- a chat from the sewing box
(this is an preprint version of the article appearing in the late 2021 issue of
Le Rhythme,
with the addition of some supplementary video material)
Since the beginning of the global pandemic, higher education institutions and artists all over the world have embraced distance learning and virtual meetings as more or less provisional solutions. In the case of Rhythmics education, everyday practice had to be adapted overnight – quite the challenge for a discipline based on body work, live music making and social collaboration. Almost one year into this situation, it is time for us to evaluate our experiences in networked rhythmics practice, not as a lesser alternative to traditional (co-located) one, but as a highly expressive medium in its own right. In particular, we explore different ways to articulate the shared virtual space and reframe its limitations as available affordances for artistic expression. This article presents the preliminary results of the ongoing artistic research project “Social d[ist]ancing” at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna.
Out of necessity: networked collaboration
In the early 2020, the global COVID-19 pandemic caught the world by surprise. In the performing arts, the social distancing measures adopted by most governments led to the massive cancellation of events, festivals and projects in the foreseeable future. Some higher education institutions have been quick to react and managed to transition into virtual classrooms in record time, while others came up with all sorts of social distanced formats to keep their students engaged. In the particular case of rhythmics education, everyday practice also had to be adapted almost overnight – quite the challenge for a discipline based on body work, live music making and social collaboration. Paradoxically, out of the struggle that results from the restrictions in movement and social contact, a particular kind of collaborative artistic practice is flourishing; one that relies on webcams as windows into a shared virtual collaborative space.
From left to right: dancers of the Dutch National Ballet performing Ballet connects dancers in lockdown, the National Dance Company of Wales performing 2067: Time and Time and Time, and Prof. Hanne Pilgrim’s students creating together a piece inspired by Anton Webern’s Six Bagatelles for String Quartet, Op. 9
Networked Rhythmics practice: Videoconference as medium
One year into the pandemic, the collection of software applications and online tools that have been re-purposed by performers, dancers and musicians is rather large and diverse. Some seek to simulate the conditions of traditional (co-located) rehearsal while others enable quick and productive collaboration over the internet. These tools (including some developed ad hoc over the last months) come with their own set of strengths and limitations, but geographical location is not one of them. As an illustrative example of this trend, the National Dance Company of Wales (Myhill, 2020) recently used the currently popular Zoom videoconferencing application to reconnect its performers “across time and space”, while ”re-imagining mid scale dance work for small spaces”. During the first lockdown, teachers of the department of
Music&Movement/Rhythmics (MMR) at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna navigated the problem of music-related dance practice with their students from an initial asynchronous approach –with individual video assignments– towards a more interactive networked practice using videoconference tools. Together with their students, they created a body of choreomusical work that delves into the idiosyncrasy of the webcam language (
Pilgrim 2020). Not only does this approach explore the aesthetics of this singular medium (Christian, 2011), but it is also a transformative process that encourages the participants to re-examine the fundamental conditions for group creativity and artistic collaboration.
D[ist]ancing together
With the aim of developing effective strategies for videoconference-based rhythmics practice,
Adrián Artacho and
Hanne Pilgrim decided to put forth a transdisciplinary research effort on the topic of networked co-creation. The resulting artistic research project “Social d[ist]ancing: the development of a networked artistic practice out of confinement” started in September 2020 with six graduate rhythmics students as participants, dance scholar
Mariama Diagne, and the support of the Artistic Research Center (ARC) of the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. Structured around six case studies –each featuring a different mode of intermedial transformation– and making only use of freely available software as a principle, the project has so far yielded useful insights on the limitations of the medium, while at the same time raising questions about networked artistic practice: Does the concept of ”reconnecting performers across time and space” keep its promise? In which ways –if any– are these ”virtual rehearsals” equivalent to traditional (co-located) ones? What is unique about them instead? In which ways does this circumstance determine the artistic output? and most crucially, how can these limitations be reframed to add value to the rhythmics practice?
Reframing the shortcomings of videoconference
The mediation of videoconferencing software has a distorting effect (Al-Samarraie, 2019) in the perceptions of time, space, effort and shape – parameters we routinely use to conceptualise action in rhythmics practice. The perception of one's bodily effort, for example, becomes distorted by the combination of the webcam perspective, orientation and –a subtle yet noticeable– visual delay. This pervasive latency of the system (latency in bodily/corporeal interaction, latency in acoustic feedback and verbal communication) distorts also time perception, which itself affects performer interaction abilities in different ways. Performers can no longer rely on kinaesthetic responses from their collaborators; instead, they need to draw a shared sense of time from the perceived movement on the screen (acceleration, slowing down and freeze have the effect of compressing, expanding or stopping the flow of time respectively) as well as symbolic representations of time such as clocks and countdowns (Ghafurian, 2020). The perceived flow of social interaction is also heavily influenced by contingencies such as extended waiting times (often attributed to technical mishaps such as unstable network connections, unreliable audio or participants disappearing from the conference) or fixated attention on the computer screen (which itself limits the available bodily positions). The aggregate effect of these factors tends to hinder the flow of interaction, causing frustration and the perception of a slacking workflow. It is also the case, however, that these limitations can be reframed as a means to articulate the shared virtual space differently.
Articulating the virtual space
The constraint most noticeable in a videoconference-centered setup is, perhaps, the spatial one. In our networked rhythmics practice we first broke down the constraint into relevant components, and then put them side by side with the novel affordances each of them creates. A networked rehearsal situation can therefore be thought of, not as a lesser rehearsal instance, but one of a different kind altogether. The newly afforded possibilities determine the qualities of the artistic output in a classic case of how the medium determines the message (McLuhan 1964). What follows are some examples of how we used these new affordances to articulate the shared virtual space –the videoconference in this case– beyond its intrinsic limitations.
When participating in a videoconference, interaction with other performers is strictly restricted to the computer screen, which consumes all the performer’s attention (Ghazal 2015). The physical space around the participant is represented in the screen, yet detached from the shared virtual space of the videoconference application. This duplicity between the performed action and its representation (as captured by the webcam) is perceived by the performer as a strange form of visual counterpoint, modulating her subjective experience. This subtle distortion in self perception becomes a hugely influential factor, drastically shaping the artistic output. Moreover, the performer is afforded a new virtual space to interact with: the composite image of all video participants in the gallery view. Considering the inescapable tiled structure of this newly acquired gallery space –a permanent shape with no depth of focal point–, the gestures of individual performers with respect to each other –interaction space–, and the physical space around them –webcam space–, participants operate in three distinct spaces which they can access playfully in a polyphonic manner.
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Example 1. The performers are moving their faces towards the webcam in order to devise a collective ‘eyebrow-phrase’ in the tiled structure of the gallery. This gesture presupposes a movement of the whole body approaching the camera. The actions in the non-virtual space embedding the performers (beyond the partial area captured on camera) can be perceived as a contrapuntal third voice; in a given moment, the performers join the video conference with an additional second device (a smartphone), hence rendering their whole body movement –the third voice– visible. (*)
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In the context of a videoconference-centered performance, the mosaic-like structure of the gallery becomes the only available interface with the audience. As a consequence, the physical space surrounding the performers (beyond what is actually captured by the cameras) loses all relevance. This circumstance requires the performers to actively ignore their environment, which contributes to the feeling of strangeness and disconnection. The own image –permanently mirrored on the screen– dominates the subjective experience, drawing nearly all attention to itself. As the performers engage in interaction, a general feeling of vague irritation ensues: they now need to actively ignore their surroundings and their own image on the screen, too. Notwithstanding, this heightened awareness of the own image can also be used to our own advantage: where ample movement is limited, fine micro-gesture control makes a different –closer– mode of interaction available.
Example 2. In this example from our first Case Study (Perilous Hands), participants used micro-gestures as building blocks for a collective movement score. Repetition in the gallery space provided a certain visual rhythm, which encouraged performers to explore a relatively small set of gestures in detail. (*)
As the visuo-motor self-control gets heightened by the visual feedback coming from the own webcam, the perception of ‘closeness’ to any given participant gets proportionally diminished. Interpersonal distance is replaced by the two-dimensional relationships of the video participants in the application screen. Geographical distance becomes an abstraction, merely a grid line on the edges of our video image. This design convention of most videoconferencing software can nonetheless be used to articulate interaction as well, as in the example below.
Example 3. Participants in the Case Study explore the illusion of closeness by engaging in one to one interaction across neighboring video images. Awareness of one's own position in the grid is, as a matter of fact, abstract and not self-evident. With some practice, though, the results can be quite stimulating and fun. The position of a given performer in the grid, the contact edge with neighboring participants, the use of the two-dimensional metaphor of the screen (participants looking in a particular direction, suggesting something is there about to happen, for example), etc. are all examples of affordances granted by the videoconferencing tool. (*)
In contrast to physical space, webcam space is bounded (its boundary being the contact edge with neighboring participants in the videoconference), reduced (only a fraction of the actual space is shown) and –to the performer at least– feels rather unreal. Despite the latency-induced strangeness and the disconnect with the surrounding physical environment, the camera provides interesting new affordances which would be unavailable in co-located rhythmics practice; visual aspects of any individual performance can be controlled independently from one another, for example. From the perspective of the camera to the light quality; from the choice of a specific background to the use of any number of elements (real or otherwise) as props, the visual language of the webcam provides vast expressive possibilities, particularly when combined with the other webcams as in videoconference-centered rhythmics practice.
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Example 4. In these excerpts from a networked rhythmics session, participants explore the video affordances of the webcam. Specifically, they attempt to control the visual flow of the piece by forcing the viewer’s attention toward specific tiles at a time. By manually obscuring the view (blocking the camera with the hand), performers drive attention to the active (not blocked) tiles, in that way steering the viewer’s gaze and its rhythm (how long the gaze is allowed to dwell in a given area of the screen before tiles disappear and another ones pops up in a different place). (*)
Conclusion: shaping the future work
At this point in our research, we are excited about the expressive possibilities of networked practice waiting to be unearthed, and are already working on the design of new technical applications that address some issues that arose during our working sessions. It is to be expected that more specific applications –together with finer strategies– may help mitigate the frustration over the shortcomings of videoconference as a tool, and eventually enable better remote collaboration. The examples presented in this article are in no way meant to be exhaustive, but to spark a stimulating discussion in the rhythmics community as to how to move our practice forward beyond the horizon of the COVID-19 crisis. We are convinced that there is value to be found in networked artistic practice –not just as a lesser alternative to traditional rhythmics practice– and will continue to explore the affordances of videoconference and similar media as means toward artistic expression.
References:
Al-Samarraie, H. (2019). A scoping review of videoconferencing systems in higher education: Learning paradigms, opportunities, and challenges. International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 20(3).
Christian, A. J. (2011). Joe Swanberg, intimacy, and the digital aesthetic. Cinema Journal, 50(4), 117-135.
Ghafurian, M., Reitter, D., & Ritter, F. E. (2020). Countdown timer speed: a trade-off between delay duration perception and recall. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI), 27(2), 1-25.
Ghazal, S., Samsudin, Z., & Aldowah, H. (2015). Students’ perception of synchronous courses using skype-based video conferencing. Indian Journal of Science and Technology, 8(30).
Groz, M./ Lachersdorfer, M./Lirsch, E./ Kindermann, S./ Pilgrim, H. (2020). Rhythmics Practice in times of Covid-19. Retrieved January 30, 2021, from https://padlet.com/mdw_institut13_rhythmik/846rbomtylltp67n4
Myhill, E./ National Dance Company of Wales (n.d.). Clapping'. Retrieved January 30, 2021, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYcu1ZgkMaU
Vera List Center for Art and Politics (n.d.). COVID-19 Resource Toolkit for Artists and our Extended Communities. Retrieved December 17, 2020, from https://veralistcenter.org/announcement/covid-19-resource-toolkit/
Sirkin, D., Venolia, G., Tang, J., Robertson, G., Kim, T., Inkpen, K., ... & Sinclair, M. (2011). Motion and attention in a kinetic videoconferencing proxy. In IFIP Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (pp. 162-180).
