CS4.3 Route Map (for a Lecture-Performance)

 

So here are the next steps leading to our Lecture-Performance on the 16th of June:

2nd June (18h 20h): General rehearsal (with the presence of the advisory board)

                    → all of us should bring an additional person in!

16th June (18h): Vorbereitung

16th June (19h - 20h): Public event (Lecture-Performance)

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To organise some parts that are more collaborative (I am thinking the game-show, for example) we can talk and coordinate via WhatsApp if necessary. For instance, I will contact @Kathi to produce the off-voice for the 'Introduction' and the 'Instructions' videos.

We could use this GoogleDoc to share and work on the performance 'scripts'. Nothing too fix or elaborated, but enough to have an overarching idea of what will be the topic of each part. (That will also help @Max figure out how to moderate from each exhibit to the next)

Lecture-Performance | Script(s)

The order, duration, setup... of all different parts as we discussed today are on this spreadsheet. Feel free to edit/add elements if you need to!

Lecture-Performance | [timeline]

We thought it would be nice for everybody to have the same background... and to change it in every exhibit to a different one. I made some dummy backgrounds in GoogleDrawings for you to edit (if it is your exhibit) and for everybody to download.

Lecture-Performance | Zoom backgrounds

If you want to use Prezi to add some live infographics to your video, whoever the presenter is will have to have the Prezi Video app installed in his/her zoom account (this might have to be approved by the mdw admin if your zoom account is linked to the mdw, so test it out in advance!)

Install Prezi Video App 

You may write me anytime if we need to coordinate different parts, etc. Also, if you want to include specific sound effects (laughter, music, etc.) at specific points of the performance and can't find a way to do it via zoom, just write me and we'll figure out 😉

Have a wonderful week and see you in June!

best,
Adrián

Case Study 4: "Zoomkeeping"

 Dear all,

Last session was a blast, and we have so many ideas to pull from. Working in smaller groups is definitely an agile way to try many different things, and we might continue to do so next week (Wednesday 9:00h).

We used some functionalities from Prezi Video which give a nice touch to the presentation. If you care (pun intended) feel free to explore visual possibilities of prezi, or think of what cool visual effects we should include... that are meaningful for the purpose of our lecture-performance.

I think we could also incorporate some large interactivity (our audience will be too large to handle one-to-one, I suppose) using a pretty neat little app called Mentimeter. I will prepare some examples for the next session, but basically it allows us to poll people in real time and display their answers.

Last, but no less important:

We should provide an account of the project, besides the demonstration. That is, it would be best that the content is as cool as the presentation and for that reason we discussed last week the idea that everybody contributes a topic that you consider important / relevant.

If everybody has at least an idea of what they want to focus on, we could put together a route map next session that will make it much easier to plan the work ahead and to conceive a dramaturgy that makes sense for the overall 90' presentation. We should see it as an artwork, kind of a large composition made up of smaller movements.

I am very looking forward to our next session and wish you a nice weekend!

best,
Adrián

Case Study 3.2 (ReconnectingSpaces)

 

Next week we are going to shoot the material that will become our submission for the Music Call (networked performances category) of the SMC21 conference: Reconnecting Spaces.

What we need to prepare for the next session are concrete ideas (~4 per person) of actions we want to use as raw materials for the performance. Specifically:

Actions that are CONNECTED to a second one (first one → then the other). This represents Hanne's idea of the everyday actions (reaching out  an object to another participant, which is then picked up by the 'connected' participant)

Actions that are ENTANGLED. That is, actions that are meant to happen at the same time. They could be identical, but not necessarily. For instance, two participants would get the aural cue "5" through the speakers, and will perform their -identical or not- versions of "action 5" simultaneously.

TUTTI actions, for everybody at the same time to perform.

 

...I have taken the liberty of adding another category:

CASCADING actions are connected actions that propagate to the next participant, one at a time, at regular time intervals (1-2 seconds, for example).

Please, think of some actions, record yourself with your phones doing it (it's easier than describing it!) and share it in our WhatsApp group until Thursday 25th of March. And please add to the video a caption that says which category does it belong to (connected, entangled, tutti, cascade).

Thanks you, and have a nice week!

Adrián

ReconnectingSpaces (collaborative score)

Last week we developed a collective performance based upon the sync points, words and silences from a given score.  Our 'synchronised improvisation' proved to fun to experiment with, and by now everybody understands the mechanics of our —very simple yet— visual cue system.  

This week we take it in our own hands to create the piece for our next session from the ground up: ReconnectingSpaces*. The purpose for the piece is to explore the fragile nature of our virtual connections, always dependent on technology to function, often frustrating, perhaps less authentic as compared to a real life encounter in the physical world. 

In order to make collaboration as intuitive as possible, we will be the musiclab online tool to put together an event score (similar to the one we have used in ShareDareCare). Once finished, the project will be used to generate 'visual cues' that will help us perform together next week.

This shared project is set to 10 bars, with 5 beats per bar at tempo 60 bpm. That means, every beat is 1 second long and every bar just 5 seconds long. The first bar should be empty (except for the starting clap at the beginning). Each of the tracks (notes) is assigned to one of us alphabetically, using a similar color scheme as we did in the first Case Study:

The second bar is where the piece really starts. I suggest a collaborative approach in that anybody can edit anything, but still have each of us curate one bar each; Adrián will be responsible for bar number 2, Benedikt shall do the same for number 3, and so on...

• Bar #2   → Adrián
• Bar #3   → Benedikt
• Bar #4   → Dalma
• Bar #5   → Hanne
• Bar #6   → Katharina
• Bar #7   → Magdalena
• Bar #8   → Maria
• Bar #9   → Mariama
• Bar #10 → Max

The blocks in the score can only represent when an action (talking, for example) takes place. As we did in ShareDareCare, the starting point of an action is represented by the beginning of a rectangle, and the action lasts as long as the block. When there is no block in the track of a given participant, it is interpreted as <TACET>, meaning that the perfoFootnotesrmer is free to do anything he/she pleases, as long as it doesn't produce hearable speech.

IMPORTANT: Making / Saving changes

Every time you edit / save the musiclab project, it becomes a different project (with a different online link). In order for us to collaborate, save regularly and share the link in our WhatsApp group everytime! Do not worry if you share multiple links as you are editing the project; it will ensure that everybody sees the newest version (and that we don't delete somebody else's work).

Footnotes

For more specific descriptions of the actions, we shall use footnotes (see the picture above). Here is an example:

 7.4:         /where/        Performers say the word /where/ (or a phonetic equivalent)  

The reference of the footnote [7.4] describes the position of the note in the score measured in beats (which in our case are equivalent to seconds) and semiquavers (four for each beat).

The description of the action is completely up to you. It makes sense, however, to build upon what others have already suggested. For the footnote descriptions we shall use this online document. Feel free to type, edit and comment as much as you need.

*) 'Reconnecting Spaces' is also the motto of the SMC 2021 conference (which hosts a call for networked performances like this 😉)

Chrome Music Lab (Link)

Here is the final version of the shared musiclab project.

And here is the progress over multiple iterations:

Iteration #1    (Adrian)

Iteration #2    (Maria)

Iteration #3    (Ben)

Iteration #4    (Dalma)

Iteration #5    (Kathi)

Iteration #6    (Magdalena)

Iteration #7    (Mariama)

Iteration #8    (Max)

Iteration #9    (housekeeping)

Iteration #10    (StillePost#1: Ben, Dalma, Kathi, Maria)

Iteration #11    (StillePost#2: Max, mariama)

Iteration #12    (StillePost#3: Hanne, Magdalena)

ShareDareCare (asynchronous task)

 

Hi everybody!

In preparation for the second Case Study which starts next week, here is a task for you.

(if you cannot see the video, click HERE)

This should be the centerpiece of our presentation at the SAR conference in April. I shot a brief video explaining what we need to do, with some examples of how you may follow the visual cues corresponding to your part. Feel free to explore what you can do within these 2 minutes in front of the camera. As long as your part 'line' goes on, you should be speaking, but it is completely up to you what to say. Just make sure to carefully work in the syllables (written in phonetic) as part of your speech as naturally as possible.

Here is the score (which you can download here):

As for which part correspond to whom, I suggest we take the same order we used in our last session, and I will jump in so that we have a nice 3x3 grid...

That yields the following parts:

ShareDareCare | Part #1       Hanne

ShareDareCare | Part #2       Benedikt

ShareDareCare | Part #3       Dalma

ShareDareCare | Part #4       Magdalena

ShareDareCare | Part #5       Adrián

ShareDareCare | Part #6       Maria

ShareDareCare | Part #7       Mariama

ShareDareCare | Part #8       Kathi

ShareDareCare | Part #9       Max

P.S.: Do not hesitate to use humour, if you feel like it. After all, it is a bit of a tease of the SAR audience :)

Homework for CS1.2 (next Friday)

 

Hello everybody!

At the end of last session, we took some decisions together on which actions to coordinate, and with whom. That was done on a shared spreadsheet based on the cue numbers you can hear in the audio above. This of course represented a small set of all syncing possibilities, as you can see in the first graph below. I continued adding sync points to our collaborative choreography (as you can see in the second graph).

⇩

This way everyone is part of at least three syncing points, together with other two different performers at least. I also added a collective action (all together!) at the end (#21). You can click on the image below to see, and eventually edit the spreadsheet.

The task for tomorrow is the following:

Contact via WhatsApp the people you are syncing with, and decide on a very simple action to do at that particular cue number. It could be as simple as deciding a body part + Laban effort, for example. You may do so by exchanging a short video from your phone, describing it, or any other way that is useful to you. It should not be too complicated, or take too long :)

Here is again the list of syncing points, in a more readable format:

1. Hanne, Mariama & Max
2. 
   
3. Ben & Dalma
4. Kathi, Magdalena & Maria
5. Ben & Max
6. 
   
7. Dalma & Mariama
8. Ben & Kathi
9. Maria & Max
10.  
11. Hanne & Magdalena
12. Dalma & Maria
13.  
14. Kathi & Max
15.  
16. Magdalena & Mariama
17.  
18. 
    
19. Ben & Mariama
20. Dalma & Kathi
21. All together!

Happy d[ist]ancing and see you tomorrow!