Presence/Part 1

Once we know what the actions will be, it will be easier to determine what is needed in part 1.  

Here we can propose focusing and social actions--

such as getting in touch with the senses/body

working together in pairs

etc..

I have a lot of ways to lead a group through, I think we should focus on what our overall structure will be and on the actions and then come back to decide on part 1--I think we can do this on Wed--if we know before hand our agreed structure overall and actions proposed.

We could also have the same preparation (warm up) each day--something really to get the body moving, etc.

I also still like the idea of us three bringing our sketched map of Zagreb to our first meeting and then have the participants--on the first day--draw theirs.

Sharing/ Part 3

As I proposed in my email, I would really like to focus the third part on coming together and each group contributes to something we make together. I am in favor of a re-map of Zagreb.  To work with materials (paper, sketching utensils, transparencies, etc) and to re-name, re-orient, etc the map of Zagreb--

I like the translation process from bodies moving in the city to translating what we found through another, shared, medium.  This can be playful and also leave a residue, document...

In this way, we can work on a layering of palmipsest of ideas, places in the city, etc--it is also a document that can be shared beyond the group--a visual document (one more connected to the work than a video).  Again, we could have three maps from each day or a variation maps.

I also feel that this is where we can bring in discussion and the readings*

We may, need a place indoors to work--and I feel the studio will not be that far to return to and work.

I prefer this over a kind of show and tell format.

Actions/Part 2: Sara

Proposed Actions:

Day 1: main square of Zagreb Trg bana Jalacica

scales/bodies/heights

working with the participants in solo and small group form (depending on number) to relate to the varying forms and systems present in the square: larger-than-life equestrian statue, surrounding houses, a skyscraper, and people walking accross the square.

I am interested in working with the body/movements as a means of measuring the space as well as feeling out what scale is. In order to do that we might count with our feet, hands, whole body along walls, surfaces, buildings (I also like the idea of touching architecture).  Also to work with being very small and very large through image and movement.  Perhaps taking on different body shapes in relation to the existing structures and placing ourselves in various positions that change the perception of the scale of things and our own bodies.  Also, to measure across the square, by lining up as a group and creating a moving spectacle across the square  (if enough people).

Day 2: short street called Krvavi most (Bloody bridge)

bridges/borders/fences

Here I am interested to work with flow, movement through a space, traveling through the space--from one side to another.  We would come up with various ways of walking through the space (alone and in partners) that alter the experience of the space--for example, walking sideways, backwards, in slow motion, etc.

Day 3: old botanical garden/serves as a division from the railroad tracks

silences/waits/(in)visibility

I am most excited about this day....

I would like to work with being invisible and also leaving a trace.  I like the idea of participants following people through the space and also collecting movement vignettes or tableaus of people waiting. I also like the idea of leaving a mark with chalk, tracing someone's pathway through a space, as well as re-performing the tableaus in different locations.

--

These are all still quite open and will be further detailed on site.  I may also choose, once I arrive, to focus on one particular system (related to walking) at each site and see how that system changes with each site and what that says about a site.

 

 

Day Three

Day three: silences/waits/(in)visibility
I collect the written forms of things to hide. We exchange them and save for later.
As we leave the studio you’ll receive a bag of transparent balloons. Find places of visual silence. What is lacking there? Mark them with blown balloons. How does the city manifest itself in the void?


1. Develop strategies to make someone wait.
2. Look for a person in silence within the public space. Collect a series of gestures and postures of diverse persons in silence. What are the qualities that a body silence impinges in the space? Is the lack of sound always a body in silence? (in terms of physical qualities)
3. Find spots where we can hide the things to hide. How do other react as they see you hiding? What are the strategies you employ? (digging, burning, carving. throwing et)

Day Two

Day two: bridges/borders/fences

As we leave the studio each one receive two threads of different colors. We walk and observe
List things that divide and Things that connect, marking each one of them with a different color.

When we arrive at the zone of action
In areas of flow, which are the things that mark a separation, a division? Are they always visible or a physical landmark?
How do actions (practices) distingue and fragment this zone?

1. Choose two things that are close to each other, but separated, disconnected.
Can you connect them using only your body/presence?
Can the objects you brought with you help with this task?

2. What are the elements that demarcate areas and division of actions?

Today again I intend to work in duos- one performs, the other observes.
When we come together we talk about the successes and difficulties on becoming bridges and fences.

Day One Part II and III

day one: scales/bodies/heights

As we leave the studio and walk towards the first region distribute a sheet with columns:
Things to fold
Things to collect
Things underneath
Things above
Things remembered

Participants should work with this lexicon and list from observing around.
Once we arrive at the region I ask the participants to hand in the list. (will lead into next day activity)

Participants are asked to walk around individually and choose sites of extreme scales: where bodies (their own and of the passers by) feel and/or look:
The biggest
The coldest
The warmest
The loneliest
The …

Potentially to be done in couples.
Than Pick 3 or 4 of the explored sites and experiment first reinforcing the adjectives, through physical or object placing.
Build up a sequence going from one to the next (up to four).
Same working with opposition. What can you do to oppose that characteristic?

For part III:
As we worked in couples, each one of the participants shares with the large group the sequence of the other.
The observers can be distributed in diverse heights and distances to watch the performing body.

Discuss:
Which are the architectural elements that provoke that framing?
How do the bodies of the observer alter the action? (closeness, angle etc)

Each one of the participants picks one sheet of the lexicon to bring home.
On their way to the hotel and throughout next day they have to choose one element from each of the columns and bring an object to our next day meeting.

On PART I

Part I:
I understand the technique as tool for bulding up a structure, a system that will establish the conditions through which one will inhabit the body, in the first place, and the city, secondarily.
My feeling is to work with a sequence of physical warm ups in a cumulative structure within the three days and to focus on some elements we will want to bring to the regions.
Sara, this may be something the two of us can put together on the 23rd eve?
For sure they should be Simple and encompass elements that may help us to observe and interfere in the experience off the city, most specifically open up a physical availability. It is like experience walking within ones own body.
Start sited, do shoulders, articulatory acknowledgment-
Aim for a focus on presence- the space the body occupies-
the simplicity of streching - going up and down pulling the feets to the ground. weight and counter weight.
Duration-I am thinking about Cunningham and how he states that the choreographic phrase is held on relations of duration, and not on musical rhythm- and how duration is essential for meaning and conceiving of a city.
Find the moments of suspension without blocking the flow of the movement (action/reaction).
I have some sequence of arms rotations with leg stretching that I really like.
After basic body warm ups we should build on this as the moment of the private- when the city expresses itself within the private- the personal, the secret, the expectations, the memories.

I suggest that when we leave we should already leave within a proposition- we don’t loose time getting to the site, but the moment of dislocation is already carefully planned as a task.
Only when we get to the zone of the day we’d than split into the couples for the official Part II exercises.

In relation to Augusto Boal’s exercise I’ve mentioned, he usually works with memory spaces, but we can play with the memories (and preconceptions) of Zagreb.

Another possibility is to exchange the maps we all arrived with- so, each one would have to go for a walk following the other's notes and maps to be guided.
exchange of instructions—but risk to get lost.