[-empyre-] Introducing Kondition Pluriel re: Networked Performance

[Christina McPhee <christina112@earthlink.net>]

Empyreans, 

Kondition Pluriel (CA) is joining us for the rest of September along with
Company in Space, whose work has been described in detail by co principal
Hellen Sky over the past two weeks.

Please join Martin and Marie-Claude in a continuing exploration of gesture,
performance, the body, voyeurism, telematics and choreography.

Thanks to Helen Varley Jameson too for bringing her work into the mix.

Martin writes, "We are currently in a   research residency phase exploring
the viewer¹s role within a highly   technological environment. The
interactive manipulation of a media-based environments through   dance /
performance and its relationship to time, memory and space is   an ongoing
concern."

One question I find compelling is, how do you work with the sense of place
in digital space....how does the viewer's (or participant's) memory play a
role in the forming, or creation of a sense of time and space in the
interactive work?

I know this is a broad and nuanced question, please go with it whereever it
may lead.

And welcome, Marie-Claude and Martin....and thanks very much to Hellen for
taking the lead.

Christina




Martin Kusch studied art history, philosophy and painting in Berlin   before
beginning his work in media art 14 years ago.
He has presented  his installations and video works extensively, mainly in
Europe, and is  a teacher in the Department for Visual Media at the
University of  Applied Arts in Vienna. His artistic practice is
based on the creation   of interactive installations and environments,
incorporating   technology, architecture, site-specificity, and live
performance.

  Marie-Claude Poulin has formal training and experience as a performer
and choreographer in contemporary dance. She has toured internationally
and worked with various choreographers, notably Benoît Lachambre, José
Navas and Meg Stuart. She has also taught somatic education in various
institutions, and completed graduate studies on movement in relation to
the nervous system. Her choreographic language is based on the human
 body as part of or extended by a device, and the
 body¹s continuous   attempts to adapt and reorganize itself.


 kondition pluriel
 
 kondition pluriel was created after Martin Kusch and Marie-Claude
 Poulin met while participating in the
 multidisciplinary research  project ³Körper-technik/Body-technology² in
Berlin in 1999. The two   decided to collaborate further, basing themselves
in Montreal. They   began their research as kondition pluriel in 2000, with
the aim of   transcending each of their disciplines - Martin¹s work in the
field of   media art involving responsive environments and installations,
and Marie-Claude¹s background in movement, dance and
scientific concepts ­   to create a new artistic language. Using
choreography and technological   tools developed specifically for its
projects, kondition pluriel   creates interdisciplinary works in which
movement, performance, digital   interactive technology and digital video
combine on equal footing to  form a new space and language. The movement of
a virtual body along   with that of a live performer generates video images
and soundscapes,   creating an activated and complex space. In another work,
a single  viewer becomes a performer in an interactive, site-specific media
environment with other performers.
 
 
 Objectives and methodology
 
 In our beginning stage, we underwent a research phase of empirical   tests.
The research began with very basic environments, investigating   live and
virtual presence using camera recognition systems. A live  performer¹s
actions affected how a performer in a video moved according   to a linear
relationship: when the performer moved to the right, so did   the virtual
body.
 Because we wanted to work with elaborate movement and choreography, it
became quick necessary to develop a more complex, gesture-based   analysis
system using sensors. With this technology, the relationship   we were
trying to establish between the virtual and live bodies was no   longer
linear but circuitous, not narrative, but however tout de meme   coherent.
The specific technology developed for this exploration into   the space
between media art and dance, between technology and the body,   resulted in
the choreographic installations schème (2001) and schème II   (2002). In
these works, live images, pre-recorded images,   three-dimensional
architectural representations, live and pre-recorded   sounds, and live
performers interact in a complex, activated   environment. Responsive
wireless technology combined  with temporal   movement, generating video
images and soundscapes.  new organic space   is created out of the bodies,
sounds, images, and their relationships.   The images of virtual
architecture change according to the space in   which the work is performed
(gallery / theater / exhibition space),   thus, in a way, making the space
itself into a performer. The space   becomes like a body, and the live body
becomes a space, between which   there is not always a clear, causal
relationship but an organic quality   and interdependence.
 
 The process of working with choreography, movement and bodies and the
process of working with technology and new media require quite   different
approaches. To combine both of these disciplines and remain
process-oriented as an artistic group is challenging, but provides
ground on which to explore the traditional codes of representation, the
nature of spectacle and the phenomenon of perception.  After focusing on
time-based works like schème and schème II, we are   now looking to
integrate the viewer into the performance more and more.   The complexity of
technology developed for schème and schème II is   being used to investigate
the single user¹s experience of the augmented   performance environment. The
active participation of the viewer as a   creator of his/her own spectacle
was explored in the previous work   entre-deux (2002), which took place in a
public storage space. The   lighting of the space created a double shadow of
the individual   spectator on a white screen. Through the shifting negative
of his/her   body, the viewer was able to see a video of two live performers
located   in a nearby space, who were able to see and move according to the
movements of the spectator. entre-deux questioned the spectator¹s role,
how far he or she is willing to go to create a performance, notions of
voyeurism and intimacy in a public space, and the impact of technology   on
conceptions of the body, time and space. We are currently in a   research
residency phase exploring the viewer¹s role within a highly   technological
environment. The interactive manipulation of a media-based environments
through   dance / performance and its relationship to time, memory and space
is   an ongoing concern. This new work will be discussed during the
 engagement with -empyre-

 




 Some links:
> 
> www.konditionpluriel.org
> (there will be more/new material visuals and texts
> on our webpage  
> available in about two weeks)
> 
> http://www.itaucultural.org.br/interatividades/
> cobertura_pluriel.cfm?cd_pagina=1798
> http://www.itaucultural.org.br/interatividades/
> fotos_pluriel.cfm?cd_pagina=1799
> 
> http://www.futurephysical.org/pages/programme/commissions/
> 
> kondition_pluriel.html
> http://www.fondation-langlois.org/e/projets/index.html