Responsive Body | Responsive Tech

by Kenneth Flak and Külli Roosna (NO, EE)

Number of Participants: 10-15
Place: Bergen Dance Center, Georgernes Verft 12, 5011 Bergen
Time: Saturday 20th of November from 10-14h
Duration: 4 hours

This workshop is part of the Performing Arts Workshop program, electronics and free/libre technologies applied to the performing arts. It is a Piksel initiative in collaboration with PRODA-professional dance training/Bergen Dansesenter – resource centre for dance in Vestland.

To register please send an email to: piksel21@piksel.no with your name and the name of the workshop you want to attend.

https://www.roosnaflak.com/

Responsive Body is a dynamic system created by Roosna & Flak based on listening to yourself and the environment, training sensitivity and coordination as well as strength and stamina. Its purpose is to develop a strong, resilient and intelligent body that is open to internal and external impulses.

Roosna & Flak created the training from a need to prepare for a wide range of challenges. The system is under continuous evolution as a result of an ongoing movement practice and teaching.

The training starts with a gentle warm-up to access the breath and the joints, before bringing up the pulse and working through the major muscle groups. This is followed by a section focusing on more complex coordination and use of space, preparing for individual and partnering work, where the focus is on creating movement material based on listening to impulses from both outside and inside the body. This leads to more in-depth investigation into both creating and organizing material into choreographic structures.

Towards the end of the workshop sensor technology is brought into the game, enabling the research of a new set of connections between movement and sound. For this we use our own set of sensors.

Workshop leaders would offer a hands-on introduction to performing physically with movement sensors, developing the necessary sensibilities for producing sound and movement as an integrated whole.

About the dancers and choreographers:
https://www.roosnaflak.com/

Internationally active choreographers and dancers Külli Roosna (Estonia) and Kenneth Flak (Norway) have been collaborating since 2008. Whether they are creating their own choreographies or collaborating with others, their work deals with the narratives and technologies of the body. They have explored a wide range of themes, including deep ecology, Viking mythology, totalitarianism and internet culture. The core of their work is human experience in interconnected realities. This is often explored through the dancing body’s possibilities and limitations, in a constant dialogue with the digital technologies and discourses that extend and counterpoint it.

They have performed their works all over the world. Additionally, they teach Responsive Body movement technique, composition, and sensor programming at various universities and festivals, adapting their methodology and content to different contexts.

Their interactive music and dance performance Blood Music was nominated for the Estonian Dance Awards 2015; Stalking Paradise, a commission work for Lublin Dance Theater, was selected for the biannual Polish Dance Days. Prime Mover (2018) and Two Body Orchestra (2020) were nominated for the Estonian Dance Awards.


Külli Roosna (EE)

Born 1981, is an Estonian dancer, choreographer and teacher. She graduated Tallinn University in 2005 as a choreographer/dancer and continued her studies in Rotterdam Dance Academy in the Netherlands, obtaining her second bachelor degree in 2007.

In 2013 she obtained an MA of choreography at Tallinn University.

She has worked with international choreographers Stian Danielsen, Karen Foss, Kari Hoaas, Cid Perlman, Richard Siegal, Dylan Newcomb, Fine5 Dance Theater, and many others.

In 2010 her solo performance Circle Through was awarded the First Prize at the International Festival of Modern Choreography in Vitebsk, Belarus. She is the recipient of the 2017 Pärnu City Creative Stipendium.

Her teaching and performing has brought her to festivals, universities and theaters in Estonia, Norway, The Netherlands, Poland, Jordan, India, Japan, Ukraine, Hungary, Czech Republic, Sweden, Germany, France, Russia, Finland, Lithuania, Belarus, and South Korea. In 2014-15 she was board member of Estonian Dance Artist Union and head of its Stipendium commission.

Kenneth Flak (NO)

Born 1975, is a Norwegian dancer, choreographer, composer and teacher. He has performed in the works of André Gingras, Dansdesign, Richard Siegal, Kari Hoaas, Preeti Vasudevan and many others.

He is educated at the National Academy of Dramatic Arts in Norway and the Amsterdam Arts School in the Netherlands.

In 2007 he received a Bessie Performer’s Award in New York for his interpretation of Gingras’ solo CYP17. In 2010 he was nominated for the BNG Award in Amsterdam for his choreography Of Gods and Driftwood.

Flak has taught contemporary dance and sound design at universities and festivals around the world.

A self-taught composer and creative coder, he makes music and interactive tools for live choreographies and dance films.

He was chair of Norwegian Arts Council Commission for Dance 2018-2020.

Press
Kahe keha orkester, Anu Jurisson, Pärnu Postimees, 26 March 2021.
Post-dramaatiline tantsu-uurimus ja numbriballett, Heili Einasto, Postimees, 12 November 2020
Kehad tehnoloogia ja tantsu puutepunktis, Iiris Viirpalu, Sirp, 23 October 2020
Video: Sõltumatu Tantsu Laval kohtuvad kehad ja tehnoloogia, ERR kultuur, 6 Oktober 2020
Olemise protsess, Eline Selgis, STL, 29 September 2020

Media
11 January 2019: Elu pingeväljade liikumapanev jõud (Marie Pullerits, Sirp)
13 November 2018: [Külli Roosna rääkis tantsulavastusest “Prime Mover”](https://treraadio.bandcamp.com/track/1 November 018-k-lli-roosna-r-kis-tantsulavastusest-prime-mover) (Tre raadio)
12 November 2018: Külli Roosna lavastusest “Prime Mover”: see sündis meie endi elust (Ester Vilgats, ERR)
12 November 2018: Endlas esietendub pärnakate rahvusvaheline tantsulavastus (Anu Jürisson, Pärnu Postimees)
12 November 2018: Endla Teatris toimub tantsulavastuse “Prime Mover” Eesti esietendus (ERR)
5 November 2018: Video: katkend Külli Roosna ja Kenneth Flaki uuslavastusest “Prime Mover” (ERR)
2 November 2018: Tütrekese sünd ärgitas looma Endla Küünis tantsulavastust (Anu Jürisson, Pärnu Postimees)

Two Body Orchestra

“Since each of us was several, there was already quite a crowd.”

  • Deleuze/Guatarri

“Orchestra (n.), area in an ancient theater for the chorus, from Latin orchestra, from Greek orkhestra, semicircular space where the chorus of dancers performed.”

  • etymonline.com

Two Body Orchestra is a hydrid concert/dance performance, centering around our bodies as multitudes – as networks of organs, impulses, technologies, and fictions – as orchestras in and of themselves.

We blur the distinctions between bodies and technologies to the point where even very subtle movements – breathing, tiny shifts of posture – influence and create the sound space.

Two Body Orchestra is the outcome of Roosna & Flak’s ongoing research into connecting sound and movement with the help of sensor technology. In this performance every sound is produced by the performers in real time.

We are balancing on the borders of magic and science, leaving a space for intensity, vulnerability and wonder, inviting the audience to notice and create their own stories.

Press

” Sound and movement interconnect – and two bodies makes a world of both! This evening our audience had the absolute pleasure of meeting an entire TWO BODY ORCHESTRA – and it was intense! Külli Roosna and Kenneth Flak aka. Roosna & Flak transported us into an experience where the physical and audible join eachother – where every sound is produced by the performers in real time. This performance has so many layers to offer, and reminds us that there still is so much play and wonder in our own physical beings.” – Hammerfestby.no

Om prosjektet

Two Body Orchestra (TBO) er en hybrid dansekonsert for to utøvere. Bakteppet for prosjektet er nye teknologier som problematiserer hva det betyr å være et individ og å ha et selv, noe som i sin tur gjør det vanskelig å vite hva man snakker om når man sier “kjenn deg selv.” Det som tidligere var dype etiske og filosofiske spørsmål er nå i ferd med å bli konkrete utfordringer for ingeniører og softwareutviklere.

Forestillingens kjerne er idéen om kroppen som et mangfold; som en vev av organer, impulser, fiksjoner og teknologier; som et orkester i og for seg selv. Vi leter etter måter å håndtere presset, instabiliteten og friksjonene dette medfører, i tillegg til den sporadiske harmonien det åpner opp for. Vi undersøker det motsetningsfylte og intime forholdet mellom orkestrets deler, og forsøker å skape rom for intensitet, sårbarhet og forundring i en situasjon hvor man ikke lenger kan skille mellom kjøtt og maskin.

Forestillingen er støttet av Kulturrådets prosjektstøtte for scenekunst/dans, men vi betrakter den i like stor grad som et musikkverk, hvor grensen mellom det kroppslige og det auditive er uklar: Hvor går grensen mellom lyd produsert av en instrumentalist og lyd produsert av en bevegende kroppsdel via en bevegelsessensor og et dataprogram? Når kan en instrumentalists bevegelser kategoriseres som dans? I TBO sirkler vi tilbake til bevegelsens nødvendighet i et kroppslig-algoritmisk gesamtkunstwerk.

Vi tar utgangspunkt i at digital teknologi er legemliggjorte tanker. Vi bruker teknologier som åpner opp for sanseerfaringer som ellers ikke ville være mulig. Kjernen i dette er bruken av bevegelsessensorer i nesten alle forestillingene våre siden 2014. Sensorene gjør det mulig for utøvere å kontrollere og påvirke lyd og lys i sanntid. Vi skriver programmene for dette i SuperCollider, et open-source programmeringsspråk for algoritmisk musikk og live interaksjon.

Musikk

Musikken kan fungere som en forlengning av utøvernes kropp, som en partner med en egen vilje, eller som et landskap.

Lyden baseres på manipulasjon av opptak, syntese og kombinasjoner av disse. Vi er spesielt interesserte i måter å skape syntetiske lyder som føles organiske, samt å uvirkeliggjøre lydopptak. Det viktigste verktøyet for dette er granular syntese, hvor lyden kan manipuleres på mikro-nivå til å produsere alt fra uendret avspilling av lydopptak til ekstreme lydskyer som ikke likner på noe som helst i naturen.

Koreografi

Vi tar utgangspunkt i grunnleggende bevegelsesprinsipper: finne felles pust; slippe og fange; oppløses og stivne til; falle og ta i mot; dytte og dra. Vi henter inspirasjon fra både kampkunst og klassisk akrobatikk for dette. I tillegg til partner-arbeide kommer vi til å utarbeide solostrukturer basert på indre bilder i kombinasjon med algoritmiske strategier.

Vi nærmer oss koreografiske strukturer ved å lytte til rommet vi er i.

Dramaturgi

Dramaturgien oppstår i en nedendfra-og-opp prosess, hvor vi tar utgangspunkt i relativt enkle ideer: FM, sinus-toner, granulering av korte lydopptak, transponering av stemmen. Innenfor disse leter vi etter potensialet for noe ut over og dypere enn kompositoriske øvelser. Vi leter også etter slektskap mellom lyder. Hvordan kan disse fungere sammen med bevegelsene? Hvordan oppnår vi en sammensmelting av det kroppslige og det auditive?

You and I, You and Me

by Mindaugas Gapsevicius (LT) and Maria Safronova Wahlström (SE)

Number of Participants: 15
Place: Bergen Dance Center, Georgernes Verft 12, 5011 Bergen
Time: Thursday 18th of November from 12-14h
Duration: 2 hours

This workshop is part of the Performing Arts Workshop program, electronics and free/libre technologies applied to the performing arts. It is a Piksel initiative in collaboration with Bergen Dansesenter – resource centre for dance in Vestland.

To register please send an email to: piksel21@piksel.no with your name and the name of the workshop you want to attend.

You and I, You and Me
by Mindaugas Gapsevicius (LT) and Maria Safronova Wahlström (SE)
http://triple-double-u.com/you-and-i-you-and-me/

Imagine the future. Humans, computing machines, and various types of hybrids share the space they live in. Senses are altered, some are inextricably linked to computing devices. Electricity is used to control the space and beings living in it. Humans take responsibility to reshape social ties to avoid being controlled by corporations and machines.

The project You and I, You and Me explores the impact of the environment through electricity. How far could electricity help in understanding the other? Is there a possibility to alter human senses by electric impulses? During the participatory event, the audience is invited to experience the environment, including other humans, by wearing jewellery, shoes, and headwear.

The project production was supported by the Lithuanian Council for Culture, and the Nordic Council of Ministers
https://youtu.be/NmVE_78Y43o

The workshop will guide through the different wearables objects: jewellery, headwear and shoes which leads to different public interactions:

Collection of wearables

Jewellery
The collection of jewelry questions the impact of differently charged ions on humans. By definition, an ion is an electrically charged particle produced by either removing or adding electrons from or to a neutral atom being in every solid, liquid, gas, and plasma. These differently charged subatomic particles, while interacting, generate electric current. Consequently, humans also generate electric current. What are the abilities of humans to generate electric current and, while using it, experience the environment?

The jewelry pieces hold within it a small LED powered by the human body. Being very sensitive, the flashing of the LED depends on humidity, temperature, contact to the body, and other parameters that affect the components used for the circuit.

Headwear.
The project was inspired by research on brain-to-brain interfaces, including the study “A Brain-to-Brain Interface for Real-Time Sharing of Sensorimotor Information” by Miguel Pais-Vieira et al. Following the research, the collection of wearables questions the boundaries of empathy. Aesthetically, the project refers to traditional headwear and the role of headwear in signalling human identity to others.

The headwear uses medical strategies based on brain cell communication: the electrical impulses are detected while using electroencephalography (EEG), and brain stimulation is triggered by passing DC current through electrodes (tDCS), a non-invasive method to treat depressive disorder, increase empathic abilities, or decrease antisocial behaviour in violent offenders.

Shoes
The collection of shoes uses excess human heat, which is turned into electricity to generate sound. At the same time, shoes refer to daily clothing, something humans wear to protect themselves from unexpected environmental obstacles, including other organisms that are not necessarily always friendly to humans as well as cold. While being affected by the ambient temperature, light, and movement, the shoes suggest rethinking human’s relationship with nature.

Furthermore, the collection critiques the hype surrounding renewable energy, which often pollutes the environment no less than the energy obtained from burning gas or coal. Could excess human heat be considered renewable energy?


About Mindaugas Gapševičius
http://triple-double-u.com/you-and-i-you-and-me/

Mindaugas Gapševičius (born 1974) lives and works in Berlin, Weimar and Vilnius. His workquestions machine creativity without presuming that the human being is the sole creative force. He has completed MA studies at the Vilnius Academy of Arts in 1999 and received a Master of Philosophy degree from the Goldsmiths University of London. He is a creative fellow at the Bauhaus University in Weimar since 2015. Gapševičius was one of the initiators and founders of Institutio Media, the first Lithuanian media art platform (1998), as well as the European Migrating Art Academies network for emerging artists (2008). Along with colleagues from the TOP association, he initiated the first TOP community biolaboratory in Berlin (2016). In 2019 he established Alt lab, a laboratory for non-disciplinary research in Vilnius. Gapševičius’s works have been shown at the Ars Electronica festival in Linz (2019, 2020), the National Gallery of Art and MO Museum in Vilnius (2019), Piksel festival in Bergen (2018), RIXC art and science festival in Riga (2016), Pixelache festival in Helsinki (2015 and 2016), Pixxelpoint festival in Nova Goritsa (2014), KUMU Museum in Tallin (2011).