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| Johannes
Birringer New Environments for Dance: Ecologies of Networks Contemporary dance and performance practitioners in many parts of the world, have begun to create work with new media and telecommunications technologies and to explore the practical implications of linking remote sites via the Internet, as well as upgrading the studio into so-called "intelligent stages." In this presentation, I shall first investigate the notion of intelligent spaces and emergent systems, then look at some examples from my "Environments Laboratory" (Columbus) to raise questions about the new ecologies of real and mixed-reality/distributed performances, and the the cultural issues of translation and collaboration faced by teams that create technologically mediated interactive performances across time zones and territories. In particular, I want to address the question of the emergence of a “globalized” dance and music culture that can no longer be distilled into separate and “local” traditions, styles or signatures but follows different trajectories of transmission and exchange. On the other hand, I will also admit to the many limitations of this pseudo-utopian concept of distribution, and focus on the small steps we are taking in understanding what we mean by intelligent space/slow space. Biography Johannes Birringer is an independent choreographer/videomaker, and artistic director of AlienNation Co., an international multimedia ensemble based in Houston, Texas He currently also directs the Dance & Technology Program in the Dance Department at The Ohio State University, where he has conducted “Environments,” an experimental laboratory for dancers, visual and media artists focused on new processes of “folding” and “liquid architecture” to enhance the organic integration of live performance with interactive design and “distributed choreography.” He received his M.A. and Ph.D. from Trier University (Germany) after graduate research fellowships at Cambridge and Yale Universities. He has taught performance studies at UT-Dallas, Northwestern University, Rice University, and at the Giessen Institute of Applied Theatre Science. He has published widely on media and performing arts and is a contributing editor with the leading international journals in the field. His recent books include "Media and Performance- along the border" (1998) and "Performance on the Edge: Transformations of Culture" (2000). His artistic work promotes the organic integration of live performance and digital, interactive architectures requiring new processes of composition and motion study. As a choreographer and video producer, he has directed numerous dance-theatre and opera productions, and has received commissions for multimedia installations and public arts works around the world. His workshops and laboratories have furthered cross-cultural, integrated arts research, exploring intimate connections between live performance, cinematic/video space-time and digital/network architectures. His compositions combine choreography with video sculptures, acoustic and electronic music, poetry and the plastic arts. |