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Conclusion of THE
PROJECT
The
project „Cyber Gypsy“ was conceived as an
innovative piece of contemporary dance theatre, fit for the virtual
spaces of the 21st
century. It was born out of a shared
interest in contemporary forms of experimental theatre and dance as
well as new media. We wanted to combine video projection, music, dance
and performance with a novel way of movement filming and incorporate it
in a performance event in cyber reality. To broadcast a live
performance event on the internet seemed new and interesting, but maybe
not entirely revolutionary. The only thing we needed was to familiarize
ourselves with the technology. ...So we thought!
It
was only well into the project work that we realized
we were dealing with technology that was still in its infant stage.
Real time live broadcasting over the internet like we wanted to do has
only been tested very sparsely. And high image and sound quality is at
this stage normally not the most important issues for the user
community.
THE
TECHNICAL ISSUES
We thus saw ourselves faced with cutting edge technology, something
that continuously took our focus away from the more artistic
considerations of the project. Certain limitations on our artistic
freedom were dictated by technology. Cables to broadcast from a
camcorder to the internet cannot be longer than 4.5 m, studios with a
stable and strong enough internet connection are hard to find for rent
and our most important problem was how to broadcast the music on the
net and hear it in the studio at the same time.
The
problem of finding an appropriate studio was solved
by building movable sets. In this way, we were able to build our studio
wherever we found a location with the necessary web facilities. These
we finally found at “Byggeriets Hus” at
Frederiksberg in
Copenhagen.
We
were lucky enough to have some dedicated advisors,
especially Peter Szauer who set up our software and provided us with
server space (in Austria!) for the event.
THE
PROJECTIONS
While Dud familiarized herself with webcasting technique, Charlotte
spend her days filming abstract urban landscapes, fast traffic and
leaf-less trees in Berlin and Copenhagen to produce the video for the
background projection: Starting with highly abstract, cold and
sharp-edged cityscapes and hectic traffic over softer structures ending
with filigree tree branches. All to fit the storyline of the dance from
a destabilized and floating mood to a playful engagement with the new
space.
As such the projection
were not meant to
tell a specific story in itself but together with the music it was
meant to create the atmosphere that you could be anywhere .. or nowhere.
We
deliberately kept specific cultural signifiers out of
the projections (we used footage from Berlin, Beirut and Copenhagen as
well as images of domestic accessories), costume and make-up. Music and
dance was a fusion of East and West, North and South, paralleling our
wish to transgress borders, whether cultural, ethnic, real or invented
and work against essentialist notions of “culture”.
We also deliberately
cut out most
colours to keep a very strict abstract and graphic picture - also this
had the secondary advantage that the filming would look good on most
pc-screens no matter the quality of pc and screens.
It
was our wish to present a piece of experimental dance
and performance without the common classifications in terms of
geographical and cultural location. The title was chosen to reflect
this wish. It was chosen to be poignant, provocative and catchy.
THE
CONCEPT of MOVEMENTS
The storyline, choreography or rather structure, since the movements
were going to be an improvisation (this goes for both dancer and
camera) and projections were developed together. We wanted to offer a
new way of experiencing dance. Not filmed from a static camera from a
traditional audience position, but as a dancer would experience it on
stage, in the middle of movement. We wanted to let the audience partake
as an active partner, led through the broadcasting camera. We wanted to
take the audience on a borderless trip through the virtual spaces of
cyber reality. First to shake their sense of balance and then to offer
them a playground. To invite everybody to explore the limitless grounds
of cyber space as a new place for communication and interaction.
That
our concept was understood and appreciated is a
great satisfaction. Marcel Bieger from the web-magazine
“Hagalla” wrote an excellent review ( read
here
) that put all our intentions to the point.
WORKING
ONLINE
Much of the creative process of developing concept and ideas was done
on-line, since Dud lives in Copenhagen and Charlotte lives in Berlin
(and spent last summer and early autumn in Damascus and Beirut). But
since the performance was to be broadcast on the web, the project was
largely presented on the web (we discovered Facebook as a highly useful
tool for this as well – a project fan page was set up in
November, one month before the web performance), carrying out project
meetings on-line seemed to fit very well with the entire idea.
THE
PERFORMANCE
The performance finally took place on December 16th
as
planned. This alone was a huge success. We never doubted it would take
place but thinking of the difficulties we occasionally ran into, this
optimism struck us as surprising afterwards…no disasters
happened (no break downs of the server, no electricity short cuts, no
cables were disconnected accidentally and nobody stumbled over any
cables), everything went according to plans, the dialogue between
dancer, camera, and - through this camera - the audience worked. In
short, we were very satisfied with the outcome. And from our on-line
reactions directly after the show and during the following days, we
seem to have given our audience a unique experience.
FUTURE
PROJECTS
with this project, we had to make some compromises
artistically
speaking, largely due to technological limitations and some of these
seem to be worth working on to overcome for future projects. More
experiments with innovative lightning, extending the use of
projections, considerations of colour effects etc. are things we will
be working on as well as getting the best technical equipment for our
purpose. We have learned to appreciate good technical equipment.
Many have asked if it
will be possible
to watch the performance again - and no, not right now. Not because it
would be very easy to upload this small 10 minutes to our website to be
replayed over and over again. But we wanted this first project to be a
live experience - which means same thing as going to the theater and
coming out only with the feeling and experience in you mind and memory
- and not a videotape in your pocket.
...but stay tuned for
more fun in future
webcasting!
THANK
YOU
We would like to thank everybody involved in this project and also our
supporting institutions, the Danish Art Council and Carlsberg
Idé-legat as well as Frederiksberg municipality for using
the
beautiful “Byggeriets Hus” (normally used for
exhibitions
and concerts - but now also equipped to do live webcast!).
Many
thanks also to our viewers and everybody who took
the time to give us invaluable feedback.
Special thanks to www.canzone-online.de
for
supporting us with advertising.
At this time of writing
we are for
technical reasons (!) not yet able to tell how many viewers we actually
had - but we know from feedback that the performance was watched in
Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Czech Rep and USA
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