Wednesday 2 September 2009
Sunday 16 August 2009
Monday 10 August 2009
Tuesday 23 June 2009
...
UnDroid
When thoughts are formed and can be expressed by speech, this is the time to put the kettle on.
A tale presented by an interdisciplinary collective under the direction of Daphne Giannoulatou
with:
Vasiliki Andreou
The Frontier Psychiatrists
Pridon
A HYPER ANALYTICAL SCRIPT OF THE EMOTIONS AND SEQUENCE OF UN DROID{ a tale of a droid}
Hint: The music/sound/whatever describes what happens in UnDroid’s head.
Hint 2: IT now has a name. It is called UnDroid.
Hint 3: The following text is based on the separation of the scenes of the draft script.
Hint 4: The times given are only a suggestion. Petros can change them according to what he has in his mind and to what he might think that is best for his tracks.
1. 0min-5min Doors Open. People are coming into the semi lit space. The VJ’s and UnDroid are in their positions. UnDroid is motionless. On the projection wall we can see the first video that is still. Everything is still. There is this feeling of time passing by really painfully and uncomfortably slow. The audience walks on the ground/dirt of the set and their footsteps almost disappear once they have entered the space. They sit and still everything is motionless. The image on the video is an old tree with a hole separating it in two, in a forest. Silence. UnDroid observes and is silent. Problematized silent. Thoughtful maybe but it is calm and silent.
2. 5min-10min The audience is now sat and the door is closed. The video starts changing. From the hole of the tree small dull lights appear. UnDroid starts being curious. Not in a bad way. It is a really honest and normal curiosity because something changes on what it sees. The curiosity increases a bit, not much when from the tree hole appears something, a creature, sleazy and slimy, no proper shape yet. But then it evolves and the human shape of it can be recognized. This is a birth, a natural birth. THIS shocks it a bit, in a peculiar way. There is admiration, curiosity and some jealousy maybe. It cannot understand exactly what this is, how it happens and why because this has never happened to UnDroid. UnDroid was never born; it was only created and switched on. Just like this and from the moment that happened it hasn’t changed. Clothes where given to it and that was it. The creature on the video now is up, lifts its hand and peals off the first skin, the dirty and sleazy one and underneath there is fresh and clean flesh and skin. It already changes and evolves. UnDroid feels weird. It realizes that what it sees is normal for the people that surround it. They are all humans and they share the same experiences of birth and decay. These thoughts for the first time do not make UnDroid feel superior. It feels sad and it feels like it wants to experience this. It wants to be a part of all, to communicate, to be like everyone else. Not in a bad way. Very sincerely, innocently and with a snort of jealousy. Like a child living in a childish nightmare of its. Yet it is still motionless. Only the breathing has changed. Becomes more intense. Every new movement on the video strikes it a bit more, it makes it WANT a bit more. The agony of been different, of passing next to someone and being ignored, of being considered as an object and nothing more increases. What is the difference? It knows everything for them, for the humans. Why can’t it be equal and communicate? If only it could gather all the needed data maybe… Then it could communicate and come a bit closer to them. If only it could speak using his own selection of words and not the ones they have imported into its disks. Hope. There is this hope of “if only I could”.
2+3½ 10min-15min UnDroid’s feelings start to be more alive, active. It starts processing the data it has. The pre-recorded text can be heard but not clearly. It sounds complicated, confused, mixed and UnDroid tries to defrag them, put them in an order, put the words in the right order, put the symbols in the right order, reorganize so that it will be understandable from the people that sit around. But it is not. But this does not make UnDroid feel bad. It knows that it has to try harder, this is how it goes. It will find the order of the symbols and the sounds. It is just another code expresses in a different way. If UnDroid achieves that maybe it will stop feel alone. This gives hope and excitement so that it can try harder. The video has changed. The video has changed. The VJ’s maybe can help UnDroid because whatever they do they do it using machines. The VJ’s play and they don’t seem to bother. UnDroid tries to read, to speak, to pronounce reading from the video but it becomes too fast. It has to slow down, they have to make it slow down but they pay no attention. UnDroid can and will make it slow down because it can, after all this is what it was made to do. Manipulating data and signals. They battle.
[The stages of UnDroid’s WANT:
I WANT (I dream that I want to) –
I WANT to communicate (truly believe that I can) –
I am trying to… (not very passionate) – I CAN’T? why??
I WANT (DETERMINED)
I can’t (despair but not bad feelings)
Ok.. I WANT (but for a reason I think that you are not letting me to because they ignore me but..)
I WANT AND I CAN MAKE IT
They don’t let me
THEY DON’T LET ME???(anger)
FUCK YOU BOTH I CAN DO IT/// LET US BATTLE AND WE’LL SEE WHO YOU £$@$£$%&^(^*&)($@£%@%$£@$£$%£ THINK YOU ARE AND IN A MOMENT I WILL BE ABLE TO SHOUT TO YOU !@@!$£%$^&$*&^%*% AND LOTS MORE BECAUSE @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ {this last part is the battle, lasts from 20min to 25min}]
3½+4 25min-33min This is out of control. UnDroid has become really madly intense and fast. The VJ’s shut down the computer and the projection and everything. UnDroid stops. Shocked. Still angry? Maybe but not really. This is not what it wants. It wants to be alone. Feels like it made a mess of it all. Feels powerless. It is still alone? If it is alone everyone should be. Has one last weapon. It shuts every single light in the room. Dark. (These happen almost instantly). Now that darkness it starts to relax, to think, to organise it’s thoughts. It realizes that in the previous mad situation it has managed to pronounce words. UnDroid IS able to speak. And it does. Then silence. Loneliness. Why? Now that this happened things shouldn’t be that way. It should be a part of everyone else. Instead nothing. Maybe fighting was not the way after all. Not even a light. No hope. Silence. Complete silence for the first time. And this silence lasts for long.
5. 33min-40 Sound of kettle and boiling water. Tea smell. Familiar homey smells. This is the time of calmness and comfort, when the thoughts can be followed easily by speech. This is when communication can be achieved maybe. The recording of the last part of the poem can be heard. Clearly but not loud. UnDroid pronounces the words and lights go on. Slowly. General lights in the colour of morning light. Smells are everywhere in the space. Tea and cake? Maybe. UnDroid can be unplugged now. It can leave walk on the ground. It is calm and happy, a bit shy. The video with the tree and the creature appears again. The creature is standing there calm. UnDroid looks at it calmly. Harmony has come. No jealousy, no bad feelings. Free among the others. This could be it’s home and everyone’s home. And… everyone looks at UnDroid. It does exist.
-Shall we put the kettle on? {Smile}
The end//Doors Open
If any spelling mistakes sorry, the computer cannot correct everything for me… we work collaboratively hehe
Wednesday 10 June 2009
Weekly meeting
image by Lefteris Pr.
Today we had our weekly meeting. The main topic again was the videos. The visual team decided to start working with the program "e motion" that is going to allow us to have interaction between the performer, the video and the V.J.'s. Of course we are still testing everything and the outcome of it in a low budget production is still not secure enough...!
The final arrangements for the filming of the first video were also made. Up to the 23 of June, depending on the weather (it is an outdoors filming) and the license from the park we have to have it filmed so that the editing procedure will start. The performer for this one (unfortunately) is going to be me since the requirements are a bit strange and not many people are comfortable in doing that (I will have to be covered with liquid vaseline in a hole of a tree in a public park...). The feeling of the photography for it will be something not extremely clean and flat and not magical and mysterious. A film that indicates what we would like to achieve is Big Fish by Tim Burton. Because lighting during the filming is going to be difficult due to the luck of power around the specific tree, we will mainly work it during the editing using After Effects. The preferable cameras we decided to use is either a Sony Z1 or Sony PD150 DVCam, models that we might find easily and still are better than a simple mini DV. The picture I have uploaded can be another sample of the feeling and the texture of the image NOT the concept.
Budget for the set
Lights : ± £100
Polyurethane : ± £40
Mirrors : ± £150
Sand: ± £80
Desk: ± £100
Other materials: ± £100
Total: ± £570
Friday 5 June 2009
A proposition for the logo
This is only a first draft of the logo for Live Space festival. It still looks very childish and commercial, it is not strong enough, i have to decide more on the font, place it better in the space and add color in-short I have to remake it totally :). Anyway, about the color I am thinking of adding is to have the lines of the background blue like a maths page. I am waiting for your comments and any kind of suggestions.
meeting and first rehersal
On Tuesday we had our first online conference as a group. It was a nice meeting were all of us got to talk on the first ideas of the play. Everybody had received the draft script, the picture of the 3D model box, they had all read the poem All all and all. What we did basically, was that I explained better the idea of the play, we focused on a fictional preferred outcome and of course we passed through the dates and the deadlines for the groups. Up to our next meeting the V.J.'s will take come basic decisions about the technical equipment we are going to use so that I can book early whatever needed and so that the creative ideas will fit. Personally, I have already measured the T.V. studio and the ground plans are ready to be sent to each one of them, and I have already contacted the companies from witch I will buy my materials for the construction of the space once I will have the final measurements and the ground plan of the set.
Yesterday, I had the first rehearsal with the actress as well. I am happy because it went good.. Up to now I was mainly talking about the technical parts of the performance leaving aside the concept/the story. Working with Vasiliki made me focus more on these parts. We talked a lot about what is happening in the script and what/who is the character she is going to incarnate. I gave her some ideas and actually I explained to her that the script is on the one hand nothing more than a fictional story about an android/clone, fighting for its right to exist in the world of humans and on the other hand about the loneliness and separation humans feel in an over technological world. In the end we passed through the poem, found the meanings the feelings and the images we will work with.
Friday 29 May 2009
Script Draft
1.
Space semi-lit. Cold and isolated. The V.J. behind it’s desk. The sits are all lit by a small white light. Each sit is placed in a distance from the other, all over the space. Behind a mirror box on the mirror corridor there is IT, on the floor, crying. Opposite from the V.J. there is a projection: A tree and inside the hole of the tree a naked woman appears. Her skin looks shiny and covered with organic liquids. She rises and then she peals of her skin. IT observes and cries. This is something that IT can never have. IT is not natural. IT has it’s own intelligence but it is artificial. IT is lonely and needs to communicate.
2.
Sound changes.
Pre-recorded voice:
Fear not the waking world, my mortal
Fear not the flat synthetic blood,
Nor the hart in the ribbing metal.
Fear not the tread, the seeded milling,
The trigger and scythe, the bridal blade
Nor the flint in the lover’s mauling.
Man of my flesh, the jawbone riven,
Know the flesh’s lock and vice,
And the cage for the scythe-eyed raver.
Know, O my bone, the jointed lever,
Fear not the screws that turn the voice,
And the face to the driven lover.
These words cannot be heard clearly.
In the meantime the video changes. (Words/ numbers/codes the V.J’s and Aristeidis will find what the visuals will look like) Music starts to become more “alive”.
The V.J. is playing with words. IT wants to communicate. Looking at the video there is an effort to reproduce the signs on the ground next to it. After a bit it starts an effort to speak but it can’t. The V.J. is too fast and they pay’s no attention to IT. This makes IT nervous. Feels bad and hostile towards the human who controls the video but IT can do something.
3.
Looks at the V.J., words come out of its mouth. Irrelevant. Nothing makes sense and this is making IT mad and bad. It wants to control what rightfully belongs to IT. The sound is intense. Everything is intense. It starts controlling the video. (Letters and numbers and dimensions. Sometimes coming from it sometimes coming from the V.J. under construction still heheh)
THIS IS IT’S BATLLE.
Getting nowhere the V.J. shut’s IT down and IT becomes furious. IT shuts the audience’s lights down (the lights can go on and off probably by using a remote control). And there is only darkness in the room. It speaks:
All all and all
the dry words couple,
Ghost with her ghost,
contagious man
With the womb of his shapeless people.
All that shapes… from the caul… and suckle,
Stroke of mechanical flesh of mine,
Square in these words the mortal circle.
4.
Dark. Sound only (empty).
5.
Sound changes.
smell of fruit (or another organic smell that feels like “home”). A warm light comes up.
(IT or pre-recorded) says:
Flower….
The people’s fusion
O light in zenith, the coupled bud.
And the flame in the fleshes’ vision.
Out of the sea, the drive of oil
Socket and grave, the brassy blood.
Flower
Flower
All all
And all.
Light’s up.
Monday 4 May 2009
Friday 1 May 2009
About Igitour
Igitur is the play I saw during my Easter vacation in Greece. It was presented by the company KNOT and as the title indicates it was based on the experimental theatrical text (not exactly a play) written by S. Mallarmé. As the company itself notes: "Igitur describes a young man's journey towards death and this is not the ultimate end for him but only a new beginning".
This performance which was created by a group of directors, actors, singers and musicians,was an extraordinary kind of performance that used theatre, music, sound design and installation in order to be realized, so only from this it becomes very clear why it can help my research at this point.
Always looking everything from the designer's point of view I have to admit that from the moment I walked into the "theatrical" space a mix of relaxation and tension took over my body. I was in a white space and the floor was soft and every sound from footsteps was dying as you entered. Sound-wise you did not exist for a few moments, up to the point you would sit on the (wooden?) benches and you would realize that you exist again because the people sitting opposite were intensely looking at you. And you could look in frond of you, the really simple set and the actor, and the people in frond of you. For long. And the the body/the actor/Igitur started moving, but you still felt like you had time to notice whatever you wanted in the space. As if you were in en exhibition, a gallery, you could observe taking your own time. The body/Igitur passed from different states and positions with an astonishing continuity of the movement even if the position were the most uncomfortable for the human body. My only observation about this part was that the actor's muscles were not very well trained and you could see sometimes that he was in great tension while he seemed to be "normal". But this was obvious only in few moments.
This sense of space and motion/not motion was accompanied by sounds created that very moment and by recordings probably with the text from Igitur but I paid no exact attention to it. It was flowing and I was only happy when at some points I would catch one word or phrase and realize that the speech, the movement, the sound and the space co-existed harmonically creating that feeling of rich emptiness, leaving the time and the space for the human brain to work on the sounds and the visuals.
After the performance ended I asked if it is going to be presented somewhere else. The company said they think about it. I will have to see and study this in another space. Site specificity can change it or not? In my opinion it will. Anyway, Igitur as a "performance" created "something to remember".
Wednesday 29 April 2009
coming soon: About p#001 or about a disaster
THE IMAGE I ENJOYED THE MOST FROM THAT TEST/PERFORMANCE
About Phase Lapse
After Phase Lapse, I felt like I needed to take my time for a while before I could comment on our work. So now, as it is time for me to put my thoughts about my work and my expectations of my work in order I will face my own critique about the play.As it is already known, Phase Lapse was a 20 min performance that happened on demand of the MA program and gave us another opportunity to work in groups. What I enjoyed the most as I was working on that was working with my group. Even though we barely new each other, our ideas seemed to have found their way of co-existing and evolving. From the beginning we separated the responsibilities and each one was working separately on her subject and once a week we would meet to discus, present our work and ideas, see if our point of view was approved or disapproved by the others being ready to change, revaluate our thoughts, merge our ideas or even negotiate on a matter and all these having in mind that we wanted to create something that would be harmonic and would make everyone happy as a final result. This was not always easy but in general I believe that being mature, enthusiastic about each other's work and of course supportive in the same time helped as a lot and this could be seen from the outcome.
The final performance in general touched a big percentage of our expectations. Of course, for me it was something that in order to be officially presented somewhere outside of an academic environment, it needed to be more worked. If we had more time, we would be able to perfect it, minimalize it much more. My personal critique about the sound and the movement is that while I wanted it to be more simple, I could not practically do it. The sound was helping Martina's movement. The sound was not minimal at all at many points because there was not enough time for me to rehearse and go through the procedure of cutting the descriptive parts both from the sound and the movement. This is something I have in my mind and I would be very interested in working after this course ends.
Another moment of the play that I feel that was a bit violated and not totally "finished" was the ending. From the sound's point of view it became too cliché, the hooking of the dress was very time consuming for Martina and it made a gap in the continuity where there should not be. But this again was a matter of time in my opinion and I am really happy that even we could see it and we had the knowledge that something was not working very well. Why we did nothing to prevent it might be the question, but I will repeat myself once again and I will answer time and I am not saying that as an excuse.
Anyway, in general I think it was a nice performance, a balanced one and what made me happier about it was the response of the audience (even though there were not many because of the period the play was on). Most of the people I spoke with felt the atmosphere of a ritual (and this is something one could observe while the performance was taking place by the body language of the people), had their ideas about the mixture of cultures, had serious understanding of the symbolisms we used and the greatest they managed to surprise us by not leaving the place from the door they came in (and they were supposed to go out from) but by crossing the ideal corridor (stage) and passing by the still performer observing her for a bit as if she were some kind of a statue and then leave the place. For me that moment was magnificent because I felt like we did something. We had their interest, we had touched their minds for a bit and this is enough.
Sunday 26 April 2009
Friday 10 April 2009
About Dream Play
The Dream Play was the last group performance of the VLP's and happened yesterday, Wednesday the 8th of April at WCA. In general it was a very well set play, a piece of "conventional" theatre. The aspect I found really nice was the set and the use group 3 made of the space. They managed to transform it into what they had in mind and in the same time make it look like a really beautiful theatrical space with chairs for the audience. The line between the audience and the actors was really clear and from that and only I think they managed to set the communicational code. As I heard from people from the audience about that, it made them feel the comfort and the security of been in a normal and "proper" theatrical space, ready to observe something without the fear of interaction.
The projections on the wall were very nice as well and I think that the context of the animation was very helpful to the understanding of the play but the animation itself (from a technical point of view) was not very clear because of the lights and that was a bit frustrating because I found myself wanting to observe it better.
The costumes of the characters worked good within the play but, because of the meetings we had in the beginning and because of what I was listening then about Agnes's costume, I really was not able to see that divine aspect I listened about. I found it very grounded and (ok, maybe because I am already familiar with the play and I already had an image of Agnes in my head) I found it was making her a creature from the earth, that has suffered the same as humanity and also that she was coming from the past. Of course I don't know the final decisions of the group about that matter but I only mention that because of the impression I had from their first presentations.
Ending, thinking of it as a hole, it was a visually simple and well constructed play.
Monday 6 April 2009
p#001 project proposal
Aim:
An exploration of the relationship between human nature and technology. This trial will allow me to experiment with:
-how I will be able to transform the actor's body so that it will look like an android.
-how can the actor's figure disappear in the space using simple optical illusion tricks.
-how I can communicate the idea of artificial Vs natural (when I say natural I mean whatever is not human made and affected by time -decomposes-.
-how the projections look like when the floor connected to the projection wall is made from reflective material (unification of space).
Methods:
I am going to use one actress(Martina) and transform her into an android, using only the basic characteristics of it.
In the space I will create a corridor (linearity/passing of time) made of reflective material. At the starting point of the performer's movement I will create a "shelter" made of the same material to create the optical illusion. At the ending point there will be the projection. The colors of the live performer will be cold/metallic while the colors of the projection will be warm and it will present organic shapes contradicting with the live performance through a digital medium.
Space:
For this project I want to use a neutral rectangular space. Challenging my aesthetics and my feeling of security this time I don;t want to use a black box space but to experiment with white surfaces. Due to these I think the Lecture Theatre of Wimbledon College of Art is an extremely challenging space as it is mainly white but it also has some really interesting metallic characteristics on the walls. Additionally, the shape is perfect so that I will have the opportunity to keep the lines of my set straight, severe and linear as I wish. Also, the lecture theatre is already equipped with a sound system and lights which are sufficient for the performance.
When:
27th of April 2009
time: tbc (in the evening as late as I can due to the natural light coming into the space).
Materials:
-1 projector/ extension cable (one already exists in the space so I need to find out if I can use this one or not)
-1 special light or one spotlight (cold color) above the corridor
-1 special light for the wall that I am making at this moment
-sound system (already exists in the space)
-big general lights (already exist in the space)
-ladder for setting up
-possibly technical support for hanging up the lights and placing the projector
-reflective surface
-silver paint
-2 flats
-actress
-maybe two extra people to help me run the performance
Monday 30 March 2009
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