We are approaching the mid-point of the residency. Last night and today (and we suspect for the rest of the residency) there is a new sense of community and collectivity. After dinner last night we had a very fruitful group discussion about how to come together artistically. Assorted “mini-projects” had begun, but it became clear that folks wanted to work more with each other, and to find ways to collaborate across larger groups of residents. Everyone said that their commitments to their own projects were less important to them then the opportunities to work in new ways and with new people. We agreed to work harder to collectively both observe the assorted emerging projects, and to suggest ways to expand them. There is now a great focus on seeing works, even if they ultimately involve only few residents in performance, being the product of the collective’s creativity.

After the dinner we had rehearsal/demonstrations/jams involving some of the emerging projects. One resident had her body turned into a theramen, and the signals were processed yet further by another resident, while a dancer interacted with the “human-machine” triggering sounds. Afterwards there was yet another example of “creative-cyborgs”, involving a dancer wearing a special dress (constructed that day in a haze of soldering smoke and circuits) that responds in various ways to the conductivity of the human skin. This piece also involves live video projections, and motion tracking-based laser projections. We also ran through a performance piece involving the transmorphing of a person into a disticnt persona, with live video manipulation where this persona is placed in varied environments and interacts with the viewers in assorted ways.

All of these pieces received sonic support from the ISE ensemble, at the moment including guitar and signal processing; trumpet and signal processing; double bass, and laptop. The ensemble is learning what sound-scapes are most appropriate for the emerging works, and for the first time all the residents were present, watching, commenting, and joining in. Tomorrow should be exciting!