Auslander, Philip. “Liveness .” Digital Scholarship and Theory. NEH Institute 2018: Digital Technologies in Theatre and Performance Studies, 21 June 2018, Athens, University of Georgia. Annotated by Obuchi Adikema
Auslander’s lecture on liveness provides reflection on ideas presented in the his book of the same name. He revises the idea of writing as a form of recording for performance, then continues to explain other concepts from Liveness. We agree that if one has already finished reading Liveness, this lecture does not at add much if any new information. However, if someone has not read the book, the lecture could serves as a preview for the book.
Auslander, Philip. Liveness: Performance in a Mediatized Culture. Routledge, 2008. Annotated by Obuchi Adikema
We read Liveness to explore the relationship between live dance and digital performances. In Liveness, one of Auslander main arguments is that live performance and mediatized reproductions are not opposites, but overlapping ideas. Auslander argues that wide-ranging sensory experience of live theater (olfactory, tactile, somatic, kinesthetic, etc.) that you can get from a live performance is also produced when you watch a video of a performance, just differently. The ideas of from Liveness influenced the style of recording videos of use dancing that we sent to each other, as well as how we explored video communication through GoToMeeting throughout the summer.
Barnhill, David L. “Introduction.” At Home on The Earth: Becoming Native to This Place, A Multicultural Anthology, edited by David L Barnhill, University of California Press, 1999, 1-18. Annotated by Naomi Worob
The collection of essays David Barnhill has complied for the multicultural anthology At Home on The Earth: Becoming Native to This Place provides an introduction to environmentalism in, what is currently, The United States. Bringing in writers with different cultural, racial, and ethnic backgrounds, the anthology gave me the opportunity to ask myself what is my cultural background and where does my relationship with nature come from. Focusing on specific people and experiences in this way required me to be more specific with my statements. I could no longer say we are all disconnected from our place, because I now knew that that wasn’t the case. This book made me go back and ask who, what, when, where, and why.
Cadena, Marisol de la. Earth Beings: Ecologies of Practice across Andean Worlds. Duke University Press, 2015. Annotated by Obuchi Adikema
Earth Beings is an exploration of how a group of South American indigenous people share a relationship of mutual responsibility with their environment. We chose Earth Beings to gain a different perspective on what the role of humans is in relation to nature.
Coniglio, Mark, and Dawn Stoppiello. “Live-Interactive Performance.” Digital Performance Practices. NEH Institute 2018: Digital Technologies in Theatre and Performance Studies, 26 June 2018, Athens, University of Georgia. Annotated by Obuchi Adikema
Life-long collaborators Coniglio and Stoppiello share the ideas that they have explored and the projects they have created during their careers as dancers/choreographers/composers/software engineers investigating live-interactive performances. Coniglio and Stoppiello give details on the different kinds of technology that they have use in performances over the years as well as their dissatisfaction with previously existing digital tools and how using those led to their creation of the software ISADORA. Seeing the history behind interactive dances systems gave me a better understanding of what technologies have already been explore and what fields are still left untouched.
Ferro-Murray, Ashley. “Mediated Performances.” Digital Performance Practices. NEH Institute 2018: Digital Technologies in Theatre and Performance Studies, 25 June 2018, Athens, University of Georgia. Annotated by Obuchi Adikema
The lecture covers the history of the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Ferro-Murray reflects on the different performances and collaborations that have been created and curated at EMPAC and the relationship that the large art center maintains with the surrounding community.
Gonzales, Teresa I. “Play and Public Space.” Everyday Sociology Blog. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc, 19 April 2016, http://www.everydaysociologyblog.com/2016/04/play-and-public-space.html. Accessed 7 August 2018. Annotated by Naomi Worob
Gonzales short essay, “Play and Public Space,” gives a brief introduction to sociologists’ work studying play, public space, and activism. The case studies and theories in this article helped us think through our own experiences dancing in public space. (See Shepard’s “Play, Creativity, and the New Community Organizing” and Goldman’s I Want to Be Ready)
iLAND // interdisciplinary Laboratory for Art Nature and Dance. A Field Guide to iLANDing. 53rd State Press, 2017. Annotated by Naomi Worob
A Field Guide to iLANDing is the product of years of research at the Interdisciplinary Laboratory for Art Nature and Dance. The book is a compilation of curricula researchers—scientists, dancers, educators, artists, etc.—did during various residencies and laboratories. Different than Body and Earth, this book is almost entirely about embodiment. There is no introductory material; the lessons are just about being in a place and learning from that environment. While it is understood that each person brings their own experiences, these lessons do not require any sort of prefacing. As a result, each participant or group is able to cater a lesson to meet their own desired learning outcomes.
Miller, Kiri. “Digital Games.” Digital Performance Practices. NEH Institute 2018: Digital Technologies in Theatre and Performance Studies, 26 June 2018, Athens, University of Georgia. Annotated by Obuchi Adikema
Miller illustrates concepts from her book, Playable Bodies, using video examples and interview snippets from people involved in the world of digital dance games. She explores the relationship between players and the onscreen dancers by asking what players seek to gain from these interactive performance experiences and how the ethnography interface of digital dance games can fulfill the needs of individuals. For me, Miller’s presentation raised questions dealing with privacy and surveillance when involved when working with digital tools and what rights people are willing to suspend or boundaries people are willing to cross to experience personally significant digital interactions.
Olsen, Andrea. Body and Earth: An Experiential Guide. Middlebury College Press, 2002. Annotated by Naomi Worob
We began our research with Olsen’s book, Body and Earth: An Experiential Guide. This is a book complete with thirty-one days of activities to takes readers and participants through a series of creative movement, writing, and artistic exercises to help consider their relationship to the earth. We used Body and Earth alongside the Interdisciplinary Laboratory for Art Nature and Dance’s A Field Guide to iLanding and Yoko Ono’s Grapefruit to compare and contrast curricular approaches to connecting to one’s environment. Body and Earth provided the most supplementary learning material out of the three. Each lesson is prefaced with at least a few pages of introductory text to the day’s subject. Ecology, human biology, anatomy and evolution are some examples of subjects.
Ono, Yoko. Grapefruit. Simon & Schuster Ltd, 2000. Annotated by Naomi Worob
Searching for whimsy and simplicity, we found Yoko Ono’s Grapefruit. While some might not immediately see the connection between this work and our work, it was clear to us. Grapefruit is full of intriguing invitations to connect to one’s place. Page after page, I smiled reading Ono’s instructions and imagining what it would be like to follow them. It was exciting to think about the ways that our curriculum could be written and taught to elicit an equally as joyful response.
Shepard, Benjamin. “Play, Creativity, and the New Community Organizing.” Journal of Progressive Human Services, vol. 16, no. 2, 2005, https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/wp-content/uploads/group-documents/733/1349281953-Shepard2005PlayCreativityandtheNewCommunityOrganizing.pdf . Accessed 12 June 2018. Annotated by Naomi Worob
Shepard writes, “whether acknowledged or not, play involves creating, experimenting, and finding ways of reconsidering intractable problems” (2005, 50). In “Play, Creativity, and the New Community Organizing,” Shepard argues that there are five different types of play: social and cultural play, creative play, play as performance, serious play, and therapeutic play (51). He connects creative play to politics, writing that is has “long been a strategy of cultural activism” (52). He relates this to the work of London’s 1995 Reclaim the Streets (RTS) movement. Reflecting on our sub-research questions is this a political act? and how is it a political act?, we see the ways in which the play involved in our work is similar. (See Gonzales’ “Play and Public Space” and Goldman’s I Want to Be Ready).
Solnit, Rebecca. Wanderlust: A History of Walking. Penguin Random House, 2001. Annotated by Naomi Worob
Interested in considering pedestrian movement(s) that connect people to their place, we choose to read Solnit’s Wanderlust: A History of Walking to think about the historical context and philosophical ponderings of walking. Through a mix of personal, ethnographic and historical data, Solnit takes readers through different poignant moments in the history of walking. In our work, dance is defined as movement aware of itself performed with intent; as Solnit described various people walking with that same level of awareness and intent, it became interesting to think how walking could be both an invitation to connect with one’s environment as well as an invitation to dance.
