Dancing the Voice

Dancing the Voice

Performative Inquiry

Anna Nowak, Alexander Gottfarb, Christine Ericsdotter, Gerhard Eckel, David Pirrò

This project is an interdisciplinary research process articulating the practices of choreography, phonetics and sound art. It is a co-opertation with the dancers and choreographers Anna Nowak (Poland) and Alexander Gottfarb (Sweden), the lignuist and phonetician Christine Ericsdotter (Sweden), and composer and sound artist Gerhard Eckel (Austria) and David Pirrò (Italy, Austria).

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The origins of this work can be traced back to Embodied Generative Music (EGM), a project initiated by Gerhard Eckel in 2007 at the Institute of Electronic Music and Acoustics (IEM), University of Music and Performing Arts Graz, Austria. EGM investigated the relationship between musical and bodily expression by extending dancers’ bodies into virtual instruments using a full-body motion tracking system. This artistic research continued in the interdisciplinary project Dancing the Voice, funded by the Wenner-Gren Foundation: articulating the practices of choreography, phonetics and music composition, this ongoing project produces a series of performative inquiries focussing on the relation of bodily movement and vocal sound. The piece On Traces, performed at the Royal Technical University in Stockholm in the autumn of 2014 and in Tanzquartier Wien in February 2015, was the first open presentation of the research process which then continued in Every move a sound – On the Intricacies of Memory performed in September 2016 in Graz, Austria.

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On Traces

Intermedial Performance

Anna Nowak, Alexander Gottfarb, Christine Ericsdotter, Gerhard Eckel, David Pirrò

Performed at the Royal Technical University in in Stockholm in the autumn of 2014 and in Tanzquartier Wien in February 2015

On Traces is the first presentation within the Traces research process.

One of the underlying methods established in this process allows for freely inscribing and retracing sonic motion traces in space. These sonic motion traces are created using a microphone and a motion tracking system. The performer makes a sound and a movement. The motion tracking system records the pathway of the movement simultaneously as the sound is recorded. This tool enables the performers to create a spatial sound playground, using their own voices as building material. In turn, this unique sonic environment is closely linked to the movements, which are traced by one point on their bodies. The specific set up introduced above can be thought of as a kind of a “spatial tape recorder”. An in depth performative interrogation of these movements and sound landscapes led to an intensive exploration of the concepts of the trace, of writing and scanning. At the same time a multitude of questions about perception, attention, language, memory, change and transformation were raised. In On Traces four performers compose and explore a sound environment with the aim of tracing the expressive potential of this space formed of sounds, movements and lines.

On Traces - Tanzquartier Vienna

Vimeo : Complete Performance

On Traces - An Artistic Research Process between Choreography and Sound Art

Presentation - Public Lecture

David Pirrò

Presentation in the context of the Public Lecture series Bewegung als kulturelles Phänomen (Movement as cultural Phenomenon) which has taken place in the Summer Semester at the University of Graz

Abstract: "On Traces" is an interdisciplinary research process in which the practices of choreography and sound art are linked together. Here, in a series of performative inquiries, the relationship between physical movement and vocal sound is explored.

In the research process a new method was developed with which it was possible to write sound traces freely in the space and find them again later so they could sound again. In this way performers can create invisible sound landscapes out of their own voices. Simultaneously, in these landscapes the movements of a point on the performers’ bodies are inscribed thereby closely linked to the stored sounds. An in depth performative interrogation of these movement and sound landscapes led to an intensive exploration of the concepts of the trace, of writing and scanning. At the same time a multitude of questions about perception, attention, language, memory, change and transformation were raised.

In On Traces four performers compose and explore a sound environment with the aim of tracing the expressive potential of this space formed of sounds, movements and lines.

The origins of this work go back to the project project Embodied Generative Music (EGM, FWF TRP L399-G13, http://egm.kug.ac.at/), which Gerhard Eckel initiated in 2007 together with Deniz Peters at the Institute for Electronic Music and Acoustics (IEM) at the University for Music and Performing Arts Graz and in which Anna Maria Nowak, Alexander Gottfarb and David Pirrò were also involved. EGM was concerned with the relationship between musical and physical expression, using motion-capture technology to enable dancers to turn their bodies into virtual instruments. The interdisciplinary research process prompted in this way was sponsored by the Wenner-Gren Foundation as part of the Dancing the Voice project in Stockholm. The research that led to On Traces has been supported by the FWF project The Choreography of Sound (PEEK AR41).

Every Move a Sound

Intermedial Performance

Anna Nowak, Alexander Gottfarb, Gerhard Eckel, David Pirrò

Performed at Institute of Electronic Music and Acoustics 17.09.2016

We move and sound. We wear sound and motion sensors. Movements and sounds are joined and recorded as traces. Continuously.

Everybody yarns their sonic filament retractable by anybody. Anytime. Retracing is resounding is reinscribing. One’s own or another’s trace. Inevitably. We fill the performance space with remnants of our actions. This is how the past remains with us. Every action constraining the future. Becoming an obstacle or turning into a potential. The denser the traces, the harder it becomes to read them, to pull a thread out of the plot.

In this environment we engage in extended and repetitive improvisatory processes, fathoming the potential of the collective instrument we are developing since years. We aim at establishing a performance practice in which movement and sound can coexist without exploiting or betraying each other.

Every move a sound – On the Intricacies of Memory is a production by Kunstverein Archipelago.

With the support of: Bundeskanzleramt Österreich MA 7 – Kulturabteilung der Stadt Wien IEM Graz KTH Stockholm

Author: David Pirrò

Created: 2022-03-12 Sat 00:11

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