DANCE & ART

There are a few exhibtions and related events coming up over the next few months concerning dance and art.

MOVE:Choreographing You at the Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre


ROTOR at Siobhan Davies Dance

AWAKENINGS

Since I have joined Musical Moving I thought it necessary to educate myself a bit about Parkinsonism and was kindly lent the book 'Awakenings' written by physician and neurologist Oliver Sacks. Although the book is primarily studies of patients suffering from a sleeping - sickness, who have been awakened by the administration of a new wonder drug L-Dopamine, there are sections which describe the Parkinsonian condition in great detail as in the 1960's patients where also administered the same drug.

Sacks' writes particularly about the Parkinsonian experience of space and time and the neurological manifestations of the disease, he recalls the work of Dr James Parkinson who defined Parkinsons as a singular condition in which there are forms of behaviour, rather than a symptomatic disease. Tremor or shaking commonly thought of as the most obvious symptom, is rarely constant and by no means an isolated characteristic of the condition. It is not merely motor, the resistance to movement, the speeding, slowing, stopping and starting also occur in the mind throughout thought patterns. It is apt then that dance and also singing are activities in which Parkinsonians find spirit but also strategies to master certain behaviours.

'We must come down from our position as objective observers, and meet our patients face-to-face; we must meet them in a sympathetic and imaginitve encounter: for it is only in the context of such a collaboration, a participation, a relation, that we can hope to learn anything about how they are."
Sacks.

DANCE FOR CAMERA

I have recently joined the Musical Moving session at KTHC, a dance class for people with Parkinson's lead by professional dancers with live musical accompaniment.  The group has links with Brooklyn Parkinson’s Group, a chapter of the National Parkinson’s Foundation in the United States and has previously had classes lead by members of the Mark Morris Dance Group. 

 Film and dance are interesting counterparts, early films often used dancers as a subject, their movement displaying films amazing ability to reproduce action in real time. Since taking part and recording the classes I have been thinking about dance as a discipline in relation to cinematography; movement as an expression of/reaction to form, timing and space as a control or a measure. When dance is filmed the camera itself may be choreographed to move in way which reflects the dimensions of the dancers' movements, and the dance choreographed for the dimension of the screen rather than the stage. The musical element may appear to invite and sustain a particular movement or equally jar and unravel the synchronisity.

A fine example of this approach to dance for camera can be seen through the work of choreographer Merce Cunningham and his collaborations with composer John Cage and filmmakers such as Charles Atlas, Elliot Caplan and Tacita Dean.

Follow the link below to watch him in action...

Merce Cunningham - Points in Space BBC Documentary


Film can also manipulate how we percieve movement through editing techniques, it may play with our sense of time, speeding up or slowing down to emphasize movement. It may play with our spatial perception focusing on only one part of the body or movements may begin in one location, extend beyond the frame and finish in another. An example of this approach can be seen in the work of filmmaker Maya Deren.


Maya Deren - A Study in Choreography for Camera

FIELD STUDIES

Last week I attended a four day course at London Met on the subject of field recording in the city,  Field Studies is an offshoot project led by Joseph Kohlmaier, lecturer in Architecural History &Theory.

The course was an interesting introduction into the practice of recording the activity of particular environment, each tutor offering a different approach and various methods. Attending the course has been invaluable in terms of the technical and theoretical knowledge I have absorbed, it will duly have an impression on how my work continues.

HIGH KELLING

During the TB epidemic in 1930's specialist isolation sanitoriums were set-up in rural locations around the UK as exposure to fresh air and the outdoors where thought to aid the patients' recovery. 

Pine trees where planted around the site as pine air was though to be cleaner, patients would spend long periods outside in rotating summer houses which would be moved depending on sunlight and wind conditions.

Although the main hospital has been developed there are still some original buildings remaining and  the surrounding pine forests are an indication to its' previous use.

This short clip was shot in a pine forest close to the site of the hospital, the camera is panning to reflect the movement of the summerhouses. The soundtrack is from contact microphone recordings from an origami class at KTHC, it is best heard through headphone or external speakers.

High Kelling (Swan) from Sybella Perry on Vimeo.

WHITE NOISE & WATERFALLS

Since discovering the Sound Conditioner in the upstairs waiting room I have become interested in the conflicts between how interaction with the natural world can positivly influence health and wellbeing, and the actuality of such experiences. 

There are definite biological effects from sunlight and oxygen rich air but how does viewing nature have a positive impact mentally? As increasingly the majority of the population around the world are living in built-up areas the chance of engaging with natural spectacle becomes more remote, and often abstracted as a result of the way we live, for example when the sun sets over a city the sky turns a nice shade of pink or red as a result of pollution.

 In researching further into sound conditioning I found a whole range of sounds produced to relax the listener/block out the immediate environment. The majority of which are sounds of the natural world but others noises that become such a part of everyday experience they are found to be comforting such as air-conditioning, note that often these are used by people who have some form of tinnitus. The variety of sounds available to buy at www.whitenoisemp3s.com are from instances in environments that are so remote few have experienced them, but  somehow feel satisfaction through an indirect engagement with the sound and the idea of the location. It reminded me of  reading about the NYC Waterfalls Project by Olafur Eliasson in 2008.

There were four waterfalls in total located through-out the city, in relatively close vicinity. The scale of the cascades are somewhat spectacular and the industrial materials used compliment the infrastructure of the city, in many photographs the falls seem dwarfed by the scale of the architecture.

New York state is not short of waterfalls but if we imagine New York  City as a rockery these do seem  rather like over-sized water features. Unfortunatley the time the falls were operating had to be reduced by half due to  the public notifying the Pulic Art Fund that the falls where producing a salty mist, which when it landed on surrounding plants prevented photo-synthesis and killed them.

SOUND CONDITIONER

 Whilst recording sound in different locations in the health centre, I noticed this little machine in one of the smaller upstairs waiting areas.  It is a sound conditioner, it plays sounds that are supposed to relax the listener and block out other undesirable sounds. The sounds are all from the natural world and come in two tiers

Base Sounds                               

- Lake Shore
- Rain
- Country Eve
- Surf I
- Surf II
- Thunderstorm
- Brook
- White Noise

Overlay Sounds

- Frog
- Seagull
- Owl
- Song Birds
- Hawk
- Loons
- Buoy
- Dove

Yesterday it was set to brook with the over-lay sounds of frog and dove, this a recording of sound from the waiting room. It is the sort of interfering sounds which the sound conditioner is intended to block, doors abruptly shutting, people coughing and chatting. These are the sounds of the center at work, staff accessing different parts of the building and patients waiting for appointments.

   Waiting Room w/ Doors & Coughs by Sybella Perry