Re: Webbed Feats Tomorrow

Dennis Diamond (dennis.videod@worldnet.att.net)
Thu, 18 Sep 1997 18:00:55 -0400

Scott....Template idea......
Choreographers, Video makers, filmmakers work in the world of a monarchy.
It is not a democracy...so a template that would allow these people to work
without
the constant aid of a technician would be a terrific start to expanding
this field.
It was not long ago that the following people were needed to "archive a
dance concert"
director, camera person, audio engineer, video engineer and a truck to move
the equipment.
Now, one person can be all those people with producing excellent video
quality.

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 )