Archive for set design
October 22, 2007 at 12:47 pm · Filed under studio, architecture, technology, TONY, science, theatre, space, dance technology, visible, stage, video cube, sarah lawrence college, you, politics, set design, performance, school, michel foucault, discipline, dance house, design, audience, intermission, ASHLEY, performance space, theory, art installation, THE ( INTER ) MISSION, social network
Over the past few weeks of my Dance and Technology class at Sarah Lawrence College, the students and I have been programing, dissecting and repurposing surveillance systems to develop mediated performance outlets/environments. To aid and inform our strategies in this project we have been thinking and reading about panopticism.
What is panopticism anyway? wiki wiki
Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon, a theoretical architecture imagined in the 1780’s, is illustrated above. The name literally means the “all-seeing place.” He describes it as a multi-purpose architecture whose design principles are applicable to constructing factory, school, prison, hospital or asylum. A multi-story ring of individual cells surround a central watchtower; every cell is visible from the watchtower while the watcher remains invisible.
The viewer can see everything while remaining invisible.
This panoptic prison named Presidio Modelo, built under the dictatorship of Gerardo Machado in Cuba, once held the one and only Fidel Castro. It is now a national monument.
Foucault uses the Panopticon to analyze the new ways in which power is exercised in the modern world and the role surveillance technologies play in creating a disciplined/docile body. He describes Bentham’s architecture as a kind of multi-staged performance space.
The unverifiable possibility that a subject is being observed at any time is the essential mechanism by which the machine operates. Visibility, as Meghan noted in class, makes one take responsibility for their own subjection.
He who is subjected to the field of visibility, and who knows it, assumes responsibility for the constraints of power; he makes them play simultaneously upon himself; he inscribes in himself the power relation in which he simultaneously plays both roles; he becomes the principle of his own subjection. Discipline and Punish 202
What does this have to do with performance? Everything…
Foucault describes the stacks of cells; “They are like so many small cages, so many small theaters, in which each actor is alone, perfectly individualized and constantly visible.”
In one way the panopticon is like a super-theater, a nesting of many stages.
However Foucault stresses that surveillance architectures are exactly the reverse of those of theater. He writes, “We are much less Greeks than we believe. We are neither in the amphitheatre, nor on the stage, but in the panoptic machine.” Survellence allows one to see many while theater and spectacle is based on many seeing one
Compare the structure of the Panopticon to that of the Globe Theater.
Different yet the same. Definitely involved in a complex tangle.
This assembly can be used as a dance technology. On April 28th and 29th 2007 Martha Williams directed and performed in a dance installation entitled Stacked, converting an out of business clothing store into a surveillance menagerie. Each dancer took residence in one of nine changing rooms which they themed and designed the interiors of. Camera feeds from each cell were composed and projected in the central room so that all of the dances could be seen at once.
Turning the panopticon back into a performance space constitutes a double reversal.
With this in mind, take another look at the dance-cube I prototyped last fall. In this staging the cameras are on the perimeter of the studio so that the gaze is directed from the outside in (as in theater) rather than from the inside out.
Though still, looking at this dance I am reminded of the cells of the panopticon.
“They are like so many small cages, so many small theaters, in which each actor is alone, perfectly individualized and constantly visible.”
Could we characterize the structure of the internet as panoptic? Here is a great essay that explores that question.
This very space is haunted by panoptic geometries. Have a look at the contributor list in the sidebar, look at all those little faces, “perfectly individualized” subjects you can see all at once and may click on to reveal “so many small theaters.”
The design of social networking and internet dating sites, showing all your friends faces in an array, seduces us with a kind of panoptic fantasy, being able to see many at once. This is where things become slightly more complicated. Just like the panopticon embeds tiny theaters in an array, these social technologies embed so many small panopticons in a matrix of connectivity. Each cell is now its own theater and watchtower.
All these ideas should not creep us out. Rather, they should inform our thinking about performance and visibility and the way technology provides new venues for artistic expression. It is an open problem. In my estimation projects like Martha William’s Stacked, my dance-cube, or The(Inter)Mission are all part of a project to reverse-the-panopticon. While flirting with aspects of surveillance and making the subject hyper-visible, they enhance communication rather than simply separate us into little boxes.
So next time you feel like you are under surveillance consider it an opportunity to put on a show.
Recent Posts by tony schultz
September 12, 2007 at 6:18 pm · Filed under ballet, dance, music, composers, art, stage, judson church, performing, mercecunningham, set design, performance, modern dance, community, choreography, john jasperse, costume design, performance art, art into life, composer, duchamp
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.
Complete description of event and panelist bios: http://www.philoctetes.org/Event_Archive/Approaches_to_Collaboration_Choreographers_and_Visual_Artists
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).
Parade Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parade_
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.
Info about Louie Fuller: http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/c/current-loie.html
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).
Info about John Jasperse’s California: http://www.johnjasperse.org/index.php?name=rep8 Image of Set Design by Ammar Eloueini: http://www.digit-all.net
Recent Posts by nancy garcia
May 24, 2007 at 11:20 pm · Filed under SLOAN, dance, architecture, architects, set design, diller scofidio + renfro, mobile, liz diller
Posted by Sloan | via mobile phone
Recent Posts by kristin sloan
February 8, 2007 at 11:58 pm · Filed under SLOAN, dance, brooklyn, opera house, brooklyn academy of music, hamburg ballet, john neumeier, lloyd riggins, set design
Posted by Sloan
City/Train.
Last night I crossed the river and headed to the Brooklyn Academy of Music to see the Hamburg Ballet in John Neumeier’s Death in Venice.
I’m not even sure where to start in trying to describe this production. I think I was already excited by the beautiful design that brought me here in the first place. I love BAM’s website, and the photo they are using to promote this piece is stunning. On top of that, Hamburg Ballet’s website is also unusually beautiful and well organized. Arriving to the theater, we were confronted by all the chic New Yorkers, Isabella Rossellini among them, who know how good BAM’s programming is and are willing to brave the frigid temperatures to see some great art.
Our seats were in the third row of the mezzanine (fantastic) and as we sat down we got to take in the slick looking drop, which I guess is a diagram of a gondola. Also, the stage had been built out over the orchestra pit, adding a great amount of depth to the stage, and also exposing the white marley (i.e. fancy dance floor material) which was lit so that it appeared to glow. In plain view on the extended stage area were a black chair, a camera, and a grand piano.
The lighting throughout the piece was beautiful, and it is interesting to note that it was also designed by the choreographer. When the drop/curtain first rose, the light spilled onto the extended stage in an exact line, as if a door of light were opening across the width of floor. So cool.
I’m not going to get into the story, even though I probably should. There’s a lot goin on there. It’s an adaptation of the novella by the same name, written by Thomas Mann. It worked very well, the timeless theme of a struggling artist, and a rather depressing ending.
I usually try not to post photos from other websites, but this piece was just so beautiful, there’s no way I can do it justice by trying to describe it. Images © Holger Badekow
The piece began with Lloyd Riggins (the lead character, Aschenbach, a revered but frustrated choreographer with an appropriate black turtleneck) on stage with Laura Cazzaniga who portrayed multiple roles within the piece. The first few minutes were silent, except for a big sigh by Riggins. I had the feeling that I was at a play rather than a dance performance, which is a good thing.
The set design was incredible as well. For the first portion of the piece there were two large panels on either side of the stage with space between and space behind from which dancers appeared. At one point the background between the two panels became a mirror (Aschenbach is a choreographer and this seemed to be when he was working). The effect was really amazing from our seats, as we could see the back of the dancer, the glowing white floor, and the rows of audience members before him. At another point, it was actually raining in the background area, with a bit of fog and the wonderful sound of the rain.
Later the side panels disappeared, and for this scene, tall skinny panels floated across the space. The scale and simplicity of the design made the perfect environment in which to display the beautiful dancing.
This was one of my favorite scenes, with drops that look like trees reflected in water.
Edvin Revazov portrayed Aschebach’s infatuation/inspiration, Tadzio, wonderfully. The interaction between the two of them was intense.
In the section entitled Metamorphosis, Aschenbach sits in a hairdresser’s chair… “We are only so old as we feel in our hearts and minds. A man in your position has a right to his natural hair color.”
When watching Lloyd Riggins, I felt as if I were seeing the performance of a great actor, as well as dancer. No detail was missed or thrown away in order to get to a snazzy step. It was all important and intentional. Edvin Revazov was right there with him, and reminded me a bit of a blonde Clark Kent.
The music was also effective, with a recurring theme of the same Bach piece, played by different instruments in different places throughout the work. This was interspersed mostly with Wagner, and a little Yngwie Malmsteen thrown in.
Something extra which I thought was interesting, was that when I got my “BAMbill” I recognized the cover art as a piece of art I had just scene in the lobby. In the program it says that the proceeds from the sale of this art goes towards supporting BAM. So does BAM commission a new piece every season which is then sold, or is it donated? Either way, a neat idea. The piece is by Melora Kuhn.
Also, this chandelier was crazy. Good crazy. Microphones out of some mystery material that looked like it might glow in the dark. It’s in the upstairs space if you want to visit it.
Oh, and of course we can’t forget the requisite ceiling shot. This is a pretty good one.
Recent Posts by kristin sloan
