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.

Catalogue

There is an interesting issue of the catalogue for the library. How would you summarize which book you are referring to? Is a title enough? What would the title of the book be? One starts to run into difficulty because every possible book is in this library. Since titles are generally at most a couple of lines long, you'll end with many of the books with the same title. In fact is there a way to uniquely identify books in this library? Beyond reproducing the whole text, probably not. Some books you will be able to write a short programme which will reproduce the whole text. For example the book with MCV repeated continuously has a short programme which can be used to reconstruct the book: just keep repeating MCV.

This gets into interesting issues of measures of randomness and complexity. There are ways to measure randomness by looking at the shortest programme that can reproduce the sequence. I wrote an article on issues related to this and Memory in the recent issue of Drawbridge. It raises the question of which books do you pick out as having meaning and which are just random nonsense. The issue of music and noise obviously relate to this. But equally which mathematical proofs do we mark out as special and worthy of note and which are boring and tautological? There is a aesthetic judgement being made in the choice of mathematical pathways. I could get a computer to churn out theorems for me but which are worthy of me sending off to be published? The monkey and the mathematical typewriter.

Here is a link to the Infinite Monkey Theorem

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