Higher ED workshop on Governors Island, Sept 23, 2012:
Weather sensing with kites, bodies, and cameras
these images were taken by a gopro camera that was set to take a photo every 5 seconds. We carried the camera around, set on the grass, danced, talked and ate around it,and attempted to fly it in the air. Here are some moments caught by its eye.
These photos and notes record the development of a movement score co-created by Lailye Weidman and Emily Drury during the iLAND retreat at Mt Tremper Arts. We first performed the score in a clearing by the Esopus Creek on a breezy September morning, where some aspects of the movement and timing where determined by the direction and speed of the wind. We later adapted it to an indoor studio, where the built environment and audience factored heavily into choreographic changes. It was also performed on a porch in a thunderstorm, where we were half exposed and half sheltered.
Some press on a young balloon aerial image gatherer: http://mashable.com/2012/09/09/teen-space-camera/
I’ve been at Mt. Tremper Arts Center for 3 days. It feels like I have been here for a lifetime and I am full with the exchange of information, experience, dance, art, writing, practices, and conversation, wow.
Today I took a walk with Jan Mun and Emily Drury down to the Esopus river that runs through the valley between our mountain and the one that we look out on. We walked slowly and pointed out things we noticed along the way, inspired by a walking, writing, improvising practice I had learned from Simone Forti. We had all done a sensory exploration in the studio for an hour before we went walking, moving with our eyes closed to taste and smell more, switching our focus to touch and skin, listening to sounds through ears and bones, and then opening our eyes and playing with a few different ways of seeing.
On the walk downhill, we looked at tongue shaped leaves and spider webs adorned with raindrops. We lay down on cool damp rocks and imitated the movement of a tree that turned in two spinal twists up its tall trunk. We dug in the gravel, felt the closing in of branches above us, and discussed the shrubby habitat that gets made when clearing a space for power lines. At first, the walk was a bit hesitant and stilted. I had set a limitation on our conversation that guided us to share observations in the present more than calling up past experiences. But as we got going, the details around us stood out and we were struck by the orange bittersweet roots dug and yellow barberry roots that we dug and scraped. At one point we stood still watching a butterfly fly a circular path overhead, and I felt that the score had worked its magic, inviting us to dwell in wonder for extended moments.
At the river’s edge, Emily and I wrote a list of actions, elements and qualities from Anna Halprin’s techniques for making dances in nature—and then we performed them with and for one another.
Emily’s score (performed by Lailye and Emily):
Caw Imperceptibly
Soften, bubble, preen
Listen, disappear, harden
Taste opaque
Shape shift to make contrast imperceptible
Lailye’s score (performed by Jan and Emily):
Whistle together
Lean incompletely
Dig deep wings
Signs of rain
A group of people accept an invitation to venture out on a summer night, stand still on the street, watch the sky, and collect sensory information about the weather.
(Source: vimeo.com)
A passing storm from the roof of the Pfizer building. There, we experimented with different languages to document each others’ improvisational dance performances.
Things clouds do:
Score: Gyrate slower than your senses can perceive.
taken from a description of cloud movement in Eric Sloane’s Weather Book
iLAB Interdisciplinary Collaborative Residency 2012: Jess Einhorn, Liz Barry, and Lailye Weidman
