this is brilliant; I knew a number of people involved in contact
improvisation, and it's great to see the grittiness of this in abstract
forms carrying weight; the Macgrid prims I used were chained physically
and interacting w/ scripts that created a degree of tension as well.
would love to see this carried out with Richard Serra sculptures -
On Tue, 31 Mar 2015, Mab MacMoragh wrote:
peter and simon i enjoyed very much reading your descriptions of the improv
music gatherings
i have added a machinima to the 0P3NR3P0 NetArtizens gallery of a virtual
piece scripted by oberon onmura called contact improvisation (it no longer
'exists' in a virtual art improv place that no longer 'exists' except in
further field artworks derived from the artworks, the objects were coded to
dance according to contact improvisation principles which they did
autonomously and independently according to locus of contact
the sounds were generated by the dance itself and were not added or edited
by me
https://vimeo.com/123712004
it seems this improv process could be an apt metaphor for the NetArtizens
project
oberon's text about the piece:
Upon entering a Contact Improv structure, two bodies must come together to
create a point of contact (i.e., back to back, shoulder to shoulder, head to
head, leg to leg, the options are endless), give weight equally to each
other, and then create a movement dialog that can last for an undetermined
amount of time, as long as both participants are fully engaged."
Steve Paxton, the creator of the Contact Improvisation modern dance
movement, was a founder of the Judson Dance Theater, which was formed and
performed in a church in NYC's Greenwich Village. The activities around the
Judson Dance Theater were central to the development of some of the most
important artwork of the 1960s, 70s and 80s. Artists involved include Yvonne
Rainer, David Gordon, Trisha Brown, Lucinda Childs, Meredith Monk and many
others.
This simple piece mimics a Contact Improvisation process. Fortunately, the
four elements are always "fully engaged."
On Tue, Mar 31, 2015 at 5:57 PM, Simon Mclennan <[email protected]>
wrote:
Peter,
Thanks for putting this so clearly, this is pretty much my own
experience of improvised music over the last few decades.
In Brighton there is a similar group known as SAFEHOUSE collective. We
meet monthly
for the open session, open to both members and non-members. Ensuring a
steady flow
of newcomers to the group. Some stay some flow through.
It is indeed the discipline, if you like, of listening and reacting
and being reacted to, by the other players
and the audience, that is challenging and rewarding. It is safe to
experiment and try new ways of playing
and relating to the other sounds.
There is always at least a small audience, and not just players.
I notice and enjoy the fact that there is always a tension between
what is performed and not performed, or what could be
termed performance. What is permitted. Can you try to speak to the
other players - in your normal speaking voice - in a performed voice,
speak to the audience. Can you suddenly move about and forget about
your instrument. Dance. Draw something.
It?s great.
It?s a big clot of people who come together, in the same room, and
sometimes it might sound dull, other times you sweat with the sheer
greatness of
it. But there is no bar that you must rise up to. It seems to be
social. Sometimes you fall back on the old tricks, you know, the
licks, but if you notice you
can soon put a stop to that and add to the beauty of the sound by
shutting the fuck up, and so become very much a part of the whole
shebang
in your very absence.
Simon
On 31 Mar 2015, at 14:19, Peter Gomes <[email protected]> wrote:
Notes on "The Gathering" 30/03/2015
Lats night I attended ?The Gathering? in London. Starting in 1989
stemming from people from London Musicians Collective Maggie
Nichols describes it ;?It started with improvising musicians but
quickly expanded to include anyone who wanted to explore and
experiment in a welcoming environment. It's a place where
experienced musicians use their skills to encourage rather than
exclude others.? It is now a loose group of players who meet
weekly in London and also in Wales.
What struck me yesterday after my post to Net Behaviour was ?The
Gathering? and its relationship as a way of working and
communicating. There was a complete absence of judgement or ego
among the attendees. In fact, there was no discussion as to the
value of the output itself, the musicianship or anything
produced. The real value appeared to be in the interaction, the
actual process of communication in the midst of a collective
creative act, and the ability for players to connect to each
other beyond language or structure.
What was evident is this process of listening and response, was
a subtle dialogue of maybe mimicry, repetition, and awareness of
the other players and silence. It functioned like a network of
individuals responding to feedback physical, sonic, aural. A
system.
It is a real social network of musicians and makers. Tea,
playing, talking in between. When we played, yes it was
improvisation. Technically you might call this ?Free Improvisation?.
We worked without structure or planning, key, rhythm or style.
People used speech, percussion, drums, violin, flutes, guitar,
voice, and vocal sounds. The atmosphere there was a genuine
creative freedom, where you tried new things because you knew
there were no consequences for right or for wrong. Risk did not
really exist because creative fear was simply not present.
Each participant is autonomous but in an act of collective co
creation. A creative network of individuals working towards an
unknown creative emergent output.
If there are any doubts about the precision of this ensemble
these are dispelled at the point where the pieces conclude.
There is an innate sense of knowing when playing comes to an
end, an acute awareness of each individual, their role and the
connection between each player, and collective sense of exactly
when to stop.
--
@gomespete
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