Kinshasa Peterson's Posts - conectom2024-03-29T15:28:02ZKinshasa Petersonhttp://conectom.leimay.org/profile/KinshasaPetersonhttp://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/66458966?profile=RESIZE_48X48&width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1http://conectom.leimay.org/profiles/blog/feed?user=1xopqxtizoqvn&xn_auth=noESSAY // Branded Landscapetag:conectom.leimay.org,2013-02-05:5831649:BlogPost:358632013-02-05T01:00:00.000ZKinshasa Petersonhttp://conectom.leimay.org/profile/KinshasaPeterson
<p><a href="http://conectom.leimay.org/profiles/blog/show?id=5831649%3ABlogPost%3A35863" target="_self"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74340922?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="598"></img></a></p>
<p> <em><span class="font-size-1">The New York City Subway System</span></em></p>
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<p>The urban landscape can be perceived as being defined by coded advertising. On a daily basis, we are constantly ingesting and regurgitating code. We speak to one another in mutually comprehensible phrases that are imbued with meaning. Mobile phones provide us with data which is…</p>
<p><a href="http://conectom.leimay.org/profiles/blog/show?id=5831649%3ABlogPost%3A35863" target="_self"><img width="598" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74340922?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="598" class="align-full"/></a></p>
<p> <em><span class="font-size-1">The New York City Subway System</span></em></p>
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<p>The urban landscape can be perceived as being defined by coded advertising. On a daily basis, we are constantly ingesting and regurgitating code. We speak to one another in mutually comprehensible phrases that are imbued with meaning. Mobile phones provide us with data which is recognized in a variety of languages. We have become one with cards that read our fortunes through a magnetic piece bonded with plastic, bringing bank balances into focus instantaneously. Our lives involve a consistent intake of signs and symbols that result in ongoing interchange; visually, orally, audibly. Billboards and LED displays skillfully designed for public consumption compete for a moment’s attention, the blink of an eye, the shutter that generates from the phone’s camera lens. We are passive and, often, neutral receptors in the streets, processing (again, perhaps ingesting and regurgitating) advertising art and copy through our senses nearly everywhere we walk; spectators to a significant creative effort that can often go unrecognized.</p>
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<p>The New York City subway system is home to many an advertisement, and has been for several decades. On the subway, in particular when riding alone, we are suspended in a moment of stillness. Even while engaged in other activities such as reading a paperback, newspaper, or e book or while being jacked into the audio stream of one’s mobile device, our eyes may linger on one advertisement or flit through the rectilinear ads lining the upper walls of subway cars or the square boards promoting a product at eye level. Formerly the domain of posters for acne treatments, community colleges, and beer, the subway has been reinvigorated as a locus for upscale promotion, now featuring campaigns for airlines, e readers, liqueurs, and placards highlighting the caliber and achievements of the professors of the City University of New York. While on the subway, while seated or standing, we catch a glimpse of banner ads now often taking up the entire side of a car, providing consistent messaging. Whether for art exhibitions, domestic travel with JetBlue and international travel through Delta, Windows notebooks, online stores providing pet supplies, or other products, most campaigns key into <i>ways in which one could spend one’s time away from work</i>. In fact, an ad for Manhattan Mini Storage reads “Storage So Close You’ll Still Make It to Brunch on Time,” placing an emphasis on the leisurely portions of one’s life. It is not all for commerce while riding the rails, however, as evidenced by the MTA’s celebrated Arts for Transit program, featuring the Poetry in Motion and Art Card series.</p>
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<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74340950?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="750" class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74340950?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="596" height="468"/></a></p>
<p><em><span class="font-size-1">Subway Turnstiles </span></em></p>
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<p>There are other ways in which the words and images can get to you, even if only for an instant. Once contained inside subway cars, advertising displays are now also often found on a car’s exterior for additional visibility. Subway turnstiles are now frequently covered with promotions for a variety of items from Heineken to upcoming network and cable television programs. Such interactions render us all spectators in a branded landscape. Through our eyes, through our ears, our attention is intentionally drawn to advertising, whether when moving through city streets or sitting in front of one’s television, by sound, speech, color, and light. </p>
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<p>Marketers are integral to the success of these momentary interchanges of time and space, contributing to the sourcing, spreading, and divulging of content for objects available for purchase. Like attending an international conference where multilingual headsets are available, a marketer’s effort is to know one’s demographic, even where cultural moirés are in flux. As cities have grown to more broadly encompass people differing in ethnicity, language, and even age, so have the efforts of marketing agencies. With time, the former television spokesperson say, for instance, in the 1950s, dedicated to selling a single product during a single thirty minute or sixty minute program subsidized by a single sponsor on black and white TV has evolved to keep pace with viewers’ current capacity to take in multilinear data spurts in a thirty second span. It is commonplace for television networks to retain multiple advertisers per program and, during events such as the Super Bowl, for the advertisements to be viewed as an event worth watching in itself. Along with this uptick in data processing comes a much more direct yet subtle form of participation: the experiential marketer’s spokesperson, an individual or group of individuals who can join you as you walk through the streets or during your Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings out.</p>
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<p>Experiential marketing utilizes personalized interaction as a potential catalyst for an eventual economic transaction. This intention can be achieved in an ever expanding number of ways, each involving forethought, creativity, and most notably, interactivity. Perhaps most commonly recognized is the street “salesperson” who hands out samples, an individual who may in fact be an actor or an artist taking on the role of pitchperson as a paying job to support him or herself. In other ways, it may be an entertaining ad on the internet or staged interactions at parties or other gatherings. In utilizing such methods, with the goal of gaining the viewer’s attention for a period of time, however brief, spectacle becomes paramount. For advertisers and marketers, distinguishing one brand of toothpaste or nail polish or soda or sneakers from all others becomes an ongoing, creative effort to impart memorability. </p>
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<p>In “The Gamer’s Dilemma,” a recent online commercial for Energizer batteries created by Disposable Television for Fox Interactive Media, viewers take part in a “game” modeled after the Choose Your Own Adventure series of books. In the book series, the plots typically involve scenarios which lead to a turning point in the text. At such a point, the reader is asked to select one of several possible outcomes. Depending on the choice selected, the book plots lead to either further adventures, or to an abrupt ending. The climax of the Energizer ad is truly interactive, as there are choices that the viewer is allowed to make which affect the outcome of the commercial; bringing the format of the Choose Your Own Adventure books into the realm of an interactive video microsite.</p>
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<p>Since public interaction is integral to experiential marketing, there are many who can report such experiences. For instance, one summer a friend and I were walking north along Broadway in Greenwich Village. As we crossed West 4th Street, an intersection currently occupied by French Connection, Duane Reade drug store, an NYU campus building, and the MLB Fan Cave, itself a den of interactivity (and formerly the site of Tower Records) we were approached by a man handing out samples of a product. We stopped to speak with him and asked what he was offering, though we could have kept walking and ignored him. From our conversation, we learned that he was handing out tooth whitening strips. My friend, who had used such a product before, took one of the proffered samples. I declined. A memorable experience? Perhaps not. But afterwards, my friend and I walked north along Broadway discussing the benefits and detractions of using the product. Through the product’s “representative,” a likely temporary position, tooth whitening strips had become part of our social discourse. His role was effective in that it generated interest in the product and due to the fact that my friend, who had previously purchased similar products, may have looked towards purchasing that particular brand of whitener offered to her for free. </p>
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<p>In <i>Consumed: Rethinking Business in the Era of Mindful Spending</i>, authors Andrew Bennett and Ann O’Reilly discuss how consumers relate to brands and to spending following the economic crisis which began in 2008. Much of the content of their book is based on a survey conducted by Euro RSCG in 2009 which gleaned data on the purchasing trends of consumers. Entitled the New Consumer Study, information was gathered from consumers in Brazil, China, France, Japan, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Responses to questions asked in the survey included: “I am using coupons and/or seeking out other discounts more often than I used to,” “Buying locally produced goods is easier on the environment,” “I would rather give my money to small businesses than large corporations,” and “The recession has served to remind people of what’s really important in life — and that’s a good thing.” </p>
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<p>Bennett and O’Reilly also cite several examples of experiential marketing solutions provided by brands including Timberland and Harley-Davidson, both of which zeroed in on their demographic to create interactive events that would generate interest and, potentially, yield additional sales by “facilitating interaction <i>among</i> customers.” Another example relayed in their text includes a New Year’s Eve campaign for Duracell batteries. In 2009, Duracell set up a Smart Power Lab in Times Square, where visitors were invited to “jump on a pedaling machine and contribute their muscle power to light up the iconic crystal ball, which drops at midnight. No fewer than 300,000 participants enthusiastically pedaled…” Here, the boundaries of brand, social enjoyment, and interactive experience are seamlessly blurred. This example also demonstrates how marketers, through such interchanges, provide a degree of influence on <i>how and where you may wish to spend your leisure time. </i></p>
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<p>When thinking of the importance of branding, Bennett and O’Reilly posit that “… brands are far more than the collective products and services sold under their names. Managed intelligently, they are living and ever-evolving entities that exist alongside consumers, communicating with them, learning from them — or, ideally, advancing slightly ahead of them… Until the advent of modern retailing and marketing, most goods were commodities, not brands. People bought cow’s milk; they did not choose from among Borden and Dean’s, Horizon and Organic Valley. Milk was milk.” </p>
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<p>Branding provides us with a datalink through words and images. Words alone can connote meaning, with their verbal identity so strong that individuals can conjure a picture of the product: such as the brands of Levi’s, Nike, or Starbucks, for instance. Technology giant IBM was known for its single word motto, “THINK,” created by Thomas J. Watson, Sr. for another corporate entity in the 1910s. The logo took hold at IBM in the 1930s, where Watson was Chairman, and became the title of the company’s employee newsletter. During the 1950s, advertising agency Doyle Dane Bernbach created a print ad for the Volkswagen Beetle entitled simply “Think small,” touting the German car’s novel size and shape as an alternative to large car manufacturers in the United States. The simplicity of the headline was in alignment with the manufacture of the car, which featured a plain, functional interior. The print ad, which features a white page as background, graphically positions the car as a small figure in the upper left quadrant of the page. With copy stating “Our little car isn’t so much of a novelty anymore… using five pints of oil instead of five quarts… once you get used to some of our economies, you don’t even think about them…” the car promotions positioned the vehicle as a champion of economic thrift. The Volkswagen brand has since become part of the American lexicon, and now has designed many other car models than its VW Bug.</p>
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<p>Wordplay can be an effective tool in advertising. In the 1990s, Apple commissioned a well known advertising campaign simply called “Think Different,” a direct play on IBM’s THINK logo. Created by the Los Angeles office of TBWA\Chiat\Day, the Apple print and television advertisements featured renowned figures including Albert Einstein, the Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, Pablo Picasso, Martha Graham, and Muhammad Ali. The print ads simply featured a photo and the now iconic Apple logo, anchored by the words “Think different.” The television ads included the copy “Here’s to the crazy ones. The troublemakers. The rebels…” The campaign carried through the unique mix of simplicity, style, and sophistication which launched Apple to the upper echelons of product development in the 21st Century, setting it apart from PC makers. </p>
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<p>In relation to sales, the construction of relationships <i>between</i> people and brands can be of critical import. Relationships are furthered through experiential marketing, where the development of a character provides a pathway to consumer engagement. The purchase of a product can, at times, be due to identification with a particular character or figure utilized in its promotion. Characters are often built <i>into</i> products, as has been seen with televised advertisements for car insurance. Flo, the salesperson for Progressive car insurance, and anthropomorphized figures such as the Geico gecko allow advertisers to build a running narrative based on the varied and fictionalized interactions of each character. Each of these ad campaigns has proven successful enough to last for several years. For those choosing such insurance, some purchasers may have based their selection on their enjoyment of the company’s advertisements. In such cases, it is an initial emotional reaction which serves as the impetus towards making an important financial decision. </p>
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<p>Branding through relationships provides advertisers with a potential outlet for storytelling. As observers, we are drawn into a world where an almost choreographic form of interaction is slowly and subtly filtered into our real time constructs. As individuals, while immersed in a branded landscape, we have the choice to perceive, embrace, react, and respond to such information. Through our actions, we choose to let certain brands into our sphere of existence, while keeping others out of our lives. The varied market choices ensure that, in some way, we will repeatedly engage with things that either meet or fail to meet our liking. Experiential marketing brings the show of products directly to us, a display that is difficult to ignore. Whether ensconced in a carefully crafted campaign, or simply put forth as a direct handout on city sidewalks, the data stream continually flows around us; even while our eyes and ears may remain set on neutral. And it is generated by a changing group of people who have best been able to tap into our needs and, further still, our wants. Whether individual campaigns are successful or not, there is a creative outlet that, over the duration of a product’s life, yields success.</p>PERCEPTION // Mapping the Void // VESSELtag:conectom.leimay.org,2012-10-23:5831649:BlogPost:309402012-10-23T17:30:00.000ZKinshasa Petersonhttp://conectom.leimay.org/profile/KinshasaPeterson
<p><a href="http://conectom.leimay.org/profiles/blogs/perception-mapping-the-void-vessel" target="_self"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74340583?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="600"></img></a> Hands to floor, feet to wall, legs astride two others. I ascended the stairs to reach The Alchemical, a performance, screening, and rehearsal theater bordering the West Village and Chelsea, and was greeted with a soft and familiar floral scent; incense alight. Upon entering, I stepped into a white staging space without borders, save for the four walls of the room. It was the…</p>
<p><a href="http://conectom.leimay.org/profiles/blogs/perception-mapping-the-void-vessel" target="_self"><img width="600" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74340583?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="600" class="align-full"/></a>Hands to floor, feet to wall, legs astride two others. I ascended the stairs to reach The Alchemical, a performance, screening, and rehearsal theater bordering the West Village and Chelsea, and was greeted with a soft and familiar floral scent; incense alight. Upon entering, I stepped into a white staging space without borders, save for the four walls of the room. It was the studio housing Mapping the Void, a dance installation by VESSEL which consisted of three consecutive performances in one night. Immediately I saw members of the company, which typically ranges from one to seven dancers, executing warm ups before the beginning of the performance: pirouettes, leg lifts, and stretches. </p>
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<p>As a lover of maps from childhood, I held in my mind a view of the program as a possible melange of the cartographic and kinesthetic. Chairs were done away with to provide an open space for the dancers; if one wished, seating was provided in the rectilinear studio on block like modules. I chose to stand for the first of two viewings, as did many others. VESSEL’s founder and choreographer, Annette Herwander, encouraged audience members to traverse the space and encircle the performers at any and all times.</p>
<p> <a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74340549?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74340549?profile=original" width="602" class="align-full"/></a></p>
<p>The performance began with light diodes illuminating the bodies of the company members, some of whom remained in a state of near stillness for several minutes. The silhouettes created by the diode panels lent depth to the stage, and created a boundary line that framed the surrounding space. A repetitive sound pattern enhanced these qualities, complementing the static nature of the light panels. Gradually, motion was initiated by the dancers in the center of the stage as well as at the peripheral walls, figuratively mapping the space. I was struck by their movements, with hands planted on the floor and feet to the wall, which gave me the feel of acrobatic gestures. </p>
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<p>The dancers moved around the audience members who, concurrently, were also moving around the periphery of the stage. As points on a linear plane, spectators at the peripheral walls became a living, breathing portion of the performance space. This organic relationship was sustained by members of the company as they interspersed themselves between viewers along the walls of the stage. I chose to stand near a video projector and, sometime during the show, Herwander was suddenly at my feet, moving through a choreographic passage. I inched away from her, perhaps shyly, so that she could continue her portion of the dance. </p>
<p> <a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74340662?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74340662?profile=original" width="601" class="align-full"/></a></p>
<p>Video was used to texturize the space, again bringing depth to the room. Performers moved through the video feeds, all the while drawing upon contrasts; male and female, male to male and female to female, upright and tilted, vertical and horizontal, linear and circular, parallel and perpendicular. These oppositional patterns were continued through subsequent portions of the performance where music and dance drifted from a modern typology to a more classical expression. Closing with the rhythmic movement of feet against ground, which reminded me of walking upon sand, Mapping the Void charts motion with a means of drawing viewers inside. </p>
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<p>Photos: Tristan Bel</p>ESSAY//mag.net//Human Kinetics Movement Arts and e+i Studiotag:conectom.leimay.org,2012-10-20:5831649:BlogPost:305412012-10-20T17:30:00.000ZKinshasa Petersonhttp://conectom.leimay.org/profile/KinshasaPeterson
<p><a href="http://conectom.leimay.org/profiles/blogs/essay-mag-net-human-kinetics-movement-arts-and-e-i-studio-1" target="_self"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74340541?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750"></img></a> It began with instant attraction. Dancer and choreographer Yana Schnitzler had worn a bracelet with a magnetic clasp when dining at a restaurant. While reaching towards the table, a fork became attached to her bracelet, dangling from her wrist. That event provided inspiration for her to explore the effects of magnetism on the human body and,…</p>
<p><a href="http://conectom.leimay.org/profiles/blogs/essay-mag-net-human-kinetics-movement-arts-and-e-i-studio-1" target="_self"><img width="750" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74340541?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750" class="align-full"/></a>It began with instant attraction. Dancer and choreographer Yana Schnitzler had worn a bracelet with a magnetic clasp when dining at a restaurant. While reaching towards the table, a fork became attached to her bracelet, dangling from her wrist. That event provided inspiration for her to explore the effects of magnetism on the human body and, ultimately, led to the collaborative performance entitled mag.net, sponsored by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.</p>
<p> <a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74340653?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="750" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74340653?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750" class="align-full"/></a></p>
<p>Schnitzler, founder of Human Kinetics Movement Arts, works frequently with fabric and the ways in which it can interact with the body and with spatial environments. A slow, sinuous technique that allows dancers to connect to their own source of movement, Human Kinetics engages spontaneity and change as means of capturing motion on a very subtle level, leading to expression flowing out of the body. In her practice, Schnitzler is most strongly interested in the transition between occupied and unoccupied space in relation to bodily movement. In utilizing fabric, she manipulates the bodies of dancers to reveal lines and angles that underline the shape of the human form, yet also conceal the body. In such works, fabric functions as a vehicle to amplify movement and create connection to freestanding objects in the performance space, such as a wall or railing, to further create connection between dancers and the space.</p>
<p> <a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74340704?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="750" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74340704?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750" class="align-full"/></a></p>
<p>The prior works of Human Kinetics Movement Arts have involved collaboration with architectural designers, such as Eva Perez de Vega and Ian Gordon of e+i Studio. Through their design studio, Perez de Vega and Gordon have engaged in creative partnership with dancers to complete installations that contribute to embodying the transitory nature of space. In their work, they view architectural design as a method of configuring space through movement rather than as a stationary series of programmatic volumes or blocks. The creation and negation of space are of equal importance for them in designing environments whether used for dance or for commerce. When designing for dance, they choose to investigate the probabilities inherent to the development of mutable spaces where the environment holds the potential to take on different adaptations through time. Dance, as a function, requires a space that can accommodate the needs of the dancers moving through it. Perez de Vega, herself a dancer, believes that architecture itself can be thought of as a form of choreography in that it is a dynamic, applied art that involves consideration for the circulation of people in, around, and through a built space. Such considerations might involve the speed of movement through a space, whether quick or slow, that may vary in addressing the needs for design of particular building types, such as a residential dwelling or an office. Dancers, she feels, also think about space regularly in their craft, but in a very different way.</p>
<p> <a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74340625?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="750" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74340625?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750" class="align-full"/></a></p>
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<p>Together, Human Kinetics Movement Arts and e+i Studio share an approach that is complementary in nature, where movement and space are continually engaged and connected. Their mutual explorations involve the inherent presence and potential importance of negative space, which can often be taken for granted. Architecturally, forms create voids within a structure, sometimes static, at other times mobile, allowing for places of passage. In performance, a voided space is often more adaptable, continually changing depending on when and where dancers complete a series of movements on the stage. </p>
<p> <a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74340628?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="750" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74340628?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750" class="align-full"/></a></p>
<p>In the creation of mag.net, which e+i Studio terms as a site specific installation with performances, the collaborators began by examining the potentiality of two unseen forces that impact upon the human body, magnetism and movement. With initial architectural studies involving the use of linear, metallic elements, subsequent concepts developed led to the creation of a tensile, or attenuated, architectural form similar to a spider’s web that would be pliant, receptive, organic, mobile, and definitively attractive. In order for the form to encompass the entire performance space, the design would be suspended from the walls and ceiling of the performance venue. The choreography, in turn, would be imbued with similar qualities as a means of creating a symbiotic relationship between the dancers and the web. </p>
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<p>The resultant architectural form for mag.net, created largely from reusable and recyclable office products, embodies magnetic properties through the use of two different types and weights of metal paperclips. Taking approximately one week to weave, the web is rendered pliant by connection to biodegradable rubber bands, which allow the form to give significantly upon contact. While the magnetic force itself is invisible, objects that magnets are drawn to are often visually evident. Complexities in development of the performance resulted from the need to work with, and not against, the properties of magnetism. As such, the choreographic intention of bringing the dancers in contact with the metal clips called for the development of specially designed, responsive bodysuits weighted with magnetic pieces, to ultimately concentrate on the essential interaction between the metal components and the magnets in the dancers’ costumes. Thus, a seamless integration would be created in the performance piece, where the movement of a dancer within the weblike architectural form would create a significant impact upon the architectural form. </p>
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<p>Held in four successive weeks at Tribeca’s intimately scaled Space on White, the performance of mag.net follows the choreographic and architectural intent of its creators by moving away from a scripted narrative to a place of reconfigurable and unpredictable series of interactions. The entry doors of Space on White are opened to the street, creating a darkened window wall which gives depth to the performance stage, and allows viewers standing on the street to see inside. The style of Human Kinetics allows the dancers (Masumi Kishimoto and Akiko Bo Nishijima) to interact with the architectural form, and simultaneously allows viewers to respond to that interaction. The nature of the architectural form enhances the qualities of subtlety in the dance, where the movement of the web yields to the interaction and physical contact of the dancers, taking on a life of its own as the tensile form itself is reconfigured, rippling through expansion and tension. Shapes created through connection between the rubber bands and paperclips, at first rectilinear, morph into loop like segments that further stretch and decompose with time over four successive performances in the four week cycle.</p>
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<p>There is a noticeable absence of prerecorded sound in mag.net. Throughout the performance, which is conducted in silence, one hears the sound of the magnets grasping for contact with the metal elements of the architectural form and pulling the dancers’ bodies along, augmenting the visual sense. A clipping noise resonates through the space once the dancers move out of range of the metal objects in the architectural form, creating another point of tension as they separate from the web. mag.net captures individual sensibilities of engaging the body through movement, while also drawing upon an awareness of the body in relation to its surroundings. Ever changing in motion, mag.net gives spectators a perspective on the layers of life as its dancers move forth as human elements circulating in and out of a biodegradable, recyclable spider’s web. </p>
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<p>Photos: Stephanie Berzon</p>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/auroraimage/sets/72157631813138974/" target="_blank">http://www.flickr.com/photos/auroraimage/sets/72157631813138974/</a></p>PERCEPTION: A Guide to Kinship and Maybe Magic // Isabel Lewis/Lewis Forevertag:conectom.leimay.org,2012-10-08:5831649:BlogPost:280832012-10-08T20:30:00.000ZKinshasa Petersonhttp://conectom.leimay.org/profile/KinshasaPeterson
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74340706?profile=original" target="_self"></a><a href="http://conectom.leimay.org/profiles/blogs/a-guide-to-kinship-and-maybe-magic-at-dance-new-amsterdam-isabel" target="_self"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74340577?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750"></img></a> In A Guide to Kinship and and Maybe Magic, boundaries between blood sisters are explored in silent film. A group of women, Sarah, Isabel, and Ligia Lewis – three of the four siblings Lewis – occupy a multi level home with an outdoor patio. …</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74340706?profile=original" target="_self"></a><a href="http://conectom.leimay.org/profiles/blogs/a-guide-to-kinship-and-maybe-magic-at-dance-new-amsterdam-isabel" target="_self"><img width="750" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74340577?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" class="align-full" width="750"/></a>In A Guide to Kinship and and Maybe Magic, boundaries between blood sisters are explored in silent film. A group of women, Sarah, Isabel, and Ligia Lewis – three of the four siblings Lewis – occupy a multi level home with an outdoor patio. The unfolding drama is brought forth from silence into speech through a narrator charged with describing the unfolding scenes to viewers. The narrator, playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, is referred to as a fifth Lewis – The Impostor Lewis – who is not a relative of the family but has been imbued with a significant degree of knowledge of the habits, character, and actions of the Lewis family. The narrator, an informed observer acting as an ersatz Lewis, is both the voice and body that shapes the performance piece for a group of uninformed observers. </p>
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<p>Engaging spectators through a work that is laced with wry humor, the narrator serves as a crucial point of reference, issuing facts that carry the narrative forward. By occupying the construct of informed observer, the narrator not only guides the audience through the actions of the three women, but also takes on a degree of their characteristics. Their daily movements, such as making coffee or drinking tea, or walking into or out of a room, are brought to a place of heightened perception through the filming process. Sound, brought in through digitized equipment, allows the narrator to provide a placeholder for George Lewis, who is absent in the film. </p>
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<p>As an informed observer, the ersatz Lewis’ body is placed between the audience and the film screen. This creates an actual boundary line between viewer and viewed that is defined both by furnishings and the actions of the narrator. The narrator, through monologue, serves as a filter for any and all actions perceived through watching the sisters in film. Spectators are receptors of this consistent commentary, and are in direct relationship with the narrator rather than the Lewis sisters. Through this layering of perceptions, the family guards its insularity, with all others, including the narrator, acting as observers of their activities.</p>
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<p>The monologue created by the fifth Lewis rends the audience dependent on the truths as received by the narrator. While created in dialogue with the sisters Lewis, the narrative generated requires that spectators receive these familial facts through a third party. As a stylized and sensual piece of film, the interactions of the Lewis sisters themselves take on a fictionalized nature. Through the monologue, we learn that the narrator is a friend of the Lewis family, but is this fact or dramatized speech?</p>
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<p>Slow, deliberate movements through built space are at times lyrical, at others abrupt. Repetitive actions, where motion flows, occurs through land and water to choreograph the binding interactions of family, where things may take on a different appearance to outsiders. The intimate nature of the sisters’ relationship releases them from the necessity of words. In imbuing a narrator with the skills to interpret the actions of the family to others, and by further placing select actions into film, they have chosen to guard the majority of their family secrets. </p>
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<p>Photos: Lexi Namer</p>
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