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sometimes i don’t even know where i am

The roundtable discussion, “Approaches to Collaboration: Choreographers and Visual Artists,” took place on Saturday, September 8th at The Philoctetes Center for the Multidisciplinary Study of Imagination at the New York Psychoanalytic Institute, on the upper east side. Collaborative models for performance were discussed.

Link to complete description of event and panelist bios

Following are my notes from the panel, as discussed by Noel Carroll, Roger Copeland, Mary Fleischer, Lynn Garafola, and Yvonne Rainer.

Ballet Russes’ collaborative model exemplified the Wagnerian idea of Gesamtkunswerk, or “total work of art,” via a synthesis of poetry, scenic design, staging, action, and music.

The ballet Parade was cited as a very early example of artistic collaboration, composed for Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes 1916-1917. Choreography by Léonide Massine (who was also dancing), music by Erik Satie, a one-act scenario by Jean Cocteau, costumes and sets designed by Pablo Picasso, and the orchestra conducted by Ernest Ansermet. Painter Henri Matisse also did sets and costumes for another of Ballet Russes Le Chant du Rossignol 1920 (or The Song of the Nightingale).

Link to Parade Wikipedia entry

Apparently, George Balanchine (one of the founders of New York City Ballet), was not so interested in visual aspects such as costuming and sets, but he was interested in lighting. Another choreographer who was very involved with lighting was Louie Fuller. She is considered a pioneer of both modern dance and theatrical lighting techniques.

Link to info about Louie Fuller

There was a good time spent on the Cage/Cunningham collaborative model. Both artists were in favor of “disillusion,” but for different reasons.
While Cunningham is a defender of the autonomy of the art form (in his case it would be dance), Cage is more of an integrationist, a descendant of Marcel Duchamp’s ideas who also wanted to dissolve the distance between art and life. Where Cage and Cunningham agree is on strategy: the use of aleatoric methods.

Yvonne Rainer called this collaborative model “mechanical,” where there is no apparent conversation between the collaborators. She cites a piece by choreographer John Jasperse, whose name she didn’t say but because of her description I suspect she meant California, as a good example of the integration of the stage elements (that set was designed by Ammar Eloueini).

He Loved You Very Much
Sound Collage
-link to audio forthcoming

Description:
Applying the tools of journalism to everyday life, I set out to discover the people and the environment within the M5 bus on Friday, October 20, 2006. Using audio recordings to document my ride, I created a sound collage containing conversations (both overheard and direct), atmospheric sounds and sounds made by the bus itself. The piece also employs techniques of fiction, including characters and a narrative thread. At certain moments, the artist’s voice is heard explaining her innermost thoughts, not necessarily connected directly to what she is actually observing. Overheard conversations recall memories- the closing line, “he loved you very much,” is repeated 8 times in Spanish. Highly personal, “He Loved You Very Much,” is in the tradition of Nan Goldin’s evocative photographs of close friends and lovers in the sense that the artist’s intermittent comments relate to memories connected to her ex-lover.

Various layers of reality, imagination and memory combine to explain my journey on the M5 bus line on that one afternoon. This piece is meant to be both a document and a psychological experience for the listener who is asked to listen to this piece on headphones as she physically embarks on a journey, on any bus of her choice.

Digitally altered image using Photoshop

I worked on this with Rosie Daniel. We found common ground on our love for Jon Stewart and a hatred for Ann Coulter.

Source Images
1.Ann_Coulter_Headshot

2. Jon_Stewart_Eating_White_House_Cake

1. Baby Hitler
The picture on the left was widely printed in newspapers throughout the 1930s. It was represented as being a snapshot of Adolf Hitler as a baby. Sometime in 1937 Mrs. Harriet Downs, of Westport, Conn., noticed the image in a magazine and recognized it as an altered baby photo of her own son, John May Warren. The original, unretouched picture is shown on the right.

2. Prince William Gone Wild
By UK based artist Alison Jackson. Per her artist statement, “My work is about simulation. Creating a clone of a copy of the ‘real’ on paper. It is not a fake, it takes a place of the ‘real’ for a moment whilst looking at the image. As Baudrillard puts it, simulation is different from feigning. Feigning is pretending, such as, feigning illness or pretending to be ill. The subject is not ill, just seeming to be, but ‘simulation threatens the difference between ‘true’ and ‘false’, between ‘real’ and ‘imaginary’. Since the simulator produces ‘true’ symptoms, is he ill or not. He cannot be treated objectively either as ill or not ill. ”

3. Photojournalism Fakery
This digital composite of Sen. John Kerry and Jane Fonda sharing a stage at an antiwar rally emerged during the 2004 presidential primaries while Kerry campaigned for the Democratic nomination. The picture of Kerry was captured by photographer Ken Light as Kerry was preparing to give a speech at the Register for Peace Rally held in Mineola, N.Y., in June 1971. The picture of Jane Fonda was captured by Owen Franken as Fonda spoke at a political rally in Miami Beach, Fla., in August 1972.

Hanna walks into the Owl Bar and so many things happen. A glass drops. No heads turn. Well, one head turns. The bathroom door slams, and the cash register opens. Mr. Bartender pulls out a twenty, crumbles it into a ball and throws it at the man who almost forgot to pay for his drink.