Vestigia : Remnants, Ashes, Relics: A workshop by DATURA (Digital Presentation)
Digital Research in Humanities and the Arts 2021, September 5-7, 2021, Berlin, Germany
John D. Mitchell and Holly Smith represented DATURA at DRHA and led participants in the Fill the Room workshop. This workshop focused on the trans-disciplinary creation and performance strategies developed by the DATURA ensemble working within the Arizona State University Decision Theater for the creation of Vestigia. We utilized improvisational structures for sound, image and movement while incorporating crossovers from the natural to the digital using on-the-body sensors to generate responsive images and sound. We encourage movement specialists, visual artists, and electronic composers to attend. If you work in an electronic environment please bring generating devices to use at the workshop. The session will emphasize the subtle strengths of collaboration in unplanned ways, remaining vigilant to being in the moment, and recognizing opportunities when they appear.
Phase I– Participants will experience a guided learning experience where they will explore the creation of performance material including techniques of listening, seeing, responding and leading. This will include transferring information from natural to digital environments, and creating interactions between the two.
Areas covered in phase 1 include
*Sound production: hearing/coding/transferring with John D. Mitchell
*Image production: designing with found images, transferring from physical to digital, and negotiating connectivity and networks with Ben Braman.
*Movement Creation: Embodied experience, discovering movement vocabulary, and partnering with Holly Smith assisted by Alyssa Calvano, Jemima Choong, and Tanya Dimitrov,
The focus will be on creating material for later use in trans-disciplinary performance interaction.
Phase II– Is an informal performance experience, where all participants will come together as a group, stream their real-time information to the ASU Decision Theater, and participate in a DATURA performance with the rest of the DATURA ensemble.
In phase II (afternoon) all participants come together and put the experiences from phase I into practice. An understanding of techniques covered in the morning will guide workshop participants towards embodying a shared experience with members of DATURA. Each group will create, rehearse and perform an improvised work based upon the material created earlier in the day.