Katrina McPherson, an artist who combines her talents as a dancer with her passion of film-making has brought her work towards an exploration of the art of dance and the interaction between dance and the moving image. Her focus in the interaction between the two has lead her to many different ways of presenting and exploring.
"Our perception of time is altered by the significance of a particular moment", she begins, "there are some deeply significant moments of your life... there are moments that slip by and go unnoticed." That simple concept led her to the collaboration with dancers.
Her example of how she came up with the idea allowed me to think deeper into how i should go about coming up with my own idea. Every piece starts with the idea first, and the medium second. The opposite of which I have worked- which has seemed to leave me with less and less creativity.
When we think about it, its always supposed to be what am I doing, now how can I do it better with the tools that I have, and how can I make these tools work for me in this project. I agree with Steve on this lecture as well where Katrina talks about the medium and the idea and how we have been having our creativity and imagination programmed out of our minds making us incapable of creative thought.
I felt that talking about what makes inspiration work for other people really makes you think about what works for you. Also that this search for creative thought and understanding of process is an important one to learn and develop. Since I was little I've been drawing and painting and doing art in general, but I've never just done one thing, I've always done many things from drawing to sculpting, to building forts, to pretending, its about finding the different things in your life that inspire you.
(THE LECTURE DID NOT HAVE AUDIO, AT LEAST FOR ME, SO I DID SOME RESEARCH AND GOING TO RESPOND TO THAT AS WELL AS SOME THINGS STEPHEN AND BRIAN SAID)
Hybrid art has always been interesting to me. Personally, I like to take sociology and combine it with new media to create "active change" or at least raise awareness on issues. When people can use incoporate more than one thing in their life to do (as a living) then there really is no other greater thing. Personally, I am not a huge fan of dance, i'd rather a more out there , connected, sort of medium, but ya know each person has their own likes, and if they can use them in a way that makes people think, why not!?
Katrina is part of a group called Goat Media who has innovated the "dance booth" which is a booth that they take all over where people can create short dance videos for the web, then go over to www.move-me.com and see them. Right now they are in the process of doing the 2008 move me, but this is one of those projects that really works to bring traditional forms of art and combine them with the internet. The internet (whether we like it or not) in America is the new culture, the new meme, the new way and if we want traditional forms of art such as dance , then there needs to be some adaptations. Of course, people will still go to recitals and such, but in 10 years who can say what the future of these traditional forms are. Already, we are in a "time based painting" class - not to say this will enact an extinction of traditional art, but there needs to be an awareness that the internet is where the culture is at right now, and it seems that Katrina and her group are thinking about that.
Before researching about Katrina , I had never really thought of "video dance" before, but it really is in interesting nexus of mediums because dance is a very old medium, whereas film is still relatively new in history. Combining old and new always seems like it will give interesting results (dinosaurs and MaxMSP?)
To respond to what Stephen said about coming up with an idea then a medium, that obviously makes sense, but in college it is hard to do this because many times (like in this class, or a php class, etc.) the medium is built into the curriculum. Not to say this is a bad thing, we should explore different mediums (and I know i would've never explored PHP had it not been for that class), but i notice in classes (minus 206/306/capstone) that you do base your ideas around the possibilities of the medium (and even if you take it a step further, your idea becomes limited), but when I work on my own projects (just for fun)- I envision an idea then I use what seems fitting. Just lately, I have started a blog about gender issues, and I think blogging is a great medium (haha blog is a medium, that sounds kind of funny, but it is true), is great because it is a multi-dimensional medium. I have already added videos, images, text, I could make my own videos and put them there, I can change layouts - so really it place where you can combine many mediums, which seems like a few steps away from video-dance, but the same kind of theory of combining mediums to get exactly what you want your message to be. Very interesting, and it is interesting to go back in my head and think about how in classes projects have been dictated by mediums whereas my indie projects have just been a multi-layered medium (often web with mixed media).
Dancing has been a passion for me since I was younger. I may not be exceptional, or even good, but I find dancing as an art-form to be incredibly, well, beautiful. Dancing can do things for my mind that most others fail. I did a video in NMD 304 on a ballet practice session, and have fallen in love with it.
A video installation of a dancing responding to the viewers using censors would be a marvelous thing, and I'm sure it has already been done, I just do not have any referencing material to tell me so. Perhaps if it almost looked like a hologram, where from every angle you turn, it appears that the dancer is facing you. Or even perhaps a dancer that follows you around a mapped out plane of space. Hrmmm, perhaps I'll blow some money I do not have on this idea.
Brian- I couldn't agree more on inspiration, I have such a hard time finding my muse this semester that it's a pain in the ass. Perhaps we could bottle inspiration, and sell it; for a dollar.
I loved this lecture, mostly because of my interest in film, but of course I also have always had a love of theater and performance art, and so hearing Katrina talk about her efforts to collaborate film with her dance was great. One thing Stephen mentioned also was meaningful to me, when she spoke of the significance of certain moments; the way she explained it was brilliant, and we do an exercise in theater which emphasizes that point. While doing a monologue, we will stand still (or sit) until we come to a place which we have deemed some sort of crucial juncture, and then we will make a movement. It doesn't have to be large, but what you find is that it can make or break the whole monologue. You never speak WHILE you are moving, you always say it afterwards, because this draws attention to your words. It can change everything you have said.
Dance is different from theater in the respect that there is (usually) no talking or singing, but the movement of the dancer can be just as vital and important as movement for the actor. I think that a dance films is something that could be very artfully done, but if not executed well it could also detract from the beauty of the dance itself. In response to what she mentioned about how our creativity has been programmed out of us, I'd have to agree with Brian and Will, and say that yes, the education system has become more of a hindrance to students' creativity than a source of inspiration. We should all be more free to use whichever mediums we see fit, even if that medium happens to be a blog! And we should never be afraid, as I know so many students are, of doing something "wrong". You can do an assignment incorrectly, but there is no "wrong" in art.
Before I talk about the lecture, I have to agree with Will completely. I have also been looking for my muse this semester. My creativity has been down the drain and I'm scrambling to find it again.
I liked what Katrina did with the mixing of the mediums. I have been wanting to do something like that for a while. As a musician I usually want to play my creations, and incorporate music into my school work, but music I write, because I can't read music at all.
It does give me some ideas about future projects involving hybrid mediums that could possibly incorporate my love for music and performance. Just ideas so far, nothing concrete.
Katrina touches on collaboration and improvision. Early in the lecture, Katrina talks about why she enjoys about collaboration. One of the main reasons Katrina keeps coming back to collaboration is because the changing people she meets and the many ideas encountered from these people. She talked about the different "phases" of the film shown, editing, cameraman , etc are all additions to collaborative state of the work. The second piece Katrina showed concerned a photo booth in which participants would enter the booth and be recorded dancing. This recording would then be uploaded to a corresponding website for the world to see. Katrina points out that all those dancers, or contestants, up to 10,000 of them are all considered collaborators to the project even though they've never met. This gained my attention because it was something I never considered, but people can still collaborate on a project without ever being met. This project in particular, I liked because even long after Katrina was done shooting the film for the project, there are still people dancing and using the photo booth which translates into them collaborating on the project.
Katrina also talked about how there are many moments that we mentally do not acknowledge because "nothing" is really happening at that instant, well nothing at least we think is worth mentally acknowledging. To try and film these moments through dance is a bold move, one that could be frowned on, but I respect Katrina for it because it is an idea that is very experimental but she pursued it no matter what. This makes me brainstorm about my own creativity and the possible directions I should/could go. I seem to feel the same way as Steve: because of Katrina's ideas and pursuing the un-ordinary I look to my own creativity to see how I can do the same.
7 comments:
Katrina McPherson, an artist who combines her talents as a dancer with her passion of film-making has brought her work towards an exploration of the art of dance and the interaction between dance and the moving image. Her focus in the interaction between the two has lead her to many different ways of presenting and exploring.
"Our perception of time is altered by the significance of a particular moment", she begins, "there are some deeply significant moments of your life... there are moments that slip by and go unnoticed." That simple concept led her to the collaboration with dancers.
Her example of how she came up with the idea allowed me to think deeper into how i should go about coming up with my own idea. Every piece starts with the idea first, and the medium second.
The opposite of which I have worked- which has seemed to leave me with less and less creativity.
When we think about it, its always supposed to be what am I doing, now how can I do it better with the tools that I have, and how can I make these tools work for me in this project. I agree with Steve on this lecture as well where Katrina talks about the medium and the idea and how we have been having our creativity and imagination programmed out of our minds making us incapable of creative thought.
I felt that talking about what makes inspiration work for other people really makes you think about what works for you. Also that this search for creative thought and understanding of process is an important one to learn and develop. Since I was little I've been drawing and painting and doing art in general, but I've never just done one thing, I've always done many things from drawing to sculpting, to building forts, to pretending, its about finding the different things in your life that inspire you.
(THE LECTURE DID NOT HAVE AUDIO, AT LEAST FOR ME, SO I DID SOME RESEARCH AND GOING TO RESPOND TO THAT AS WELL AS SOME THINGS STEPHEN AND BRIAN SAID)
Hybrid art has always been interesting to me. Personally, I like to take sociology and combine it with new media to create "active change" or at least raise awareness on issues. When people can use incoporate more than one thing in their life to do (as a living) then there really is no other greater thing. Personally, I am not a huge fan of dance, i'd rather a more out there , connected, sort of medium, but ya know each person has their own likes, and if they can use them in a way that makes people think, why not!?
Katrina is part of a group called Goat Media who has innovated the "dance booth" which is a booth that they take all over where people can create short dance videos for the web, then go over to www.move-me.com and see them. Right now they are in the process of doing the 2008 move me, but this is one of those projects that really works to bring traditional forms of art and combine them with the internet. The internet (whether we like it or not) in America is the new culture, the new meme, the new way and if we want traditional forms of art such as dance , then there needs to be some adaptations. Of course, people will still go to recitals and such, but in 10 years who can say what the future of these traditional forms are. Already, we are in a "time based painting" class - not to say this will enact an extinction of traditional art, but there needs to be an awareness that the internet is where the culture is at right now, and it seems that Katrina and her group are thinking about that.
Before researching about Katrina , I had never really thought of "video dance" before, but it really is in interesting nexus of mediums because dance is a very old medium, whereas film is still relatively new in history. Combining old and new always seems like it will give interesting results (dinosaurs and MaxMSP?)
To respond to what Stephen said about coming up with an idea then a medium, that obviously makes sense, but in college it is hard to do this because many times (like in this class, or a php class, etc.) the medium is built into the curriculum. Not to say this is a bad thing, we should explore different mediums (and I know i would've never explored PHP had it not been for that class), but i notice in classes (minus 206/306/capstone) that you do base your ideas around the possibilities of the medium (and even if you take it a step further, your idea becomes limited), but when I work on my own projects (just for fun)- I envision an idea then I use what seems fitting. Just lately, I have started a blog about gender issues, and I think blogging is a great medium (haha blog is a medium, that sounds kind of funny, but it is true), is great because it is a multi-dimensional medium. I have already added videos, images, text, I could make my own videos and put them there, I can change layouts - so really it place where you can combine many mediums, which seems like a few steps away from video-dance, but the same kind of theory of combining mediums to get exactly what you want your message to be. Very interesting, and it is interesting to go back in my head and think about how in classes projects have been dictated by mediums whereas my indie projects have just been a multi-layered medium (often web with mixed media).
Dancing has been a passion for me since I was younger. I may not be exceptional, or even good, but I find dancing as an art-form to be incredibly, well, beautiful. Dancing can do things for my mind that most others fail. I did a video in NMD 304 on a ballet practice session, and have fallen in love with it.
A video installation of a dancing responding to the viewers using censors would be a marvelous thing, and I'm sure it has already been done, I just do not have any referencing material to tell me so. Perhaps if it almost looked like a hologram, where from every angle you turn, it appears that the dancer is facing you. Or even perhaps a dancer that follows you around a mapped out plane of space. Hrmmm, perhaps I'll blow some money I do not have on this idea.
Brian- I couldn't agree more on inspiration, I have such a hard time finding my muse this semester that it's a pain in the ass. Perhaps we could bottle inspiration, and sell it; for a dollar.
I loved this lecture, mostly because of my interest in film, but of course I also have always had a love of theater and performance art, and so hearing Katrina talk about her efforts to collaborate film with her dance was great. One thing Stephen mentioned also was meaningful to me, when she spoke of the significance of certain moments; the way she explained it was brilliant, and we do an exercise in theater which emphasizes that point. While doing a monologue, we will stand still (or sit) until we come to a place which we have deemed some sort of crucial juncture, and then we will make a movement. It doesn't have to be large, but what you find is that it can make or break the whole monologue. You never speak WHILE you are moving, you always say it afterwards, because this draws attention to your words. It can change everything you have said.
Dance is different from theater in the respect that there is (usually) no talking or singing, but the movement of the dancer can be just as vital and important as movement for the actor. I think that a dance films is something that could be very artfully done, but if not executed well it could also detract from the beauty of the dance itself. In response to what she mentioned about how our creativity has been programmed out of us, I'd have to agree with Brian and Will, and say that yes, the education system has become more of a hindrance to students' creativity than a source of inspiration. We should all be more free to use whichever mediums we see fit, even if that medium happens to be a blog! And we should never be afraid, as I know so many students are, of doing something "wrong". You can do an assignment incorrectly, but there is no "wrong" in art.
Before I talk about the lecture, I have to agree with Will completely. I have also been looking for my muse this semester. My creativity has been down the drain and I'm scrambling to find it again.
I liked what Katrina did with the mixing of the mediums. I have been wanting to do something like that for a while. As a musician I usually want to play my creations, and incorporate music into my school work, but music I write, because I can't read music at all.
It does give me some ideas about future projects involving hybrid mediums that could possibly incorporate my love for music and performance. Just ideas so far, nothing concrete.
Katrina touches on collaboration and improvision. Early in the lecture, Katrina talks about why she enjoys about collaboration. One of the main reasons Katrina keeps coming back to collaboration is because the changing people she meets and the many ideas encountered from these people. She talked about the different "phases" of the film shown, editing, cameraman , etc are all additions to collaborative state of the work. The second piece Katrina showed concerned a photo booth in which participants would enter the booth and be recorded dancing. This recording would then be uploaded to a corresponding website for the world to see. Katrina points out that all those dancers, or contestants, up to 10,000 of them are all considered collaborators to the project even though they've never met. This gained my attention because it was something I never considered, but people can still collaborate on a project without ever being met. This project in particular, I liked because even long after Katrina was done shooting the film for the project, there are still people dancing and using the photo booth which translates into them collaborating on the project.
Katrina also talked about how there are many moments that we mentally do not acknowledge because "nothing" is really happening at that instant, well nothing at least we think is worth mentally acknowledging. To try and film these moments through dance is a bold move, one that could be frowned on, but I respect Katrina for it because it is an idea that is very experimental but she pursued it no matter what. This makes me brainstorm about my own creativity and the possible directions I should/could go. I seem to feel the same way as Steve: because of Katrina's ideas and pursuing the un-ordinary I look to my own creativity to see how I can do the same.
Post a Comment