THE OPPOSITE OF A BLACK HOLE: A PARTICIPATORY SCREENDANCE LAB

12 JANUARY 20223
FIELDWORKS DANCE, LONDON
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CREDITS

Ideation: Rebecca Douglass + Tasha Hess-Neustadt

Facilitation: Rebecca Douglass, Tasha Hess-Neustadt + Madison Pomarico

Live Sound Design: Jake Burgess

Participating Artists:
Franck Boulegue
Daniela Carler
Thea Kallhed Moller
Claudia Kappenberg
Dominic Manson
Ella Posti

Video Editing: Madison Pomarico


Soundtrack: Jake Burgess
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Thanks to the following organisations for generously supporting this project:

ARTS COUNCIL ENGLAND

FIELDWORKS DANCE

FESTIVAL DE VIDEO DANCE DE BOURGOUGNE

As part of our Arts Council England funding and overall project, we were able to expand upon our digital-dance research initiated in the creation of ‘The Opposite of a Black Hole’ through leading a digital-dance research lab that was free to attend, open to artists of all disciplines, and structured to make room for both in-person and online participants.

The intention of the lab was to continue delving into our film's themes, techniques and ideas but in a ‘live’ context, finding ways that technology can be integrated into live performance circumstances. The lab centred around ‘stations’ which participants could engage with based upon loose suggestions. These included:

VOCAL: writing scripts and/or reading text into a mic. Sound artist Jake Burgess live-manipulated sounds into sonic landscapes amplified in the space.
MOVEMENT: physical scores typed by virtual participants embodied by in-person participants.
GREEN SCREEN: playing with this as a tool for instant composition.
PROJECTIONS: selecting/projecting videos into the space, reacting physically to this.
CAMERA: accessing multiple cameras including professional but also introducing phone cameras. Capturing things from multiple angles - camera as active component, not just documentation.

The ethos of the lab was to cultivate a playground-like atmosphere that would allow artists to build familiarity with tools otherwise reserved for ‘professionals’ in digital fields, demystifying the integration of tech in live performance.

The raw footage from the lab was collectively generated and shared as open source amongst all the participants. We were (and hope to continue) experimenting with a new non-hierarchical approach to output, in which each person involved has equal access and permission to reappropriate the footage for their own creative means. The outcome will be a collection of short and unique Screendance productions that, whilst filmed within the same parameters, have their own identity.

As a way of conclusion, this lab was the first of what we hope will be a series of open research sessions where we constantly question the role of performer and cameraperson, blur the lines between being in the space physically or virtually, and create opportunities for dance artists to learn about digital equipment in a safe and experimental space.