LOSS IN TRANSMISSION??
How can a blind person copy movements?
It’s an exercise about transmitting movement information.
It’s based on a dance scene created by Wim Vandekeybus for his performance “Her body doesn’t fit her soul”.
Necessities: Ideally from 2 to 6 people (more people will take very loooong time). If there is public observing they will enjoy the evolution of versions of copy after copy.
Everyone works with the eyes closed.
Person A creates a model sequence based on 4 simple movements that can be repeated forever in chain or loop form.
A calls or whistles to the first blind-copier B & allows copying the movement, as B perceives it by touching your body: trunk, arms, legs, head.
Once B has learned it goes beside the model person and both repeat the sequence together. I believe it’s important to keep executing the sequence & be conscious whether the sequence continues evolving or not.
B calls/whistles to the next participant and we repeat the operation
till the last person learns the sequence.
Once done open the eyes and observe the differences.
Depending of the blind learning techniques the nuances of the original sequence fade more or less away, mainly intentions, small movement details on extremities, rhythm….
Some questions rising from the exercise:
---Check your blind learning technique: How do you place yourself/stand around the copy model? How do you copy without interrupting the interpretation of the leader’s movement?
--- The choice of a sequence staying on the spot or travelling in the room it will greatly influence the learning technique (remember we work blindly)
---Do you prefer to work towards the “digital” info extraction??
--- “Guessing” is also an useful instrument: Does the movement content Intentionality? How much input do we want to insert to capture the intentions contained in the model movement?
--- How much do you trust your memory when you capture without your sight?
---Is it copying a creative method?
Modify the meaning of the exercise by rising different questionings.
2013.04.13
My question was right away how I would transmit/adopt this for a group of blind movers, since I have such a group right now. I will try, and come up with the results!
2013.04.14
Touching is the most basic way for blind people to relate to their environment. Depending of the social habits regarding physical contact, the touching will involve more or less emotional load. Some people are more shy that others what it will affect to the intensity of using the tool. This will probably get in the forefront of the exercise. I'm curious to your journal with the experience
2014.10.18
Lisa Nelson has performed blind learning duets in the 80s - they touched me so much so that I have integrated them in my composition classes whenever time allowed. We work both with the learner actively trying to find out what is happening through touch, and with the teacher placing the learners hands to the important areas of the body for a specific movement. Lisa worked with surprises like blowing on a cheek or slightly hitting the nose to produce the right facial expression in the blind person.
Making a chain out of blind duets is a wonderful extension - for a performance setting it might be useful to put a time limit on the process.