At first...
Performing arts is an area with many more possibilities.
"nest" aims to produce work that has yet to be seen or experienced.
There are many compositional elements in performance. e.g. sound, lighting, architecture, body, etc. A merit of the performing arts is to be able to apply/use these elements simultaneously.
We could call this condition in which these elements are related together "synthesized art", or "integrated art". In thinking about this work we made hypotheses that such work needs a mathematical analytical view which leads to the "common language" of the elements. A view that is not only feeling.
We would like to discuss the possibilities of making a new performing arts (and multimedia performance) method based on this idea.
The focus of the workshop is one piece of body movement which we work on with the participants and then after discuss. This process (movement then discussion) is repeated many times.
Although body movement is the physicality of the work participants not need be dancers, they could be producers, architects, composers, or anyone willing to create something. This program is to look at what performing art consists of rather than making good performing art. ：：：：：：：：：：
TEXT-01
The idea and approach towards the making of a piece of art.
When we say our art does not carry any messages, deliver any particular feelings, convey any moving tragic or comic stories, this means that our focus is rather upon the coexistence of people who have a variety of technical strengths, and of values and feels for aesthetics. We focus on the fact that and the process in which such an amalgamation of human forces creates a dynamic art of performance. To us, a work of art is not a tool to deliver a specific message or a story, but it is the environment in which we coexist in peace. It is our way of communicating, or of creating art, that we would like to express.Usually there exists an image of completion in the process of making art. A director gathers necessary elements according to the finished image, and put them together as if making a work out of clay. But is it not necessary to use this process all the time when we try to make something happen?If you consider the structure of a city, a director is non existent. Many people go to many places, in whichever way they want, and do the things they like whenever they wish. In this process a complexity of unpredictable occurrences take place. Similarly, we lead our lives all together not around one center but around many sub centers in which we interact in a variety of ways. Our art is a simulation of the city, or the natural habitat built around us.Under the strict supervision of a director, elements which do not match his image will be automatically erased. But our habitat is, in fact, comprised of a variety of complicated occurrences related to each other, and they stand in equal terms. Simulating the living structure of the city or of the nature inevitably induces exciting variety and uncertainty, while conjuring up, we believe, images which have never been seen until now. ：：：：：：：：：：
TEXT-02
The concrete production process (example of movement production)
Fixing time and space
First we decide where the artists will coexist. In other words we put the world in a reduced scale and in this setting and time we formulate a certain algorithm concerning the relationship between the performers, the visual images, and the music. Each of us has his/her own program, and his/her input and output, according to the program, will make up the production.Tools to generate movement
When we retrace our steps we get to the question of ﾒwhy do people move? How do we move in our daily lives? Observing this carefully, we find that movement always comes forth from the relationship with others, whether human or non-human. For example, we drink water out of a glass, and at another time, we stop and go back if someone calls us. Based on this assumption, we devised some tools to be used for generating movement. The tools imply provide motives that cause performers to move their bodies. The aim is not to control the movements of the human body, but to draw, to the full extent, the physical characteristics of every individual. We especially pay attention to how the body acts when driven by a specific motivation, and how differently according to whom it belongs to. If the people who we use the tools vary, inevitably the same motivation will create a different movement.All the movements derived in the process have been given a name and are being stocked in a dictionary. When we choreograph, we compose by word first, and then translate it into movement phrases while consulting the dictionary.Overlay structure
In the next level, that the individual bodies coexisting in time and space is brought into focus. We could see this as a metaphor of the city.In the city there is no director, yet here and there dramas are taking place. What we try to do is to grasp the multi-layered structure of such an situation of the city, for instance. We made a hypothesis of happenings generated by the interplay of these layers, each of which so distinct in character, influenced and influencing each other in certain times and locations.- First couplingEvery performer is considered here to have his/her own layer. It is necessary to fix wherefrom whereto the performer moves and what s/he does where and when. In order to solve this , we provide an entrance, an exit , a kind of directory.It can be possible that this directory is used by other performers as well. In this case the space is shared by a group of people. Each one is proceeding towards their own goal, yet with a common directory at hand. Sometimes they may collide, sudden things occur, among them communication is needed. Because they share a certain space under certain rules, we see the layer of individual group members collectively formulate a layer, and thus call the process "First Coupling".- Second couplingTwo or three layers like this start piling up so that a new style of communication becomes needed and consequently new phenomena occur.Simultaneously, new instructions may apply to all such layers; the current directory may evolve in the opposite direction; and every layer may get hindered by obstacles in common.Randomness
At first we fixed where and how we would proceed. If we take this as a sequence, each person and each group may have several sequences. Each performer/layer has its own individual program. The information from the respective performers/layers is exchanged in a real-time setting, and an unpredictable unfixed result comes out.The process requires a numerical mark. Basically it becomes an overfull system but just because of abundance we can not control the result.Notation
We can give all this a score but the score can not be meaningful without someone to read it. Then, if the reader is different, the translation may well be different, too. According to our handling of it, more new shapes of performance will be made possible. We adopt the system of notation, just like our production process, as a tool for creation--creation of new art of performance. ：：：：：：：：：：