Arts
A Long interest.... Jazz, Music, Dance etc..
Magrite Performance
Impulse Project
https://bucknellinnovationgroup.blogs.bucknell.edu/2012/04/20/impulse-group-and-the-dense-network/
On Friday, 4/27, a performance was held in the Langone Center’s first floor hearth space that included students and faculty from Biomedical Engineering, Sculpture, Dance, and the Bucknell Interdisciplinary Improvisation Ensemble (BIIE)—who converged on the theme of impulse and spontaneous action.
The Biomedical Engineering students created “bioinstruments” that recorded and transformed biological signals to MIDI code that was sent out to a sound system. The Sculpture 2 students presented wearable art that metaphorically enhanced or restricted impulsive action. BIIE, with its practiced approach to improvisational music and dance, brought another layer of evocative action to the exchange. Participating faculty included: Phil Haynes from the Department of Music, Dustyn Martincich from the Department of Theatre and Dance, Joe Meiser from the Department of Art and Art History, and Joseph Tranquillo from the Department of Biomedical Engineering.
Bioinstruments
These non-traditional instruments were imagined and built by Biomedical Engineering students as part of the Fundamentals of Biomedical Signals and Systems course. Each instrument recorded one or more biological signals and then transformed those signals to MIDI code that was then sent out to the sound system. There were no prerecorded sounds and everything was generated on-the-fly. Student teams developed their devices in collaboration with student members of the Bucknell Improvisation Intensive Ensemble (BIIE). Members of the audience were invited to try the instruments after the performance.
Space Infiltration Project
This project also grew out of the Bucknell Innovation Group, and aims to infiltrate public spaces on campus with what might be termed “flash innovation.” Examples might include setting up interactive games for the university community to play and/or watch; teaching class sessions in residence halls to open up discussions to a wider community; and presenting Tina Cody’s Double-Take project in the LC Hearth Space or on the Academic Quad. The goal is to allow our entire community to see the different learning possibilities at Bucknell and to open up discussion about space needs and uses.
Love Project
“The Love Project,” by Knox. Songs from artists such as Train, Edith Piaf, The Carpenters, Dick Van Dyke, and Lynden David Hall were arranged into the number.
“[‘The Love Project’] is about all different types of love between friends or siblings and the joy it brings,” said Ridhi Sahani ’18, a dancer in “The Love Project.”
BIIE
The Bucknell Improvisation Intensive Ensemble specializes in open, improvised, non-jazz new music performed by Bucknell music majors led by jazz artist Phil Haynes. The creation of BIIE supplies a performance-oriented forum for interested musicians to build ensemble sensitivity, shed inhibitions, stimulate interpretive flexibility and improvisational breadth, and to develop the relationship between the conscious mind and sub-conscious imagination. BIIE avidly collaborates with other faculty, staff, and student interdisciplinary artists on campus and in the community, including dancers, poets, film makers, and curious audiences. Their sensitive ensemble music is exploratory by nature–acoustic, organic, and avante-modern–as they examine music as “aesthetically organized sound,” improvisation as “spontaneous composition,” and ensemble as “instant orchestration and staging.”
In Spring 2012 I participated in a guest lecture to the IMPACT class offered by Steve Shooter and Seth Osborn. The topic was on teamwork with groups of people who are not usually a team. Our time together was spent alternating between performance and discussion. Performers ranged from professional jazz musicians (led by Phil Haynes) to the Bucknell Interdisciplinary Improvisation Ensemble (BIIE) to Theater and Dance students (led by myself and Kelly Knox). An interesting outcome was a short film documenting the experience that can be found at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g571chNjnTs
Tags: Founding, Performance, Dance, Innovation
Free Again
Aaron Meyers, 2011-2012 sculpture resident, created an amazing 25 foot sculpture and invited Kelly Knox and I to improvise on it. After filming two hours of footage we edited it down to five minutes. The final video has been shown at the Grey Art Gallery in Williamsport as well as the Little by Little exhibit at the Samek Art Gallery. You can see the video:
Square Peg Round Hole
The “Square Peg Round Hole” workshop, hosted by the Department of Theatre and Dance, explored the world of Autism and Autism Spectrum Disorder with the internationally renowned Tectonic Theatre Company. The week ended in a final showing and reception on Friday, May 26 2012 for Bucknell Faculty and Geisinger professionals. The project was co-supported by BIG and the Geisinger Health System and brought together Bucknell faculty, alumni and students from several different departments in order to develop a work that promises a full production in NYC in the Tectonic Theatre Company’s 2013-2014 season. I participated in the entire week as both a neuroscience consultant and as a performer.
Square Peg Round Hole
https://www.autismspeaks.org/blog/2013/06/11/actor-spectrum-brings-awareness-stage
http://tectonictheaterproject.org/
The “Square Peg Round Hole” workshop, hosted by the Department of Theatre and Dance, explored the world of Autism and Autism Spectrum Disorder with the internationally renown theatre Company The Tectonic Theatre Project. Through the generous support of the Bucknell Innovation Group and The Geisninger Health System who co-sponsored the workshop, we had an exciting and successful week culminating in a final showing and reception on Friday, May 26 2012 for Bucknell Faculty and Geisinger professionals. Our audience shared with us their responses in a talk back following the presentation. Comments were enthusiastically positive and many shared how moved they were by the engaging and theatrical approach the company used to approach the sensitive topic of Autism Spectrum Disorder. This interdisciplinary project brought together Bucknell faculty, alumni and students from several different departments in order to develop a work that promises a full production in NYC through the Tectonic Theatre Workshop in their 2013-2014 season. Below is a list of cast/workshop participants for the project, which include representation from the Departments of Biomedical Engineering, Music, Dance, Art, Philosophy, Theatre and Neuroscience. Thanks to BIG, initiatives like this have the opportunity to impact our community and others in many new and exciting ways. Thanks BIG!
https://bucknellinnovationgroup.blogs.bucknell.edu/2012/06/02/square-peg-round-hole-theatre-residency/
Anjalee Hutchinson: Performer and Collaborator. Theatre Department. Adn001@bucknell.edu
Mark Hutchinson: Possible Performer, Collaborator, And Technical Director/Designer.
Theatre Department. mwh012@bucknell.edu
Possible Project Participants (I haven’t approached them yet, but they have expressed interest in the past):
Steve Shooter: Artistic Collaborator. Mechanical Engineering Department.
David Evans: Artistic Collaborator, Psychology Department.
Joe Tranquillo: Possible Performer, Artistic Collaborator. Biomedical and Electrical Engineering Department.
Kelly Knox: Movement Coach and Collaborator. Dance Department.
Phil Haynes: Performer improviser, musician, Collaborator. Music Department.
Brief Project Description:
A one week theatre residency where director and playwright Andy Paris of the Tectonic Theatre Project (creators of The Laramie Project, I am my Own Wife, 33 Variations, etc.) would explore the topic of Autism with Bucknell University faculty through the development of a new play to be produced at the Tectonic Theatre Project in NYC in 2013. The method of exploration is ‘moment work’ which uses collaborative ensemble work to both discover and develop content as well as form. The residency will bring the director/playwright here as well as the dramaturge, to work with our diverse academic team of experts in spectrum disorders as well as performance. In addition, we are working towards including two current students and two recent alumni as research assistants and performers.
Significance:
The play The Laramie Project, based on the murder of Matthew Shepard in Laramie Wyoming, was explored and developed through this same company using these same techniques of research and experimentation. Laramie was a play that changed the landscape of how homophobia and hate crimes were perceived in the US. Through the gathering of hundreds of interviews and then the exploration of these interviews through performance, the play not only held wide acclaim, it subsequently had hundreds of productions once released through out the US in professional theatres, universities and high schools. The level at which this one play had an effect on our national and international perspective on homosexuality is palpable. To be involved at the grass roots level of another such play, that has the potential to change the way our culture perceives autism, aspergers and even what is considered neurotypical in America, is an opportunity that should not be overlooked. I believe Bucknell University and its remarkable faculty have much to offer just such a project.
Outcome:
The residency would be from May 21st through May 25th 2012, from 9am – 4pm daily. A final showing may be expected on the 25th. The outcome would be an artistic hand in the final production to be mounted in NYC through the Tectonic Theatre Project in their 2013/2014 season.
Potential Challenges:
Some potential challenges include managing time requirements for all of the faculty involved for all or most of the rehearsals, particularly the week after graduation. Another challenge is finding housing and stipends for two alumni and two student research assistants. Lastly finding housing and stipend for the director and the dramaturge, although they could stay with us for the week and they seem amiable to the idea of that.
Timeframe:
The residency would be from May 21st through May 25th 2012, from 9am – 4pm daily. A final showing may be expected on the 25th. The outcome would be an artistic hand in the final production to be mounted in NYC through the Tectonic Theatre Project in their 2013/2014 season.
Resource Request and Anticipated Use:
I am seeking grant funding of $2000 as a stipend for Andy Paris and dramaturge Anushka Paris to travel and lead the workshops here at Bucknell University. In addition I am also seeking funding of $1000 for stipend for alumni actors. Current students are applying for undergraduate research assistant funding. I am hoping faculty will collaborate pro-bono.
Chocolate heads Movement Band
https://arts.stanford.edu/a-year-of-high-notes-for-stanfords-chocolate-heads/
The Chocolate Heads movement band had a banner year, by any measure.
They collaborated with jazz great William Parker, workshopped with neuroscientists and synesthetes, staged an underground performance at Cantor Arts Center, dazzled an audience at Bing Concert Hall, partnered with the a cappella group Talisman on an original composition, and finished the year with a spring performance at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.
All this while pursuing studies in medicine, architecture, engineering and fiction writing, just to name a few.
In this fourth year of the Chocolate Heads, there were 12 musicians, 10 dancers and two poets, plus visiting artist William Parker – which made it the biggest Chocolate Heads troupe to date. They welcomed guest members from the off-campus community and several Stanford musical prodigies, including the gifted musical director and composer Tyler Brooks and 2013 TEDx sensations Kai Kight, violin, and Ryan Edwards, mixing sound on computers.
In January, the Chocolate Heads performed for a capacity crowd at Cantor Arts Center. “We decided to have an un-show at the Cantor in order to try out our upcoming Bing show and have more performance opportunities,” said Hayes. Collaborators Connie Wolf, the director of the Cantor, and Patience Young, the curator for education, enthusiastically supported the troupe’s vision of an underground performance party in one of the most elegant spaces on campus. The entire audience joined in on the dance floor for the grand finale.
Two months later, the Chocolate Heads presented a polished Xocolatl: Food of the Gods at Bing Concert Hall with Parker. Tickets were gone within three hours of the offering.
Opening of the Bing Center at Stanford
Capacitor Dance Company https://www.capacitor.org/
https://www.capacitor.org/synaptic-motion/
What does the act of creativity look like? San Francisco’s internationally acclaimed science and technology dance company Capacitor tackles this question head-on in the world premiere of “Synaptic Motion.” Conceived and choreographed by Artistic Director Jodi Lomask, this multi-sensory experience is informed by brain scans taken at the UCSF Neuroscape Lab to capture the mind during the act of choreography.
Member of EAE (http://www.eg.bucknell.edu/~pjb033/about.php)
The Electro-Acoustic Ensemble at Bucknell University is the performing componenet of Performance for Laptop a new course that examines the laptop computer as a musical instrument and explores the line between art and science.
Originally founded in January 2009 at Loyola University New Orleans, the current ensemble at Bucknell University is composed of fifteen performers and director Paul J. Botelho. The group performs using laptop computers, custom-built software and circuitry, and other technology-based instruments and devices.
The ensemble strives to perform new works in a variety of unique, site-specific situations. Performance venues have included stairwells, city streets, and New Orleans' streetcars.
The ensemble's performance focus is new work, improvisation, and the classical electro-acoustic repertoire.
The Performance for Laptop course examines the laptop computer as a musical instrument and explores the line between art and science. Class participants develop, perform, and create together as a laptop ensemble.