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CONCLUSION
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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