Salon: Scores and Constraints
Many performance artists work with scores or self-imposed constraints. Yet what do scores and constraints do precisely? How do they function and how do they effect the organisation of a working process or a performance situation? And more widely: what can they mean for today’s larger artistic landscape? Several artists will enter into dialogue around these questions.
Concept: Jeroen Peeters Participants: Shila Anaraki, Ellen Bilterest, Sara Manente, Leslie Mannès, An Mertens, Lilia Mestre, Stefan Prins, Kajsa Sandström, Manon Santkin, Marcos Simoes Production: Sarma @ WorkSpaceBrussels
Organized by Sarma @ WorkSpaceBrussels Brigittines, 17 December 2011, 2-5pm
Documentation
Many performance artists work with scores or self-imposed constraints. What is Sarma’s particular interest in this matter? The research paradigm in the arts today seems very much driven by thematic interests and a traditional approachto dramaturgy. Working with scores and constraints could perhaps allow one to shift the focus again to questions of form and method, as well as to the question how these inform the production of discourse. Moreover, narrow productional frameworks and the streamlining of arts and discourse in terms of “formats” are omnipresent nowadays. Working with scores and contraints makes this relation to productional conditions to some extent explicit, so it can become a basis for self-reflection and cultural critique.
What scores and constraints are precisely is not the point of departure of this salon – their definition should be kept open and implicit, so it can gain some density and texture through nine artists speaking about how they use scores and constraints in their practice. As a basis for dialogue, nine people were asked to prepare a “statement” of ten minutes (several of them from the field of dance, others from adjacent media), guided by a few questions, shifting focus from the what to the how of scores and constraints: What do scores and constraints do precisely? How do they function and how do they effect the organisation of a working process or a performance situation? And more widely: what is their significance for today’s artistic practice and landscape?
The statements and discussion happened in three clusters:
First cluster with three statements and dialogues in between:
Composer and improviser Stefan Prins discusses scores in contemporary music in relation to his particular interest in the ways people relate to technology. More on Stefan Prins
Choreographer and performer Kajsa Sandström presents the sound-related work listen with your skin / see with your ear at the Working Title Platform together with Frédéric Alstadt. Though she doesn't work with scores, she explores what this focus could mean for her artistic process.
Choreographers and performers Lilia Mestre and Marcus Simoes discuss the different scores they use in their performance project Ai, which was presented during in the Working Title Platform.
Second cluster with two statements and dialogue in between:
An Mertens is a writer and member of Constant, a Brussels-based workplace for art and media, with a particular interest in Open Source methodologies for sharing knowledge. She presents the project ! Co LAPse KoDe she is currently developing with several other people.
Choreographers and performers Leslie Mannès and Manon Santkin are preparing a Performance Kit with instructions and introduce this project whilst applying a score during their talk.
Cluster three with two statements and a concluding discussion:
Graphic designer Ellen Bilterest made the book GeorsPC, a project around “constrained design”. The latter is also the departure point for her current PhD in the arts research at the University of Leuven that seeks to rethink the book object through constrained design. http://www.ellenbilterest.com/
Choreographer and performer Sara Manente has been working with scores in her performance works Lawaai means Hawaai and Fair un Four. She discusses the role of circumstances and system failure in her work. More on Sara Manente