You / Your City
Talking your walk. A workshop exploring the city through Movement, writing, photography and drawing To explore what place and space means to you.
Tuesday 29th May BUCHAREST.
Run by Beatrice Jarvis
Your Tool Kit: One disposable camera One notebook One set of Pencils Some wool This text. The concept: For 4 hours the city will become something new! The city will be your playground, your archive, yours. Using photography, movement, talking and writing; we will explore each participants understanding and appreciation of the city. We will alternate between city and studio, working in small groups and coming together as whole also. Close your eyes for 24 breaths and write down what you noticed for these breaths. Note your sensations. This is the start of being mindful, you your selves and to your environment.
Welcome! Lets begin!
The vocabulary of the street. The movement of a city. The narrative of a city and how the city lives in you and how the city is moved by you. This is a simple exercise in which the city can begin to be owned by you. Imagine the spaces in the city, which you feel most comfortable; most uncomfortable and take these, spaces and allow yourself to generate them as mode of stimulus for movement and photography. Arrive to the University. Introduction: Arriving with body and mind! We will play a few simple games to learn each of our names and get to know each other a little. By the end of the session we will have answered the following questions;
• What is your relationship to Bucharest ? • What is your relationship to Dance? • How does your relationship to dance affect your relationship to Bucharest? • Do you regularly/occasionally partake in social dance activities in Bucharest
(Clubs/ socials/ outings/ church events/weddings/exercise classes) • How far do you feel dance/movement contributes to the local culture in
Bucharest? Then we will do some simple warm up exercise to allow both our mind and body to arrive to the space. Exploring the movements which come naturally to you; we will explore ideas of walking, sitting and lying; passing each other; small runs and jumping over a puddle step; all the movements which you use in every day life. We will explore some movements, which you may have also learnt, from dance classes. This is not strictly a dance workshop; rather exploring how your body moves through space and the various spatial negotiations you make on a daily basis. We will explore a few exercises: I have written some down so you can practice them at home whenever you like. The time to be still. Stillness is a state of complete awareness. It is a place to reconnect with the knowledge and truth of your own spirit. Stillness allows you to search for the answers and it’s a place of calmness and certainty. Stillness can be found in ordinary daily events. While it’s optimal to put yourself in a state of dead
stillness; this may not always be practical. Instead, look for opportunities to practice stillness as you go about your day.
-‐ Lie comfortably on the ground. -‐ Feel the shape of your form and body -‐ From the soles of your feet to the crown of your head -‐ Let the length of the spine open -‐ Let go of the need to do anything -‐ Let go of the chatter of your thoughts -‐ Be empty -‐ Rest -‐ Take the time to breathe -‐ Let the field of your attention soften and spread out -‐ Sense the temperature of the ground; the air -‐ Sense the time of day/ the season / the light -‐ Open your ears, listen, let in all the sounds around you. -‐ Let each eye soften and sense light and shadow -‐ Make a visual map of the inside of your body and allow yourself to care
how you feel today and now.
Margate, from the Sea 1835-‐40, Joseph Mallord William Turner
Walk together: Take a partner: fall into a rhythm of the shared step Let the backs of your hands touch Give way to the momentum and rhythm of the shared walk Follow Allow changes of direction/ shifts / circles Explore walking when one person has their eyes closed: allow yourself to be lead Conversation: To be in conversation is to be in what flows In and amongst and between you To be present in conversation is to be in and speak of the world, The next series of exercises are all based around the idea of talking your city. TALK A WALK Take a walk around the room and each time you hear chime Stop and find the person nearest to you Take a minute to shake hands and look each other in the eye for a brief moment. Then say a small sentence about the city This can be a memory of the city This can describe a place in the city This can be to say your favorite place in the city This can be to say where you least like in the city After you have had four exchanges; the next person you meet (chime 5) tell the next person you meet all that you can remember about what you have heard.
Move to tell a story Discover its elements while you are moving
Move to send a message A message of yourself and the story
Move to the rhythm of the words of another’s story and the details, which they tell you of.
Talking your place: you / your city How do you live in the city? The scenes and sounds of everyday life. ��� A constant inspiration and resource. ��� How can they be removed from their context? Can our bodies and our minds transpose landscape into another context?
What are your routines in the city? Where do you go most frequently in the city and where do you avoid to go in the city? Do you have a favorite place in the city and can you describe why this is your favorite place? Do you walk regularly in the city and how well can you describe the routes you walk. Find a group of three people and tell to them a story/ narrative which you have experienced in the past month. When telling the story; keep three things in focus: the location of the story: tell us the textures you see there: the journey there: where do you pass: an action/ event that happened in the space/ your departure from the space. To the same group: tell a story/ narrative about the city from your earliest memory of the city. The two ‘ listeners’ write down the key points of the story and draw and write them down. The idea is by the end all 6 stories will be on the same page of the story. Next collectively make up one story (this can be one story which someone told or it can be a mixture of all stories) and tell it collectively; using some actions and gestures to reflect the places in which the story happened. Use some props (chairs and tables) to further enact the story.
<We will then share the moving stories>
ENTER THE CITY: How can the body become a reflective mechanism for the experience of the body in the city? How far can the city be shaped and moulded by the actions and reactions of the body? THE CITY IS THE CHOREOGRAPHY OF LIFE, AND IT CAN BE USED AS RESOURCE FOR ARTISTIC PRACTICE; IT CAN FORM A PRODUCTIVE AND SUBSTANTIAL INPUT FOR THE CREATIVE MIND. THE MOTIFS OF HUMAN FORM REPEAT ON THE STREETS, TO BE OBSERVED, INTERPRETED, OR SIMPLY LEFT IN THEIR FLUX. CRESCENDOS AND DIMINUENDOS OF THE BUSTLING STREET RISE AND FALL WITH THE BREATH OF THE CITY, A LIVING ORGANISM, WHICH ONE CAN WALK UPON, IN, BESIDE AND AMONGST.
‘Our consciousness is like a body interacting with the
exterior world. Because our nerves cannot extend beyond
our skin, we only really sense our selves in contact with
the larger world, but separate from it. In the same way
we only know what is present within our consciousness,
contours and textures of an infinite world that exists
beyond the boundaries of knowledge.’ 1
‘To look at human movements as action signs is to
conceive the human body itself as signifier, to conceive
of the body as a signifying body. What this means is that
we have to conceive of human act/actions as embodied
intentions and that we have to be able to see a lived
space as intentionally achieved structuring, some that
has been willed or is now willed by someone or some group
of persons.’ 2
1 Kent De Spain in Albright. A. C. Gere. D (eds) Taken by Surprise. A Dance Improvisation Reader. Wesleyan University Press. P37 2 Farnell. B ( 2001) Human Action Sign in Cultural Context. The Visible and Invisible in Movement and Dance. The Scarecrow 2 Farnell. B ( 2001) Human Action Sign in Cultural Context. The Visible and Invisible in Movement and Dance. The Scarecrow Press. Maryland. P53
This unique workshop series explores Bucharest as a studio; collecting and gathering observations and stimulus from daily urban life; as resource for personal performance devising. This workshop unites dance, choreography, performance making, sociology and photography as a means to generate unique urban self-‐portraiture and reflection. Exploring the experience of the city as primary resource; these workshops will provide a unique experience for exploring creative choreographic methods to explore the city through the construction of a unique personal movement journey. We will now leave the University In groups of no more than 6. Before we leave: each group will decide two specific places where they wan to go. How do we decide where to go? Why are we going? How do we ensure we are still fully focused in the workshop environment? How do we collect our walk? How can we collect movement? How do we use a camera and our body to collect experience of the city? The process is simple: each person presents a location within the proximity suggested on the map (This will be of the city center limits and attempting not to go to far beyond this) we will plot all the locations together collectively and take from this exercise a route which we will follow for the duration of our walk. The idea is that at 6 points on the route we will stop to do a series of exercises and collection points. The walk is an active process: take the time to settle into the walk; breathe; make room for the sensation of walking, let your own thoughts quieten and let the mind become clear. Become a ‘bowl of water’ allow the city to become reflected in you, be a window to all that you see, without judgment and without forming sense as to what it all needs to mean to you. At certain points when we are on the walk TAKE A MINUTE: Imagine yourself dancing… Don’t worry about what the word dancing means Close your eyes and imagine yourself dancing. For one minute. Now clasp your hands and continue. Tell the person you are walking next to: what did you imagine. What was the movement you saw? The texture? Did the moving make any sound? Were you alone? Were you feeling it? Is it possible to dance like you imagined? How would you like to dance in the city?
AT SOME POINT ON THE JOURNEY: (NOT ALL AT ONCE) Take 24 photographs of the city and write down in a notebook what these photographs are and why you took them. Be SURE to write down what each of the images is in your notebook: or on the sheet attached: Take 24 steps and write down what a detail you noticed for each step. Be mindful as to what you are photographing Imagine each image will be memory of the journey you have taken and how do you wish the journey to be remembered and reflected? Think carefully as to what is inspiring you to collect each image and write down what it is that is ‘sparking you’ to collect each image. Attempt to consider doing this with movement for 5 scenes. Allow yourself to watch 5 places carefully and take actions. Write them down with body and mind: commit these movements to memory for the return to the studio. At the back of this back are two scores: decide a location, which you want to use this score in. AT SOME POINT: Note down three stories / narratives which you have observed on your route and place them in text form in your notebook. Note/draw as much detail as you can: for example: movement: color: sound: temperature: how what you were watching made you feel: how you saw the scene at first: who you imagine these characters might be. AT ANOTHER POINT: Write a story about your own memory a specific part of the city, which you are reminded of, on our walk.
YOUR 24: images and steps Use this page to write down what each of your images was and what you remember of each moment you photographed. Try to write down the location also as to where the image was taken.
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Practising Space: Review of potential practice based spatial observation tool kit. Beatrice Jarvis
University of Ulster.
23
Towards Amplifying Space: Making Place. Making the city choreograph | you. 1. Arrive to location…take a long slow look around, the way people are moving, the way they come and go, the things they do, their pace and
their patterns, notice stances, postures, �����G���G�����U2. Then merge with the patterns of movement you see there…See the
people and their actions; remove them from their space; see them and their bodies. .....join in, mimic, simulate, copy, imitate what you see there, try to be unobtrusive but also be aware of what you are doing. Do this for long enough to blend
with the patterns, possibly 5 minutes or so, trying different movements and sequences if you like.3. Then from that ‘ordinary’ sequence choose one or two – a step, a stance, a gesture….and repeat that in the place you are working in. Note your feelings and if anything feels strange –are you uncomfortable?,
are you being looked at? THEN do the same with your eyes closed a few times! Consolidate this pattern and repeat until it feels exhausted; notice the point of exhaustion and repeat again. 4. Next teach yourself these movements and add to them…….turn them into a more set ‘piece’, half natural half new movements of your own, something freer and more complex perhaps than the original you have
already ‘taught’ yourself ….and then ‘perform’ that in the space, ZLWK�RUGLQDU\�XVHUV�DQG�WKHLU�
PRYHPHQWV�DURXQG�\RX� Change and modify this as you repeat them, adding improvised cadenzas and unexpected
changes. With the movement you have created; take it to a different location in the same space and try to directly apply it. How can the movement you have created become an architectural intervention or social intervention? How can the body become a means to unveil the potential ( used in the subjective realm) of the space?
Return to Studio Be sure to write your name on your camera. Please keep your notebook safe; keep writing little scenes from the city from it, things you notice; movements you see, dances that you want to make. Keep it as a living-‐breathing journal of the moving city and how it moves you. We will regroup in the studio and discuss:
-‐ The images (24) each person took -‐ The movements which were gathered -‐ The responses to the score -‐ The use of notating the city in image and movement
We will then create a piece of movement reflection which in some way traces our movements through the city; setting a few phrases and making a series of patterns across the space. I will guide this process and it will be tailored to the material, which has emerged. We will then come together in the same way we started: a simple meditation; lying and reflecting. Then form a circle to reflect upon how the exercise has allowed us to see the city and discuss the idea of further workshops and the idea of a simple movement work based on walking the city supported by a photographic exhibition and text installation.
Urban space within this research becomes a canvas; upon which numerous marks, symbols and lines are added to; such marks and codes constitutive of some form of spatial and movement language; yet how can this language be transcribed, documented, recorded and then re-‐ told? To translate is a lie. Just as to converse and re-‐present scenarios of the urban encounter relies on the subjective realities of the author to generate a narrative which another then reform a presentation of. Losing all sense of meaning to cultural assemblage of language. Concept of universal language as impossible as language is shaped by geography, history. Patterning; which in the fabric of its construction lays bear the failures of communication into physical fruition of the desires of the mind in its solitude? The results of this research aim to function as creative subjective impressions initially; the weight of the task forms as to how such a subjective experiential task can bare productive social fruit; a dialog, which can further enable new methodologies as to how the space is used. The practice of choreography in this context extends beyond the limits of dance; choreography here reflects a socio-‐spatial practice exploring and framing the movement of bodies in urban space as means to a cultural discourse as to how people use urban space and the various social syntaxes this encompasses. In order that choreography can be perceived and utilized as apparatus; it is essential that a definition of apparatus emerge initially as a framework for departure. This research stems from a personal desire to expand the field of choreography to become a social medium; beyond the field of dance; whilst utilizing traditional choreographic concepts to engage a choreographic discourse; this research borrows key aspects of qualitative research method to expand the nature of the enquiry to a more social field of understanding. How can the act and practice of an application of choreographic frame be utilized as spatial and social research methodology; how far does the process by which choreographic data and process is collected and re-‐presented enable sociological understanding to be cultivated
For more information about my practice please see below: BEATRICE JARVIS Choreographer | Performer | Researcher Beatrice is an urban space creative facilitator, choreographer and researcher. She utilizes key concepts of choreography and visual arts methodologies with the intention to develop, original doctoral research on the connections between choreography and urban cultures. She is currently undertaking her practice based PhD funded by DEL titled; The Choreographic Apparatus| How Far can Choreographic Practice be used to Develop New Methods to Explore and Offer Insights into a Range of Urban Contexts. Her practice merges essential techniques in a sociological framework of critical perspectives. Beatrice is currently a visiting lecturer at various town planning and architecture departments in London developing a platform for the conceptual and physical integration of urban planning, sociology and choreography leading to practical social creative implementation. As a dance artist she works in Romania, Gaza, Germany and Northern Ireland to generate large scale choreographic works underpinned with a sociological inquiry; exploring the social power of movement. Beatrice is keen to create platforms social interaction using urban wastelands and reflections on urban habitation as a creative resource; her research currently focuses on how far choreography practice can develop a new methodology to interrogate a range of inner city conflict zones. Beatrice has recently initiated a new urban forum: Urban Research Forum for artists, architects, urban designers, cultural researchers, sociologists, anthropologists and all with an urban interest. This is conducted through seminars, workshops, performances and exhibitions. Collaboration, discourse and intellectual inquiry are seminal to this concept. The city with her practice becomes a live laboratory for social and spatial research of urban space use developing from this research innovative and interactive future space use programs through creativity Current research funded by DEL. ( Dartington College of Arts 2005-‐8 Choreography and Visual Arts BA hons First Class, MA Goldsmiths’, Centre of Community and Urban research, AHRC Funded; PhD, Ulster; Architecture and Art and Design, DEL funded) For further information about my practice please see the following links:
• Creative City life: http://beatricejarvis.com/ • Urban Research: http://issuu.com/urbanresearchforum • Documentation: http://www.blurb.com/user/bj87 • City as Studio: http://urbanorganics.cultura3.net/Resources/media/promo.mov
Work Examples: Heygate Estate/Elephant and Castle: http://vimeo.com/26177151 password: city and http://issuu.com/urbanresearchforum/docs/towards_embodied_methodology?mode=window&viewMode=singlePage Deptford Study for Steven Lawrence Centre: http://issuu.com/urbanresearchforum/docs/exhibition_catalouge_practising_space/3 and http://www.practisingspace.com/events-‐and-‐exhibitions.php Bucharest Study for local government AHRC: Dansul Objectul din Bucuresti LaBomba http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/invited/1015638/a8bd37a9fad73767cb13edef857dba7d Northern Ireland Cartography Project: AHRC: CollectingTrails http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/invited/1002909/405ee1c548a4b9718763503e118327cc
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