Research Explanations

Process: I have been spending time reading, watching things online, talking to everyone I know about emergence and the “meaning” of art. I have one regularly scheduled Skype meeting with Mark each week. I have a regularly scheduled studio time each week. I go into my garage and sit and walk around it and think. But I am feeling incredibly isolated, not having a trusted group of players to figure things out with. So, instead of lamenting, I am just going with that reality. My performance partner Nancy and I will get together several times during the last week of March and first week of April. Then the four performances in the garage in April will be the actual creation process. This will be the playtime with a group to work things out. And this kind of fast track process – just teach performers the structure and the rules - is what I will do for SWARM with Troika Ranch so it is perfect practice. For this stage I have to remind myself that it’s ok to be this much in process in front of an audience. I have to be bold with myself, unafraid.

Research topics: improvisation/scores, non-traditional performance space, audience participation, swarm and emergent behavior, intervention from an outside entity, visual scores (one image/object=one performer response), how to develop a structured improvisation over time to create a “weird-logic-drama” that feels wholly complete, releasing control of composition – process reveals meaning, no singular meaning but instead multiple interpretations from within a certain realm, audience as part of composition and interaction, use of “media personality” as creative inspiration (intervention) to explicitly translate what I think is happening to space, time and body in and from the digitally dominant world.

Here are some prominent inspirations:

Forced Entertainment – It is their overarching approach to what I would call rigorous play that feels connected to where I am right now. They do what I would call artistic-archeology meaning they don’t know what they are looking for but they know how to find it (to quote Jerome Robbins). They also believe that the “story” of a work is in what is happening now right here in front of you, it’s the audience’s job to their own. And they are interested in presenting “real” rather than “pretend”, true exhaustion of a player or true discomfort, etc. I am also searching for a way to confidently connect with humor in my work. And I know I need to push my garage stuff way further out. It’s too safe and easy right now.

http://www.forcedentertainment.com/

Susan Rethorst – There are so many aspects of Susan’s thinking about dance, her general philosophy, that I have already been thinking about but are coming into my work in a more prominent way now; namely that embedding meaning into a work in unnecessary. And that place has an affect/effect on people, related to my choosing the garage as site. Her defense of the “body’s mind” is inspiring to me. She believes that we don’t need language to “explain” dance. It is itself. We feel it but don’t need to describe it to understand it. Making a dance that is not about something but that is something! Susan has me thinking about how my life has been created in relation to my work. It’s only now that I feel a kind of membrane between my “regular” life and my “artist” life right now. But that the membrane is a boundary but also a conduit, a filter, where each life can be discreet but the membrane lets there be  seepage from one into the other.

http://www.alpertawards.org/archive/winner10/thework/dance/perception.html

Signa – Seven Tales of Misery (2006) is a piece I saw using audience interaction that had great impact on me. Re-examining my experience with this piece is research into keeping an interactive audience engaged and flowing through a dramatic experience. It also reminds me of the mystery of being an audience member. Asking yourself how to get in, how to let it in.

The piece of saw of Signa’s was the result of a group of actors spending a month together living in the many stories, many roomed house where the performance happened. During that month they developed the story and the characters for the performance. There was no script but instead each performer knew their own story and how they related to every other character in the performance and could improvise conversation with other performers and with the audience who was free to simply roam around the environment and join in any activities they happened upon. There was a short ritual when we came in telling us how to behave and giving a little back-story.

http://signa.dk/projects?pid=53983

SWARM - a jumping off point for reading about swarm behavior: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swarm_behaviour

Emergent Behavior – general inspiration on how to set up these systems: http://curiosity.discovery.com/question/emergent-behavior, http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL82C5FC07758915B0,

Swarming and emergent behavior are the principles by which Troika Ranch is constructing its next major work. For the work I am doing now, I am looking at crowd behavior in a really basic way. What happens when you put people in a confined space, that they know is a “performance” and give them simple rules or tasks to follow? It is the behavior of the audience, how they act while following or not following the rules that will determine the organization of the materials in the piece.

Garage Series – the process of me trying to work these things out in real time and real space. Each event will be documented and analyzed.

https://sites.google.com/site/salondugarage/home

Research (Intent Redux Again)

salon du garage #2 – We Know

salon du garage is an ongoing platform for work. Having performed in the grand spaces of German opera houses, festivals in Monaco, and New York City theaters, Dawn Stoppiello now presents intimate performance installations in her garage at 4511 NE Prescott Street, PDX 97218. A garage is a space where things get worked on. As a method of working on herself as a solo artist through group council, Stoppiello and audience together play out structured improvisational movement scores that are both silly and serious.

We Know is a duet performance activity where everyone involved, performers and audience, are following the instructions, reading the manual, trying to do it right and making all the most interesting mistakes anyway.

salon du garage #2 - We Know will happen every Saturday in April 2013.

The garage doors will open at 6:00PM.

The performance runs one hour.

Mild audience participation is requested.

Drinks and light snacks will follow.

No more than 20 guests will be included in each performance.

Repeats are welcome.

Free.

Please RSVP: dawnmariestoppiello[at]gmail[dot]com

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Rehearsal schedule: Monday afternoons and Thursday evenings in March

Press/marketing: eblast to invited guests and list on Facebook

Performers: Dawn Stoppiello and Nancy Ellis

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Research topics: improvisation/scores, non-traditional performance space, audience participation, swarm and emergent behavior, camera tracking, intervention for an outside entity, visual scores (one image/object=one performer response), how to develop over time a structured improvisation to create a “weird-logic-drama” that feels wholly complete, releasing control of composition – process reveals meaning, no singular meaning but instead multiple interpretations from within a certain realm, audience as part of composition and interaction, use of “media personality” as creative inspiration (intervention) to explicitly translate what I think is happening to space, time and body in the digitally dominant world.

My primary research will be (is) doing the work, doing the making with my body, exploring the systems I have created so far, combining and refining them, making scenarios and playing them out. I am reading Susan Rethorst’s book A Choreographic Mind and also referring to Jonathan Burrow’s book A Choreographer’s Handbook. I have been talking to everyone I know about my interests. Mark Coniglio and I have had several Skype meetings to discuss our process. Below are five references to current influences on my research.

Susan Rethorst – her philosophy in general: http://www.alpertawards.org/archive/winner10/thework/dance/perception.html

Signa – a piece I saw using audience interaction that had great impact: http://signa.dk/projects?pid=53983

SWARM - a jumping off point for reading about swarm behavior: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swarm_behaviour

Emergent Behavior – general inspiration on how to set up these systems: http://curiosity.discovery.com/question/emergent-behavior, http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL82C5FC07758915B0,

Garage Series – me trying to work things out in real time and real space:

http://troikadawn.wordpress.com/salon-video/

Intent Redux

Salon du Garage #2 [ECP/garage]

Salon du Garage is an ongoing platform for work. Having performed in the grand spaces of German opera houses, festivals in Monaco, and New York City theaters, Dawn Stoppiello now presents intimate performance installations in her garage at 4511 NE Prescott Street, PDX 97218. A garage is a space where things get worked on. As a method of working on herself as a solo artist through group council, Stoppiello and audience together play out structured improvisational movement scores that are both silly and serious. Salon du Garage #2 will be the next iteration of her Enter Comma Prepare (ECP) series, an overarching structure for the creation of a work infused with the features/use/characteristics of the space in which it is performed. All iterations of ECP, while following the same set of rules for fabrication, generate a unique space-specific experience that will never and can never be repeated in another location with the exact same outcome. ECP/garage is a solo performance concerned with following the instructions, reading the manual, trying to fix things but making all the mistakes anyway.

Stoppiello asks you to join her for Salon du Garage #2 ECP/garage every Saturday in April 2013. The garage doors will open at 6:00PM, the performance runs one hour. Drinks and light snacks will follow. Free. No more than 20 guests will be included in the performance on each Saturday. Repeats are welcome. Please RSVP: dawn@troikaranch.org

Intent

As a continuation of my investigation of structured improvisation dictated by command systems and visual scores, Enter Comma Prepare [Our Construction] will be a performance installation for a home garage that uses three performers and an invited audience of roughly twenty people. I will combine several of the improvisation systems I have explored thus far and others that have not yet been tried. These will include the “clothesline/image”, the “table/object” and the “stick” animation that were trials from this semester as well as a computerized vocal command system previously developed.

Enter Comma Prepare [Our Construction] is a playful exploration of the situation of performance and examines how meaning is created in the encounter between performers and viewers. The piece toggles between the two simultaneous realities that occur in a performance situation – reality and fantasy - and intentionally encourages a heightened awareness of these realities for both performer and viewer. Enter Comma Prepare [Our Construction] examines the process of making “meaning” from performance by presenting numerous “accidental narratives”. The performers are propelled into action through computer-generated commands and audience-organized visual scores. Their improvised responses to these directives, in combination with the directives themselves, result in unexpected narrative relationships and scenarios.

While my investigation has components that when combined have implications, Enter Comma Prepare [Our Construction] and the entire series of Enter Comma Prepare events, is made from a flexible structure and not a pre-conceived end product. Enter Comma Prepare is a series of performance events with a structural score that is adjusted to each physical setting in which it occurs. All iterations of Enter Comma Prepare take inspiration from a specific architecture/site that when combined with the elements of the score result in related but different outcomes. The first iteration, Enter Comma Prepare [This Dinner] was made for a proscenium stage at Brown University (March 2011), the second iteration, Enter Comma Prepare [The Cave] was made for the lobby and main hall of Kaul Auditorium at Reed College (March 2012). Enter Comma Prepare [Our Construction] will be the third iteration to be presented in March 2013. Future iterations will be created in and for other performance spaces, traditional and not, to allow various architectures to impact the structure and define each articulation of the work. The space and the action within are equal partners that create an audience/performer experience and thus a resulting 'meaning'. Because the ECP series are created via suggestive improvisational structure and not the articulation of one specific idea, each viewer’s resulting sense of “meaning” is the real one and always has been.

I am not holding open auditions for this work but am instead asking two local dance artists to perform with me, Nancy Ellis and Tahni Holt. I will be connecting with them this week. I am not yet sure if I will have other artistic collaborators.

Most rehearsals will take place in my garage but some rehearsals may take place at Gracewood Studio in my neighborhood.

The rehearsal schedule will be a two-three hour block once a week throughout February and March.

This performance will mark the second in the Salon du Garage series. This performance will take place on Saturday, March 23, 2013.

I intend for this event to have an invited audience of roughly 20 people. I do not intend to widely publicize this event nor to request traditional review or critical response. I will invite a select few local Portland art world VIPs with whom I already have a friendly relationship. My intention is to let the word about the Salon du Garage series slowly leak out over time. To create an “insider” buzz that will draw its own attention.