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 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 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 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 Eight Dancers and Marcus explore shape and pattern of the hexagon and the circle

Carol worked with the dancers Rose, Marina, Dylan and Marcus, drawing shapes with the body. Marina and Rose trace the sides of the Hexagon, and develop shapes creating a hybrid language.
Marcus and Dylan continue to develop their equation moves.

Marina and Dylan develop their dance of circular shapes.

Clips below show Marina as she traces the shape of a hexagon joined by Rose who traces her own hexagon shape. The final clip show Rose and Marina devloping an alphabet which will be accompanied by Sarah on flute.

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.

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.

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

hello this is my favourite any thoughts....

Maths Moments II

Shapes and the nature of space
(a) A collection of triangles, squares, pentagons, hexagons, septagons and octagons. How can you put them together to cover the floor? If all the shapes are the same then only triangles, squares or hexagons will work. But what if you mix them up?
(b) What 3 dimensional shapes can you build with the flat shapes? How many are there if the faces are all the same? Plato proved there are five shapes. Their symmetry makes them perfect as dice. Plato associated the shapes with fire – tetrahedron; earth – cube; air – octahedron; water – icosahedron; and finally the shape of the universe corresponded to the dodecahedron. If you mix shapes then Archimedes proved there are another 13 shapes you can make.
(c) What are the shapes of the universe? What is the shape of the library? If the library only has one floor, then it is like a flat universe. The library could extend without limit in all directions, the hexagons just tiling an infinite flat expanse. But more interestingly it might fold up on itself. It could be like the surface of a sphere or the surface of a torus. But how could the librarian tell which shape he lives in, stuck as he is on the surface of this universe? On a sphere if you draw a closed path, a loop, on the surface, then it is possible to continuously morph the loop until it vanishes to a point. On a torus there are loops that can’t be shrunk like this. These loops are like closed journeys on these surfaces. The way the hexagons are arranged and the doors going from one to another, it looks like the floors of the library are actually like torus shaped universes. As you travel through the hexagons you find yourself returning to the original hexagon from which you started. But what are the other possible shapes that you can use as plans for wrapping up the floors of the library? Poincare proved at the beginning of the twentieth century that any library can be morphed until it either looks like a sphere, or a torus with one hole, or a torus with two holes and so on. Perhaps you could see the librarian going through the proof of this projected up onto the walls.
(d) But the library is many layered, it is a 3 dimensional universe where you can go from one floor to the next…a third dimension. So how can this universe be wrapped up? Now we are having to wrap up a three dimensional universe in 4 dimensions. If we head up to the higher layers of the library we suddenly find ourselves returning to the layer we started at then the library is wrapped up into a higher dimensional bagel or torus. But what other shapes are possible? This is what Perelman answered in his solution to the Poincare conjecture, possible one of the greatest achievements in mathematics in the last century.
(e) There is also the interesting issue of whether the library is a Euclidean geometry or possible a non-Euclidean geometry. In non-Euclidean geometry, triangles have angles that don’t add up to 180 degrees. Consider triangles drawn on the surface of a sphere. See this link for an interesting article: plus article
(f) And what about fractals? Could the library reflect in some way some fractal characteristics?

The first book

Dorothy asked me some time ago what I thought was the first book in the library. A strange question. I found it very difficult to answer. I wasn't sure why. Then I realised that it was because my image of the library was very continuous. It was a shape without a beginning or an end. This is a universe without a boundary. You can't hit up against a deadend. I can keep on journeying through one door into the hexagon and out the opposite door. Or climb up and down between the layers of the library. But the library isn't infinite, just without a boundary. So if I keep on journeying I will eventually come back to where I started.

But as I thought a bit more about the first book and the beginning, I realised that the story of the Library Babel mirrors the two first steps we make in navigating the world around us: to count and to explore the space around us. I believe that animals are almost programmed by evolution to be mathematicians. Counting is essential for survival. To assess whether there are more of you than there are of the enemy will inform the decision to fight or fly. To assess the the nature of the space around us allows us to judge whether we are out of range of our prey or our predator. Those that can count survive. As Plato wrote across the top of the Academy: Let no one ignorant of geometry enter here.

So maybe the first book contains the numbers 1, 2, 3,... and pictures of triangles (although the books have no pictures...or do they?)

Galileo's famous quote: The universe cannot be read until we have learnt the language and become familiar with the characters in which it is written. It is written in mathematical language, and the letters are triangles, circles and other geometrical figures, without which means it is humanly impossible to comprehend a single word.

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?

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”