Dialogue I (SD-PMR)

Dear Paulo.
I have been on our blog and I enjoyed reading your reflections and also watching the photos. A lot of the pictures show beautiful environments.

Dear Siri
Thanks, yes it has been a wonderful journey of discovery.

Some feedback:
I start to look at Toddlers room and what we experience there: there are a lot of negative things to say about Toddlers and I know that this time we will work in a more open form where we might go deeper in interaction. What I find as a positive thing with Toddlers is the way we managed spacing: the tent in itself is nothing to repeat, but we have experienced that we have had a good spacing for a meeting between the dancer and the visitors. I hope that this time we will go for an installation that is more exciting. 

I believe that Toddlers has its own characteristics, the same way BBPP or ALBB do. They are performing pieces and although the space in all of them was considered to be important the challenge in ZYG is different and new to all of us. By assuming that ZYG is an installation I believe that we are emphasising the "experience of the space" as much as anything else. 

Toddlers use objects inside, as I understand you, we will will maybe have some instruments or integrated sounds around, but not objects? So spacing have a lot to say for interaction, if we go for that. If there is only one performer, we should create an installation that gives her opportunity to work without distance to the children, this we managed in Toddlers. A concentrated space.

I am not saying that we should not use objects, what I am saying is that it would be nice if the space itself would provide the means and opportunities for interaction as if the space was an object, The object, which can present nuances and offer different possibilities. That is why I was looking at surfaces that have empty spaces or posted several Ernesto Nesto´s examples. Playing with the space could be interesting. I also agree that we should design something that allows the performer to work directly with the children (the same way you did in Toddlers or we did in ALBB) but I think it would be nice if the performer would also have a deep connection to the space (as if she was also part of it)

Without being to sure, I thing to create a lot of small installations around in more difficult for the the dancer than creating a shelter/ a cocoon for everybody. To creep in is something that is very exiting for everybody.

You will see a bit more of this in the post after the discussion with Raquel Gomes (she will act as a consultant, she is a painter/sculptor, she works a lot with very young children, she is a mother and I just found out today that she is pregnant). I agree that the space available for interaction in Toddlers allows for a lot of possibilities and what I am thinking at the moment is of similar nature. One thing we should question, though, is if we should conceptually look at Sandra as a "dancer" or at my work and Nils as "music". In the project I used the term "interactor" to designate the performer, the reason being that maybe we are looking at something a bit different and more like a "conversation" than a "speech"

I hope we also can discuss a costume when we have decided the space, it doesn’t need to be very theatrical, but there should be a connection between the performer and the space.

Yes, it is true. And we also have to bear in mind the fact that there is not a budget a such for the creation of costumes 

How do we want to explore the installation, that is maybe a key question? Is Zyg like an open playground where the dancer is improvising with the children or do we want a structure where the installation is in close connection with the performer and the visitors.

That is really an important question but I think there are here questions of vocabulary that need to be clarified. I don´t think it should be an "open playground" in the physical sense, i.e., to be "inside", "contained""entering a space" is the nature of the experience. In this physical sense, yes we need a structure that is in close connection (symbolic mostly) with the performer and the audience (like it is in Toddlers). But it can be "open" in many ways, both physical (like I tried to investigate in the post about spaces that are delimited by non-contiguous surfaces) and performative (if we develop a "language" that allows for the performer to "communicate" according to what happens

I move to something else: As I understand you, we will have an open blog later on? Will there be a photographer following the process? For the art council here an open blog with written texts and pictures could be very nice. To write daily texts from our process and the artistic choices we struggle with could be interesting.

Yes, to have a “logbook” of what happens is the idea of the blog. I thought about keeping it to ourselves at the beginning of the project (until we start the residence) for several reasons, including us getting used to it. I totally agree about making it a “diary” when we start the work at CCB. I don´t think we can afford a photographer on a regular basis, but I believe that within ourselves we can guarantee that a proper coverage of the process is achieved. A professional photographer should come at a stage where the work is completed and being shown. The same applies to video.

I hope you have a nice day, lets keep in touch.

Yes, thanks