The 19th Step Development Day Nine, Navigation through Hexagonal library, books, projections

Marcus maps out the hexagonal library described in Borges story the Library of Babel and discusses with Carol, Dylan, Rose and Marina how to navigate through it. This is then fed into the development of their movement in the space.

"The Universe (which others call the library) is composed of an indefinite, perhaps an infinite, number of hexagonal galleries ..............one of the free sides gives upon a narrow entrance way, which leads to another gallery, identical to the first and all the others"

Borges, The Library of Babel

Rose and Marina working with the books.

Ideas for projection, a series of quickly changing images onto the books stacked to create a screen, thinking about the Aleph, past, present and future.

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 Two, Building Vocabulary, Notations and Blackboards

Musicians, Dancers and Marcus, Dorothy and Carol discuss ideas about notation building the space, and exploring the space and sounds of the blackboards.

Discussing notation and sounds made by drawing on blackboard which Dave had attached a contact mic amplifying the sounds of the chalk drawing. The musicians created different forms of notation which the dancers used as a starting point to develop their own notation for movement.

More ideas of notation using text, music and geometry using blackboards and performers as part of the architechture.
Creating geometric spaces with the boards the performers formed a Hexagon.


Marcus drew an equation showing the 7 performers of the 19th step. S1= Sarah, Flute, R1 = Richard, Horn, S2 = Scott, Percussion, R2= Rose, Dancer, D= Dylan Dancer, M1 = Marina, Dancer, M2 = Marcus, Mathematician.

Performance thoughts and props

Just been helping write a brief for a performance project at Reading came across this

"One of the most well known Happenings was Theater Piece No.1, 1952 a performance at Black Mountain College by John Cage (one of Kaprow's teachers). Cage stood reading from a ladder, Charles Olson read from another ladder, Robert Rauschenberg showed some of his paintings and played scratched phonograph records, David Tudor performed on a prepared piano and Merce Cunningham danced. All these things took place at the same time, around the audience rather than on a stage."

Wondering if a step ladder could be used prob no money for umpire chair of my dreams....

Added pic as I like the idea of using tube of paper and also enigmatic 13 written on it...

Was thinking shall I bring 19 bagels Marcus? or more maybe 100......?

I remember you mention bicycle innertubes, may be get some inflatable rings again, plastic hoola hoops?

Above is pic of the chalkboard compass can only get it in America and they won't ship it over here anyone see something similar? It can draw circles up to 63" in diameter.

I'm looking in to bamboo cane for long chalk stick, have an aluminium strip about 2metres that would make a good straight edge if needed?

Shall I also order A1 stacks of paper?

Another website and interesting video

http://www.temporarysite.org/index.htm I like this website one too for its simple design and noticed this video on it which made me think of the performers manipulating the boards? It was made in 1964 by the sculptor Robert Morris the text and voice of William Burroughs reading from Nova Express. It made me think of a few things, he's using light weight sheet ours is 1cm thick much heavier will need 2 people to manipulate, could we have some lighter sheets too...... its really interesting how he disappears and reappears goes from 2d to 3d, he is wearing gloves, we need to film performance in sections to create a video of it rather than try and do it as audience member.

Also some Tango imagery

We discussed using Tango clothes too here's some images of them any thoughts...?

Ideas for costumes

Here are some ideas for the type of clothes, I was imagining black and white for dancers thought black would be interesting as it would become dusty with chalk as performance progresses. Imagined Marcus in much more colour like he usually wears maybe braces?

Infinity Dance of Carols made me think of Whirling Dervish

Remembered seeing Whirling Dervish in Cairo apparently Dervish means Doorway

As explained by Sufis:

At the beginning of the Sema, by holding his arms crosswise, the semazen appears to represent the number one, thus testifying to God's unity. While whirling, his arms are open: his right arm is directed to the sky, ready to receive God's beneficence; his left hand, upon which his eyes are fastened, is turned toward the earth.

Quoting From Marcus
"In the essays in my addition of Labyrinths there is an essay by Borges dedicated to The Fearful Sphere of Pascal. It traces back how the sphere has been an important symbol for many philosophers. Parmenides: The divine being is like the mass of a well-rounded sphere whose force is constant from the centre in any direction. The music of the spheres. Kepler's model of the universe as interconnected spheres."

Dodecahedron

Found these images on Wikipedia am enjoying the shape of the Dodecaheron, would be interesting to make one that would be human size from some light material, plastic or hardboard that would be hinged, (maybe covered with blackboard or a wipe clean surface that could be written/projected on) that comes apart to create the 2d flat shape, joined to create the 3d shape while the performance adds the 4thd ??

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?