Sophien Strasse

Sophien Strasse is planned as a ‘performance-installation’, which delves into the simultaneous use of different artistic languages: dance, theatre, music and video art.

The Project examines, employs and theorizes innovating communication forms. New technologies will be used as artistic tools for experimenting.

The work is based on the novel by German author Heinrich Böll “The Clown” (Ansichten eines Clowns, 1963). The aim of the project is not to present the linear plot of the novel, but to investigate its emotions, feelings and mind sets.

Technical description

The realization of the project forecasts the use of new technologies and computers interacting, in real time, with the performances (sounds and movements) of both actor and dancer.

Mini cameras and microphones will be installed both on the bodies of dancer and actor and on the scene props.

Scene design and setting will be virtually realized by the video images, captured by the above-mentioned mini cameras. The video artists will select and propose a series of pictures that will be then projected on apposite partition walls, lined with spandex fabric.

The ‘sounds-noises’, recorded by the microphones on the stage, will become main instruments of the sound designer. They will be manipulated, recreated and contextualized, in real time, and finally proposed as further ‘musical’ reflection within the frame of a preexisting soundtrack.

Artistic description

As stated above, the project wants to be a reflection on the simultaneous use of different artistic languages, interacting with new technologies. Stage effects and evocative, reassuring, neo-romantic aesthetics, so common in mass entertaining spectacles, are to be avoided.

The movements and performance of the actors-dancers will be strongly conditioned by the technical instruments (cameras and microphones) attached to their bodies. Acting and dancing in the space will be at the service of images and sounds, created hence by the same movements.

This ‘bond’ between free acting and images-sounds, will enable the performers to explore and analyze their actions, pushing the aesthetic endeavor far from well-known and practiced gestures. The movements are not pre-staged nor are they suggestions of a pre-existing soundtrack.

The dancer herself, with her actions, will create images and sound. The performers’ role will be both as acting parts and as instruments, contributing thus at the work of the musician and of the video artists. These, on their part, will be an extension of the expressive possibilities of the performers.

As a result, it will be take form, in this project, a continuous dialogue between the different parts and artistic languages, involved in the creative process.

/// IT

Sophien Strasse è uno spettacolo-performance che coinvolge varie espressioni artistiche: danza, musica, teatro, e videoarte. L’esecuzione prevede l’uso del mezzo informatico e di nuove tecnologie che interagiscono in tempo reale con le proposte espressive di una danzatrice e un attore. La scenografia e l’ambientazione sono virtuali ovvero realizzate con video-proiezioni sulle pareti dello spazio scenico. Il movimento della danzatrice-attrice dell’attore-danzatore saranno condizionati dall’uso di micro-telecamere installate sui loro corpi. Sulla danzatrice sono inoltre disposti 2 piccoli microfoni che catturano il suono-rumore del corpo. Tale suono viene utilizzato- ricontestualizzato in tempo reale come un’ulteriore strumento all’interno della gestione sonora. I suoni-rumori dello spazio scenico e degli oggetti di scena sono materiale sonoro con cui il musicista-sound designer crea e ripropone spazi sonori. La scenografia è in divenire inventata tramite la video proiezione delle pareti che delimitano lo spazio scenico. Le immagini delle proiezioni sono realizzate in tempo reale da due videoartisti che trattano immagini di repertorio commiste alle immagini delle microtelecamere disposte sia sul corpo della danzatrice che su quello dell’attore.

Credits:

Concept, original music, direction: Alessandro Olla
Video live: Marcello Cualbu
Performers: Francesca Massa, Massimo Zordan
Co-direction: Momi Falchi
Production: TiConZero / SpazioDanza

Info:

Email to promo@ticonzero.org, spaziodanza@tiscali.it
www.ticonzero.org