The 19th Step and Virtual Worlds?

I've been with my avatar (a digital character) Fraser Fonda on Architecture Island in Second Life. We have used SL as a kind of studio and discussion space sometimes during the project. Working there made me think about different types of images existing there, the avatar, the digital model, the photograph, an animation. It reminded me that when Marcus talked about dimensions beyond the 3rd he said that the 4th wasn't just time as many of us think, but the dimension consisted of information, eg the stock market figures, or the temprature etc. A virtual world allows us to embed text and links to other webpages in the digital objects. At the moment this version of the 19th step dance floor in SL has the address of the 19th step webpage embedded as a rolling text, Marcus's mapping of the library of Babel is repeated and animated in a digtal model that cuts through the space, I could also add sound files, animate avatars to dance, give out note cards, and video extracts as well as holding live events in real time.

The 19th Step Third and Final Research Performance at Laban

Yesterday, Saturday April 12th, The 19th Step research performance was performed at Laban in the Studio Theatre. This was last performance during this intensive development process.
The image below show the performers and Carol and Dorothy discussing notes at Laban. The image below shows the start of the performance experimenting with different projections which was accompanied by text read from the Aleph.

Some of the audience stayed after the performance for a post show discussion.

The 19th Step Second Research Performance at Boundstone College

Yesterday April 11th the 19th step research performance went to Boundstone College in Lancing, West Sussex. We had an after show discussion.
Setting up the space in the school hall. Kim up ladder sorting the lights.
Opening moments on the red curtains in Boundstone College hall.

During the performance Dylan and Marcus chalk hexagons on the blackboard dance floor.

The 19th Step First Research Performance

Wednesday 9th April the first public research performance of The 19th Step 7.30 took place at the Michaelis Theater Roehampton University, with a talk after discussing the process.

During the afternoon we had another dress rehearsal, and Oliver a professional photographer took images during and after, this pic shows him at work.

This image captures the opening moment of the the performance.

The 19th Step Development Day 13, run through, lighting and dressrehearsals

Yesterday the 19th step research performance began dress rehearsals, we also had a walk through so Mike could plot where the stage lights should be and tried out some ideas for costumes.
The musicians chalk on the mic blackboard which amplifies the sound of the drawing.
The three couples, Rose and Marcus create the hexagon inside the circle, Marina and Dylan trace the shape of the hexagon and trace circles in their dance movements as Sarah and Scott create musical hexagons and circles in their duet.
The trio Sarah on flute, Marina and Rose draw their made up alphabet shapes.
Scott, Marcus and Richard in an equation trio, Marcus caught mid circle.
The final moments Rose supporting two triangles constructed by the performers from the dance floor boards, an idea of the Aleph or a false Aleph? This clip from the 19th step research performance shows couples Scott and Sarah percussion and flute, Marina and Dylan dancing and Rose and Marcus drawing circles and hexagons, also trying out for some costume ideas and lighting cues.

This clip shows a part of the trio, Sarah, Rose and Marina performing the column books part of the research performance.

The 19th Step Development Day 12, run through

Today the performers had a run through of The 19th Step Research Performance
Richard and Dylans duet.
Dylan and Marina dance while Scott and Richard mark the chalk board which is amplified.
Sarah, Dylan, Rose and Marina sounds and following shape of hexagon
Marina traces the hexagon
Sarah on flute Marina and Rose trio

The 19th Step Development Day 11, exploring books and the idea of the Aleph

Carol and the dancers explored using the books, stacking, making a column of books and the Marina and Rose as columns. Trying out ideas for costumes.

Using a column of books as part of the Aleph idea, how to use the projections.

The clip below shows the dancers walking the shape of the hexgon with their books.

The 19th Step Development Day 10, Marking out the performance

These two images capture the trio between Sarah on flute and Marina and Rose performing their hexagon tracings and spelling out words from their alphabet.

Scott, Richard, Marcus and Dylan develop the equation duel.
Dorothy exploring ideas for percussion with Scott
Ideas for using the two triangles may be this is the Aleph point and becomes a screen for two projections?

The performers practicing their a voice piece.
Books gradually being covered in 'maths book yellow' begin to inhabit the space. This clip shows Scott and Richard on Percussion and Horn exploring sound ideas for the equation duel developing with Marcus and Dylan.

The 19th Step Development Day Four, developing each strand

Today we are all working on various parts of the project separately.

Below are some videos beginning to collect material to create an idea of the Aleph?
Just been listening to this programme,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/discoveringmusic/pip/5056m/
you need to listen to it by Sunday 30th as the link will run out. Its about Tango and one of the contributors just said "Borges describes Tango as a heart dancing on four legs" this made me think his short story the Circular Ruins.




Marcus explains irrational numbers.



Here are some pages from Marcus's sketch book a lot of the diagrams show him trying to workout how to navigate through the hexagonal rooms of the Library of Babel.

The 19th Step Development Day Three, Patterns, Shapes and Tango

"Musically, the tango is not important; its only importance is what we give it. This reflection is correct, but perhaps applies to everything."
"The tango can be debated, and we have debates over it, but it still guards, as does all that is truthful a secret"
Jorge Luis Borges, A History of Tango.

Today Marcus our mathmatician had his first ever tango lesson. Using the shape of the circle the dancers and Marcus improvised moves drawing circles on the floor inspired by tango.

Marcus drew the diagram of the dance moves he and Rose had developed. Inside the circle the 6 triangles make a hexagon, the shape of the rooms in Borges story the Library of Babel.

harmonic series

If I add all the fractions

1+1/2+1/3+1/4+1/5+...

all the way to infinity, how far do I get?

The series is called the harmonic series because all the different harmonics of a string have these different wavelengths. So this series is almost like hearing all the harmonics of the vibrating string.

The question of how big this series is can be expressed physically too. If I have infinitely many books and I start stacking them on top of each other, how far can I get them to overhang? In the picture above I've used CD cases (Dorothy will be more interested in which CDs are being stacked probably - there was some Schubert, Shostokovich, Puccini, Stanley Turrentine, Elvis Costello, Dvorak and My Bloody Valentine.) In the picture, the top CD is completely clear of the CD at the base of the tower. As one descends the tower, the distance that each CD can be pushed so that the thing still balances is given by the harmonic series. So the reason the first CD is clear of the base is because the overhang of 4 CDs is 1/2x(1+1/2+1/3+1/4) which is bigger than 1. But how far can you go if you keep stacking the CDs or books?

Well, it turns out that I can actually get as far as I want. This is because

1+1/2+1/3+1/4+1/5+... gets infinitely big.

The first proof of this was given by the fourteenth century philosopher Nicole d'Oresme.

The proof is not too difficult but clever. I might give it in another blog entry if there is popular demand!

How far can we get with 19 steps: the top step will be 1.77387... units away from the step at the bottom. Although the series goes off to infinity, it takes a very long time to get there. How many steps do we need for the top step to be 2 units away? That takes 31 steps. And to go 5 units...that requires 12367 steps.

This paper explains some of the maths behind stacking books.

Design for back of publicity card

Design for front of publicity card, I think this could be the one??

hello this is my favourite any thoughts....

19th step Performance Sketch 3

Here's another idea using screens, the screens also spell out MCV an impenetrable book,
"For a long time it was believed that these impenetrable books corresponded to past or remote languages. It is true that the most ancient men, the first librarians, used a language quite different from the one we now speak; it is true that a few miles to the right the tongue is dialectical and that ninety floors farther up, it is incomprehensible. All this, I repeat, is true, but four hundred and ten pages of inalterable MCV's cannot correspond to any language, no matter how dialectical or rudimentary it may be. Some insinuated that each letter could influence the following one and that the value of MCV in the third line of page 71 was not the one the same series may have in another position on another page, but this vague thesis did not prevail. Others thought of cryptographs; generally, this conjecture has been accepted, though not in the sense in which it was formulated by its originators."

I was imagining the M and the C to be made from plastic or paper and could be projected onto. They could be hung or built to freestand. I also had an idea the C could be movable if it was made from polystyrene or the paper or plastic screen could move on a rail. I thought it would be interesting if the V mad a low platform that performers could get onto. I also thought Marcus could draw with his elongated chalk from the platform, onto the blackboard circle at the centre?

19th step performance sketch 2

Been thinking about your responses, have tried to simplify and create a more fluid performance space. Just been looking out some photos for Dorothy and came across the images at the Laban in the room with mirror. Thinking about it as I write this I realise the corner would need one plane side and one mirror side. Was thinking about the idea of infinity and how the mirror does this. Also about Carols idea of Marcus describing the Maths of the space is intriguing. I was imagining the 6 corners were like nodes of the space described by the music and dance. But the nodes could also be moved so different surfaces come in the projection light they would also come in and out of focus. The shape of the space could be assembled and altered during the piece. I keep thinking of ways to work with the projected image on to the screen, a screen is a definite screen and the corner screens are really physical things that can be moved around the performance area, they become screens if they enter the light of the projected image. I think I'm trying to make the experience of viewing the projected image to have a physical presecence, although we are dealing with lots of virtual/abstract things like the projected images, maths and music.
Wondering if this may be why I'm still a bit reluctant to use hanging screens as they often seem like a facade where you have to suspend your disbelief, a I think find this a bit difficult to deal with, but I realise the performance space is very different :-)

Sketch plan of 19th step performance

In response to Dorothy some thoughts on to how the 19th step performance could look???.
I was inspired by the performance at the ICA Ear cinema to have the audience standing at the center of everything. In a way it makes the audience a kind of Aleph.
Also been reading The Theater and its Double by Antonin Artuad The Theater of Cruelty (First Manifesto)1958.
Thought it would be interesting to mark out with tape the torus and hexagon. Part of the hexagon floor area could be painted on with blackboard paint so Marcus could chalk on the floor (was imagining making a really long chalk holder so it could be done from standing) and dancers remove/scuff marks with their moves.
Imagined vast pile of paper (thinking of the idea of all the potential books that could be written) that could be written on that could then be hung on the opposite side of hexagon. Was thinking about Dorothys comments of the sound of paper when moved.
Marcus could be followed by a spotlight changing shape from square to circle etc. I was imagining a series of freestanding mirrors on wheels thinking of Carols post about Anne Hamiltons performance piece and the role of the mirror in the library "I prefer to dream that the polished surfaces feign and promise infinity....)that and on the opposite side I was imagining 3 pieces of gym equipment that are all about extending energy but going nowhere, all to be viewed in the mirror that detaches us from reality. I was imagining they could be used during the performance thinking about repeation and control too.
Wasn't sure where the musicians should go, thought maybe infront of screen that could be back and/or front projected.
At either ends of the hexagon, would be screens some thoughts on content ...would be great to use the software Seadragon and Photosynth demonstrated in the movie clip I posted recently. Also thinking about imagery linking patterns to control our bodies and natural movement eg tango, wrestling, football etc.. also the avatar of Marcus engaged in a Secondlife parrallel universe?
This are all just intitial ideas feel free to comment, alter etc thanks

A version of the Aleph?

re the aleph (from kate 13/11/07)

Reread the aleph again and actually its is the 19th step where it is, he lies on the ground on a sack to look at it.

I like all the descriptions Borges writes as he hopelessly tries to write the description of the inconceivable universe. ....

"Alain de Lille speaks of a sphere whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere" (must ask Marcus about this? How does it relate to finite yet unbounded?)

"tigers, pistons, bisons, tides, and armies, saw all the ants on earth, saw a Persian astrolabe, saw a desk in a draw (and the hadwriting made me tremble) obscene, incredible detailed letters that Beatriz had sent Carlos Argentino, saw a beloved momument in Chacarita, saw the horrendous remains of what had once, deliciously, been Beatriz Viterbo, saw the circulation of my dark blood, saw the coils and springs of love and the alterations of death, saw the Aleph from everywhere at once, saw the earth in the Aleph, and the Aleph once more in the earth and the earth in the Aleph, saw my face and my visecra, saw your face, and I felt dizzy, and I wept, because my eyes had seen that secret, hypothetical object whose name has been usurped by men but which no man has ever truly looked upon: the invonceivable universe."

All this and that he ends with "Our minds are permeable to forgetfulness; I myself am distorting losing, through the tragic erosion of the years the features of Beatriz."

Some thoughts about Borges, Tango......

Been reading Borges A History of Tango which is in The Total Library Non Fiction 1922-1986 came across these quotes and thoughts not sure what they have to do with 19step yet but here they are anyway

"Schopenhaur (Welt als Wille und Vorstelling I, 52) has written that music is as near to us as the world itself; without the world, without a common stock of memories summoned by language, there would be no literature, but music does not need, could exist, without the world. Music is will and passion; the old tango, as music, immediately transmits that joy of combat which Greek and German poets, long ago tried to express in words."

“We read in one of Oscar Wilde’s dialogues that music reveals a personal past which, until then, each of us was unaware of, moving us to lament misadventures we have never suffered and wrongs we did not commit.”

Was discussing with Dorothy idea of Tango as an example of passion and humanness being controlled and tamed through the structure of language, learning steps and routines and nostalgia rather than its original passion Borges describes it originally as The Fighting Tango, which now can only lament for what is lost…………..

Suppose been thinking about the differences between learning ballroom tango and argentine tango, sequences and patterns as opposed to intuition and improvisation and the relationship between mathematics, music and art……..

Dorothy keeps mentioning a primordial state…….do we make sense of this through patterns and geometry?

I keep thinking of the drawing exercise Carol led were we linked the hexagon to parts of the body with letters, which creates a dance sequence, the letters and geometry/numbers take over the body movements.... does it in Dorothy’s score?

Is Borges hexagonal library built to control all our physical and emotional needs?

“ To the left and right of the entrance way are two miniature rooms. One allows standing room for sleeping; the other, the satisfaction of faecal necessities”