A seminar of reflection and day of public debate: "Documentation, archives and dissemination: memory and body"

By Scott deLahunta

31 December 2002

From 2-6 April 2002, twelve individuals with experience in research, recording, documentation, analysis, archiving, publishing and dissemination in relation to performing arts practices were invited to participate in a seminar at the Centre de Creació Lanimal a l ésquena in Celrà, Girona, Spain. After spending three days together at the Centre a public presentation of the outcomes of the seminar took place on the afternoon of 6 April in the Fundació Innovació I Formació, Universitat de Girona.

Background:

Centre de Creació Lanimal a l ésquena is a project initiated by the choreographer / performers Pep Ramis and María Muñoz (co-directors of the company Mal Pelo) with the aim to develop activities that stimulate creation and investigation in the field of performing arts at the professional level. See the Appendix for more details.

Following the formal launch of its activities in September 2001 and with the involvement of theatre artist and researcher Toni Cots, the Centre organised a series of workshops and discussions under the theme of "Representation and Presence of the Body: Processes and Techniques". As a part of this series, "Tuning Scores: a movement and perception workshop" was organised with American choreographer Lisa Nelson during eight days preceding this seminar (25 March to 1 April 2002).

Seminar Participants:

The aims and questions laid out in the statement above generated a broad thematic framework within which the participants were invited to share their knowledge and experiences in a critical but supportive peer-to-peer context for discussion and debate. In addition to Pep Ramis, María Muñoz and Toni Cots, participants were: Ric Allsopp (UK); Scott deLahunta (NL); Núria Font (ES); Nik Haffner (DE); Julyen Hamilton (UK/ES); Peter Hulton (UK); Lisa Nelson (US); Steve Paxton (US); Toni Serra (ES). Short biographies and related websites are listed in the Appendix.

Case Study/ Seminar Schedule:

Documentation and video practitioners Peter Hulton and Núria Font were invited to observe and record Lisa Nelson's workshop. The eight-day workshop involved approximately twenty participants, including María Muñoz, and finished two days before the start of the seminar; allowing for discussions to take advantage of their reflections still fresh from the experience.

The seminar began on the afternoon of Wednesday, 3 April, with a group meeting that included an introduction to the theme and a round of first reflections, followed on Thursday and Friday with individual presentations. Discussion and debate evolved from within the framework of each presentation; accumulating depth and breadth as the two days went on. Most of the presentations involved the showing of videos, websites, hard copy publications and multimedia CD-ROMs; concrete examples serving to illustrate, clarify and provoke reflection on the theme.

Introduction:

Discourses on the relationship between documentation and live performance practices often derive from questions regarding the representation/ reproduction of liveness (or live presence) via other means such as moving or still image, sound, written texts, drawings and/ or notation. Whether a source of critical debate in the field of performance studies [1], part of deliberations in higher education regarding the evaluation of practice (arts) based research [2], or involved in the creation and use of formal symbolic systems such as notation [3]; the relationship between documentation and live performance practices tends to be dominated by this critical question of representation; usually supported by the notion of absence (what is lost in the representation).

I would propose that this is different in the context of a contemporary arts practice where artists find themselves moving easily between modalities of representation; made possible in part (and often indirectly) by increased access to recording, composition and communication technologies. Here documentation participates in a fluid relationship with the practice of making work; a relationship which diversifies and multiplies its value. In Celrà, our departure point for discussion was this contemporary artist who approaches documentation, firstly, as a participant in a making process enabling analytical and generative perspectives and, secondly, as a means of making working processes and work accessible to a wider audience; be this other artists and professional from other fields or a more general public.

Hence, there was an emphasis during our discussions on documentation as a practice. This does not mean that questions regarding representation and reproduction were not addressed; but only occasionally did the issue of loss or absence come up. Representations and their reproductions tended to be discussed in terms of a dynamic 'intertexuality'; in other words the possible relations and flows between one form of representation and another; including the emergence of something like a 'memory system'.

It is important to note that the discussions in Celrà tended to focus on the video camera as the primary tool for documentation, followed at a distance by still images and texts (I refer here to the recording part of the process). Notation, drawing and sketching for example were notably missing from the discussions; yet in their absence a point might be raised regarding the future integration of video and notating/ sketching approaches following developments in digital imaging technologies. An indication of this future could be seen in the William Forsythe CD ROM "Improvisation Technologies" Nik Haffner showed us that uses a simple animated drawing effect to augment segments of videotaped demonstration/ explanation [4]. These animations had to be edited into the pixel surfaces of the digitised video in a time consuming follow up process. However, eventually it will be possible to add these types of marks or motion traces in real time directly to a video playback image.

Ethics of Practice and the Panoptic Rehearsal Studio:

The relationship between Peter Hulton and Núria Font with Lisa Nelson in the context of her workshop was an intermingling of two forms of practice; the practice of the observer engaged in recording (or preparing to record) and of the observed that was engaged in leading the workshop (could be rehearsing, etc.). Documentation in this context is not a neutral activity. It is performative in the sense that it changes the state or condition of the studio environment and the behaviour of those who are in it. In choosing for the presence of the video camera in the space (with or without someone explicitly assigned to its operation) one chooses for this shift in the conditions of the environment and the work that takes place in it.

Outside of the rehearsal studio, the practice of documentation enters a different zone of performativity; one in which the socio-political context is emphasised, e.g. where relationships between the public and private are fore grounded. We were reminded by Toni Serra 's presentation of his arts/ social documentary work, of the responsibilities that derive from picking up and pointing a video camera. Who records what and for whom is a question related to mediation and representation that reflects on the need for an ethics of practice; even in the rehearsal studio where relations tend to already be drawn up in forms of mutual trust. It is worth bearing in mind how quickly the relationship between the observer and the observed can become politically potent.

Again, fluid relations between documentation and live arts practices provide for open-ended possibilities. Imagine a rehearsal space filled with video cameras, recording all possible angles in the space. In seeing everything there is no single point of view, no particular reading imposed on the space or its events. Outside of the rehearsal studio, this all seeing, panoptic approach would be considered highly controversial, an instrument of surveillance, while inside the studio it may be conceived of in terms of an artist's sketchbook. It is in these boundaries between certain types of conditions and other contexts that documentation as a practice (in relation to arts practice) accumulates its generative potential.

Keywords:

The following list of keywords that surfaced during the seminar aims to flavour the remainder of the report with a set of partial and generic meanings (source: Merriam-Webster)

• archive: a place in which public records or historical documents are preserved
• catalog: a complete enumeration of items arranged systematically with descriptive details
• communication: a process by which information is exchanged between individuals through a common system of symbols, signs or behaviour
• document: something (as a photograph or a recording) that serves as evidence or proof
• disseminate: to spread abroad as though sowing seed
• explain: to make known, to make plain or understandable
• index: a device that serves to indicate a value or quantity, something that leads one to a particular fact or conclusion; a list arranged usually in alphabetical order of some specified datum (as author, subject, or keyword)
• involvement: to engage as a participant; to oblige to take part; to occupy absorbingly; to commit emotionally; to surround as if with a wrapping; to have within or as part of itself; to require as a necessary accompaniment; to have an effect on
• look: to ascertain by the use of one's eyes and to exercise the power of vision upon
• methodology: a body of methods, rules and postulates employed by a discipline
• nomadic: roaming about from place to place aimlessly, frequently, or without a fixed pattern of movement
• prosthesis: an artificial device to replace a missing part of the body
• record: to register permanently by mechanical means; e.g. earthquake shocks recorded by a seismograph
• reflection: a thought, idea or opinion formed or a remark made as a result of meditation
• transmission: an act, process or instance of transmitting; e.g. transmission of a nerve impulse across a synapse
• version: an account or description from a particular point of view especially as contrasted with another account

Documentation as a Practice (sharing the thinking body):

The remainder of the report will draw on overlaps in techniques, working practices and philosophies of the seminar participants to focus on this contemporary artist who has a fluid and dynamic relationship with documentation; who uses documentation (with an emphasis on video) in a variety of ways to support and augment creative process and to share elements of that process with a larger audience. This concept of the artist includes the "documentation practitioner". Amongst the participants there were documentation/ video practitioners, but in this section of the report I will generally address the practice of documentation (and dissemination) as a working modality within the context of art making in general rather than making a distinction along professional or disciplinary lines.

Documentation is a carrier of information that may inform the artist as part of a process of self reflection, creation and recollection; communicate with an audience of other makers; transmit creative ideas across disciplines; explain or make accessible elements of arts practice to a wider public or serve as an art work in its own right. On its way from one of these modes to another a documentation format such as video undergoes a variety of procedural and formal transformations as it moves between the contingencies of recording, composing, editing, organising, presentation (publishing) and disseminating. Within this concept of documentation; there is no need to produce an "original" in relation to these different modes or versions; any can equally serve as a source of inspiration for another.

To extend this thinking further, within this concept of documentation live performance also becomes a mode or another version. What is left then, in a non-historical sense, is a sequence of versions; all carriers of information that derives from the body. During the seminar discussions; this information that derives from the body was referred to in different ways such as body-based knowledge(s); gestural intelligence(s); the intelligence or knowledge that resides in a gesture or movement phrase; ideas about moving or moving ideas.

These are re-phrasings of a notion that is difficult to grasp conceptually much less be effectively documented, made difficult in part by the fact that in many cases body knowledge(s) include complex internal states that resist representation, which is one reason so much debate (as pointed out in the introduction) is engendered by the relation between documentation and live performance practices. And yet, there emerged from the seminar discussions a number of dispositions towards the practice of documentation (from recording to disseminating) that are consistent with the idea that not only can moving ideas be captured, but they can be shared with a wider audience. The following are a selection of observations drawn from the discussions that reflect these dispositions:

1) Documentation involves constructing (consciously or unconsciously) a way of looking. We generally look or perceive through the filters of our own embodied experience, background and trainings. Might training in, for example, tai chi, laban, aikido, contact improvisation or classical ballet make someone more effective as a documenter of that or related movement forms? It was also proposed during discussion that one might prepare to capture this elusive notion by removing the filters of prior experience in order to achieve a more neutral state for documenting.

2) The handling of the video camera can also be conceived of in terms of embodiment. During the seminar, the camera was referred to as an extension of the senses. The participants with more experience with the camera had developed certain strategies, e.g. holding the camera away from the eye when shooting. Moving the camera away from the physical eye enables a very different type of involvement in the event, and the position of the hand holding the camera gives the information necessary to know what is in the frame.

3) In general, our discussions were about documenting an event (workshop, rehearsal, etc.) without direct intervention or interruption. In this context, the documenter uses the video frame as the dynamic bordered space within which the unexpected or partially anticipated might occur, if the conditions are right. This frame is simultaneously about what is inside and outside as well as what is moving across it; the edge, sometimes soft sometimes hard, between what is seen and what might be imagined.

4) To contrast the concept of an experienced documenter who may have developed certain skills, strategies and habits; another option is to engage those who are part of the working or rehearsal process to participate in the recording process. One can compare the concept of the embodied camera, an extension of the senses, with the practice of self or auto-documentation. Imagine a dance studio set up with a camera and microphone for dancers to use to document themselves and the material they are making. This might generate a resource of rehearsal materials for future reference, perhaps in the context of a collective video 'sketchbook'. These moving ideas may be intended more for circulation within the creation process/ group and not for communication with a wider audience; although as will be mentioned later recorded documentation of this type may at some future stage become disseminated more widely.

5) The choice making that informs the editing, composition, ordering and organising of recorded media material may be partially and simultaneously a function of preparation (i.e. storyboarding), of the recording itself (i.e. framing practices), of formal relations between media types and of the imagined viewer or reader. We discussed the experience of this viewer or reader and the types of presentational formats that would enable more or less open readings. Interested in generating more and not fewer possible readings, we were inevitably attracted to interactive multimedia (digital) formats with the possibility to place video / audio media in conjunction with animation, text and graphics to be viewed either together or in non-linear, nested or linked formats. We looked at and discussed some excellent examples of work that demonstrated the effectiveness of this format [4].

6) As an alternative to the medium of video, we discussed the page as a site from which to depart, in particular using electronic/ digital media to move off from but refer back to the printed page. This not only suggests alternatives to the traditional institutions of 'publication' (still caught up in print); it also opens up the possibility that documentation isn't just about the document itself, but how that document links to comparative works or other resources. As the page becomes a location for intertextual relations with a range of other documents of all media types; publication becomes a mechanism for participating in a wider set of linkages and contributing to the development of a living 'memory system' or archive.

7) Within this notion of a memory system and large network of linked works (documents of all media types), it is essential to considerable how this network is searchable. Searchable networks or spaces require formalisation or systemisation of some order; here is where catalogues, indexes, search terms, etc. take on a particular relevance. A search space can be conceived in both electronic as well as physical terms, e.g. one might locate a document on the Internet but need to visit a building or location to view it. [5]

8) Search spaces presuppose organisational systems such as catalogues and indexes, which may make use of categories, menus, lists, etc. These systems can be put in place at different levels in order to handle a variety of document/ information types as well as scale and size of search space. These systems can themselves reveal continuities and patterns to the analytical viewer/ thinker. For example, something like a pull down menu is a map that can assist the analytical viewer to see relationships in the content. When the content is body based knowledge(s) the challenge is to come up with organisation systems and search spaces that enhance the capturing and sharing of moving ideas.

9) During the discussions we looked at some multimedia shells or templates developed with the aim of providing the documenter with a more or less standardised format within which a variety of media types (video, audio, still images/ graphics and texts) could be linked [6]. While contrasting sharply with the highly customised working state of the individual artist, these shells can be a bridge to the organisational systems and search spaces mentioned above.

10) While catalogues and lists are to a certain extent formal mappings, they also partially enable the document to become "nomadic"; and in this context these systems should be open to uncalculated misreadings, accidents, subversions and conversions of original intentions. In other words, one really doesn't know in which individual or institutional repositories or archives the products of documentation practices may end up.

Closing Comment:

Although the original statement of aims and questions (see start of report) were underpinned very much by the question of method ("how can we structure…" "how can we document and classify…"), on the whole the seminar discussions took a more philosophical view on the practice of documentation in relation to live performance practices. Early in the discussions it was clear that documenting live performance practices would resist single methodologies. Not only did this stem from the awareness that there are aspects of live performance that resist recording (and representation), but also the distinctiveness and heterogeneity of live performance practices require similarly a variety of unique approaches to its documentation.

Despite general acknowledgement amongst the participants that efforts to record moving ideas are inevitably not comprehensive (something is always missing); the emphasis was on the prospect of their creative and generative documentation and dissemination rather than absence. This focus on potential revealed a commitment to and possibility of the creation of collective and 'bodied' conceptual spaces, spaces where documents of all types that contain moving ideas help to share the thinking body.

Overall, the discussions seemed to resonate strongly with and support the vision of the Centre de Creació. Hopefully, the Centre can continue to cultivate this concept of documentation as a practice and the involved documenter as practitioner/ artist, as they develop and fine tune their research activities in the field of live performance; movement and dance.

END/ END/ END/ END

Artistic Direction and coordination: María Muñoz, Pep Ramis, Toni Cots
Management and production: Eduard Teixidor
Technical direction: Adrià Miserachs

Further background and contact information:

Centre de Creació Lanimal a l ésquena in Celrà, Girona is a project initiated by the choreographer / performers Pep Ramis and María Muñoz (co-directors of the company Mal Pelo) with the aim to develop activities that stimulate creation and investigation in the field of performing arts at the professional level to include: offering rehearsal facilities for creative work, in a non-urban environment, to both national and international dance and theatre companies; seminars and courses for professionals; investigation and interchange with other disciplines with an emphasis on new technologies; exhibition of work in the process of creation; and meetings for reflection on specific themes.

The Centre de Creació is situated on the farm holding of Mas Espolla in the municipal area of Celrà (Girona). The property is made up of the main farmhouse, two adjoining buildings and a warehouse/ studio of 22m by 14m floor area, surrounded by 19 hectares of wooded and cultivated land. At present the first phase of the project has been completed with the construction of the warehouse/ studio and its preparation for use as a workspace. The second phase will be the reconstruction of the farmhouse for accommodation and construction workshops (adaptation of the old stables).

Centre de Creació
L'animal a l'esquena
Apartat de correus 333
17460 - CELRÀ (Girona)
Tel/fax: +34 972 49 26 34
email: lanimal@arrakis.es

Short Biographies and related URLs:

Ric Allsopp (UK), co-founder and editor of the Journal of Performance Research and Research Fellow, Dartington College of Arts, UK. http://www.performance-research.net

Toni Cots (ES), theatre artist and researcher, co-developer and Centre de Creació Lanimal a l ésquena, Celrà, Girona.

Scott deLahunta (NL), researcher and writer on the topic of live performance and emerging technologies and Research Fellow, Dartington College of Arts. http://huizen.dds.nl/~sdela

Núria Font (ES), video practitioner and curator. Director of the Video Dance Festival and of the Electronic Arts Festival at the Centre of Art Santa Monica, Barcelona. http://cultura.gencat.net/videodans

Nik Haffner (DE), dancer with the Frankfurt Ballet from 1994 to 2000. Currently an independent choreographer with a special interest in the relation between dance and new media technologies

Julyen Hamilton (UK/ES), independent dancer and choreographer, well-known teacher and creator in the field of improvisation. http://www.julyenhamilton.com/

Peter Hulton (UK), documentation practitioner and director of the Arts Documentation Unit, founder and editor of Arts Archives and Research Fellow, University of Exeter, UK. http://www.arts-archives.org/

María Muñoz (ES), co-founder/ director of the company Mal Pelo and Centre de Creació Lanimal a l ésquena, Celrà, Girona.

Lisa Nelson (US), dancer, teacher and choreographer and editor of the dance journal Contact Quarterly. http://www.contactquarterly.com/

Steve Paxton (US), dancer, teacher and choreographer and founder of the dance form "Contact Improvisation"

Pep Ramis (ES), co-founder/ director of the company Mal Pelo and Centre de Creació Lanimal a l ésquena, Celrà, Girona.

Toni Serra (ES), video maker and co-organiser of the OVNI collective which is a permanent archive of approximately 400 videos and 20 CD-ROMs with a particular focus on archiving video art, independent documentary and mass-media practice. http://www.desorg.org/

Notes/ References:

[1] e.g. in reference to the debate between Peggy Phelan and Philip Auslander in particular in relation to the following publications: Phelan, P. (1993) Unmarked: The Politics of Performance, London and New York: Routledge; Auslander, P. (1999) Liveness: Performance in a Mediatized Culture, London and New York:Routledge

[2] see in particular to the developments in Higher Education in the United Kingdom. For more information I would point in the direction of the following two websites: PARIP (Practice as Research in Performance) http://www.bris.ac.uk/parip/; RESCEN (Centre for Research into Creation in the Performing Arts http://www.adpa.mdx.ac.uk/rescen/home.html

[3] see Laurence Louppe. "Imperfections in Paper" in Traces of Dance. L. Louppe (ed). Paris: Editions Dis Voir, 1994. pp. 11-33.

[4] William Forsythe's interactive multimedia project "Improvisation Technologies: a tool for the analytical eye" originally conceived as a training tool for new dancers to the Ballet Frankfurt company. It was publishing as a CD ROM for wider distribution in 1999.

[5] e.g. the OVNI collective; an online searchable media database with video/ media viewing possible on site. http://www.desorg.org

[6] Two of these shells were Linker and Dance Codes:

Linker is software for authoring an interactive multimedia presentation of materials. Created by programmer Graham Harwood of the Mongrel artist collective, Linker was their response to software such as Macromedia's Director that is produced for the commercial interactive multimedia industry. Mongrel's work often engages in an artistic critique of software as a cultural issue. Director is expensive and takes a long time to learn to use; Linker does not take a long time to learn and it is free to download off the Internet. It provides the user with a simple interface into which sound, text, video and still images can be easily embedded. The intention with the simple interface is to shift the focus of the work to the content (Harwood describes Linker as 10% interface and 90% content). Linker can be downloaded for free here: http://www.linker.org.uk/Linker/

Dance Codes was developed at Ohio State University in the USA with the aim to provide an easier to use interface for dancers to create an interactive multimedia version of their work. Dance Codes can be downloaded for free here: http://www.dance.ohio-state.edu/products/dancecodes/download.htm

Miscellaneous related readings/ references:

Digital Arts and Live Arts Archive: http://dpa.ntu.ac.uk/dpa_site/ and http://art.ntu.ac.uk/liveart/

Font, Núria (curator/ producer). A printed introduction and cd rom catalogue from the 1999 Mostra de Vídeo Dansa, Barcelona.

Franko B. online archive: http://www.ainexus.com/franko/archive.htm -- archive of performance and object based works, CDs, videos and related promotional and documentation materials and critical coverage of all work realised since 1986.

Heathfield, Adrian, et al (eds). Shattered Anatomies, Bristol: Arnolfini Live, 1997.

Hulton, Peter, an interview by David Williams and Ric Allsopp. "A Thing Being Done". in Writings on Dance 21, 2001. pp. 12-19

Kaye, Nick. Site-Specific Art; Performance, Place and Documentation. London: Routledge, 2000.

Lycouris, Sophia. "The Documentation of Practice: Framing Traces". Working Papers on Art and Design: Volume One, 2000. http://www.herts.ac.uk/artdes/conex/res2prac/wp/flycouri.htm

Schaffner, I., M. Winzen, G. Batchen, (eds). Deep Storage: Collecting, Storing and Archiving in Art. New York and Munich: Prestel-Verlag, 1998

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