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[Original at http://www.3via.org/index.php?htm=plesalec/index
also at https://www.turborebop.net/html.php?htm=plesalec/index]
Borut Savski – tretja od treh miniatur iz serije Zvok kot metafora
Borut Savski – third of three miniatures from the series Sound as Metaphore
Dancer / Plesalec
Dancer was presented at Kapelica Gallery/ Ljubljana on 17th of February, after a delay of a week, when an uncontrollable rotation tear out the object’s guts.
One comment though: It came to my mind that the description of the object as “robot” was not originally mine. It was also called “android”, which is little better denotation, since it alludes that a moving object is a metaphore of human. This is the most precise term: a moving object as a metaphore. Why not robot or android? Because these terms define the functionality of machine. I caught myself thinking at one moment that the thing should really see the surroundings and be able to decide intelligently. But this is going too far…
Prezgodnji porod? A prematurely born … was born …
This photo by Miha Fras accompanied the article on the “one of the most poor performances” of machines that ever happened at Kapelica Gallery. Written by Jaša Kramaršič at Mladina. His is also the thesis that “object should be able to speak on it’s own…”
“… nothing is easy” is a citation from a movie by Pedro Almodovar, when Pina Bausch performs one of her very special moves … and it’s coming to my mind often lately …
Problems? Yes… always…
The robot must be perfectly stable on it’s own (now OK), a better speed control added (OK, done), lowering of the weight (Litium instead of Pb accus – done, YES…). Apart from disbalance control (for changing the direction) also some form of selfbalance control must be added. Disbalancing must have priority over the self-balancing until some moment, then the two must change priorities.
sound excerpts… mp3s:
dancer1middle
dancer1end
After the installation a group of four performed an improvisational session, that came out well, so you can listen to it ALL here… (over 50 minutes)
video excerpt… mov: Play file
(the “wobbly” action comes from counterweight’s rotary movement)
The poetic idea of human self-balancing vith a view of “wholeness” linked with the (human) concept of time which openes the space for many questions of motive and motion …
A dancer – balancing on the tips of her toes. A classical ballet ideal – the art of balancing.
A physical model of dynamically self-balancing system – known as gyro. The spin keeps it balanced and the slope makes it moving … It’s main property is precession – when it turns fast it is able to balance on its pivot. The spinning mass presents an inertia to any turning. This force is called precession.
Human psyche is a self-balancing system. The absolute is (always) just around the corner … A clock – a symbol of (linear) time. The subjectivity is a projection forward & backward in time… A clock centered on the nose gives a funny clown-like look. A comment?
First object (alpha) was unable to spin on its own, because of the weight of lead accumulators. The frame was not very well balanced … a prematurely born …
The second version (beta) is lighter, smaller and stronger but it still has problems on rougher grounds. The neccessary financial injection to upgrade was almost too much …
It is fitted with a tail (as seen on the right). Tail helps to keep the upper part relatively fixed, so that all the spin is transfered to the lower part.
It still doesn’t have a sound sensitive counterbalance to change direction (now the tail helps).
The batteries and the rough grounds allow for about 15 minutes of “autonomy” …
The next (last?) version will be “production version” with a nickname Rudi (-> Rudolf Nurejev, of course…). I’ll fix some kind of colorful panties for it.
The tail will eventually have to get off, if any kind of “subjectivity” is to emerge (I think). Humans balance themselves with abstract counterweights – not with tail …
PLESALEC/ PLESALKA
Plesalec je avtonomen gibljiv objekt, ki se želi predstaviti kot umetniški subjekt. Deluje na principu plesa/ pomikanja skozi zvočno polje v prostoru. Njegov komunikacijski kanal (-> višji smisel; motiv) je torej zvok, ki ga vodi sem ter tja po prostoru. A ker gre že za abstrakcijo (primarni motiv je gibanje; posledični motiv, ki ga želimo, pa je zvok – vmes je neka točka potujitve, ki pa jo določimo/ osmislimo ljudje). Šele ko se neposredno razumevanje vzrokov (višjega) gibanja (-> tokrat zvok) zabriše – torej se samo gibanje kot neposredni (čeprav nelinearni – ne neposredno soodvisen/soodgovoren) vzrok umakne v ozadje – objekt “zaživi” samostojno življenje.
S procesom pozabe (prvotnih) razlogov se torej vzpostavi (novo) razumevanje. Razlog je v spremembi sistema vrednotenja, vendar meja v našem primeru ni popolnoma zabrisana. Tako gibanje kot zvok ostajata prisotna. Če pa bi se gibanje izostalo (recimo pri poslušanju le zvočnega zapisa), pa bi popolnoma prešli v drug vrednostni sistem.
Ta način nastajanja in osamosvajanja miselnih teles je enak kot pri mitih. Mit je miselno telo, ki se je (pomensko) osamosvojilo (postalo verjetno – torej resnično) s tem ko je izgubilo svoje vzročne povezave. Mit ne potrebuje posebnega procesa razumevanja – kot nosilec pomena je neposredno razumljiv. Pri mitu so vzroki zabrisani. Če bi jih znova prepoznali, bi mit razpadel. Temu pravimo demistifikacija.
Plesalec vpliva na zvočno polje tudi povratno – vsak trenutek ga torej spreminja. Hipnim spremembam pa se upirajo posamezni deli tega sklopljenega sistema (objekt in prostor po katerem se giblje). To imenujemo inercije in so posledica fizičnih lastnosti, ki se na spremembe ne morejo odzvati hipno.
Seveda gre tudi tokrat za metaforično postavitev. Bistveno vprašanje, ki si ga postavljam je, ali ni morda človeku subjektivnost dosegljiva zaradi gibanja (v splošnem: dinamike) in ne (le) zaradi jezika?
gibanje -> motiv (-> gibalo)
Neka okrevanka je po hudi nesreči, po kateri je doživela popolno amnezijo, povedala, da je imela največ težav s ponovno priučitvijo ravnotežja – hoje. Zastavljeno vprašanje postane bolj verjetno, če fizično uravnovešanje razširimo še na psihološko, nad katerim pa imamo v vsakodnevnem nizanju trenutkov precej manj moči.
Razcep, v psihoanalizi poimenovan manko, onemogoča statično stabilno stanje (-> trajno srečo, trajno nesrečo). Ali pa ni morda prav ta razcep motor, generator sprememb? V takem primeru so tudi odločitve (racionalizirane spremembe) lahko dokaj poljubne (odvisne od inercij – tudi in predvsem psiholoških – vsakega individualnega sistema).
Še o racionalizaciji:
Besedo racionalizacija uporabljamo, ker gre praviloma vedno za osmišljanje za nazaj (tudi v naprej), Torej je za to opravilo nujno potrebna kategorija časovna premica, ki odpre prostor vzročnosti in posledičnosti. To se zdi primarna človekova domena.
Vprašanje Plesalca je torej lovljenje dinamičnega ravnovesja – najbrž ni izključeno tudi padanje. Plesalec lovi ravnovesje na način vrtavke, za spreminjanje smeri plesa pa mu pomaga spreminjanje položaja težiščnice od ravnovesne lege. Za relativno mirovanje težiščnice skrbi giroskop – nujno potrebni (inercijski) element. Uspešnost lovljenja ravnotežja je potreben pogoj za nastanek zvočne kompozicije.
DANCER
Dancer is an autonomous moving object that tries to present itself as an artistic subject. It functions on the principle of movement through the sound field in the gallery space. It’s communication channel (-> the higher meaning, sense; -> the motive) is therefore the sound. The sound takes the object here & there accross the space. But the sound as motive is already an abstraction (-> a human translation/ intervention). Primary motive is the motion, the secondary (-> higher) motive is transformed to sound (since we want it to be so…). Somewhere in-between was a moment of estrangement – a change of evaluation system. Since the sound is (nonlineary) linked to movement, this change is not very big, but it should allow the object to achieve the “artistic purpose”.
The process of forgetting the basic reasons opens a space for new understanding. This is how the fragmentation of the (human) world works. New meaning is born out of erasure of old meaning. Objects start to multiply like cells.
This logic is similar to what happens with myths. A myth is an (imaginary) object, that becomes self-contained (and credible; real), when it loses it’s causal connections. We no longer know what are the reasons that “construct” the myth. If we did it would fall apart (lose it’s body) – the word for it is demystification.
The Dancer affects the sound, because it is an active element of the feedback system – it changes it in every moment with its every move. Instant changes are fought back by the various pieces of the coupled system (the object and the space). This is called inertia and is the consequence of the physical properties that cannot change instantly.
Of course, it is again a metaphorical installation. The question now is: is it possible that the subjectivity in human has something to do with the movement (with dynamics, in general) and not (just) the language?
movement -> motive (-> motion)
A female reconvalescent after a serious accident, when she had a total amnesia, told that she had a lot more problem with the learning of walking (balancing), then with the language. The above question is more feasible, if we broaden the physical balancing also to the psychologic balancing, where in everyday life we experience less control.
The split, in psychoanalysis called _____ (fr.: manque), prohibits the static stable state (-> everlasting happiness, everlasting misery…). Is it not this split that is a motor (-> a motivator), the generator of changes? In such case also decisions (-> the rationalized changes) become fairly arbitrary (dependent upon the inertia – also & especially the psychologic ones – of each individual system).
About rationalization:
Since with humans it is all about giving sense/ meaning to the past (also to the future) moment, the necessary category to do this is the timeline (linearized time) that opens up the space of cause and effect. It seems to me that this may be the primary human domain.
The question about the Dancer is therefore the realtime dynamic balancing – probably also the falling down. The Dancer balances in the manner of a gyro, to change the direction it uses the change of the vector of object’s weight (gravitation) vector from the balanced (null) position. For the relative stable position of the gravitation vector we use gyroscope – which is the necessary inertial element. The succesful act of dynamic balancing is the necessary attribute for an emergence of a musical composition.
Plesalec/ Dancer was produced by Kapelica Gallery with the help of Ministry of Culture of Slovenia and City of Ljubljana.
Plesalec/ Dancer is a part of the Sound as Metaphore series of projects by the same author. Read more about Trivia projects.