Re: summer 98

Scott deLahunta (sdela@ahk.nl)
Mon, 02 Jun 1997 10:36:57 +0200

Hi Richard --

On the Summer 98 at Oberlin (I guess this year's conference is contact
improv's 25th anniversary?)... it also looks like there may be an Erasmus
summer university conference here in Amsterdam and they are talking
'dance/tech' -- in addition, Chris Butler at Chichester who organised the
summer 96 event Johannes gave a workshop at has been talking to me about
doing it again in summer 98 (which might be linked with the Erasmus one). I
don't see this as a conflict with yours at all -- on different sides of the
Atlantic so should be little problem in terms of people participating. Might
possibly run into conflict if particular contributors are asked to do both
-- but if we look ahead this could be avoided. BUT... maybe you/ we could
work towards this 'multi-site/ networked' idea which you mention.

You have asked for some thoughts on what the workshop might be. There are
many options of course and most of them could all benefit from more
intensive workshops/projects. My personal interest these days is in seeing
more work in the telematic area (this would be good for the multi-site) and
the interactive performer environment. You know I just spent some time
trying to set up a telematic thing here in AMsterdam which did not come
through, but the discussion had evolved into talk of a very low tech setup
using two adjacent rooms. In the interactive performer environment -- I
would think a couple of things maybe ranging between the sort of work Mark
and Troika Ranch do (for an audience) to the immersive installation
environments such as Brenda Laurel's Placeholder. Trouble with Placeholder
is that it took a HUGE amount of computing power, might be out of range. Or
-- you could also include workshops using choreographing software and motion
capture... I wonder if at that time motion capture and lifeforms will have
found an efficient way to link the technologies. But, this again is quite
heavy in terms of computing power.

I guess my questions might be who will help you organise this? Will you do
it yourself, will you have enough support? You know how much work these
things can be. It would be fantastic if there could be good solid
documentation which comes out of it -- and if any interesting work comes out
of it, maybe it could be shown in Rotterdam in Sept. 98 when Dick Hollander
has talked about organising something again.

Cost -- well, I don't know what people are able to pay in the states these
days. I know Ric and I have stopped expecting to collect much in fees from
artists... so our projects have to balance out without the expectation of a
profit from fees. Means finding enough subsidy / sponsorship.

Have a save trip across the Atlantic -- talk to you soon.

Scott
----------------------------------|
Scott deLahunta and Susan Rethorst
Writing Research Associates, NL
Sarphatipark 26-3, 1072 PB Amsterdam, NL
tel: +31 (0)20 662 1736
fax: +31 (0)20 470 1558
email: sdela@ahk.nl
http://huizen.dds.nl/~sdela/wra (WRITING RESEARCH ASSOCIATES)
http://www.art.net/~dtz (DANCE AND TECHNOLOGY ZONE )