Re: STREB (also pretty long)

Nick Rothwell (nick@cassiel.com)
Fri, 26 Dec 1997 21:26:03 +0000

>I think, it is however somewhat of a slippery slope for all of us working
>with technology and calling it art.

Agreed. I guess the issue here is to not get confused between the medium
and the message. I'm probably going to make myself unpopular here, but I am
generally suspicious of endeavours which integrate technology with live
performance. Part of my suspicion arises from the way the funding and
publicity machines work here in the UK: one seems to get funding, profile
and soundbites for doing interesting things with technology - the issue of
whether one has something to actually say with it or not seems almost
secondary. I have seen so many press announcements and reporters' preview
articles which wax lyrical about how such-and-such a company is using
such-and-such a medium integrated with so-and-so, as if content follows
form (as long as the form is fashionable in the right sort of way).

>And the danger looms larger the larger your budget. in europe where "state"
>dance companies are incrediby well funded, the result is easy to see.

Let me add a footnote here - I presume you're referring to Continental
Europe. In the UK, dance companies and projects are incredibly poorly
funded, apart from a small number of established (and non-threatening)
comfortable household names.

Another thought here: arts funding bodies in the UK are staggeringly
unimaginative. Any success by a company leads to a situation where the
funding bodies carve out and project them in a direction where they are
persuaded to do more of the same, but bigger, rather than switch direction
or take a creative oblique turn. Arts funding bodies claim to want artistic
vision from their wards; in reality, they want artistic dependability and
conformity.

>When you see the junk flying around europe though, i mean the decent
>choreographers swept away, lost, to their new toys, hype and tech, then you
>know only too well whats at stake.

There's little budget in the UK for toys and tech. But there's plenty of
hype, since that's cheap. (Right now the British dance paperatzi are on the
lookout for the Next Michael Clark...) But hype on its own is damaging
enough.

Nick Rothwell, CASSIEL contemporary dance projects
http://www.cassiel.com music synthesis and control

years, passing by, VCO, VCF, and again, and again