Towards a poetics of restriction
Jung In Jung
​
PhD in Music and Music Technology
Centre for Research in New Music
University of Huddersfield
jungin.j@gmail.com
2.2.2. Pen-Y-Pass
Video 2.9: Pen-Y-Pass
Figure 2.22: The additive synthesis with a triangle shape envelope.
Video 2.10: The first part of the audiovisual composition in Pen-Y-Pass.
[44] The dancers said my idea of holding hands was too ‘60s style! And indeed, their solution was much more interesting than what I suggested. I mentioned this episode also during the MSP PowerUser Symposium (Audio 1.1 from 5:30 to 6:00).
Pen-Y-Pass (Video 2.9) is a choreographic sound composition with interactive visuals and two dancers. In this composition, I drew on a feeling of complete isolation I had experienced in Snowdonia in wintertime. I kept exactly the same technical setup as Locus (see Figure 2.11), but this time I decided to make a dance film. This was because sometimes I found it difficult to present the intimate relationship between body movement and audiovisual composition that I pictured in my head in live performance settings because of the technical conditions of the performance venue (as explained here in Section 2.1.2). For instance, when I performed Locus at La Escucha Errante Festival 2015 in Bilbao, the projection screen was above the dancers. To keep the projection clear, the stage had to be almost completely darkened, which made the dancers almost invisible to the audience. I decided to attach small LED lights to the end of the cables of the Gametrak controllers so that the audience could see where the cables were tethered to the dancers (Figure 2.18). This was my quick solution to presenting the dancers’ live performance at least vaguely to the audience. However, the moving LED lights in the darkness recalled mocap suits used for 3D animation; they simplified the dancers’ sophisticated movements and disguised the dramaturgy created by the dancers. Also, the separated projection screen made the audience busy with looking for the interactivity between the captured movement and the audiovisual work – what triggered what – rather than perceiving the overall aesthetics. I felt that the dancers’ body movements turned into mere data in service of the interactive audiovisual work. Therefore, to prevent this in future, I invited the filmmaker Lucas Chih Peng Kao to film Pen-Y-Pass so that I could articulate my aesthetic intention better with the form of fixed media.[42]
Pen-y-Pass is a mountain pass in Snowdonia in north west Wales. I was too unprepared when I went hiking there by myself in February to take some photographs without proper equipment or enough prior research about the place. The wind was stronger than I expected and sometimes my whole body was pushed by the wind. It was very hard to walk even though I chose the easiest track route. My phone had no reception and I remembered the sign posted on the wall at the hostel where I had checked in earlier that said that, due to a lack of phone reception, they would send the rescue team to search for their guests if they were not back before some time without prior notice. This made me worry a little in case anything should happen to me because I had not told anyone that I would be in Snowdonia before I had set out. It was not the main season for hiking so I rarely saw people on the path. As I walked deeper into the mountain, the scenery was tranquil. I looked at the view through different lenses and took lots of photographs and some brief video footage. When I left the hostel, it was already afternoon, so I tried not to get lost in the excitement of the scenery and to return to the hostel before it got too dark. I literally had nothing other than my phone with which to check the time, and I had to save the battery in case I needed to use the built-in flashlight if the day got dark earlier than I expected.
When I saw the snowstorm approaching at the far end of the path, I gave up going further and returned to the hostel. The sun had set very early and I was the only one using the dormitory room. I had brought my laptop but there was no WIFI. I wondered why I had not brought a book to read. I looked outside the window but it was pitch-dark night as if there was a black curtain blocking it. The weather got worse as the night went on. I went downstairs where the bar was, and some people seemed to be enjoying the night with drinks. I wondered why they were not so worried about the severe weather. During my sleep, I heard the thunderstorm and the hail hitting the window harshly. Even though I opened my eyes to check outside, I could not see anything for myself. I felt it was almost surreal that I was suddenly in this context. I was not even sure whether I was awake or asleep because of the darkness. When the morning came, I saw a clear view of the snowy mountain as though nothing had happened during the night. I decided to make an audiovisual work based on this trip using some video footage I had made on Snowdon.
Figure 2.18: Small LED lights were attached to the end of the Gametrak controllers’ cables for the live performance at La Escucha Errante Festival 2015 in Bilbao.
Following reviews that I had received of my previous project Locus, I sought more obvious narrative and interactivity between the dancers and the audiovisual work in Pen-Y-Pass. I also tried to employ the visual composition as a choreographic stimulus, not merely as visual scenery (Figure 2.19). The same dancers who performed Locus collaborated with me again for Pen-Y-Pass. Since they had already experienced dancing with the restrictive condition using the Gametrak controllers, I decided this time to provide choreographic tasks that were more related to the audiovisual composition. I numbered each Gametrak controller so that I could quickly know which controller’s data flow should be redirected in my Max patch. During the rehearsal, the dancers decided which Gametrak controllers they wanted to use for each section, and I wrote down the numbers of the controllers with some brief plans for choreographic tasks in my head (Figure 2.20).
[42] I invited Kao because we collaborated for my previous work Oblique Theorem, and our dance film was successfully screened at international festivals.
Figure 2.20. The plan for Pen-Y-Pass.
The composition is divided into four sections. The first section illustrates the moment of encountering the windy and snowy mountain (see Video 2.9 from 00:00 to 02:56). I programmed horizontal lines to be triggered when the cables of the Gametrak controllers were pulled (Video 2.10). I used the oscillator object in vvvv to create this effect, and mapped it to create thicker lines when the cables were pulled more.[43] I planned the visual composition to overlap with the diagonal lines created by the cables of the Gametrak controllers so that the performance space would fill with symmetrical lines (Figure 2.21).
Figure 2.21: The relationship of the visual composition and the dancer in the performance space for the first part of Pen-Y-Pass.
For the sound composition, I filtered white noise with eight different frequency bandpass filters in Max to create a wind sound. Once the horizontal line in the visual composition was triggered, it rebounded in oscillation until it disappeared completely, and I wanted to give the same kind of effect to the sound as well. Therefore, after the bandpass filter, I sent the signal through an additive synthesis and limited the amplitude with a triangle shape envelope (Figure 2.22).
Figure 2.23. The relationship of the visual composition and the dancers in the performance space for the second part of Pen-Y-Pass.
This was the original sound composition of the first part of the piece and I made it last for three minutes. However, when I was editing the film takes, I felt that the sound composition of the first part was too repetitive and tedious. I therefore decided to make a variation after 01:30. I added an automation to narrow the bandpass filters so that they would produce pitched tones. The transition from non-pitched filtered noise to pitched tones created some strange disharmonious tones that built up the tension of the narrative (Video 2.11). I performed this variation part in the post-production stage with a MIDI controller while watching the dance performance.
The movement and audiovisual work had a direct one-to-one relationship in the first in order to show viewers how the tethered controllers triggered the audiovisual composition by tracking the motion of the dancers. The choreographic task here was: Each dancer tethers four cables. One person improvises as solo moving only one tethered part of the body. Once the improvisation is finished, pause for 3 seconds. The next person improvises as solo moving only one tethered part of the body as well, and pause for 3 seconds. Do this one more time. And then both of them move all tethered parts of their bodies one by one. This task was intended to make the dancers aware of which parts of their bodies were moving so that they did not trigger any unwanted sounds. Each dancer tethered three cables to her limbs and one to her chest and executed the task. As a consequence, the silent space gradually filled with more and more sounds.
Video 2.11: The variation in the first part of Pen-Y-Pass.
Video 2.12: The second part of the audiovisual composition in Pen-Y-Pass.
Video 2.13: The footage I used for the second part of the visual composition in Pen-Y-Pass.
The second part of the composition illustrates the labyrinth of the mountain path (see Video 2.9 from 02:56 to 04:59). I created a complex white cube-shape mesh in vvvv and overlapped the diagonal lines created by the cables of the Gametrak controllers (see Video 2.12 and Figure 2.23). Although the mountain path was not difficult to follow, it was hard to predict how much further I had to walk to reach its end because I did not have a map and because the weather changed very frequently. For this part, six controllers were tethered to the dancers’ bodies and mapped to move the white spheres between the mesh in vvvv. While creating NEON, I practised generating shapes filled with grids and adding video textures onto them. I used the same technique for the spheres with the footage in Video 2.13. Whenever the spheres were moving, I programmed the volume of the different varieties of tingling sounds to change as though these spheres were bouncing in and out of a metal mesh.
[43] For more detailed explanation on mapping in vvvv and Max, see Appendix D.
Video 2.14: We discussed how to create choreography for the second part of Pen-Y-Pass during the rehearsal.
As explained in Section 2.1.2, I preset the durations for each part of composition before trying out my choreographic tasks with the dancers. However, this did not mean that these rules were not flexible. During rehearsals, I readjusted durations for some parts of compositions in this portfolio depending on how the dancers executed my choreographic tasks. Once the dancers had tried out my tasks, I could understand better whether the prefixed durations were of a reasonable length to deliver the overall idea of the piece to the audience. Another advantage of setting the durations in advance was not only that I could picture the overall structure of the composition, but also that I could guide the improvisation more efficiently. Since both music and dance are time-based arts, I found that the dancers trained themselves to memorise the duration by organising their movement phrases. For example, I measured time while the dancers were improvising on a choreographic task for a prefixed duration and let them know when the time was up (this compositional process during rehearsals may be seen on Video 2.17 from 04:07 to 06:40 and Video 2.20 from 04:50 to 08:58). Then, the dancers remembered the duration through the number of movement phrases they performed for within that amount of time. If their choreography did not fit the given time, I either adjusted the duration or they removed or added some movements for the next rehearsals. In this way, we evolved the composition together with each take. For instance, the first part of Pen-Y-Pass from the third and fourth film takes shown in Video 2.15 did not completely correspond as the dancers tried out different movement materials for each new take. Yet, it was clear that each dancer was aware that they were organising their movement phrases within the given time as they spent almost the same time on their solo and duet movements for both takes.
Figure 2.25: The relationship of the visual composition and the dancers in the performance space for the fourth part of Pen-Y-Pass.
In the third part of the composition I wanted to illustrate the almost surreally pitch-dark night I had experienced in the hostel room (see Video 2.9 from 04:59 to 08:40). I created two spheres to rotate at a slow pace in vvvv (Video 2.16). For this part, each dancer was tethered with only one Gametrak cable (Figure 2.24). I programmed more spheres to populate when the cables were pulled. For the first half minute, I intentionally deactivated the interactive system to show the two rotating spheres with randomly triggered high pitched tones. After the dancers improvised for 2 and half minutes, the interactive system was deactivated again and the sphere mesh gradually grew to a gigantic size for 1 minute. I wanted to express the overwhelming darkness I felt during that night with the gigantic mesh and to create a break from the dancing. I then abruptly changed the scene to the fourth part of composition as if I was waking from a dream. I presented this part of the audiovisual composition to the dancers to explain the pace of the movement and the mood (see Video 2.17 from 00:00 to 04:05).
Figure 2.19: The interaction map in Pen-Y-Pass.
Video 2.15: The first part of Pen-Y-Pass from the third (left) and fourth (right) film takes.
Video 2.17: Rehearsing the third part of Pen-Y-Pass.
The choreographic task for this part was: Detach two cables from your body (so each dancer is tethered with only one cable now), and move in a circle as the two spheres are rotating in the visual composition. Move forward in a circle and pause. And move backward and pause. I suggested that the dancers detach the cables from their limbs and leave one tethered cable on their chests. As a consequence, they could move their limbs freely and their change of location in the performance space would trigger the audiovisual work. Although this was the part in which they had the least restriction from the Gametrak controllers, the direct one-to-one interaction with the audiovisual work guided the dancers to move carefully at the right speed and take the right length of pauses so as not to trigger too much sound (Video 2.17). In the completed dance film Kao and I captured some moments when the dancers even held their tethered cables to create complete silence when they were not moving (see Video 2.9 at 7:18 and at 7:43).
Video 2.18: The fourth part of the audiovisual composition in Pen-Y-Pass.
Video 2.19: The video footage of the snowy mountain.
Video 2.20: The dancers were listening to the sound composition of the fourth part of Pen-Y-Pass. Kao and I discussed how to film the work in the meantime.
For the second part of the composition, the dancers were only affecting the volume of each tingling sound and the range of volume change was subtle. It was my intention to create a moment where the dancers could have more freedom to focus on creating choreography, and not worry too much about contributing to the sound composition. The choreographic task was: Detach one of the cables from your body. Improvise for 2 minutes as if your limbs were extended diagonal lines, created by the cables of Gametrak controllers and the white cube-shape mesh. For this choreographic task, I asked the dancers whether it would be possible to improvise holding hands and to create symmetrical lines with their other hands. But the dancers suggested attaching one part of their bodies and leaning onto each other instead of holding hands, and moving their limbs towards the gaps between their bodies as if creating extended symmetrical lines (see Video 2.14 from 00:00 to 01:03). [44] Initially, I set this part of composition to last 3 minutes. However, after my dancers tried it out for this long, we decided to change it to 2 minutes (see Video 2.14 from 1:04 to 05:01). We felt it was unnecessarily long because the audiovisual composition had only subtle changes and the dancers’ choreographic ideas could be perceived within a shorter period. Instead, I extended the next part of composition by 1 minute because it had more audiovisual content, which would be better unfolded over a longer period of time.
Video 2.16: The third part of the audiovisual composition in Pen-Y-Pass.
The fourth section shows the morning the next day, revealing a clear sight of the snowy mountain after the dark night (see Video 2.9 from 08:40 to 13:05). For this part, each dancer was tethered with two Gametrak cables, and I programmed denser horizontal and vertical grids to be generated when these cables were pulled (Video 2.18). One of the items of video footage I used as a texture was the video recording of the snowy mountain that I had also used for Untitled 10 (Video 2.19). With this technique, I felt that I could show a sense of the movement and colour of the video footage in abstraction.
The sound composition represents the snowy mountain in the unpredictable weather. Video 2.20 shows me explaining what kind of sound I composed for each dancer during the rehearsal. I programmed Pandermali to play grainy, hail-like sound when she pulled the cables and Foti to play wind sound and a dramatic low frequency sound. This section was the most narrative one and I wanted to give different sonic personalities to the two dancers. As a result, Pandermali created light movements, which Foti contrasted with bigger and heavier movements. Figure 2.25 shows how the Gametrak controllers were tethered to the dancers’ hands and feet for this section. The choreographic task was: Detach the cable from your chest and attach it to one of your limbs. Attach another cable to another limb. Now, you are tethered with two cables each. Improvise as solo one by one and then duet. After 3 and a half minutes, slowly finish the performance. To finish the composition, the dancers suggested meeting in the middle of the stage leaning one of their shoulders as similar to the second part of the composition and lowering their bodies to the floor (see Video 2.20 from 3:48 to 04:48). I agreed on this as a way to finish because this movement pulled all the cables and generated denser grids to reveal the image of the snowy mountain.
Figure 2.26: The grips installing the skateboard dolly.
The advantage of showing my work as a film was that I could pick the best moments from it. For the third part of the composition in particular, I chose only those takes with close-up shots so as not to show the video projection too much. Although it was my intention to compose more obvious interactions for this piece, the one-to-one interaction with the audiovisual composition seemed too obvious and tedious by the end.
My aim of creating Pen-Y-Pass was to improve my real-time audiovisual composition skills compared to the previous project, and to produce the work as a high-quality film. Although the quality of the film had definitely improved, I felt that I had fixed too many elements before the collaborative composition process for my ‘ideal’ scenario. When I had finished the composition, I realised that my choreographic tasks were no longer exploring the ‘restrictive’ side of the Gametrak controllers, but were indicating how to create the audiovisual components to make a better film. Because I had kept the same technical setting as Locus, the dancers were used to that kind of restrictive setting, and this resulted in a loss of the fresh excitement and genuine exploration of possible movement materials within the restrictive environment. In addition, the dancers followed my directions in representing the narrative I had set in advance, rather than evoking their own dramaturgy with the restrictive condition during the composition process. In the end there was no longer originality in our collaborative process. However, it became an opportunity for me to realise what Brown calls the balance of control and non-control (see here in Section 1.4). For the next project I therefore felt the need to set up completely different conditions with the Gametrak controllers in order to create a new challenge rather than settle for what I had already discovered.
Figure 2.24: The relationship of the visual composition and the dancer in the performance space for the third part of Pen-Y-Pass.
The challenging part of the filming was capturing the projected visuals and the dancers’ bodies together, and I needed help from experts who could set up the shooting lights properly for such conditions. Kao stayed with us during the rehearsals to take some photos and to plan how to set up cameras and lights. For the day of the filming, the cinematographer Kirstin McMahon also joined with her grips Doug Newton and Dylan Newton to operate the camera on a dolly (Figure 2.26).