Summer Intensive

SI Documentation Published

Mon, 25 Apr 2011 10:51:00 -0400

SI (short for Summer Intensive) was the initiative by Christine De Smedt co-curated by Myriam Van Imschoot and produced by Les Ballets C de la B to host artists from various backgrounds to meet for exchange and develop (a part of) a project in a brief amount of time.

What started as a two-week process later developed into ongoing interaction and exchange. This publication is a documentation of this process.

Youu can get it on Les Ballets C de la B website or view some excerpts here.

The printed version also includes a DVD with films made by Sergio Cruz, Dmitry Paranyushkin, Nikolaus Gangsterer, and Myriam Van Imschoot.

About SI /// Download PDF

Artists’ Contributions /// Download PDF

Re-figuring the figure by Pieter Ampe and Dmitry Paranyushki...

Wed, 15 Dec 2010 15:17:00 -0500

Re-figuring the figure by Pieter Ampe and Dmitry Paranyushki (with special attention on the acoustic qualities of drawing).

Drawing figure 1. This initial drawing serves as a starting...

Wed, 15 Dec 2010 15:06:00 -0500

Drawing figure 1. This initial drawing serves as a starting point for a series of interpretations, conjectures, speculations performed by Christine De Smedt, Myriam Van Imschoot, Lilia Mestre, Pieter Ampe, Sergio Cruz, Lisi Estaras, Lenio Kaklea, Pieter Bogert, Vladimir Miller, Dmitry Paranyushkin and others.

Drawing Figures The act of drawing and the performative...

Wed, 15 Dec 2010 14:37:00 -0500

Figure 1 drawn by N. Gansterer

ReFigure on M.v Imschoot

ReFigure on Ampe/Paranyushkin

ReFigure on Mestre/Bogaert

ReFigure on Lisi Estaras&friend

ReFigure on Sergio Cruz

Figure of speech

Figure of speech

Figure of speech

Figure of movements

Drawing Figures

The act of drawing and the performative potential of drawing (as a quite simple, analogue maybe even archaic medium) is to be explored and expanded as a medium of communication of ideas. Herewith I am interested in the notion of the figure and the figurative in close reference to the concept of the body. The question of the action potential of a drawn diagrammatic figure (of thought) for a human figure is fascinating me.

I want to explore with others the idea of the “figure” as something dynamic/flexible which has always specific performative aspects eg semantic figures of gestures, figures of speech, figures of lines in space, figures of movement. Based on these dynamic figures I aim to explore the relationship between thinking, drawing, acting. (see figures)

When drawing a diagram I made this initial experience that it can serve (next to its original purpose to visualize an idea in a rather schematic form) also as a tool to explore meaning and can become a vehicle for decision making.
These ideas I wish to be practically further explored in the group by reconstructing, transforming, enhancing some of the figures which describe/depict an individual interpretation (=hypothesis).

Nikolaus Gansterer

Keywords from Pieter Van Bogaert

Tue, 21 Sep 2010 08:20:50 -0400

SITUATIONIST INTERNATIONAL – this is the first thing I had to think about when I saw the logo on the flyer for SI, a few weeks before the meeting actually took place. Many links between SI and SI still stand: spectacle becomes situation (as in Sartre’s “Theatre of situations”) – the construction of situations as a setting up of environments – the notion of space (and of the diagram) that plays an important role in their ideas on urbanism, psychogeography, dérive, … the notion of PLAY also: SI as a playground for adults…

MOVEMENT – where the ordinary becomes extra-ordinary, as in Sergio’s films; or the other way around: where the extra-ordinary becomes the ordinary as in Massumi’s idea on image value that replaces use-value…

REPETITION – there is a lot of repetition involved when one talks about performing arts; repetition in the sense of rehearsal. But the repetition I’m aiming at is somewhere else. There was a repetition in the way the days were structured: meals, meetings, discussions, presentations. But always with a difference; this is where the notion of VARIATION comes in; or the notion of COUNTERPOINT (which was so important for Christine, who has been repeating so often – in and on her work). When I think about repetition, I also have to think about the idea of the one minute presentations (which took place twice), or the ten minute dances Pieter initiated and which were performed by different persons in totally different ways, or the stopwords drifting around in physical and mental space, that kept on repeating themselves: < yes, but >, but still…, although, and yet…, and so… and of course: OK. (+ EXORCISM? SPECTROLOGY? = UNLEARNING? -> repetition as what you want to get rid of; not repeating the teacher but deciding for yourself what to learn and what not). Rhythm!

OBSERVER – this has to do with my own role in SI and my experience as an observer. SI made more than ever clear that any observer is always already an actor and a spectator at the same time. You cannot isolate the one from the other. Therefore, this notion of the observer, is linked to notions of PUBLIC, of WORK, and (thinking more in particular about Matter of Act) CRITICALITY. AMBIGUITY may also become important here, as borders constantly shift or disappear. (also related: the observer as AGENT; the AGENCY created by subjects and objects…)

OPEN, EMPTINESS – these notions come with the notion of STRUCTURE in/behind SI. I had the feeling that, the less programmed, the less this meeting was centred towards a public, the more open it became (and paradoxically: the more receiving towards the public). The emptiness it brought with it, seemed very fruitful for the dynamic of SI.

SPACE – this is probably the key concept of SI, where all other concepts meet. Openness, emptiness, situation, playground repetition, variation, etc… There is also this notion of the BUBBLE and the FOAM that formed on its edges, like tiny ANTENNAS – made clear in Dmitry’s diagrams..

MANIFESTO – or maybe: the need for a PLATFORM – Swedish Dance History as a manifesto of/with manifestoes; as manifest bricks in and around space; as repetition (p. 964: to repeat is somehow a failure).

DIAGRAM – we saw several of them: in Dmitry’s work, or in Nikolaus’. Vladimir suggested it could be the link between SPACE and IMAGE – the other key concept in Dmitry’s final diagram of SI. (the third key concept in there was OBJECT)

MATTER and/or AFFECT – I think of course of Lilia’s Moving You, which says a lot about relations between subjects and objects. I also think of the way things, objects, get agency in Latour’s thinking: the shift he makes from matter of fact to matter of concern. (see Brian Holmes’ affectivist manifesto)

SIMULTANEITY – is linked to SPACE, but also with TIME. Something that came up when I watched Pieter’s ten minute dances: thinking and talking and dancing at the same time – therefore it also has to do with openness, trust, doing (acting), …

LEARNING – this is what SI was all about: coaching, exchange of experiences (see also REPETITION or RE-ENACTMENT) (cf. UNLEARNING -> EXORCISM, SPECTROLOGY: the ideas that haunt us). Rancière’s INTELLECTUAL EMANCIPATION

INTERVIEW – this is a suggestion from Myriam. The interview is not only important in her own artistic practice, but also played a major role in Christine’s work; Dimitri created his SI diagram through interviews; Vladimir’s communication sculptures (most notably the dialog box) triggered interviews, etc… CF. PORTRAIT???

SHARING – this is something else that came up while discussing these keywords on Saturday. Not everything is shared; there is also a space of non-sharing, of privacy or secrecy. If not this meeting would have become rather totalitarian. It has to do with the partiality of observing. (cf. PARTAGE in Rancière)

CURATORIAL PRACTICE? Cf. 6M1L: curating processes, not products.

FUN! Extra-ordinary makes people laugh – performers succeed when the laugh becomes ordinary (check: Bergson: Le rire?); we had a lot of laughing during SI!

Second week of Summer Intensive

Sun, 05 Sep 2010 13:43:21 -0400

by Paul Brunner

by Pieter Ampe

by Paul Brunner

by Pieter Amp

by Paul Brunner

by Christine

by Paul Brunner

by Pieter Amp

by Simone

by Christine

Second week of Summer Intensive

voicing objects/ moving spaces / a practice project by...

Sat, 04 Sep 2010 07:55:00 -0400

voicing objects/ moving spaces / a practice

project by Lilia

concerns:

how to render visible the affective movement of a working area? how do people do establish the relation between their desire, their act, their needs , the other? Can we reveal its social/ affective environment through a set up of sounds / vocabulary given to objects?

sound as thought, sound as action, sound as the matter in between which I like to call relation.

the process of learning a vocabulary/ language/ code for the distribution of affect in a given area that has its own materials, set ups and energy.

the phenomenon of being a part of and being an agent of change between other multiple agents of change.

the place of the other (objects, thought, matter,…) in the making of a situation.

affect as orientation towards something. Constant movement (=change).

the act of modeling ways of living and modes of action within the existing real.

Based on the interviews with Summer Intensive participants made...

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 17:55:00 -0400

Based on the interviews with Summer Intensive participants made by Dmitry Paranyushkin with ThisIsLike the visualizations above were created in Gephi. They represent the field of interests, concerns, and research for each participant that came up during the interviews.

The terms / concepts that are bigger within the network are sort of “junctures” through which most of the other concepts are realized, sort of important passageways for the meaning (in terms of network analysis they have high “betweenness centrality”). These are not necessarily the most frequently mentioned ones, but rather the ones without which the network as a whole could not function, the most influential nodes within the network.

The communities (indicated with the color of the nodes) are comprised of the nodes that are very well interconnected between each other, more so than with the rest of the network.

The table at the bottom gives an insight about some main parameters of each participant’s network of interests. Those that have low power law distribution are the ones where the importance is distributed more or less equally between the concepts. While the ones with the high power law distribution indicate the networks where one or two concepts have much higher significance than the rest. The clustering coefficient indicates how embedded the nodes are into their neighborhood. When it is low it indicates a network that has more sparse connections, has more branches on the periphery, and could be more open to learning.

To see the network of the whole group of artists from Summer Intensive click here.

First week of Summer Intensive. Photos by Pavel Brunner.

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 17:35:48 -0400

First week of Summer Intensive. Photos by Pavel Brunner.

"“The interesting thing was that artists did their experiments, and scientists did their..."

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 17:30:00 -0400

“

“The interesting thing was that artists did their experiments, and scientists did their experiments. It wasn’t necessarily about forcing artists and scientists to collaborate. They all did their own thing, but yet it happened in the same space. And there is the possibility that certain encounters happen. What I have experienced is that very often these things take a lot of time. For me, it’s never a question of doing these things in a rush, because very often they trigger something. It is like a butterfly effect. It is maybe five or ten years later, and two of the people who met there are doing a book together.
For me, it is very important to trigger these possible sparks, and it is very organic. Freeman Dyson was saying on Edge that the 21st century will be biological. I think it is also very possible to think about exhibitions and conferences in biological terms, as growing over time, and not just as these sorts of one-off events. We are living in an event culture where we always switch on and off, and it’s very unproductive because we move on to the next thing.

For me, it is very important to work on these things as if it were long distance running, over many years. Little by little, new ramifications happen. So, the answer to your question of how one can bring these things together is by, first of all, not rushing them, and, secondly, not jumping from one project to the next, but instead having sustained projects that evolve over a long time, through different chapters. It’s about making mistakes, learning from those mistakes, and then making new mistakes.”

”

- From an interview with Hans-Ulrich Obrist via Johannes Wengel

Life Skills Series

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 14:30:00 -0400

“How to Be Lost” by Pieter Ampe

“How to Read” by Christine De Smedt

“How to Rest at a Working Place” by Lilia Mestre

“How to Do Something You’ve Never Done Before” by Vladimir Miller

“How to Enjoy a Moment Outside” by Sergio Cruz

The network visualization of Summer Intensive participants...

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 19:14:00 -0400

The network visualization of Summer Intensive participants interviews by Dmitry Paranyushkin.

During the interviews the key concepts, terms, and names were notated using ThisIsLike.Com and related to one another. After that the data was exported from ThisIsLike into Gephi and the resulting network was visualized.

The nodes which play an important role in connecting the network into one entity (higher betweenness centrality) are larger on the image. These are not necessarily the most frequently mentioned terms, but more the ones without which the network would not be able to exist and be one connected entity. In other words, these “connecting” concepts were often evoked by participants to describe their field of interest or knowledge that usually involved other concepts. Also, these are the terms which connect different fields of interests to one another, sort of “points of encounter” which have the most potential for the production of activity within the group.

Following this logic, “Image”, “Object” and “Reenactment” are the most important terms in bringing the network together. Also “Pieter Ampe” (because he’s introducing important peripheral information into the network) as well as “collaboration”, ”dramaturgy”, “counterpoint”, “subjectless subjectivity”, “real-time improvisation”, and “space”.
In contrast, the most frequently mentioned terms in the interviews were “performance”, and “image”.

Different “communities” of terms are shown in distinct colors, based on their interconnection. Those terms which are closely related to one another (within the context of the interviews) have the same color. The most prominent community is comprised of “space”, “performance”, “affect”, “network” and “diagram”. The second most prominent community is comprised of “object”, “subject”, “body”, “agency” and “sound”.

The network also has high power law distribution (4.717). This points to the fact that it has a few very well connected (frequently mentioned) terms and that the interest is unequally distributed among the terms (in other words, a few terms have significant “power” in the network). At the same time the clustering coefficient is not too high (0.158), the density is low (0.021) and the diameter is quite high (the maximum distance of travel from one node to another is 10). This indicates that the network is generally quite receptive to new information and the average number of steps that need to be taken to reach any concept from any starting point is 4.341 (so information readily propagates within the network, but takes time to assimilate).

Navigate the network in real time

Photos by Christine de Smedt

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 06:41:00 -0400

Photos by Christine de Smedt

Navigate the diagram of Summer Intensive relations…

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 19:54:21 -0400

Navigate the diagram of Summer Intensive relations…

An interview between Vladimir Miller and Dmitry Paranyushkin on...

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 19:27:00 -0400

An interview between Vladimir Miller and Dmitry Paranyushkin on space strategies and how space can facilitate renegotiation of certain behaviors, interactions, relations, and thinking between the participants.

Dialogue box used to have conversations during Summer Intensive....

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 19:10:00 -0400

Dialogue box used to have conversations during Summer Intensive. By Vladimir Miller and co.

Summer Intensive

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 18:58:00 -0400

SI is a two week Summer Intensive produced by Les ballets C de la B, initiated by Christine De Smedt and co-curated by Myriam Van Imschoot. Christine De Smedt is a choreographer who has been a member of the collective Les Ballets C de la B since 1991. Les Ballets C de la B is now housed in the Bijloke Site in Ghent, with a big studio at their disposition. The Bijloke Site is a former hospital that is being transformed into a cultural site with various venues. Christine has an interest in developing initiatives that propose alternative research and production formats within this context. Christine and Myriam develop this initiative together with the aim to host artists from various backgrounds to meet for exchange and develop (a part of) a project in a brief amount of time. Christine is interested in rethinking ‘coaching’. Instead of thinking of the coaching process as a one to one help, artists can facilitate one another when creating possibilities for meeting, exchanging, developing in a group dynamic.

Texts

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 20:57:00 -0400

Here’s a compilation of some texts that we find interesting…

The Coming Insurrection (how my friend said “it makes you want to break it all”)

A Shock to Thought edited by Brian Massumi (Subjectless Subjecttivity chapter)

Interview with Brian Massumi (movement, checkpoints, and affect)

Somaesthetics: A Disciplinary Proposal by Richard Shustermann (why you should be doing yoga, surf, and dance every day)

Invited Artists

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 20:21:00 -0400

“Where are you in your trajectory as makers, thinkers, etc, and with what needs and issues are you grappling? What would you like to bring to SI. as a proposal to work on, or if this is already too definite: what sphere of interests do you like to bring to our gathering? Through these discussions we also like to find out how we can practically organize the right conditions.”

Dmitry Paranyushkin is a performer and digital media artist –DeeMeeTree.Com. Dmitry developed ThisIsLike.Com, an online mapping initiative where the knowledge is realized not through a fixed concept, but through a relationship, an active event. In SI he wants to use the structure of This is Like to explore associative narratives as the basis for a performance piece (instead of working with a script).

Lenio Kaklea is a choreographer and performer based in Paris. In “matter-of-act”, the project she proposes for SI, she attempts to create a “live documentation” of SI by its spectators and investigate the various impacts of the artistic works by actually performing them! SI and the project “matter-of-act” search for 5 participants of all practices and ages, in order to create a group of spectators who will investigate the interactive relationship between an art work and it’s audience.The dispositive is simple: the participants will assist together to various experimental works developed by the invited artists during SI, investigate the different ways of watching, perceiving and receiving the works and create together a piece out of what they saw. Participants will work on a voluntary basis and should be available from august 16th till august 28th. Rehearsals are planned from 12u till 18u (also Weekend), at the Bijloke Site, Bijlokekaai Gent. There will be a final presentation on the 28th of august.

Vladimir Miller is a visual artist of Russian descent, based in Berlin. He has developed a model of working with people in situ by way of using the city as a model to engender and structure activities, projects, events and encounters. His interested in different knowledges, how to map them and activitate them through spatializations. For Si he likes to implement this practice and share it with the members of SI. Another desire that he has is to discuss the making of a website through which artists can communicate their ideas in view of finding people who can support them.

Nikolaus Gansterer is an artist interested in the links between drawing, thinking and action. While having had an ongoing interest in practices of mapping, in more recent years he has come to focus on the diagram as a figure. In SI. he likes to experiment with a series of diagrams and their potential to score (group) actions. He would also like to present his forthcoming publication with diagrams in view of feedback and discussions.Gansterer.Org

Lizi Estaras is choreographer and dancer. She is currently seeking for different ways of producing movement and choreography. Improvisation as a choreographic machine and eating soup as time keeper for the actions is one of her ideas she would like to explore. Lisi will be part of SI. during two short periods of time but wants to elaborate further on “Food that is made by combining ingredients” lisi: “In short, I have been working with les ballets C de la B since 1997 as a dancer and choreographer. For SI I proposed “SOUP”, an event I am preparing for the month of December, in Gent. Today 3th of August, I have been in Argentina for two months and I must confess that they are quite a lot of other experiments I will like to try as well for SI.
“ A distancia” is a project where the construction happens in the distance, with people living in Belgium and Argentina. Once a month we send tasks to each other by SMS or facebook, the tasks have two weeks to be realized, filmed and sent back. Then they will be published on line for people to follow the process, eventually we will meet to put the material together and make a piece out of this. On the 18 of August I will send and receive my first tasks and since I will be in SI I will like to use that day to work on it.”

Sergio Cruz is a Portuguese filmmaker, based in London. His chief topic is the human body in motion. This interest led into a series of dance films, documentaries, film works. During SI. Sergio would like to show his recent work and discuss it in view of the transitions that are happening in his work towards more cinematic approaches, grounded in more spontaneous film making methods.

Pieter Ampe is a dancer and choreographer. He works and lives in Belgium, is an artist in residency in the theatre and productionhouse CAMPO where he ‘s searching and developing work: “I try to find ways to devellop work with people, in an open and collaborative way, which deals with our urgencies and questions of that moment. I gave up my fear for being lost, and whish to embrace my doubtfull, unclear nature of thinking in order to be able to search more joyfully.

He also dances in the ROSAS production The Song.

Pieter is involved in the informal network Sweet&Tender collaborations. For SI. he wants to elaborate further his thinking and writing on a project within the Sweet&Tender collaborations idea.

Lilia Mestre is a performing artist creating her own pieces and working in collaboration with other artists. She created the company Random Scream with Davis Freeman in 1999 to expose the eclectic elements of everyday culture with proposed lines of flight for dance, theatre, and visual arts. For SI., Lilia wants to continue the research started in “Moving you”, a recent project in which the relation between, objects, movement and sound is worked upon. “If an affective body is a place of constant negotiation with one’s own rhythms, stories, perceptions and contexts, I’m interested to look into the body as a body that co-habitats, exchanges and produces “meaning” in the inter relation with the outside, (which is always) and how to make this visible and playful.
“My last piece,”Moving you” displays and plays with a range of possible relations one can have with “others” and “things”. The idea was to work with different layers of existance like people, objects, knowledge, dreams, time, etc and to play with these thoughts and attributes in their relationality. The basic medium for this choregraphic game was objects, sound and movement.” www.mokum.be ”

Myriam Van Imschoot is involved in what she calls ‘expanded publication’. Rather than restricting herself to the ‘page’ and the book she engages with multiple media to publish her work, making use of the sensorial range of these media as an intrinsic value. Over the past two years she uses interview archives as the main vector for expanded publications such as Fax Film, Pick up Voices (a performance in collaboration with Christine De Smedt) and sound installations. For Si she likes to develop ideas in the framework of a solo-work in which she investigates the link between voice, her own extensive interview archive accumulated over the past twenty years and autobiography.

Christine De Smedt will work on models for ‘conversation’, the translation and composition for performative structures. Appropriation and display are part of the focus. She is currently working on the project ‘Untitled Four’, a series of portraits made on the basis of interviews. She would like to present raw materials from this project and set up different forms of conversations as part of the process of SI. and as a daily practice.

Timetable

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 20:24:00 -0400

Friday, 27th of August 2010
Presentations from 14:00 until 20:00 @ Bijlokesite - S3 - Bijlokekaai 1 - 9000 Gent

Wednesday, 25th of August 2010
open doors @ Bijlokesite - S3 - Bijlokekaai 1 - 9000 Gent

Tuesday, 24th of August 2010
open doors: presentation Lilia Mestre at 16:00 @ Bijlokesite - S3 - Bijlokekaai 1 - 9000 Gent

Monday, 23rd of August 2010
video presentation matter of act (project by Lenio Kaklea) at 17:30@ Bijlokesite - S3 - Bijlokekaai 1 - 9000 Gent

Wednesday, 18th of August 2010
open doors: Presentation Pieter Ampe at 14:30 @ Bijlokesite - S3 - Bijlokekaai 1 - 9000 Gent (Presentation of Nikolaus Gansterer is delayed due to illness.

Tuesday, 17th of August 2010
open doors for public: public can be present at meetings, presentations and working sessions 10.30 - 13.30 and 14.30 - 18.30
Presentation of work by Dmitry Paranyushkin, 14:00 @ Bijlokesite - S3 - Bijlokekaai 1 - 9000 Gent

Monday, 16th of August 2010
open doors for public: public can be present at meetings, presentations and working sessions 10.30 - 13.30 and 14.30 - 18.30
Presentation of work by Sergio Cruz, 14:00 @ Bijlokesite - S3 - Bijlokekaai 1 - 9000 Gent