As with video, take it out of the hands of the technicians and put it in
the hands of the
creators.
Dennis
----------
> From: Scott deLahunta <sdela@ahk.nl>
> To: dance-tech@lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
> Subject: Re: Webbed Feats Tomorrow
> Date: Wednesday, September 17, 1997 2:20 AM
>
> Just to say 'good luck' to all of you working on the Webbed Feats project
-- > Stephan "hang in there" -- and hope it goes well. I will try to catch > whatever is happening live over the web tomorrow evening from here. > > By the way, I was 'absent' (the fault of heavy workloads) from the very > interesting round of discussion regarding 'serious work' and 'criticism' > etc. -- but was impressed by the generation of provocative and stimulating > material from Richard's post... which had been 'inspired' by Sarah's > performance. Incidently, if readers are interested in 'american criticism' > there is a relatively new book by Diana Theodores you might want to look at > entitled *FIRST WE TAKE MANHATTAN: Four American Women and the New York > School of Dance Criticism*... the four concerned are Marcia Siegel, Deborah > Jowitt, Arlene Croce and Nancy Goldner ... and whether or not you feel that > they are 'good' or 'bad' critics -- there is little doubt that due in part > to the quantity and visibility of their output, these four women have had a > tangible influence, via the practice of writing, in defining how people see > (and thusly on how people make) dance within the American borders. > > But, I would like to move past this topic of the impact of writing about > dance on dance (but as you see below, I'm coming back to it)... or the > impact of dancing on writing (which you will find some in Susan Foster's > intro to 'choreographing history'). However, I will swing off here to the > left to say that I had an interesting conversation with our list maintainer > Scott Sutherland last night. It was a very pleasant 'voice' conversation as > he is in London setting up a computer server/network so I took the > opportunity to call from Amsterdam. We discussed a few different things... > starting with the 'multimedia and dance' program they ran at Ohio State this > summer. For those of you in the dance field who may have thought you would > like to produce, like a video, a CD-ROM of your work for promotional or > artistic purposes -- you have or would probably come up against the > 'learning curve' which would include, besides setting up the necessary > hardware, becoming intimately familiar with the necessary authoring > multimedia software. You might choose to work together with someone who is > familiar with the technology -- and indeed we had a brief exchange a while > back on this topic of collaboration/ relationships (see the 'Re: some other > events/ questions' thread). > > However, what if someone or a group (like those at OSU) were to create a > 'template' which would offer a more easily learnable and workable 'palette' > or framework which would relate particularly to the needs of the dancer/ > choreographer who wishes to create this multimedia product. This is an > interesting thing now, because it is, in some way, similar to the direction > all software has taken... towards 'user friendly', etc. Those of us who have > been around (that would be quite a few of us on the list) long enough to see > DOS disappear into the Windows environments recall complaining vehemently > about the loss of independence and opportunity for more creativity and > individuality... about being forced towards a homogeneous culture of some sort. > > Would a 'template' for dancers which would allow them to begin working more > quickly towards the production of a multimedia CD-ROM -- which would allow > them to possibly work more quickly 'on their own' without the need for a > collaborator more familiar with the technology to help them implement their > artistic vision -- what would be the results of such a project? Short term > and long term? I think this is a fascinating issue -- and touches on the > ways in which writing (in this case PROGRAMMING) will define how we see > dance... and thus how we make dances. In fact, programmers, I would argue, > are having a major effect on the way our culture perceives itself... for > underneath every representation which you can attribute to a set of digital > algorhythms lies a decision (whether conscious or not) of a human > operator... or probably considers his or herself a geek. Back to the notion > of "gesamtgeekswerk" !! > > I began to write this post with the idea in mind to review this topic of > 'criticism/serious work' by looking back through the posts sent by Richard, > nik, Stephan, Imma, Dawn, Dennis, Johannes, David, Sarah, Mark and Andrea. I > may have missed someone -- but I'm close to including all of those who > contributed directly to this discussion... which makes it one of the longest > running threads in recent list history. > > I'll end there -- 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 )