How and to what ends do the contemorary arts conceptualize, represent, and model new spaces and temproalities?
Foteini Papadopoulou will present the concepts developed for afaao with a paper titled:
Perceiving Movement:
Transdisciplinary Concepts of Space and Time for a Multimedia Dance Performance's Augmented Space-time
“What do you see, when you observe movement?”
In the project ‘as far as
abstract objects’ (2014, Essen, Germany) an international team of artists, scientists
and technicians worked together, researching movement perception by creating a
contemporary multimedia dance performance. With analysis/composition tools such
as concepts from movement notation, architecture, probability theory, sound
analysis, 3D-animation and motion tracking, the team worked collectively on
imaginative intermediate movement transformations and the development of corresponding
space and time concepts.
Two media were used in the
performance, complementing the dancers’ live movements: digital media art based
on processing live video feeds and space filling electronic sound installation.
Their employment aimed at augmenting the restricted space-time of a live
performance, opening up alternative views on a movement’s fleeting moment, articulating
and communicating its hidden dynamic structures. The choreography unfolding was
dealing with the tensions between fundamental aspects of movement, e.g.
sequentiality/simultaneity, change of location/rotation, gesture/transference
of weight. The space that live movement, animated image and sound co-inhabited
was arranged to suit the performance’s intended ‘game of perception’: With the
stage placed centrally and two projection screens hanging from the ceiling as a
key structuring element of the set, each member of the audience would view and
experience a slightly or considerably different version of the events,
depending on the location of their seat.
‘as far as abstract
objects’ can be viewed as a comment on the fact, that what we see is just what we see, an event perceived with the
restrictions of a live experience’s temporal and spatial coordinates, i.e. the
one moment in time and the one perspective on space. However, a body’s movement
is a complex four dimensional phenomenon and a shift in the line of time or a
change of perspective can often reveal a new surprising experience of the same
event.
The space arrangement of afaao for the Maschinenhaus Essen
Design: André Mehlhop-Lange
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You can download the symposium's program HERE
