{"id":1780,"date":"2014-12-01T21:15:49","date_gmt":"2014-12-01T21:15:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/archee.uqam.ca\/?p=1780"},"modified":"2022-11-25T21:16:20","modified_gmt":"2022-11-25T21:16:20","slug":"decembre-2014-bodysoundscape-the-cognition-of-a-movement-a-conversation-with-robert-wechsler-palindrome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archee.uqam.ca\/decembre-2014-bodysoundscape-the-cognition-of-a-movement-a-conversation-with-robert-wechsler-palindrome\/","title":{"rendered":"D\u00e9cembre 2014 – Bodysoundscape <\/i> : the cognition of a movement – A conversation with Robert Wechsler | Palindrome"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

0. A movement perception<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Palindrome,\u00a0Elektroden, Touching, and Heartbeats\u00a0<\/em>(1997\u20132002).
Dancer: Frank Strobelt. Photographer: J\u00fcrgen Hinterleitner.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I would like to start this conversation with a definition about the movement: in the long experience of\u00a0Palindrome choreographic language, what is\u00a0composition\u00a0and what does this concept involve in your imagination of the body?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u00ab\u00a0imagination of the body\u00a0\u00bb: I like how you frame the question. 
You are right, that these are two distinct things: the body, and the imagination<\/em> of the body. We perceive human movement in a very subjective way, and this has always interested me as an artist. We do not really see what is there, but instead we see something that is effectively and transformed by the viewer. This is not because of optical illusions of course, but relates to deeper psychological aspects of perception. Dancers (and I hope maybe sometimes others as well) will twitch in their seats when they watch a dance they like, when the dance moves them: you see?  It literally moves them!  So watching dance<\/em> has to do with dancing itself. That is, even though we watch dance with our eyes, we can experience <\/em>it with other parts of our perceptual apparatus; for example, the parts of the brain that move the muscles. Our ears also experience dance. What we see is effected by what we hear, by what we think we hear, and by what we have heard in the past. The word synaesthia refers to a confusion of the senses and thus dance, to me, is synaesthetic. For me, to talk about dance, is also to talk about music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But to answer your question, \u00ab\u00a0what is composition [choreography]?\u00a0\u00bb 
I must say that it is still a dream to me. I watched the Cunningham Company perform from 1979 until his death and the dissolution of the company, and through all those years I had a vision that the world was going to wake up and say, \u00ab\u00a0Yes, movement can be art!\u00a0\u00bb. 
But this has not happened.  
I’m sorry to be cynical, but I’ve maybe seen an hour of choreography in Europe that was about<\/em> movement. Instead, there are usually things everywhere getting in the way; bath tubs, chairs, stuffed animals, but also concepts and emotions are there to gum things up. Meanwhile, the music can also be distracting because it is usually dead, not \u00ab\u00a0live\u00a0\u00bb, but played from records. So, that finally one does not perceive movement, but someone’s idea <\/em>about movement. And these are two very different things. So, for me, composition is the design of human movement. It is simple, but in practice it turns out to be a very hard thing to do. It is trench work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can you talk about your approach to movement \u2013 using the form of a glossary \u2013 in tree key operational notions?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I want to be honest: I do not choreograph much anymore. I still call myself a choreographer, because I can still do it. And I do it sometimes, but when you ask me for my operational notions, it feels a bit like memories. Anyway, here goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1)\u00a0Systems<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I like pieces that follow systems, very concrete things from geometry or math, like riddles or science itself. An example of such a system is the linking of movement to sound:\u00a0 So, for example, when I touch my left foot, in front and to the right, well, that is a bit of a \u201cspecial\u201d thing to do, or gesture, and so one might link this gesture to a certain sound. When you hear the sound, you see the gesture; when you see the gesture, you hear the sound. Together they build a Gestalt, a unique form in the mind of the perceiver.\u00a0
I have made many pieces like this and I am proud of them. I did a series of pieces called \u201ctouching\u201d based on the touch between dancers. Sometimes a certain combination of body parts — say, hand to head, would be linked to a sound in scored music. So the touches, in a sense, \u00ab\u00a0played\u00a0\u00bb the music. Later, when I started using electronics, we did the same thing, but the touch literally caused the sound to be triggered. The two dancers were wired so that when they touched it completed an electrical circuit, and this made the sounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2)\u00a0Associations<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I did a bunch of things over the years that worked like models of phenomena, like the life cycle of a virus or DNA. Science has always inspired me. Its like art because if you can understand it, even a little bit, and then step back from it, it can seem so wonderful that it can make you cry.\u00a0
Science, real science is just like art. It is the most wonderful and most useless thing! And yet, someone once said, exactly these things, the things most useless, are the things that make us most human.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3)\u00a0Challenges<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I like extremes. I’ve made a couple pieces in which there is no movement. No movement is, of course, a kind of movement because it is such a special thing that we rarely do. I am planning a piece called\u00a0Morning Birds<\/em>\u00a0in which 7 or 9 people, an old man, a young girl, etc. The most ordinary people you can imagine, stand on the stage and look outward. When they blink, or make any tiny movement, it triggers the sound of a morning bird. This is possible with the technology I have been using in recent years. So slowly the day begins, there are more and more sounds of birds. You see it will be a very quiet piece, but it will require a lot of rehearsal!\u00a0 I like this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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