One Month In…

So, I have missed out on a ‘One Month In’ post by one day, but it only just occurred to me to write one.  I won’t recap. If you’re interested, you can read for yourself.

But these are the things that are on my mind:

I have slowly been working through the essay I am writing on my own Butoh practice.  I just dug out the book I brought with me about Sun Mu (Zen Dance) practice (this reveiw of the author’s work sounds amazing).  I actually stole the book from the communal bookshelf in Oldfield Castle when I lived here two years ago and lugged it back to Oz.  I cracked it open a couple of times last year when we were first talking about how we would approach Sketches Of Blood.  It includes some interesting concepts that I want to incorporate into the way I feel about dance.  I am also very interested in picking up a few more Salpuri classes, because it is such a beautiful form…

…getting pretty serious…

On Monday we met once again at the Total Museum of Contemporary Art.  This is the venue for our open showcase, COMP (Crossing Of Movements Project) that will premiere next Saturday.  We have had a while now to get oriented with the space, to explore Seoul, so start generating material, and to create improvised performance together.

The final showcase however will be a more meticulously curated, constructed and choreographed event.

After a series of discussions, we settled on a general plan for the use of the space, and divided the workload amongst us.  The space is on three levels, with the third, and most underground level being used as the ‘stage’ for the crowing glory – a one-hour piece of interdisciplinary performance.

Been Busy…

So, this week we have been busy refining the ideas and implementation of our showcase next Saturday.

It has gone relatively smoothly.

Have visited some more places, made more observations.

I have a long subway ride ahead of me today, so I will take that time to reflect.

But for now, Vegemite on toast is in order I think.

Transcript. Day 11.

COMP Meeting Friday, May 15, 2009 – 2.00 pm

Present:     Soonho, Kyeonghi, Fonkam, Hakima, Jeremy, Rasun, Oliver,
CJ, Akino Sauri

Absent:     Xenia

Agenda:     Discussing our ideas for the performance.

Location:    Maxwell House
Rehearsal room,
Finally basement of dormitory building.  2.45 pm

Because it will rain tomorrow, we have decided that we will go to the Korean National Museum, rather than the Korean Folk Village at Gyeonggi-do.  We will meet at 12 at the principal entrance of the museum.

Next Tuesday, CJ wants to go to traditional market (Yoran ShiJang) that is open every 5 days.  They work it out by opening on every date that ends in a 4 or 9.  Meet at Exit 3 at Yangjae Station.  Then we will go to a factory.

Monday we will go back to Total Museum at 11 am.

We will debrief about yesterday’s performance, and then discuss how to get to the next stage.

But first, more waiting. This time for SoonHo to get off the phone.

We will each talk about our ideas for the final performance, apparently further debrief is not necessary.

HAKIMA:    It will be better if we do not split off into our art groups to make work, so we make some small works that are cross disciplinary.  Also, if we swap our disciplines, it may be interesting.  One of the problems yesterday was that we were stuck in our own ways and our own art.  We can make work groups that meet during the day and bring our ideas together at night.

SOONHO:     But what do you want to make? For the final performance.  What are your ideas. (Apparently not interested in working methods).

HAKIMA:     Ok

KYOONHI:    1st Floor.  In the corner of the main room. I am thinking about putting something here.  There is a sketch I have made of a huge sack with feet, looks like a human.  It’s a stretch material bag, with just cast feet on the bottom.  Stuff it.  Just sitting like exhausted people, they lie and sit.

Can we make them like costumes?

SH:    Are they separated, so we can place them anywhere

KH:    Yes.

SH:    Do you have already?

KH:    Yes.

SH:    Is wondering what it means, what is the intention and the meaning.  So the dancer can use.

KH:    For me I have been living here for me whole life.  When I walk around I can’t see the new things, I already know everything. People look tired every time I see them. I just want to express my thoughts about that. Tired, sitting like lifeless sack.  That’s what I was thinking about.  It would be good with some nice sound, or something like the subway. It might be good.

They might be shapeless.

SAURI:        I think that the image in Seoul is very important.  I have already got some ideas, many ideas, but that is a sound image.  It is always a sound image, I cannot express, doesn’t know what the image is.  I cannot express in words what it is.  The relationship about Korea. He sees the Korean city and has an impression, but he cannot explain with words.  It is from a feeling.  It is an imagination.

SH:    I am sorry, we can discuss this later, I just want to have everyone’s ideas.

OLIVER:    In some rooms I want to use three walls to make immersive works.  I want to shoot different places, and place the dancers into the worlds.  Projection and live dancers together.  (Max MSP).  We can video dancers and insert them in the world.

SH:    What is the reason for choosing these places. You need to explain to us so we can find the connection between them.

OL:    Like Sauri, I think you need to feel the connection. Maybe we can all go there together, and you will be able to feel the impression of the place, and then dance for me.

SH:    Because you don’t need to explain the intentions, but maybe you can explain WHAT you feel so you can share it.

OL:    No. I don’t think I can.

SH:    Then why did you choose it.

OL:    Because some place I like, and some place I don’t like.

SH:    But Why.

OL:    It is foreign, and there is no small shops, I cannot buy cigarette.

SH:    Good.

Oliver showed some more work.

JERMY:    It reminded me of the rule, if you don’t buy it now, you never will.  Because the continuous panorama is relentless, you are disoriented, and always there is a new place to see, that if you don’t take a picture or take stock of where you are, then you will never go there again.  That is my feeling.

HAKIMA:    I’m confused about how the performance will work.  If we perform for an hour, or not.

SH:    Once we collect the work we will curate it as an exhibition, that includes the performance.

AKINO:    I want to dance with Oliver’s video. I can dance on the screen, and I can use the image to dance live as well.

SAURI:        I want to make the sound with the Korean city noise and talking in an immersive sound field, with noise everywhere.  Only use Korean sound and noise. For example Korean instruments.  There is existing instruments in Japan, but it is different.  Like the city noise, and all noises, they are different, there is different qualities.  I want to make just like I am in a room, it is no special music, only daily music, daily sounds, but it is music.

KY:    Maybe we can make an installation about it?

SH:    Normally video installation is fixed, and boring. But if it is possible to move the projection to different places, it will be interesting.

OLIVER:    We would need many projectors.

SH:    Oh.

We will try to sauce some more.

Big discussion about technical requirements of the piece.  A bit boring.

SMOKING BREAK

HAKIMA:    I don’t have a clear idea, not ambience, too, but many point. I made one video and maybe I like it, but maybe not, but I work with many different images, now I finish one, and now I work with different images, but for me I cannot choose which one to use.  One if finished, and I will make another three or four.  I would like to use Akino as a voice with Hakima’s voice, we can make something together, and Sauri can make sound, not just for my piece, I will use sound that he has used already for the work.  This is why I want to know about the timeline of the piece, if there will be too many things happening at once.

My idea is to have one place with accidents between ideas, with a collision between forms.  For me the city is like that, there is many accidents with sounds an images and bodies and architecture.

Making a space with not much information, but it’s not a clear idea.

CJ:    y idea is to make a mutil-layered fence, which we can cut windows out of, project on and have the dancers dancing around it.  It will be gradually destroyed.

Lighting and projection and shadow. Etc.

KH: We are going to put scaffolding from and there will be lighting in the middle, then create the fence around the statue or something, and it will be round and straight. We will cut out the fabric and they will drop one by one, and finally the post will appear.

SOME TIME LATER

SH:    As a dancer, what I think about the installation is the similar image to a city, it is quite dry, and the relationship between people is unclear. When we will use it, we will not be seen clearly – this is similar to a city. So I think that this kind of feeling is not clear, is illusion, is emptiness, dancers can develop this.

J:    Let’s be careful not to fall into the trap of being in one idea or feeling for the whole performance.

SH:     This is just one idea

J:     ok, I know, I understand.

OL:    We want to hear Fonkam’s Ideas now.

FONKAM: I am thinking I want the idea like the last performance, like a line, to see how from the entrance we can have something like a many coloured line on the floor maybe in tape, so that from the entrance we have one line on the floor that branches out in many different directions all the way down to the third floor.  So it is like the lines of the subway.  I have a drawing here of the dancer outside, wearing many different colours, giving the idea that they audience needs to go down.

So that there is a physical connection between each performance, installation, work.  I am thinking about how each dancer can move.  I would like to have interaction between the dancers and the audience. Sometimes we can dance in the audience, sometimes make them dance.  Like our last performance.

I was thinking that I liked how we performance, I like to think about how we can make the audience move between the spaces.

J:    You don’t need to be overstated. You can very simply make an audience move.  You don’t need to be obvious.

SH:    I like the lines on the floor.  It is like giving a destination to the audience.  We can use the first and second for this, and have them disappear on the third, so it maybe is some writing or something, so it has the feeling of being lost and confused.

We have good ideas about the rest of the exhibition now. Let’s focus on the 3rd floor.  We are going to do dance and installation here, here and here. There may be some empty places.

The Excitement Of Collaboration

Tomorrow I will tell you what we did today. But as for this evening…

Let’s just say that tonight’s artist laboratory bordered on the hideous.

We are preparing for a guerrilla performance tomorrow at Kookmin University, a kind-of demonstration for the dance and art faculties.  We were given the stimulus for the mostly-improvised performance on Monday.  The concept… Subway.

We were broken up into our respective art-form groups, and given two days to prepare material for tonight’s rehearsal.  Last night, Soonho, Fonkam, Akino and myself rehearsed in the studio.  As I was sick on Monday, I was underprepared (nobody told me we had a theme, or that my homework was to prepare a movement idea for the rehearsal).

Nevertheless, the other dancers shared their ideas; we improvised, discussed and rehearsed.  We came up with three simple concepts

1: The idea of the pedestrian versus the interesting.  This manifested itself as an opening image of pedestrians crossing the space, gradually building until the collide, like small atoms shooting across space, bouncing off each other and continuing on their new, altered course.

2: Second was a line of dancers, standing in normal, neutral, everyday positions, and slowly coming alive and pressing through the negative space in front of them.  Gradually, this expanded into an expressionist transformation of the simple gesture of drawing a line, or in some cases, pegging a line of string in the air.  This in turn transformed to the negotiation of a highly engaged body navigating this imaginary web of lines, almost like a commuter navigating a Subway Map.

This had a second incarnation as an open improvisation on the drawing / pegging theme.

3.  The last idea was of a woman, dreaming on the subway. Standing still, or slowly walking in a dream state.  She is encountered by a dream (and the form of one of the male dancers) that tries in vain to distract her, finally picking her up and moving her to another physical location.  This was a nice play on the idea that the train, and the dream become one, both are vehicles for the physical body and the consciousness.

We brought this to the rehearsal.

The visual artists brought three skeins of sheer white fabric, and the musicians brought a rather good soundscape / ambient piece using found sounds and live voice.

The problem came when we tried to collaborate.  There was no real established working methodology, common language (linguistic or practical), or chain of command.   We fist tried to do an open impro based on the idea of using the material as moving set pieces, and the dancers dancing with it, the music layered over the top.  This then launched us into almost one and a half hours of utterly useless, circular conversation in languages.

It may seem strange, but the fact that the conversation circled around between both bilingual participants, and appointed translators was the least of our problems.  There was a real lack of parameters, decisiveness and an abundance of ideas and ego to go along with them.

Don’t get me wrong, we have quickly formed a pretty close group in just over a week (less for some).  But everyone has clear ideas about the project, about both the nature of the collaboration, and the physical manifestation of it, and these are not necessarily mutually compatible.

I won’t dwell on the specifics.

The Korean tendency to stay silent and back away from confrontation (to the point of totally ignoring certain people) was not necessarily helpful.  Also, the abundance of professional artists who are very used to either creating their own work, or being in charge on an ensemble, or not collaborating in such an intense cross-cultural context was not helpful.

I personally chose to disengage and support, rather than pushing my own agenda.  I don’t think that this was the best choice.  For some reason, everyone seems to look to me for decisive action.  I think this is because I started off as the only native English speaker in the project.  This initially gave everyone some kind of responsibility to make sure I understood what was going on.  Kind-of an English Verification Device.  I have found that it is usually up to me to ‘translate’ English conversations to the entire group.  Apparently nobody ever has any problem understanding my English, or my intentions.

The reason I bring this up is to say that often I find myself at the receiving end of confused stares, calls for clarification, and inevitably decision.  Tonight I chose not to engage.  Both out of respect for the directors of the project, and because there were already too many cooks.  Far too many cooks.

Also, I hate being a winker.  I know how to collaborate.  I have learned, through many different means, and over several years how to collaborate efficiently and effectively.  I even have experience doing this in multi-cultural, multi-disciplinary settings.  But I did not see it as my job to set up a safe, effective working environment, to set rules, to make things happen.

I am not saying that my inaction entirely contributed to the mostly hideous time everyone seemed to have.  But we did come down to 30 minutes left of rehearsal, with mostly nothing achieved, and others scrabbling to take charge.  Suddenly, the exquisite pressure that is such a catalyst for decisiveness and creativity manifested itself all at once.  There was a flurry of commands by many different people, in many different languages.  Some wanted to start form the very beginning with the fundamental concept of the piece.  Others wanted a purely mechanical solution.  Still others decided that they would just wait and hijack the performance as it happened.

Finally, Fonkam decided to simply explain the ideas that we dancers had come up with. There was silence.  I then asked the visual artists to do the same.  And then, the musicians.  I suggested that we start with these simple, strong ideas, which already exhibited synchronicity, and put them together in a performative context.

Somehow this single moment of clarity and silence prompted Soonho and CJ, the project directors to have a discussion, which resulted in a cohesive concept for the performance.  There was still a deferment to the group, which almost resulted in more discussion, but I very rudely declared that any strong idea was a good one, that I liked their concept, and that at this stage, we will have to be happy to run with it.

And so we will.

And now, my head hurts.

COMP Artist Lab #2

Tonight we shared our homework with the group.  We were asked to prepare as short piece of movement, inspired by our research so far.

Fonkam:          Beggers, lovers, workers in Cheonggyecheon

Si Jae:              Enjoying the natural beauty of Seoul

Jeremy:            Drunk man on subway

Kyoon Hee:     The story of her day told through fingers

Soon Ho:         The tension of a busy day, feeling stuck

We then improvised together, using these movements to transform our own experience.  There was a lovely, generous attitude, even with this first impro.  We were a bit closed into our own worlds, but with only three members with any performance experience, it was not bad.

We decided then to make a physical connection between us as performers and move into a bit of contact impro. The non-dancers very quickly backed out of the exercise, leaving us three: Beautiful Chocolate Man, Lithe Korean Choreographer and Generic Butoh Cracker.  It was self-indulgent, but good.  Good to realize that no matter where you come from, contact impro is a universal language.

Then, we had a bit of a rest, a ciggie for some, and jammed as a group, with Kyoon Hee contributing as a live drawing artist, and Si Jae as an installation artist.

It was exiting stuff. Not much of it will make it to the final performance, but it is good to get an idea of the ensemble, and the potential of the artists involved.

We debriefed by launching into a discussion about the intersection of truth and art.

We all have different ways of expressing the same idea, the same truth.  Ra Sun pointed out that when she sees dance, she feels a connection to truth and ‘pure’ expression that she doesn’t feel with the written word.  She said that she believes that the written word is too easy to hide behind, too easy to lie with.

This is not really true.  Movement can exist without truthful connection.  Sometimes it is the inconsistency between the movement, and its inherent truth that makes the performance watchable.  But sometimes it is just the sign of an insincere dancer.  The same can be said of any art.

The authentic use of a connection to truth and conviction is necessary for the success of any piece of art.

Performance Art at Kookmin Dae

Today I accompanied Si Jae to assist in her Performance Art Class at Kookmin University (Kookmin Daehakyo).

I have never visited the mountainous northern suburbs of Seoul.  The university is situated in Songbuk-Gu, a very affluent neighborhood that is reached by driving past the House with the Blue Roof Tiles, through Sam Cheong Dong (one of my favorite parts of Seoul), through a very beautiful, clean, residential suburb and then, over a mountain.

The University is Huge.  Si Jae is a lecturer in the Fine Arts Academy, and this particular class is for Junior Undergraduates and is an introduction to Installation Art.

Their task today was to endure a short physical warm-up outside the Buddhist temple in the mountain behind the university, and then split off into groups and create a site-specific installation in the surounding forest.

I was able to participate in creating two of the peices, and was asked to provide some feedback to the students.  I am not sure how valuble I was as a critic, but I had a lot of fun.  I’ll attache some images to this post when I get home.

Also, cracked out the Holga, so I hope some attractive photos will ensue.

We then met with the COMP Project Director (I am unsure how many people are actually in charge of this project).  She is a senior staff member at Kookmin Dae and her name is Ahn Shin Hee.  I am rapidly growing a contact base, I will probs need a rolodex soon!

I am back in Sam Cheong Dong now.  I can see what Hakima meant about the huge game of chess the the policemen seem to play. They really do look like Playmobile figurines.  Imagine a 360 Degree Panorama of Sam Cheong Dong with animated figurines playing chess…

COMP – Day One

I fell out of bed. For me, the morning literally came in with a crash. I didn’t think it was very funny, but apparently it is.

Last night we had the first meeting for the Crossing Of Movement Project, which is being held as part of the Modern Dance Festival (MoDaFe) in Seoul.

It is hard not to be a little overwhelmed by the project. It is an international artist residency program involving 9 artists from many different disciplines who will create a performance for the Festival Showcase at the end of May.

The rationale is simple enough. We will create a performance experience based on the idea of living in Seoul.

Seoul is a very large city. The larger Metropolitan Area holds a population of 25 million people. In the Metropolitan City lives 10 million. As a boy from Brisbane, via the Sunshine Coast, it is a very big deal to live in Seoul.

The project coordinators, Pyeon Si Jae (director) and Park Soon Ho (Choreographer) have divided Seoul in 14 must-see locations. Over the next 10 days we will, in our own time, visit all of these paces and record how we feel about them, how they affect us and their potential as spring boards for performance. We can explore them by ourselves, or in groups. Every evening we will meet in Daehangno (the theatre district in downtown Seoul) and discuss our findings and workshop our idea. The last two weeks will involve creating and rehearsing the work in preparation for the showcase.

From the initial meeting I very much got the impression that nothing is settled. It is not that the project is unorganized, but nobody has any idea what it will be like. The artists involved are dancers, multi-media artists, choreographers, opera singers, hip-hop producers, and me. They come from places like Cameroon, Algeria, Japan, Australia, and Germany. There is a great sense of potential.

We have yet to meet the whole group. Some artists will continue to arrive until Friday, when we will have our first meeting as an ensemble. We will present our previous work to each other and discuss how we can contribute to the project.

I feel like a tiny, miniscule fish in a very, very talented pond.

But I am young, and have my own company – which apparently counts for something. It also came up in conversation that I once lost 30kg for a job, and gained the respect (may curiosity) of all involved. I promise, weight-loss was already the topic of conversation.

Today myself, Fonkam (from Cameroon, a choreographer) and Oliver (a film director from Germany who has lived in Seoul for 15 years as a university professor in Film and Animation) decided that rather than choosing somewhere on the list, we would go to Seoul Art Centre in Seocho-Gu to see the latest work by Soon Ho. He has just finished choreographing a ballet for children.

Nathan and I had already enjoyed the Western Goodness of Butterfingers Pancake Parlour. My first western meal in a week was waffles with bacon, eggs and sausage. Nathan had the same but with cinnamon French toast. I then met my collaborative partners at Nambu Bus Terminal, and we advanced to Ye Sul Oi Cheon Dang, the Seoul Arts Centre.

It was Children’s day today, which meant lots and lots of children on the street. It also meant many children’s performances at the Art Centre. The place was packed.

Hwindy wa Teddy (Wendy and Teddy)

The show was… interesting. It was the story of a little Polar Bear named Wendy who, presumably because of global warming, loses her mother in a tragic polar ice melt and consequently travels the globe, meeting animals of many different species, and eventually a Bear named Teddy who does magic tricks, and is the King of a Teddy Bear Kingdom.

The choreography was great. The cast (30-strong) was very good; the scenography was beautiful, lots of projection, flying sets and moving lights. The thing that let it down was the generic, poppy, synthesized music. That and the magic trick involving life pigeons and a baby parrot. The infamous disappearing birdcage trick was executed, and Oliver and I fear that so were the birds.

My highlight was clearly the Hip-Hop Elephant Dance Crew. Costumed in sliver jump suits with crepe elephant trunk sleeves and manga-style hair. Word!

We then traveled for our first Artist Laboratory meeting in Daehangno.

Artist Laboratory

We discussed many things, the most interesting of which I will mention now:

The Ever-Changing Face of Seoul

Seoul is always changing. One day you can have Shyabu-Shyabu in a certain restaurant, only to bring your mates to it a couple of days later and have is now serve Kamjatang (Potato Soup) and have undergone a complete renovation.

This has always been the case with Seoul, but I (and Nathan) have noticed that since living here almost 18 month ago, the city as a whole is undergoing a rejuvenation. It is becoming greener, cleaner and cuter. Everyone, including the various local city governments are renovating entire sections of the city, ripping up old roads, uncovering hidden streams, installing giant pillars that record your picture and send it to your email address. Whole suburbs, especially the celebrity hotspot of Samcheongdong have become infinitely more user-friendly with cute independent cafes, boutiques and even well dressed street vendors.

Some kind of citywide gentrification scheme. This has gone on in Seoul in waves for many, many decades. The entire south side of the river was mostly swampland when my pop came here in the early 80’s. Now, it is the most affluent, built-up part of Seoul. And incidentally, where I have always lived when here.

A lot of people support this push, which originated in the upper echelons of Korean government, but it also means that a lot of people, the poor, the homeless and the artists are increasingly feeling disenfranchised. The ‘slums’ that have only gradually shrinked over the last 100 years and for the last 20 or 30, existed side-by-side with towering developments are being bulldozed en masse out make way for shiny apartments and department stores. Only last month a forced eviction caused several long-term residents of one of the more ramshackle neighborhoods to jump out of their windows to their death. Or maybe they were pushed. It is hard to say.

The generally shabby, slightly grimy, but comfortable, lived-in feel of Seoul is giving way to an increasingly manic obsession with clean. At least in some areas.

Good for some. Bad for others. We will have to wait and see.

Hakima expressed it as:

‘Cleaning on the inside, only makes the outside dirty’.

We discussed this at length. It turns out that the statement is equally true when turned on its head. Think of what happens when you go on a sudden, yet effective detox. The dirt flows out of every orifice.

Cultural Identity

We also discussed the different ideas of cultural identity at a national level.

I talked about Australia’s multi-cultural aspects, and the tension between 200 years of white-oriented history and 40,000 years of Indigenous history, stories and traditions. I noted that it is overwhelming to come to a place like Korea where the dominant cultural group has had a virtually unbroken history for many thousands of years. They have the giant cultural artifacts to prove it. I also expressed the sadness that I felt when the great Namdaemun Gate was burned down last year.

Rasun, the translator told me that she wasn’t sad at all, because she didn’t really identify with it as a cultural symbol. Hakima also said that the weight of history does not exist, because we all contribute to it equally. Our history is the sum of the years we have lived, and so she didn’t see any difference between my cultural heritage as a white Australian, and that of the Koreans in the room. In her opinion, History is not tied to temporality.

Interesting discussion.

Rubber Pavements

These are new, and really change the experience of walking in Seoul. Good image for physical work.

Chess

Hakima visited the area around the presidential palace, and decided to play a game where every 100 metres or so she would stop for a cigarette, and watch what happened to the people around her. She said it was like a giant game of chess. The policemen especially behaved like little plastic toy soldiers. She loved being alone today because she was able to focus on her surroundings. She felt like an oddity being a solitary foreigner.

We decided to make out meeting tomorrow at 8, and each prepare a short piece of everyday movement so we can get a bit physical.

Today, I also talked a little with Oliver about his concept for the performance. He wants to try making 360 Degree Panoramas of several locations and render some of the objects in 3D so we can play with them live. He also wants to try and do some motion capture and animate some virtual dancers. Little Fish.

Tomorrow I will go with Si Jae to visit her performance students. They are doing an assessment where they set up a piece of performance art in the mountains, and she wants me to help critique them and give them ideas and suggestions. How fun.

Now, I will wait on the internet for Nathan to get home