Reading “bang” for one hour.

@ Same but Different – Equinox to Equinox, short duration performance festival, March 24, the Hof in Dordrecht. Organisation 222lodge Dordrecht.
No fixed programme – everything takes place simultaneously, collaborations can arise spontaneously.

Here with Ienke Kastelein, Topp & Dubio, Yelena Myshko and …

Participants: Marita Bullmann, Fred Vos, August S. Geerlings, Ienke Kastelein, Frans van Lent, Ieke Trinks Van Der Meer Wijnia Visser, Yvo van der Vat, Nico Parl, Yvette Teeuwen, Philemon Mukarno, Annie Abrahams, Yelena Myshko, Sarah Ndele, Topp & Dubio.

More photos by Nico Parleviet https://222lodge.nl/index.php/2024/03/25/equinox-24-03-24/

Filed under: Event, performance, Poetry, 222lodge, bang, Being Human, equinox

vivre entre – from estranger to e-stranger

Le samedi 26 septembre je participera au festival Magdalena Project Montpellier à La Bulle Bleue, 285 rue du Mas de Prunet à Montpellier. Sur réservation 0467421861.
14:00 – 19:00 Formes courtes : 10 à 30 min. Performances autour de créations en cours.

Je présenterai vivre entre – from estranger to e-stranger, une conférence performée autour de mon livre from estranger to e-stranger – living in between languages sur invitation de Marion Coutarel.

Photos de Suzon Fuks – D’autres dans son flickr ici.
Le score, texte de la performance : .pdf

… Un (e)stranger est invisible, exotique, inidentifié, impoli, hybride, flou, subversif, complexe, pliable, dur et fragile …

The Magdalena Project, Montpellier. 21 – 26 septembre

Filed under: Conference / lecture, performance, la bulle bleue, magdalena project

Shirley Clarke – Is this reality?

I would have liked to know her.
Shirley Clarke has been making videowork in the 70ties and 80ties, that you might think I am building upon, if you didn’t know I only became aware of her work a few days ago.
I was looking for information on a photo where she was kissing with Nam June Paik in a splitscreen installation by David Cort. For this I contacted Deedee Halleck who said I should look into Shirley’s work. She was right. I was especially smitten by what I learned of her participative and open video practice*. It’s somehow very close to how I treat webcam performance.

This is a photo by Peter Simon from a blogpost written by Deedee Halleck. Her post also contains more images and some anecdotes on the inspiring TeePee workshops.

I found Beth Capper‘s interesting article Building The Pleasure Palace Theater of the Future: Archiving Shirley Clarke’s Early Video Work, but unfortunately the archival website she planned to make doesn’t seem to exist anymore.

And there is Andrew Gurian‘s who describes a night long workshop : Thoughts on Shirley Clarke and The TP Videospace Troupe, that contains also this citation from an interview with her published in Radical Software (New York: Gordon and Breach, Science Publishers, Inc.; Vol. II, No. 4, 1973) p. 27.
“Well, one unique capability of video is that we are able to put many different images from many different camera and playback sources into many different places and into many separate spaces (monitors) and we can see what we are doing as we are doing it. We need to develop better motor connections among our eyes and our hands and bodies—we need balance and control to move our images from monitor to monitor or pass our camera to someone else. But mainly we need the skill to see our own images in our own monitors and at the same time see what everyone else is doing. We need to acquire the ability to see in much the same way that a jazz musician can hear what he is playing and at the same time hear what the other musicians are doing and together they make music.”

In Noël Burch and André S. Labarthe’s documentary Rome is Burning: A Portrait of Shirley Clarke from 1970, you can see her talk (Yoko Ono, among others is listening) about the power of the camera (the eye) – Is this reality? – feminism? (7 min. extract)

Complete 53 min on vimeo.

In 2020 I found via that thousands of fragments of the Tee Pee Video Space Troupe fragments ended up in the archives of the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research. https://archive.org/details/wcftr?and%5B%5D=Tee+Pee

*“Clarke’s workshops revolved around nondirected, open-ended play—of the kind Game Studies would call “paratelic,” as distinguished from goal-oriented or “telic” play.“… “adaptive play systems that allowed participants to develop methods for coping and surviving in the world by proposing that error could be enabling and, even, fun and enjoyable“
Beth Capper (2013) Ultimate Participation Video: Shirley Clarke’s Tee Pee Video Space Troupe, Art Journal, 72:1, 46-63.

Filed under: Articles / Texts, Of interest, performance, Video, Andrew Gurian, Beth Capper, DeeDee Halleck, Shirley Clarke, Tee Pee Video Space Troupe

empathy and intimacy in networked performances

propinquity, cross-reality, tele-presence, synaesthesia, ideasthesia

After reading Frans de Waal’s book on The Bonobo and the Athesist, I wondered if it would help me to better understand what is happening in networked webcam performance thinking about it in terms of empathy. So I wrote a status :

Would “empathy” be a word to describe what is needed (put at stake) in networked webcam performances?
The discussion this triggered made me realise a lot had happened since we organised the CyPosium in 2012. There seems to be a very lively bunch of people, with new approaches and ways of thinking, working in this field.

Participants :
Suzon Fuks – Waterwheel platform
Daniel Pinhero and Lisa Parra of LAND project
Helen Varley Jamieson – Upstage platform
Ienke Kastelein artist – performer
Martina Ruhsam performer – choreographer
Michael Baird musician
Roger Mills director of ethernet orchestra
Randall Packer of postREALITY.tv
Sara Malinarich from the Intact project
Jason Crouch of Contact Manchester
Jesse Ricke of CultureHub New York.

I screencaptured the whole thread and post it here as 12 .jpg’s. (interesting links to videos, discussions, academic approaches and practice)

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After the discussion we started a closed facebook group. If you are interested, please ask to join us, you are very welcome.

The propinquity effect is the tendency for people to form friendships or romantic relationships with those whom they encounter often, forming a bond between subject and friend. Feeling close in networked performance might depend on “the percieved feedback”.

The public can’t be an object/subject for empathy, there are too many different people inside it – empathic skills projected on a public easily become manipulative, become something else.

Physical distance between the persons performing and also between them and the persons watching does allow for intimacy in a very special way. Maybe the intimacy is even connected to a shared sense of awkwardness that the situation implies.

Empathy is a quality, a capacity of one person (as is intelligence, sensibility), not something between persons / it is the capacity “a receptiveness to the rhythms, energy, utterances of the other person” – it is a prerequisite for intimacy.

Rather than empathy it’s about a process of increasing synaesthesia.

What telepresents CAN NOT be present, but we cling stubbornly to this utopia. (Jorge Ruiz Abanades)

Maybe one day there will be another CyPosium …

Filed under: performance, cyposium, Daniel Pinheiro, empathy, Helen Varley Jamieson, Ienke Kastelein, Intimacy, Jason Crouch, Jesse Ricke, Jorge Ruiz Abanade, Lisa Parra, Martina Ruhsam, networked performance, propinquity, Randall Packer, Roger Mills, Sara Malinarich, Suzon Fuks, tele-presence

besides, the city is not a tree – #6pmeu

besides, the city is not a tree

July 22, 6pm (CET). A  performance by Annie Abrahams and Martina Ruhsam.
In collaboration with OUDEIS, laboratoire pour les arts numériques, électroniques et médiatiques in Le Vigan, France. Live documentation and reactions via https://twitter.com/oudeis_levigan.
Streaming Ivan Chabanaud / mosaika.tv. Duration around 20 min.

A follow-up of Martina and Annie’s Turbulence commission besides, the person I am becoming.

On Object Agency. Collected words and objects – overheard phrases, poetry, academic citations, a piece of concrete, foam, money, a lamp. What if objects ? …

For besides, the person I am becoming, for one month we collected text – overheard phrases, poetry, magazine, academic citations and objects. While preparing we decided the objects should not be personal, not be too beautiful, as ordinary, casual, daily as possible. We wanted the objects to act as much as the words we selected from our collection. This resulted in what Igor Stromajer called a “theory-meditation“. https://vimeo.com/131117816 For besides, the city is not a tree we want to try out another more narrative version of the text collection, to speed up the rhythm and to see what meaning might arise from such a text object layering.

Event in the frame of 6PM Your Local Time Europe: a distributed contemporary art exhibition, taking place all over Europe in art institutions, galleries and artist studios at the same time, and documented online under the same hashtag.

Watch the performance here : http://bram.org/besides. While watching, please post images, text and videos on your Twitter and Instagram using the hashtag #6pmeu. The images feed will be transmitted in real time to www.6pmyourlocaltime.com.

6PM Your Local Time is curated by Fabio Paris for Link Art Center. More information http://www.linkartcenter.eu/archives/3580.

Filed under: Event, performance, #6pmeu, besides, Martina Ruhsam, networked performance, object agency, OUDEIS, some thing

besides, – 3 online performances

besides, Three online performances. A Turbulence commission with funds from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Annie Abrahams and Martina Ruhsam.

June 11 2015 : besides, the person I am becoming. Duration 20 minutes. The audience can interact via a chatwindow.

June 12 2015 : besides, moved by some thing. An intimate conversation on death and illness. Duration undetermined. No interaction with the public.

June 13 2015 : besides, Dear Body, Duration 3 minutes. With public chatwindow, so we can discuss afterwards.

19h CET – 1pm EDT – online bram.org/besides
Streaming Ivan Chabanaud / mosaika.tv

Three online experiments by Annie Abrahams and Martina Ruhsam, who will investigate the performative potential of computer-mediated performance. By listening to each other´s gestures (in a visual and acoustic sense) they will choreograph each other despite being geographically far away from each other – Annie will be in Montpellier, Martina in Berlin. More information (motivation, preparations, intentions, context, tests, images, bios)

“everything is on-the-fly, we don’t rehearse, we prepared technics and format together, content is taken care of individually – nothing can go wrong – we create experience … an encounter with the invisible public“

Filed under: performance, besides, commission, cyberformance, dear body, death and illness, Martina Ruhsam, NEA, some thing, turbulence.org

CyPosium the book Launch

The net artists Gretta Louw and Helen Varley Jamieson warmly invite you to PLATFORM (Munich) for an evening of networked performance: an exhibition tour and the launch of CyPosium – the book, with online performative readings.
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Friday 12 Dezember, 19:00
Gastatelier, PLATFORM
Kistlerhofstr. 70 > Haus 60 > 3. Stock
81379 München

Join the event online from 7.45 PM : this link will be live 15 min­utes before show­time.

The read­ers are: Alberto Vazquez (Argentina), Annie Abra­hams (France), Christina Papa­gian­nouli (UK), Clara Gomes (Por­tu­gal), Helen Var­ley Jamieson (Ger­many), James Cun­ning­ham (Aus­tralia), Liz Bryce (Aotearoa New Zealand), Mil­jana Perić (Ser­bia), Nathalie Fougeras (Swe­den) and Vicki Smith (Aotearoa New Zealand).

Edited by Annie Abrahams and Helen Varley Jamieson, CyPosium- the book presents selected material from the CyPosium, a one-day symposium held in 2012 to discuss cyberformance. The book is published by Link Editions in partnership with La Panacée (Montpellier). It is avail­able as a free pdf or full colour hard copy.

The contributors of the book are Adriene Jenik, Alan Sondheim, Alberto Vazquez, Annie Abrahams, Auriea Harvey and Michaël Samyn, Cherry Truluck, Clara Gomes, Helen Varley Jamieson, James Cunningham, Joseph DeLappe, Liz Bryce, Maria Chatzichristodoulou, Maja Delak and Luka Prinčič, Miljana Perić, Rob Myers, Roger Mills, Ruth Catlow, Stephen A. Schrum and Suzon Fuks. Some of these contributors, and organisers of the CyPosium, will appear live on Friday evening from their locations around the world, to read extracts from the book.

Down­load the press release.

The book launch is organised in the frame of the exhibition Net Work, curated by Gretta Louw. This exhibition deals with work that is located at the intersection of performance and net art. The emerging genre of networked performance makes strong statements about the development of art history, and also about our relationship to technology and its impact on culture, society, labor and psychology.

Filed under: Articles / Texts, Event, Exhibition, Net art, performance, Alberto Vazquez, Christina Papa­gian­nouli, Clara Gomes, cyposium, Gretta Louw, Helen Varley Jamieson, James Cun­ning­ham, Mil­jana Perić, Nathalie Fougeras, Net Work, Platform, Vicki Smith

Hommage à Yann Le Guennec II.

photo Hortense Gauthier

Le samedi 4 octobre 2014 à 20h30 pendant le festival INTON’ACTION #4 à DATABAZ à Angoulême Annie Abrahams, Philippe Boisnard, Anouk Nina Gonzàlez, Joel Hubaut, Christine Quoiraud, Marguerite Bobey et Aymeric d’Afflon ont lu:

“who’s afraid of ? La vie en intelligence collective” – les archives. Hommage à Yann Le Guennec.
– une pièce de théâtre en deux actes d’après un échange émail de 2005 entre les membres du groupe Lieudit.

J’avais écrit la pièce en 2005 sur un coup de colère, comme seule issue possible d’une discussion sur le sort du site de lieudit. Quand je l’ai relue je découvre qu’elle met à nu bien des aspects de la problématique de l’archivage encore actuelle, surtout actuelle, aujourd’hui. Je découvre aussi qu’elle contient un très beau portrait de Yann Le Guennec, le plasticien internet qui est décédé le 12 juillet dernier à seulement 45 ans. J’aimais bien Yann.

Voici LieuditYannDatabazYann.pdf qui contient le texte que nous avons lu, assis sur une estrade fragile, instable, dressée par Philippe.

L’annonce en ligne de la performance, plus d’info.

Filed under: performance, DATABAZ, intelligence collective, Inton'action, lieudit.org, Yann Le Guennec

Kaj misliš s tem? / What do you mean? – sound piece

Sound piece after : On April 17th 2014 there was a performance Kaj misliš s tem? / What do you mean? at Kult3000, Metelkova, Ljubljana, with Annie Abrahams, Martina Rusham, Jana Wilcoxen and Chantal van Mourik.

Annie, Jana, Chantal and Martina wrote text, using only their mothertongue, about their experience of living in a country where they couldn’t speak their monthertongue and had to learn a new language. They used a shared textpad. They translated their text phrase by phrase via Google in Slovenian. The Slovenian text was fed to Alpineon’s TTS software made by Proteus and diffused live to the performance public. Brane Zorman recorded this sound.

Yet another translation into English gave a poem called You have to accept (a FEW times). New language that you can find here.

The soundpiece was presented in the exhibition Mie lahkoo pomagate ? (can you help me ?) from 21 October to 7 November 2014 in Aksioma Project Space, in Ljubljana. Production CONA.

Filed under: Collective writing, performance, sound piece, Alpineon TTS, CONA, Kaj misliš s tem?, Kult3000, language, Proteus, What do you mean ?

Keeping in touch (with an unknown other)

Keeping in touch (with an unknown other) – Annie Abrahams

LIVE PERFORMANCE
Saturday 8 Nov, 5-7pm & Sunday 9 Nov, 4-6pm

Networked Bodies – Digital Performance Weekender at Watermans, 40 High Street Brentford TW8 0DS London

Curated by Maria Chatzichristodoulou (aka Maria X) and Irini Papadimitriou

Two people will create together an image of touch using webcams. Under physical constraints of the used technology, which recalls those suffered by our body during daily computer use, they will touch each other in a vacuum. The public can see both, the created image in a video projection of two webcams and the two bodies positioned in space resembling living sculptures and minimal dance.
Streaming: Ivan Chabannaud mosaika.tv

Complete programme

Related to Touched and Manipulated. Merci à La Tapisserie.

Filed under: performance, Irini Papadimitriou, Maria Chatzichristodoulou, mosaika.tv, Networked Bodies, telematic touch, touch, toucher, Watermans