Announcement of the lab:

How are we learning from what we experience.

Where does our interest go.

How do we get into contact with questions we even don't know that they exist.

How to learn the unknown.

How do we look at things – literal as well as philosophical.

How to recognize our habits,

How to widen the range of possible points of view.

How to confront us with a different perspectives and decide on our favorite afterwards.

How to accept that there is not one answer to all this question but a few?

Our skill is the ability to find our point of view and exchange and change and change again - to keep moving.

Sometimes we change our point of view simply by following the perception of somebody else.

This proposal was meant to invite people to experience, to share and to exchange.

Coming back to the thought that our body as a tool is offering a lot of answers and that communication is one of the basics means for learning.

The teacher is unnecessary in this proposal. Sharing is necessary and makes this proposal a lab concerning perception. I would call it a lab – starting in a studio – going everywhere.

Time frame 2,5 hours.

We started having a round of artists, choreographers, practitioners to exchange on their experience with documentation or their reflection on it. It was a very rich and fruitful exchange on practical questions, positive or negative experience with documentation and different handling of documents. This rich exchange lasted one hour and I have to admit that I was not prepared to document all that was said. This is reflecting back to the general question that underlies this experience: How can we prepare ourselves to the unforeseen? My voice was recorded by the video registration - but nobody else was wearing a micrphone. Finally only those who had been there can report and create a common memory.

(Half a year later I know that the documentation team of the relex festival was much better prepared as you can see and hear in the video attached)

Since I did not plan to give a class on perspective, I expected everyone to exchange on their experience and share and offer thoughts. (Linking back to the question of: How do we learn if we want to open the hierarchy of teaching? Which I won’t elaborate on here.)

Nevertheless, in order to start from a common ground I brought two exercises that are dealing with perception and perspective and a list of questions. We did one of the exercises.

Exercise:

1. Choose an object you are somehow interested in or you have a history with. (An object that is dear to you.)

2. Look at it, touch it, move it, get involved with it.

3. Can you surprise yourself in discovering something new and/ or interesting in the object?

4. Create with the object of every participant one sculpture in space.

5. Work on it as long as you really need to change relations in the sculpture. You can talk to each other.

6. Everybody is choosing one perspective towards the sculpture.

7. Every participant is taking one photo.

8. Watch everbody taking a photo and imagine how it looks like.
   

9. Get inspired by the choice of the other.

10. We look at the pictures and exchange on what we see.

11. The “author” speaks first.

The photos of people taking photos are by Dieter Rehberg.

Balck and white photos by Martin Streit, details by participants.

Questions:

Does the fact that “your” object is within the sculpture affect the way you look at the whole thing?

Does it affect the perspective you choose towards the sculpture?

Did the way others looked at the sculpture affect your way of looking at it?

Does your photo represent what you saw?

Does it show things better than you saw them?

Would you change something if you take another photo?

What would you change?

General thoughts:

I use documentation as a tool to reflect on what I do or what the person I am documenting does. To have a reference on what we offer, as a teacher, as an artist and where we move from.

I like the exercise that we did in this lab because it is very simple and within this simplicity it offers a lot of line of thoughts. An invitation to reflect.

How do I look at things? What is my conclusion of what I see? Am I able to change my point of view towards things or actions.

This is one of my main questions, not only in the field of arts but also in daily life as a member of society. And I like that there is no answer to it but a constant  approach, reconsidering solutions, infinite possibilities of changes.

In the lab we touched on the question what kind of tools are the most appropriate to document what is of interest to yourself. You can find an exercise that elaborates on that question here: http://www.idocde.net/idocs/464 In Addition to that you will find an article “Documentation as (part of) artistic practise” as a contribution to the REFLEX publication 2017.

For the exercise we did in the lab we used a photo camera with a prime lense. If you want to be close you have to go close. “Zooming in” means that you involve physically and you move towards the perspective you are looking for. Doing this since a while in different context I learned that preparing the photos for reflection is the easiest, if we use all the same camera. The transfer of the material to a computer should be as easy as possible.

Some Voices:

-I was much more interested in people than in the objects. It was much more interesting what the people were doing.

-I am interested to watch people taking photos. To see where their attention goes.

-It was very interesting to see how the people are positioning themselves and picturing for myself what the image might be.

-For me it is the two things together: to see the image afterwards and the choice of how you are sculpting your body to do the picture. This combination is very exciting.

-It is just one structure and there are so many ways to look at it. What does it offer when I step outside and I offer a all overview. What does it offer when I go really close and I don't know anymore where I am. Which level of Perception, cognition or sensitivity is addressed.To be aware of this and to be aware that there is a value in each of those perspectives. It is just a matter of decision and we are able to decide.

-I am amazed how the use of this technical tool is bringing me back to the appreciation of my senses.