Oh, the days when slapping a video behind a dance or music piece made it a ‘multimedia performance.’ The novelty rapidly waned, and our expectations for multimedia are higher now—as they should be. Still, it’s a treat to be newly amazed by the possibilities of video in live performance. The dance/performance installation Takes (presented by Philadelphia-based Nichole Canuso Dance Company at 3LD Art and Technology Center this past weekend as part of the APAP blitz) integrated live video and projections with a subtle, yet knock-your-socks-off level of inventiveness.

The credit for the concept of Takes goes to Nichole Canuso and multimedia director Lars Jan, a 2011 TEDGlobal Fellow who has produced a slew of intriguing performance/installation projects. Performed by choreographer Canuso and Dito Van Reigersberg within the confines of a box created by white gauze-like walls, Takes is a series of snippets about a relationship gone sour. The substance and the magic of this piece lies in live projections of the performers onto the transparent walls of the box: the action inside the box is recorded simultaneously by multiple cameras and superimposed on the walls/screens, creating different perspectives and layers of each moment that add up to more than the individual parts. Combining all this with an evocative sound score and skillful lighting, Takes casts a net of intimacy that is impossible not to fall into.

Nonetheless, the choreography, while no doubt crafted with an eye towards the projections, is largely unremarkable in terms of its movement vocabulary. Structurally, the piece follows the predictable arc of an angst-ridden love story, with some fragments reading more strongly than others, and a few trite moments along the way (ironic that a paper letter takes center stage in an era of electronic communication).

The close-ups and level of detail captured by the cameras mean that gestures come across particularly powerfully, and these are the moments that stuck in my mind: his fingers playfully marching up her knee in the beginning, and later, his fists striking the air in frustration. The solo sections are the least engaging, perhaps because they rely more heavily on movement alone, as opposed to the interactions between Canuso and Van Reigersberg. The performers’ commitment to the work salvages some of these shortcomings, but can’t rescue them entirely.

The suggestive possibilities of the projections and rich quality of the images is nothing less than mesmerizing, but as I watched the video loop roll across the screens at the end, I realized that I was rather satisfied with these pre-recorded projections of movement. Am I just a junkie for beautiful footage? I’d like to think not—Takes is missing something in the link between video, choreography, and performance, and this time, the gap isn’t on the multimedia side.

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This weekend – I’m not sure when the show starts, maybe Thursday – when you’re not at PRELUDE (and you should pretty much be there every day) – but when you’re not – go to PS122 to go see Verdensteatret’s LOUDER. I was blown away when they did CONCERT FOR GREENLAND back in ’05. This stuff is really unlike anything you’ve ever seen before.  I think I wrote about LOUDER here before – I went to go see it in Philly. And it’ll be in Troy at EMPAC next week. But if you’re in NYC go see it at PS122.

Basically its this collective of crazy Norwegians who go to places and then return to Norway and make spectacular multimedia environments. LOUDER Is about their trip to Vietnam. It has a huge robot spider sculpture, abstract mosquito puppets on wires, shadow puppetry, synthesized theremins, computer effects, projections, dozens of speakers scattered around the stage and more. There’s nothing to “get” – you just sit back (or forward) and trip out on all crazy stuff. It is raucous and meditative, ponderous and funny, surreal and ethereal and gritty, rural and urban.

Culturebot doesn’t advocate drug use but for those of you that are already so inclined, getting ferociously stoned for the show might be fun.

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Photo by Paula Court.

A ten-by-ten-foot cube in the middle of a dark room acts as the stage for Reid Farrington’s The Passion Project, a half hour long installation which will run through September 20 at PS122. The cube is defined by hanging ropes (these are tied into loops along the perimeter and across the top of the space), several frames holding parchment screens (leaning on the perimeter of the space), and an intermittent square of white light projected onto the floor that appears at the beginning of the performance. The stage awaits dormant, its audience encouraged to walk around it before and during the performance by Mr. Farrington himself. It is reminiscent of a cage, of a room, of a place at once distant and intimate. At times, I felt compelled to enter the stage and experience being inside, rather than outside the cube. But that is the job of Shelley Kay, the live performer who eventually enters the cube, as she said in an interview with Gia Kourlas, “walking into the throngs like a boxer”.

What ensues is an extremely physical half hour, in which Kay lifts, hangs, moves and unhooks the parchment frames from and onto different locations all around the cube. Her challenge is to catch projected images from Carl Th. Dreyer’s 1928 “The Passion of Joan of Arc”, a classic black and white silent film on the story of Joan of Arc’s condemnation and eventual death as a martyr. The film has been cut and edited by Farrington, so that for the most part what appears on the screens are close ups of different characters: Joan of Arc, of course, as well as various representatives of the orthodox clergy that broke her with long interrogations and finally had her burned. Kay moves frantically around the cube, catching an image of Joan of Arc, and letting her hang onto a loop, then running in a diagonal for the close up of a clergy man—this only lasts a few moments, than Kay kneels, puts down the frame she’s holding, and grabs another to run onto the next projection. The effect is powerful: the frames become windows, shields, tools, all necessary to piece together Joan of Arc’s story. As the performance builds up, Kay begins to sweat, her physical presence conrasting the mediated presence of the actors all around her. While we watch Kay catching images and working hard on keeping up with her cues, Farrington also stands on the side, watching. Like the men in the film, and like us spectators, he only witnesses Kay’s efforts and physical challenges. An interesting echo to the projections of the clergymen on the screen.

The powerful visuals of The Passion Project are enhanced by Farrington’s sound design, a multi-layered mixture of church chants, the sound of the film’s reel being projected, the voices of people editing the film, as well as some less recognizable voices and noises. The volume of the sound sometimes reaches almost unbearable loudness, creating a physical and emotional experience for the audience. The parchment screens themselves create loud snaps every time Kay reaches out to catch an image. Like the projections on the screens, the sound is not continuous, but has a repetitive quality to it. The overall effect is a three dimensional puzzle coming together, a puzzle with many layers and not definitive form.

Farrington’s piece successfully brings the audience into the nightmare of Joan of Arc, while taking a step back from film as a medium of representation. Through Kay’s performance, Farrington breaks down and exposes the different frames from the film: Kay is literally piecing the film together. By the end of the installation, the film has become at once more and less than itself, a combination of live performance, sound art, and clips of the original film. There were moments when I wished for more distance, more ambiguity towards the inevitably tragic nature of the story. My desire might have been encouraged by almost unidentifiable moments of humor within the installation (for instance, when Joan of Arc is being burned and on one of the screens there appears: “Jesus!”). Kay’s performance, although based on cues and tasks, sometimes overly amplified the evident suffering already on display in the projections of Joan of Arc. Yet overall the piece opened up the original film in unexpected ways, the installation offering a perfect medium through which to present the work. Anyone interested in video, dance, or installation performance should not miss Farrington’s latest work.

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Hello all! First of all, my apologies to Andy who seems to have really missed his writers. I was gone from New York and from the country, with often limited internet access and even more limited access to theater, dance and music events. In any case, I am back. This is a short blog to let you know what I will be doing this weekend, hoping my plans will inspire yours.

Tonight (Thursday, Sept. 11): I will head over to the Ontological Hysteric Theater to see The Brainum Bros. & Sons Theatrical Outfit’s The 2 Sisters; or Douglas Mery, Next to Nothing (8pm). From the website: “ridiculous humor and chilling horror ride roughshod over traditional apocalyptic storytelling. Two clairvoyant sisters have journeyed into the wilderness in search of their long lost mother; instead they find a man without a future, perform brain surgery, and reveal the contents of their underwear drawer”.

Friday, Sept. 12: Going to The Stone to participate in “a night of music and madness” in support for this great venue. John Zorn will play the sax, joined by Ikue Mori (laptop) Sylvie Courvoisier (piano) and “many special guests”. There’s a cover charge of $20 (2 sessions: 8,10pm).

Saturday, Sept. 13: I look forward to seeing Reid Farrington’s Passion Project at PS122 (9pm). This critically acclaimed installation has already shown at 3LD this summer, and promises to be an exciting combination of video and live performance.

That’s all for now. As a reminder, the World Music Institute has some great music events coming up. I am looking forward to the Whirling Dervishes of Damascus with Sheikh Hamza Shakkur & Ensemble Al-Kindi, coming up on September 21. All of their events take place at the Skirball Center for Performing Arts. (If you are a NYU student, tickets are only $12.)

Also, Bill T. Jones will be at BAM with A Quarreling Pair (follow the link to see a extracts from the performance), Sept. 30 and Oct. 2-4. Bill T. Jones is one of the sexiest and most exciting American contemporary dance choreographers. He has put together a diverse company, with dancers from all over the world, and his work can be both moving and exhilarating. I highly recommend going to see his work, especially if you have not been exposed to contemporary dance before.

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My friend Maia Marinelli sent me this update on some work she has opening in Genoa. She has done some pretty interesting interactive collaborative stuff. I actually can’t tell if this is going to only be happening in Genoa or if it will be happening on the Web. Anybody? Maia you want to send me more info?

Here’s what I got:

June 4th of is the opening of the “SoundScaper” project at the Museum of Contemporary Art Villa Croce in Genoa Italy.

The Soundscaper uses performers and GPS-enabled phones to create a sonic composition transforming the grid of Manhattan into the staff paper of a musical composition.

Based on a set of instructions, four performers record city sounds throughout a walk starting from the southern end of Manhattan to the northern end of the island. Performers are equipped with a GPS-enabled mobile phone and a small microphone., which allows them to record as many interesting “sounds”, or “notes”, of their environment. Through the mobile phone interface, the “notes” are uploaded to a database as waypoints, which are geo-tagged with latitude and longitude, and accessed from a web interface. The resulting composition can be played at any speed and in any direction.

Due to the nature of the dynamics of New York, city sounds are constantly mutating based upon location and time, which constitute the core of The Soundscaper project. By interacting with the New York City landscape, The Soundscaper reveals the particular poetry

Project By: Maia Marinelli, Jared Lamenzo, Kuan Huang and Mohit SantRam. Web development Diego Balduccio.

Produced By : Mediated Spaces

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Playing the Building: An Installation by David Byrne

Opens to the public Saturday, May 31, 12 to 6pm

Opening celebration: 6 to 8 pm

This 9,000-square-foot sound installation will be free and open to the public-Come and play it!

Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays from 12 to 6pm

May 31–August 10, 2008

The Battery Maritime Building, 10 South Street, NYC

Click here for directions and a map. For more information on the project, and to read an interview between David Byrne and Creative Time’s President and Artistic Director Anne Pasternak, please visit www.creativetime.org/byrne

THROW YOUR INNER GOOD SAMARITAN A BONE!

There are still a few spots left on the volunteer roll call for Playing the Building: An Installation by David Byrne. Come greet visitors and give information – river views included! Click HERE for details.

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