Strangely Familiar [EK-OXC 14/2]

In regards to thinking about the performance space and landscape I think it’s important to come back to our terms digital and poetic, and see how we can manipulate both into  something physical. Some images mentioned during rehearsals include, records vs. mp3s, cameras, computer screens and fonts, etc. All of these images reference the already established presence of technology, which may or may not be obviously displayed to the audience or dancers. Although initially, our instinct (OK,my instinct) is to picture the poetic as opposing digital, that’s not necessarily the case. Sam stated earlier, “creating a poetic underpinning for the digital” which is fantastic phrasing; So then, what would poetic represent? Maybe the poetic is the rug which covers the wires, or the streamers amidst the sensors. Not reductive or distracting, but enhancing?  Our ideas about landscape or environment for the piece also take into account  movement—not just leaps and contractions, but the linear course set out for the piece. How do we perceive the digital and poetic’s timeline? Does one flow seamlessly into the next? What does the ebb and flow of dialogue or interaction between the two look like? Feel like? Is their path circular or forked? Maybe there are channels that only open in one direction. Understanding their available course structure, I think, helps to structure our physical movement as well as landscape. Along with whatever design ideas we want to take, like, sensors inserted into inflated balloons? Jade Daugherty