCTURES for an aesthetics of touch, movement and proprioception: having and/or developing the ability to attend to sensations and feelings arising from within their body – ‘knowing how to appreciate’ the significance of what is felt (like appreciating unfamiliar foods and flavors? or music? – needs to develop from social practice?).

This is something Catherine emphasized at the beginning and end of the Bundanon workshop, and through her ‘Distinct Body’ workshops – without this ability to listen and unfold insight from the sensation of our breath, skeleton, muscles and skin, how much can we more can hope to achieve?

We need an experiential vocabulary for thinking through the body, a vocabulary of tactile, proprioceptive and kineasthetic experiences and reflections, that can enable us to move from sylables, to words, from words to sentences, and from sentences to stories. This, like any other language, is something developed over time, with other people.

EXPERIENTIAL NARRATIVES – Dramaturgical Aesthetics of Interaction, Aesthetics of Participation. A focus beyond the technical aspects of the artwork, towards structure of the situation as a whole (location, entry-points, social context and conditions, etc.), and the development of the participant’s experience within it (how it starts, develops and comes to an end).

RELATIONAL SYSTEMS AND STRUCTURES: Human-Human Interactions that explore proximal modalities as their primary modality (touch, smell, taste, temperature, movement, proprioception). ‘Live Art’ intimate performance forms: one-to-one engagements between a host and their guest. Taking full advantage of the incredible emotional intelligence and multi-modal sensitivity that we humans posses (in contrast to our machines). To what extent is my own fixation on exhibiting computer-based interactions a product of a tradition fixated on the so-called autonomy of the art object? Autonomy from what …other humans?
[Note to self:why do I feel obliged to exhibit my work as a stand alone experience - without someone there to guide people into the work, to listen  to their stories, to bear witness (and to value) their experience in the work?]

Maggie invited us to explore various forms of hand-to-hand contact incorporating skeletal sensation and contact

THE ART EXPERIENCE AS INVITATION, art making and curating as a form of hosting, induction, hospitality (hospice?). In connection with Making Strange – offering participants some support along their journey – a base from which explore, or temporary shelter and resting point along the way. [this brings to mind pilgrim cultures: wayside shrines, wells, cairns, storm-shelters etc. I wonder what their contemporary equivalents might be?]

SOMAESTHETIC GYMNASIUM: a place for cultivating somaesthetic abilities/sensitivities – consisting of semi-structured body-focused experiences, that stimulate the visitors capacity for somaesthetic pleasure, beauty and critical reflection.

‘INTELLIGENT’ BODY-FOCUSED INTERACTIVE ARTWORKS – Body-focused interactions that acknowledge, and are sensitive to the emotional dimensions of our physicality: the capacity for movement and touch to facilitate strong emotional recall, release, insight, inspiration etc. Maggie mentioned the idea of interactive art makers process as being one of ‘growing the computer’s neurology’, I think this is a powerful concept – to understand and expand on the computerised interactive systems ability to be in the world – to hold a representation of its environment, and its behavioyr within this environment – regardless of how simple this may be. [The memory of of our brain-mapping workshop comes to mind, with Lizzie's reflection that the maps she drew of her brain, could equally be a map of the world…].

SENSUAL TACTILE AND KINAESTHETIC PLEASURE AND BEAUTY IN HUMAN COMPUTER INTERACTION
“any use of a new tools and technologies involves new uses (and postures and habits) of the body, which means new possibilities of somatic strains, discomforts, and disabilities resulting from inefficient body use that cultivation of somatic self-consciousness could help  us to reveal, remedy or avoid.” – Shusterman, 2008, p. 13

Lizzie’s note: “What about the somatic pleasures and enjoyment that these technologies might also support?”

George testing a Wii controlled sound design - tracking slow movements

Artworks that depend on specific qualities of human action – tuned in such a way as to draw you into moving, standing, behaviong in unfamiliar and/ort enjoyable ways (in contrast to interfaces that draw you into familiar but painful and frumpy ways of being – i.e. laptops and bad mice).
[Can I imagine an inteactive art experience that was FUNDAMENTALLY, a pleasure and a joy to experience?]

After accepting/imagining this possibility, we  can go on to consider what kind of pleasure that such works might offer (obviously, there are many kinds of pleasure), and the philosophical and ethical ends (no matter how fragile or fleeting the gesture) to which these pleasures might be directed.

Tracing my outline in Catherine Truman

The map I drew of my outline and skeleton in Catherine's workshop

SUSPENDING OUTCOMES-ORIENTED RESEARCH PROCESSES, IN FAVOR OF GENUINE, OPEN MINDED ENQUIRY. Drawings made by feeling, paths made by walking. I’m still a little shocked to see how fixated I was on making a ‘correct’ drawing, going to extraordinary lengths to physically trace the outline of my own body, when Catherine’s instructions, were quite clearly to ‘draw an outline of our body, based on our felt experience’ …some more homework to do in this area!

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On the internet, there is an interesting article easy to encounter, written by Sergio Roclaw Basbaum, “Consciousness and Perception: The Point of Experience and the Meaning of the World We Inhabit”. He claims that “ consciousness is aculturally shaped phenomena, and that any conception that may emerge about it from a traditional Western scientific approach cannot go further than suggest a model of consciousness that, at best, can correspond to the experience of consciousness in the culture in which this very specific way of dealing with reality is embedded.”

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The anthropological dimension of synesthesia – as a metaphor or as neurological phenomenon- is usually avoided or forgotten. Van Campen alluded to this reality in “Synthetic Indians” with a commentary on the book World of sense by Constance Classen. Basbaum developed this idea of a synesthesia phenomenon conditioned by culture in a philosophical reflexion using references to Classen and Flusser. The last year I had told that we needed informations on synesthesia in the different cultures of the multicultural Mediterranean world. The emergency of an anthropology focused in the sensory worlds of different cultures enabled to put into perspective the western association between seeing and meaning.

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Quotation from the same article by Basbaum:

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“Different cultures emphasis in other senses gives birth to cosmologies based, for example:

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• in thermal sensations, like the Tzotzil’s of Chiapas, Mexico;
• in olfactory sensations, like the Ongee’s of Little Andaman Island, in Bengal Bay;
• in a highly synesthetic cosmology, like the Desana’s of Amazon, which make meaning of their world based on multisensory correspondences experimented under hallucinogenic plants trance; (Classen, 1993: Chapter 6)
• in such an emphasis on aural experience, like the Kaluli people of Bosavi, as to “reckon time and space by reference to auditory cues and entertain a fundamentally acoustic view of the structure of their physical and social universe.” (Howes, 2003:xvii)

These radically different sensorial arrangements (and there are many

more), the meanings they ascribe to the world and the ways of dealing with life that emerge from them, make reasonable for us to talk not anymore about a “point of view”, typical of Western culture, but of a “point of experience”, the kind of hierarchy of the sensorium that structures experiences and cosmologies in different cultures.” – Hervé-Pierre Lambert

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