Background story
The Skälva-member Jenny Simm was invited to Soma Networks weekend exploring Authentic Movement. Jenny Simm was invited as a camera-witness; exploring the room through the lens.
Questions arouse from the concept. What is authentic? Is there something fake? How does the witness influence the mover?
As a continuation of these questions an idea came: What about doing it with webcams? The witness stands without options to interfere in the movers physical space. Does the mover get anything from having a witness?
Making two rooms into one
The Soma network-member Megan Hatto joined the exploration. From different parts of Sweden (more precisely Umeå and Stockholm) we connected the places using webcams. The webcam transformed the movements into pixels. Sometimes the webcam-picture presented even more blurry pixels as the internet lost parts of the connection. The witness could then only see the mover in a robotic dance, as the missing pictures was as obvious as the picturers that could be seen. The witness also had the assignment to take screenshots of the mover, as a continuation of the camera-witness role that Jenny Simm experienced during the Soma Network weekend.
The sound of the computer murmuring was the dominant sign, for the mover, of the other persons presence. We experienced that it brought a concentration that would not have occurred in that time and space without the other person looking at us through the webcam. So there is power in being witnessed.
There is more to be discovered and further reports will come. We will continue our long-distance duet and share the result with you as soon as it has been processed into an other blog-post! Try it yourselves in the meanwhile:
Recipy for Authentic Movement through webcam
At least two people
At least two computers with webcams
40-50 minutes
Space to move
Internet connection
Videocall program
So the ground concept is as following: You set a time frame (for example 15 minutes for mover #1+ 5 minutes talk+15 minutes for mover #2). The witness sees the mover on the computer. When the time is out the witness notify the mover. The talk is traditionally structured in a monologic way: first the mover talks about the experience and after than the witness have the space to say what was evoked inside her/him whilst witnessing the mover. Nothing holds you back from experiment and letting go of the tradition. Have a good time!
Exploration number: 029
Where: Internet, webcams, computers, Umeå, Stockholm
When: April 2012
Participants: Jenny, Megan
Archive material: 103 screenshots from webcam, youtube-video
