Research - Ideas

INTRODUCTION

This page will address our ongoing research for the collaborative project.

This page will help to contextualise how our decision making took place and explore the different ideas and suggestions the collaborators came up with throughout the project

These posts will consist of collaborators sharing their different ideas for different projects.

----

POSSIBLE IDEA TO TRY AS A GROUP

Taking inspiration from Eva's 'walk all over you', take a piece of music with strong 'accents' and 'quirks' and create movement which compliments the beats in the music. This was effective in Eva's piece as it accented both the music and the movement to the audience, and was especially effective with the use of just the legs/feet, so could be interesting to work with the isolated body parts idea with this? 

----

COLLABORATION AND INTERDISCIPLINARY 

I believe that collaboration supports interdisciplinarity because working in a group and as a team, provides the opportunity to work with different disciplines. For example, when creating a dance piece, it is possible that you make take on the role of choreographer, director, set designer, costume designer and film maker. This shows how different disciplines intersect and work together in a collaborative situation. I can relate to this idea of working between different disciplines and taking on different roles because we made a collaborative piece of work at university, where the last move of our short sequence, informed how the next person started their sequence. During the creative process, I took on the role of choreographer as I created my own sequence and took on the role of director as I gave direction on how the next dancer could start and where they should be in space. I also took on the role of set designer and costume designer as I made these decisions independently for my own part in the collaborative piece. This experience has opened up my understanding of choreographic making as it has allowed me to step out of my comfort zone as a dancer and choreographer and understand different disciplines and roles that help shape a performance piece.

Link the piece we made:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Nld9NqiCwNc&feature=share

----

ANOTHER POTENTIAL IDEA FOR OUR COLLABORATIVE PROJECT 

Using the work we are currently learning and developing - the unison task - we could incorporate Jamal Burkmar's idea of split-screen with the choreographic device of canon/accumulative cannon alongside it. Through Laura beginning her phrase as a soloist, then Bella adding her phrase on, for both Laura and Bella to perform Bella's phrase together, then continuing this idea through the rest of the phrases, adding each individual on when it gets to their moment in the piece. This explores the idea of accumulative canon as well as engaging with different elements of collaborative practice - paired work into trio work into quartets into both smaller and larger groups - to all eventually be dancing the final phrase as one large group. The use of a split-screen would develop this idea further as it will give the illusion that all dancers are performing alongside each other whereas in reality all clips will have been prerecorded and edited together to allow for crisp and smooth transitions throughout.

----

COLLABORATION IDEAS

I loved the idea that Eva Russell from the third years created a mood board of some sort to help her visualise ideas and gather inspiration from these images to the types of movements she could do or the type of visuals she was portraying in her film. 

https://pin.it/2ayCfnN

I started to look at inspirations we have looked at and spoke upon so for example when talking about the collaboration and the fusing of dances together, we looked at Serge Diaghilev's Ballet Russes and pinned a few of his pictures to the board, along side Swan lake performed in 27 bathtubs, to help visualise and put pictures to our thoughts. There are also videos of these collaborations and also others similar to those.

I thought that it would be a good idea if we all were able to access this and use this for a point of  reference or if someone had an idea or saw an image they would like to share to post it on the pin board, so that we always have something. to help. us if we forget ideas or want to add. without voicing them or just even as a mood board to be there when we need may need it.

----

IDEAS FOR COLLABORATION WORK

An idea we could work with for our piece on collaboration could be to use the positioning of the cameras or laptops whichever we choose to use and come up with a pattern which we can then perform our material with and play around with the visuals and see what we can create in that sense. This is based of the first idea we had on taking the persons before movement and making the connection through each others dance that way. Using different rooms to come in and out and create and illusion as such?

----

IDEA FOR COLLABORATION - COLOUR

From reading the blog and reflecting on the "Walk all over you" and "Things we do for love" videos by Eva Lourie we watched last week, I think use of colour would be effective. We have seen different uses of colour within lots of things we have seen, like the Swan Lake bath tub ballet. The use of colour, I feel, brings an additional dynamic to the piece and can help create interesting visual effects. I think it would be effective if we could find a plain different coloured background each and then either dressed in a complimenting colour or contrasting colour. Due to the camera we may lose some of the dancing if we dressed in the same colour as the background, so contrasting may be better. In the bathtub ballet, I felt this was really interesting and it would have altered the piece drastically if there had not been colour. if we used the colours, then if we did split screen as has been mentioned in other blog posts ( which I agree would be a good idea) we would have clearer different coloured squares. By the coloured backrounds being plain colours as well, the viewer may find it easier to focus on the video as a whole as the backgrounds would be less busy so there is less visual information to process. by focusing on the video more as a whole, this would help any unison sections and cannons seem sharper and clearer.

 In the original video we took inspiration from , the video mail chain with the different choreographers and practitioners, colour was also used. Within this video, all the participants wore something red and/ or black. This created a theme within the costume, and made the transitions seem smoother as the same colours make it appear less jarring when the person who was participating changed because the colours were the same. We have done the same as the video with the other elements of the transition by being in the same place in the space as the previous performer, and having the same move as the previous participant so it may be worth attempting. 

We could also experiment by combining the two to a certain degree, and having different plain coloured backgrounds, but all of the participants dressing in a neutral colour such as white or black. I think we could experiment a lot with colour and the different effects it creates.

----

CONTRASTING AND COMPLIMENTARY COLOURS - PART 2

Please excuse the bad photos! It was difficult to try and photograph myself and keep everything lined up, so as it was about the colours I felt as long as you could see the effect it would be acceptable. I only had a navy blue blanket and pale pink blanket to use as a plain coloured background, and I hung them over the washing line to try and create the required effect. I didn't have space to dance between my camera setup and my background, so I took still images instead. If we were to use this technique for the performance video, this is a problem that would need to be resolved. 

The first background I used was a Navy one. In the picture above, I used a neutral coloured top. I did this so that there was a base image that we could compare the other images too. I think this looks effective together and neither distracts from the other.

This image shows me in a Navy top on a navy background. I like this effect, as its a dark colour and personally my complexion is quite pale so it makes the dark colour look bolder. However, if the shirt was long sleeved my arm movements may be lost whilst dancing as the background and top would blend in. 


In this image I have worn contrasting colours, of a baby pink top with a navy background. These are colours that do compliment each other, however I feel this combination doesn't work as the darker background colour appears to drain the colour in the foreground, making it appear white rather than pink.

This photo showcase my Baby pink top on a baby pink background. I still feel that the baby pink top does seem drained , albeit only slightly by the background. In my opinion though, especially for this example, it works as this makes the pinks appear like two complimenting pinks. This effect may not be as effective in other, bolder complimenting colours.

I really like this contrasting colour! It seems that a darker foreground and lighter background makes the object, or subject, in the foreground appear as the main focal point. This way round for the colour combination seems easier to observe, and draws the spectator into the piece. 


 This is the neutral top on a different coloured background. The neutral top has worked on both coloured backgrounds so far, and I think the performer would still remain clear to observe even if the top was a different style.

----

WORK IN PROGRESS

After looking into Mark Morris dance group (Anger Dance.) There was aspects of this work that I thought would be really affective to incorporate into out final group piece . At the very beginning it was a four way split screen into zoomed in parts of the body each different for example the head the knees or the back etc. I thought it would be nice to use movement material from each persons solo and perform that zoomed in just on that body part . An example of this would be in Olivia's solo she performs a a body role, so my idea would be to just zoom in to the torso and film that body role and use that clip along side the full body clips  To give the piece a bit more dimension .

Ideally I've also been researching Charlie Morrissey. Into his editing skills of how he portrays his work , as a way of portraying elements of our work.

----

CLOSE UP FOOTAGE - AUDIO THOUGHTS

https://youtu.be/k7fdaJWC6-w

This the link to my personal feelings of working with zoomed in aspects of material

---

'ARTISTIC COLLABORATIONS: MARTHA GRAHAM & ISAMU NOGUCHI'

When reading this article I found the quote: “I felt that I was an extension of Martha and that she was an extension of me…” 

Isamu Noguchi

 I thought this quote was extremely relevant and could be applied to our own collaborative process. For example, we are all extensions of each other in the way that we are working collaboratively together to build one big piece of work - when one person shares an idea usually another person adds to this idea and builds on it and then another person adds an idea and so on and so forth. This idea and analogy of extension is one that I think is extremely relevant to working collaboratively, as by building together or extending. the progress of the piece is driven forward and more progress gets made. Being extensions of each other could also mean us trying the ideas of other people, or accepting choreographic suggestions or constructive criticism from our peers and again can be useful in driving the progress of the piece forward. 

Link to article: https://magazine.artland.com/artistic-collaborations-martha-graham-isamu-noguchi/

----

Comments

Popular Posts