Coming soon: IMAGO

[Update: We changed some of the early stills to production versions]

As the summer draws to a close, we are happy to report that our first major project since the reimagining of the group is slowly, albeit steadily, nearing completion. We thought this to be an opportune time to introduce it, and its title is Imago. The work is a hybrid between a videodance piece, a short film, and a web series. It will be released on Vimeo with a runtime of approximately 12 minutes. Although self-contained, the conceptual information is of such depth that in fact renders it episode 1, titled “Orientation”. If all goes well, there will be more.

Imago is, firstly, the Latin word for “image”, also the origin of the word “imagination”. In biology, it refers to the mature stage of insect development (e.g. a grown butterfly, distinct from its caterpillar and chrysalis stages). The term also has Jungian connotations, as well as used by Lacan to describe the mirror-image of an infant as a Gestalt. Our first episode, of course, barely scratches the surface of the insect, transformation, and identity themes, as applied in the creative process. There will be a separate blog post that will discuss the conceptual corpus of Imago, after the video is released.

Our heroine, portrayed by Drossia Triantaki, is an instance of a creative individual, as is the primary antagonist, the Engineer, whose voice we only get to hear, brought to life by Luke Prodromou. She finds herself inside the Engineer’s story, that needs to be finished. Her exploration and interaction with the story’s elements brings to life the clash of their respective creative styles, setting up much more than can be resolved in the 12 minutes of screen time. The choreography is doubly significant, in that it exists not only as an abstraction of the themes being developed, but is also the heroine’s default responsiveness, that is to say, the movement oscillates between being abstract and actually belonging in the action, often being both at the same time. This, for us, represents a departure from traditional video dance exposition; it is loosely analogous to the comparison between a traditional opera, where the performers sing their dialogue, with a play that a character was actually meant to sing, often being both simultaneously.

There was a lot that went into making this happen, and, of course, it is not finished yet. We had four distinct sets, two of which were constructed in our studio, Vitruvian Thing. The main laboratory setting, where most of the action takes place, took around a month to construct. The costume, created by Meni Kourbeti, went through several iterations before being finalised. Along with several test shoots, concept art, and pages upon pages of notes, these concluded the pre-production sometime in June, before we went on to filming. With resources as thin as ours, we ended up shooting the entire short with just one Sigma lens, although the completed rig with the Blackmagic Cinema Camera was really versatile. We also made a 4m dolly/slider, the Triad 1. Without going too much into the cinematography aspects, what I really liked about the setup was the raw, uncompressed, video. Although many SLRs can produce very watchable images nowadays, we found that the flexibility afforded by uncompressed video is what allowed the post-production process to be possible to begin with. Mistakes and assorted “unorthodox” methodologies aside, since we’re new to this, we feel we’re overall happy with the result. Filming concluded sometime in mid July.

Which brings us to post-production, which is where we are today. Firstly, there was the edit. We wanted most of it edited in continuity-style, and found out exactly how much harder this is for dancing, compared to traditional action. You have all these precision moves that need to blend seamlessly together. Additionally, we tried to avoid overusing medium to far shots that one often sees in videodance pieces, primarily because the performer needs to fit in the frame nicely, and we wanted to do it without resorting to macro closeups without good reason. In the process, we developed a few “rules” (that of course we break all the time) that are specific to framing and editing for dance. In fact, we’re planning a seminar on the subject.

Following the edit, we started on the long, hard road to VFX. While not a visual effects heavy production, we wanted the primary set of this first episode of Imago to feel like it is a living story, to be imaginative, to come alive. Additionally, there were some story elements that, although possible to imply by simple editing, were much more specific when explicitly presented. There was also a good deal of digital makeup, keying, planar and 3D tracking, camera match-moving, 3D asset design, and tricky compositing techniques that went into making those. We don’t want to spoil anything yet, so detailed descriptions, along with some making-of videos, will follow the initial release. Suffice to stay that we’re still at it, almost a month and a half into the process. Of course, there’s just two of us doing that, our chief designer Alice Iosafat, and myself, under our Occam's Sharpener post-production subdivision. Some of the shots needed literally hundreds of man-hours for just a few seconds…

I’m also happy to having composed the music myself. Although far from done, it is well into the recording process. Drawing in traditional avant-garde and ambient styles, it is as much an augmentation of the ambient tracks, as well as a pacesetter for the “action” scenes. Given how much workload I have at the moment with all that, I’m grateful that we have talented sound designer Alfonso de Grandis working on the ambient, sound effects, and foley elements in London.

This is all meant to give you an idea of what went into producing Imago episode 1, Orientation. Over the following months, we’ll give you many more details regarding the concept, some clues for the slightly more mysterious elements, like the various symbols, and texts and videos on the specific techniques that were used. There will be a trailer available shortly. The short itself should be available sometime in October.

Revisiting "Aefnis"

Our 2012 piece Aefnis was thematically built around the concept of the encaged, a concept that may well turn out to be recurring in our works, as well as proving to be relevant to contemporary times in a wider social context. I felt it was worth discussing how it was made, as it provides insight not only to our artistic process, but also to our stance on composition and abstraction in the performing arts in general. There exists some video material of the piece here:

Firstly, we operate under the assumption that encagement can be either self-inflicted or externally imposed. Also, it is equally possible for the mind to be encaged as well as the body and the action itself can be intentional or accidental. It is along these axes that the piece’s discourse is developed. The freedom of movement in space, and the natural or artificial restraints that define the latter, change throughout the piece to reflect that and effectively implement the concept at certain times throughout the piece. In this article, however, I would like to focus more on the first part of the piece, described as “the freedom of body parts”, in particular its opening section on leg movement.

Twelve particular leg motion patterns were decided upon, diverse enough yet revolving around a common set of qualities. These were serialised, which means they were placed in an initial order and assigned a number in the range of 1 to 12. The primary pattern was established randomly (literally, pulling numbers out of a hat), therefore creating the initial row [8,12,3,11…]. Adding a number to each index element of the row effectively accomplished a transposition; for example, adding the number 2 would yield the row [10,2,5,1…] (note that the row wraps around the beginning beyond the number 12, i.e. a modulus operator is used). Eventually, a matrix of four rows, all derived as transpositions of the original, was established.

On the floor, 12 points were established and numbered in a grid, each corresponding to the like-indexed movement specified in the original row. From there on, the choreography was established in a combinatoric fashion: rows of leg movements were combined with different ones of spatial position. Since the original row, though random in itself, incorporated a very deliberate linking of space and movement, the act of linearly transposing an essentially random collection produced unexpected, sometimes fairly challenging patterns technically, especially considering that it was required that only the legs should move, with the rest of the body essentially motionless. The temporal flow was largely determined by the music used, in this case Fazil Say’s Sonata Opus7.III, performed live on stage. Given the frantic pacing of the piece, the sequences unfolded at high tempo, creating the sense of urgency. Yet, as the individual motions existed only for a short amount of time in a particular spatial grid, they were not apparent as such, and the general impression of the passage communicated light, fast, and free flow qualities.

This technique effectively removes a choreographer’s instinct, arising from his or her habits and established patterns, effectively implementing an exploration of artificially imposed restraints on a wholly abstract level. The piece later engages the same notions on a theatrical and semiotic level, in particular in its use of the literal cage, a metal construct that could be eventually worn, which also allowed for the narrative to unfold. In terms of the core concept, however, it is the abstract sections that are particularly telling, as they explore in a truly experimental (in the original sense) manner whether a completely arbitrary set of constraints and what amounts to a wholly abstract movement script is apparent, when the sequence progresses fast enough. In our analysis, the word we usually use is circumscription, meaning that we believe that the generalised outline of the restraints can actually be seen, as a quality if not spatially (the grid was a compositional tool, it did not exist on stage at performance time). The questions that arise, i.e. whether apparent flow may disguise hidden patterns of restraints, therefore making a distinction of true vs. apparent “freedom”, provide the raw material for the rest of the piece.

"Welcome!", or, "On Die Wolke's decidedly confusing, quasi-unruly intentions"

This is our new blog, part of the makeover that Die Wolke Art Group got this spring. This will be the place where we'll be posting our thoughts and ideas, as well as share several of the things we learn by implementing them.

So, expect everything from short theses and commentaries to tutorials and demonstrations, based on our works, the concepts behind them, the technology that makes them possible, as well as anything we may come up with doing all that, that we'd like to share. We're still planning all that, so bear with us. 

Some of the things we intend to explore include art/technology integration and man/machine interfacing, using tools such as Max/MSP/Jitter and Supercollider, Arduinos, and a variety of sensors; hardware hacking/abusing, like Kinects and game controllers; computer control of lighting and sync methodologies; set and costume design; digital video. On the theoretical side, we look forward to exploring the semiotic aspects of performance art, as well as engage in practical considerations related to perception theory and phenomenology. All in due time though, as we don't want to distract ourselves too much from new productions.

If this sounds a touch on the convoluted side of things, it's because it's meant to be. Our new headquarters, called Vitruvian Thing, is intended to be the "home of the fuzzy mind and the experimentally inclined psyche". Quite simply, we're a diverse group of individuals, techies, theoreticians, artists, musicians, performers, and a growing one at that. We don't have members per se: we have friends and collaborators, many of which we shall invite to share their opinions in this very blog. This all-round, anti-methodological approach is our natural (almost Newtonian) reaction to contemporary urbanism.

In a sense, we seek to reinvent ourselves as creative individuals, while at the same time to escape the apparent constraints of genre, audience expectations, and general normality. We do not merely wish to create interdisciplinary art: we want what we do to be about persons and personalities; we want the techie to work with the poet, the gearhead with the philosopher, the minimalist with the cyberpunk. And we want to bring these people together.

We look forward to sharing this redefinition of our group with you. In all of its absurdity, audacity, and ambition, it is but a dream.

If we shadows have offended, 

Think but this, and all is mended— 

That you have but slumbered here

While these visions did appear.

And this weak and idle theme,

No more yielding but a dream,

Gentles, do not reprehend.

If you pardon, we will mend.