LPL/MP revisited or (re)activating the consequence of exquisite corpse
Nordic Summer University Circle 7
ReActivate and ReVisit Winter Symposium: March 2nd - 4th 2018
Zirgu Pasts, Latvian Academy of Culture/Latviljas Kultῡras Akadēmija, Riga
This iteration of LPL:MP presented the entirety of the process and products thus far of the project as a 20 minute presentation for the NSU Circle 7 conference in Riga, Latvia.
[Distribute chapbooks of EQ and Seven Words texts. Projection of Web Site] Paul: More than a year ago we initiated Laptop Performance Laboratory: Modular Play (LPL:MP). Our goal has been to build modules of creative source material that can be re-structured into multiple iterations in perpetuity. The hope was to create a highly adaptable work that democratizes the creative process, allowing each of the collaborators to manipulate the modules to create their own permutations in whatever format that is necessary to move the work forward.
Though we have no great fascination with technology, and probably in spite of it, we initiated the international internet-facilitated collaborative project Global Corporeality: Collaborative Choreography in Digital Space, while in residence in Riga with students from LKA and from Idaho State University in 2014.
We continued the exploration after we went back home to the States by establishing Laptop Performance Laboratory (LPL) with collaborators in England, Finland, Latvia and the US. The project culminated in January 2015 with the live streamed/live telematic performance Bridges.
Moving to Florida prompted another opportunity to revisit the work. Collaborators were culled from those we had previously worked with from other projects including some whom we had not been in contact with in 15 years.
Though we have no great fascination with technology, and probably in spite of it, we initiated the international internet-facilitated collaborative project Global Corporeality: Collaborative Choreography in Digital Space, while in residence in Riga with students from LKA and from Idaho State University in 2014.
We continued the exploration after we went back home to the States by establishing Laptop Performance Laboratory (LPL) with collaborators in England, Finland, Latvia and the US. The project culminated in January 2015 with the live streamed/live telematic performance Bridges.
Moving to Florida prompted another opportunity to revisit the work. Collaborators were culled from those we had previously worked with from other projects including some whom we had not been in contact with in 15 years.
[Start Video]
Jo: Drawing upon our past experience with Global Corporeality and LPL, the intent of LPL:MP was to collaboratively create modules of connecting text, movement, sound and/or image which, through aleatoric composition or game play (like the throw of the die), could be endlessly (re)assembled by each of the collaborators and/or teams of collaborators at any site in any format (pre-recorded, live, site specific, telematic, live-streamed and so on) as deemed appropriate. [Yes, an exercise in agency and the death of the auteur.]
Scheduling meetings was (and continues to be) a challenge. 5:00 PM in Florida is 11:00 PM in Latvia, 2:00 PM in Canada and 8:00 in the morning the following day in Australia. And Daylight
Jo: Drawing upon our past experience with Global Corporeality and LPL, the intent of LPL:MP was to collaboratively create modules of connecting text, movement, sound and/or image which, through aleatoric composition or game play (like the throw of the die), could be endlessly (re)assembled by each of the collaborators and/or teams of collaborators at any site in any format (pre-recorded, live, site specific, telematic, live-streamed and so on) as deemed appropriate. [Yes, an exercise in agency and the death of the auteur.]
Scheduling meetings was (and continues to be) a challenge. 5:00 PM in Florida is 11:00 PM in Latvia, 2:00 PM in Canada and 8:00 in the morning the following day in Australia. And Daylight
Savings Time kicks in on different dates in different countries. In Australia their days get longer as ours get shorter, leading to a two hour variation in local times which adds to the difficulty.
Our first two Google Hangout sessions in January 2017 were deep discussions about the state of the world in light of Brexit and the election of Donald Trump. We distilled our concerns to seven significant words: Mapping, Community, Isolation, Yearning, Connection, Decentered, and Posthuman.
Our first two Google Hangout sessions in January 2017 were deep discussions about the state of the world in light of Brexit and the election of Donald Trump. We distilled our concerns to seven significant words: Mapping, Community, Isolation, Yearning, Connection, Decentered, and Posthuman.
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VIDEO - EQ Writing
Paul: During our bi-weekly internet sessions we free-associated words from each of the original Seven Words. From these lists, each of the eight collaborators selected four meaningful words associated with each of the Seven Words. Lists of meaningful words from our free-association sessions were created. We took advantage of the simultaneous editing feature In Google Docs to collaboratively write poetry based upon the four sets of 56 meaningful words. Borrowing from the Surrealist ‘Exquisite Corpse’ game (that we labeled EQ), the words from the list had to be kept in the same order and incorporated within the text. However, as long as we stayed within the ‘spirit’ of the progression of the text, we were free to write and edit anywhere within the text, oftentimes changing the meaning and intent of a phrase while another collaborator was in the process of writing that phrase. This required mutual |
respect and willingness to give up ‘ownership’; the process was exhilarating.
Jo: Once each text was complete, each collaborator selected seven words from each EQ. These words were then used as prompts for each collaborator to create movement and sound scores. In addition to the four EQ texts we utilized another variation of Exquisite Corpse to write seven texts based solely upon each of the seven original significant words. Through this process we created eleven texts inspired by the initial seven words which in turn inspired 64 phrases of choreography and the recording of 28 sound scores all of which could be subdivided further into seven separate modules.
With the creative modules complete we turned our attention to structure. We had generated so much material the possibilities were overwhelming. Using text as the starting point we explored several different strategies for structuring flexible methodologies that featured labels like “Big Ass Aleatoric Showdown”, “Biggish Idea”,“Smallish Idea” and “Liar’s Dice”.
[Watch Geoff’s Liar's Dice explanation]
Jo: Once each text was complete, each collaborator selected seven words from each EQ. These words were then used as prompts for each collaborator to create movement and sound scores. In addition to the four EQ texts we utilized another variation of Exquisite Corpse to write seven texts based solely upon each of the seven original significant words. Through this process we created eleven texts inspired by the initial seven words which in turn inspired 64 phrases of choreography and the recording of 28 sound scores all of which could be subdivided further into seven separate modules.
With the creative modules complete we turned our attention to structure. We had generated so much material the possibilities were overwhelming. Using text as the starting point we explored several different strategies for structuring flexible methodologies that featured labels like “Big Ass Aleatoric Showdown”, “Biggish Idea”,“Smallish Idea” and “Liar’s Dice”.
[Watch Geoff’s Liar's Dice explanation]
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[Slide show from Clusterflock]
Paul: We were invited to a Fringe Festival that was near enough that five of us would be able to participate. Our title “Clusterflock Ritual” came from our EQ4 text that the performance’s text, movement and sound would draw upon. The 30 minute work was in 10 sections. The roll of virtual dice determined what would be performed: text only, movement only or text and movement; how many and which performers within each section; and which of the collaborators’ sound scores would be the predominate accompaniment. During rehearsal and performance we found that the process of revisiting and embodying the text, movement and sound that we had created nine-months previously, provided a much deeper understanding and appreciation for the layers of meaning within the material. |
Jo: Through a generous grant from the University we were able to bring all the collaborators together in real time and space for two and a half weeks during which we worked on several iterations of the project that were performed for the public. These iterations included an Installation, three different live performances, an interactive, computer-based event, videos, sound scores and Chapbooks. Each of the iterations could function on a stand-alone basis though we presented them as one unified event titled Virtually Real: the isolated connection community.
[INSTALLATION VIDEO]
The installation created Seven interconnecting “rooms” with a taped grid on the floor, and hanging paper and plastic sheeting with words and text taken from our creative process. Through Chance Operations the rooms were assigned one of the Seven Significant Words. An L-shaped “fence” with thick plastic pockets, each filled with words cut from the paper and objects that related somehow to the Seven Words, demarcated a “wall” near the entrance to the Black Box Theatre.
Four video projectors were positioned to have their images fracture through the plastic and onto the paper. Throughout the installation they projected edited videos culled from our Hangout Live sessions, images created by collaborators inspired by the Seven Words and a randomized projection of free-associated words contributed by the audience as they attended the performance/installation.
[Video of Staged Reading]
Paul: Iteration 1: Seven Words staged reading. The Staged Reading was in seven sections. The order, content and structure of each section was determined aleatorically. A roll of virtual dice determined which of the Seven Words Texts would be utilized; the order, number and identity of stanzas; and whether electronically- manipulated recorded versions of us reading the stanzas would be incorporated. Stanzas were performed by the original writers within the ‘room’ corresponding to the Seven Words that inspired the original text.
[Read one stanza randomly selected from four different Seven Words texts]
[INSTALLATION VIDEO]
The installation created Seven interconnecting “rooms” with a taped grid on the floor, and hanging paper and plastic sheeting with words and text taken from our creative process. Through Chance Operations the rooms were assigned one of the Seven Significant Words. An L-shaped “fence” with thick plastic pockets, each filled with words cut from the paper and objects that related somehow to the Seven Words, demarcated a “wall” near the entrance to the Black Box Theatre.
Four video projectors were positioned to have their images fracture through the plastic and onto the paper. Throughout the installation they projected edited videos culled from our Hangout Live sessions, images created by collaborators inspired by the Seven Words and a randomized projection of free-associated words contributed by the audience as they attended the performance/installation.
[Video of Staged Reading]
Paul: Iteration 1: Seven Words staged reading. The Staged Reading was in seven sections. The order, content and structure of each section was determined aleatorically. A roll of virtual dice determined which of the Seven Words Texts would be utilized; the order, number and identity of stanzas; and whether electronically- manipulated recorded versions of us reading the stanzas would be incorporated. Stanzas were performed by the original writers within the ‘room’ corresponding to the Seven Words that inspired the original text.
[Read one stanza randomly selected from four different Seven Words texts]
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[EQ 2 video]
Jo: Iteration 2: EQ 2 movement & sound One of our overarching strategies of art-making is to present a problem and then solve the problem we have posed. We were interested in the ‘what if’ of the simultaneity of all source material excepting text of one of the EQs happening at once. By a roll of virtual dice it was determined that EQ2+ phrases would be performed simultaneously by all collaborators. The die also determined which ‘room’ each collaborator would perform. Our composer utilized the EQ sound scores as source material for improvised musical accompaniment. [ EQ 3 video] Paul: Iteration 3: EQ3 EQ 3 text and movement was performed sequentially in seven |
sections. By roll of virtual dice it was determined: how many and which rooms would be utilized; whether text only, movement only, or text and movement would be performed in each room; how many and which collaborators performed each section. Our composer improvised cello accompaniment while traveling to various ‘rooms’ in the installation.
[Projection of Web Site]
Jo: The methodology of LPL:MP is highly generative of creative modules of text, movement, sound, and image that interlock and echo the original thematic concerns. From this material we successfully created several iterations in various media: spoken word; video; sound; installation; intermedia; and movement that can stand on their own or be combined with other iterations.
The project is currently on hiatus as we all take a well-deserved break. We plan to re-activate our bi-weekly internet meetings soon and discuss what we want to explore next.
[Projection of Web Site]
Jo: The methodology of LPL:MP is highly generative of creative modules of text, movement, sound, and image that interlock and echo the original thematic concerns. From this material we successfully created several iterations in various media: spoken word; video; sound; installation; intermedia; and movement that can stand on their own or be combined with other iterations.
The project is currently on hiatus as we all take a well-deserved break. We plan to re-activate our bi-weekly internet meetings soon and discuss what we want to explore next.
